SketchUp--For Schroeder

Reference: Schroeder's Morris Chair

In another forum thread, I offered to make some suggestions regarding the model link to above and Schroeder accepted. Rather than totally hijacking that thread, I thought I’d make a new post and here it is.

Please keep in mind this is all inteneded as constructive criticism. the following is basically presented in the order I found these things.

Precision: While you might not work to precision higher than 1/32” in your shop, You should draw to higher precision in SketchUp. 1/64” is the highest you can go without resorting to decimal dimensions. While you might not conciously draw in 64ths, some elements in the drawing may end up with dimensions that should be known that precisely. This is particularly important when you have parts at angles.

Length Snapping: I would suggest turning this off. I find it just gets in the way of working smoothly.

Both of those things can be taken care of when you set up your starting template.

Layers: I’m guessing you have some experience with AutoCAD or some other CAD application. Yes? SketchUp uses layers differently than CAD programs do. Layers do not provide separation between various bits of geometry. They are only used to control component and group visibility. It’s the component or group wrappers that provide the separation.

If you assign a new layer to a component or group, turning off that layer’s visibility (unchecking the ‘Visible’ box) will hide that component or group. It’s that Klingon cloaking device. ;)

So, with that in mind, here are some rules to follow that will help prevent trouble as your models increase in complexity. If you look at the Google Online Help files regarding Layers, you’ll find support for this.

1. Never make any layer other than Layer 0 active. Don’t change where the radio button is set.
2. Do not move geometry to other layers. All geometry remains on Layer 0.

Making other layers active means you’ll violate rule number 2. The problem with doing that comes when you inadvertantly draw some of the geometry in a component on Layer 2 but add Layer 1 to the component definition. If you then make Layer 2 invisible, some of the geometry from that component also disappears. Fixing this can be a long tedious task.

If you don’t plan to follow these rules, you’ll make it much more difficult on yourself to keep all of your ducks in a row.
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So this doesn’t seem all negative, you did do a good job using components. You are clearly leveraging the power of components in SketchUp and that is good.

I would suggest that you consider mirroring components such as the horizontal rails in the sides of the chair. Although the mortises and tenons on those components are centered currently, mirroring them eliminates potential problems later when editing. On the chair this might not be a problem but in some models it may.

One approach to drawing something like this chair is to draw all of the side assembly and then copy and mirror all of those components at one time. This can help speed up your drawing and reduce the chance for errors.
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That’s proably enough babbling for now. I hope it helps. Keep up the good work.

Dave
Design. Click. Build.

-- Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?