I want to thank everyone who has helped me out with Sketchup. I cant believe how many of you flooded me with tons of great advice, links and info. Im starting to make sense out of it now. Mostly, I just need to practice.Id like to introduce guest blogger Mike Lehikoinen (Pickering Mike) who wrote up this completely awesome and straightforward tutorial to get us started. Please visit his blog: Ramblings of a Novice Woodworker and drop him a line.
*********************************Answering the Challenge - A Mortal look into SketchupNot too long after I took the plunge and started woodworking, I re-discovered Sketchup. I had explored it once before without any tutelage when trying to plan out my renovations. Before long, anything I drew became something that came out the business end of a spaghetti factory. The desire was there, but knowledge of the concepts was eluding me something fierce. Return to my foray into woodworking and it wasnt long before I stumbled upon Sketchup for Woodworkers where Rob created some free online tutorials. That got me started. Furthering my education was Bob Langs videos (both through Popular Woodworking & his own published pdf book). While Bob covers the basics quite well, he quickly gets into the more advanced and leads you down the merry path to what is empowering 3D drafting. Which is great if you are totally OCD about your plans like me. Taking a (if I can borrow the term) Mere Mortal look into Sketchup and answering Steves challenge, here are the top 5 things I recommend to make sketchup a great 3D tool for planning while keeping it as simple as possible. For Mac users, I apologize now as I have no clue on how to use one. I tried in the Apple store, but I couldnt even get a store employee to show me how to use one. So my instructions are geared for Windows users. The Sketchup for Woodworkers videos are geard for Mac users as that is what the author uses. 1. Get your settings calibrated first. If you are using the settings for Architectural planning, it will quickly become tedious. This breaks down into a couple of simple steps:
• Choose the template for woodworking (inches or millimeters) - This screen comes up when you launch Sketchup or you can choose it in the Preferences window (located within the Windows menu):
• If you choose the Inches template, you will want to set your units to allow up to 1/64” increments. This is done through the Windows – Model Info menu
• You also want to have some more tool buttons available. Use the View – Toolbars menu to select the tools. For beginners I recommend keeping it simple.
• Finally, I recommend having the Instructor open (through the Windows – Instructor menu choice). The instructor is a very useful and powerful teaching tool that I wish I knew about when I was starting Sketchup. Try selecting different tool buttons and see what happens in the Instructor window. I think Google should have it open by default upon installation for new users. It can get in the way, but simply clicking on the title bar of the Instructor window will cause all but the title bar to collapse and you can move it out of the way.
2. Lines, faces and objects - The Instructor will only get you so far. To progress to the creation of objects – in the woodworker’s case, boards – one must understand objects. In Sketchup, objects are made up of faces and lines. One simply cannot have an object without them. A basic board consists of 6 faces and 12 lines. When you create a rectangle and use the push/pull tool to raise it into 3 dimensions, Sketchup does not know that you want it to act as a solid object. What you have drawn is 6 faces that share 12 lines. You have to tell Sketchup that you want it to act as a 3 dimensional object:
• Triple click on a face of the board. It will highlight all 6 faces and 12 lines.
• Right click on a highlighted face and click on Make Group. You have now created a 3 dimensional object that will not change when you try to move it. If you need to make a change to the object, double click on it to enter edit mode for that object.
Okay, okay, I hear everyone saying that Components are much more powerful. Yes, they are, but I don’t recommend playing with components until you master the basics. You have to learn to walk before you can tango.3. Learn your navigation – Play with the rotate, pan and zoom commands until you feel comfortable with them. I use the mouse wheel as it’s the fastest way in my opinion. Spin the wheel to zoom and click the wheel (and hold it) to rotate. To pan, use the rotate sequence while holding the shift key. Navigation through pan, zoom and rotate are key to mastering the basics. Draw a simple box and practice these skills around it. If you lose sight of the box, use the Zoom Extents (through the Camera menu) to bring it back into the centre of your view. 4. Use your number pad for setting dimensions – Trying to use your mouse to pinpoint your lines to the exact length that you want them to be is fool hardy and frankly a waste of time. When you are using any of your drawing tools (or the tape measure, see next tip) type in the dimensions after you have set (clicked) your first point. I can never figure out which dimension is the x or y or z dimension, so I exaggerate it in one direction to see which way Sketchup is leaning. In the pic below, the first dimension is the x dimension. Making a ¾”x 6”x 36” board, I would type 6,36[enter] then use the push/pull tool, click on the face move the mouse in the direction that I want the board to grow and type 3/4 [enter].
5. Sketchup tries to help – Whenever you are drawing, measuring or laying out, Sketchup tries to help by snapping to inferences it thinks will help you such as the centre point, a corner etc. Use this helpfulness to your advantage and don’t try to fight it. Hard to demonstrate without a video, but play with it a little while drawing or measuring and you’ll see what I mean.
With these skills alone, I hope they can help make the steep learning curve a little more manageable. There’s so much more to Sketchup than these tools though. A truly advanced Sketchup user will only draw half of their project. The other half is done for them through what seems to be a limitless supply of tools. If you want to see more, I highly recommend Bob Lang’s Woodworker’s Guide to Google Sketchup 7 which is available through http://www.craftsmanplans.com/ . If you prefer a free resource, then visit http://www.sketchupforwoodworkers.com/ and click on the tutorials link. While not as comprehensive as the Bob Lang pdf book (which incidentally has videos embedded within), it’s a great primer.Cheers and keep Sketching!
