DaveRichards

Oliver, would you please contact me via e-mail? drkr4109 at gmail dot com.

Thank you.
Dave

Oliver, pipe dimensions are given as the inside diameter of the pipe. 1/2" iron pipe has a nominal outside diameter of .840 or about 27/32.

As to why copper caps? I don't know. Perhaps he had them on hand or maybe they were cheaper than iron caps especially if the pipe isn't threaded at that end as he might have had to pay to have the ends threaded.

I see in a photograph of the bench that the hardboard cover on the planing beam does appear to be as wide as the planing beam itself. (5") It probably wouldn't make any difference if you make it 4" wide or the full width since that extra inch isn't really usable anyway.

As to getting SketchUp to show dimensions, they aren't there unless you put them in. You could generate a report or run a cutlist and get the dimensions in tabular form but there's no automatic way to have the dimensions show in the drawing.

Dave

Croc, when you create a new scene with a style different from the current one or you change a style and update the scene to show it, you should get a dialog box titled, "Warning - Scenes and Styles." This box has three radio buttons. You should select the top one, "Save as a new style." If you aren't getting that dialog box, go to Preferences>General and check "Warn of style changes when creating scenes."

Let me know how that works for you.

Dave

Croc, that is a good tip although you must be careful if you have other things hidden and choose Unhide>All or if you use View>Hidden Geometry, the dimension lines show as dashed lines and there'll be a dashed line box around the text box. Better to put the dimensions on their own layer so you have control over when they are visible and when they aren't.

Dave

Art, I'm sorry it wasn't working for you. It is running for me right now as I type. Could you please try again?

Dave

Rooms,

Thank you.

There is a link to a Zip file at the bottom of that first post in the thread about the plugin. In a similar way, if you follow the very first link in that post to the LibFredo file, you'll find a link to that ZIP file at the bottom of the first post in that thread. There's also a link to a version with a Spanish translation in that post.

Dave

Sam, I thought of something else. Having two materials applied to the faces in a component (plywood edge and a face grain) may cause some problems with the cutlist. I would suggest that you add one of the sheet material words to the component's Definition Name instead of adding it to the Material. I use the Definition Name for this because I generally don't apply materials when making drawings for cutlists.

Sam, in order for the components to show in the sheet goods portion of the cutlist you need to use one of the sheet goods words in the material or in the component name. Refer to the first cutlist dialog box for those names. Or you can add your own names to be recognized as sheet goods in that window.

Dave

Hi Gina,

It wasn't so different drawing the shed but I did need to learn some things about that sort of construction that were new to me. The SketchUp end of it is actually quite basic stuff. I had fun working out a way to indicate the cedar shingles on the ends without actually drawing individual shingles. That was much easier than it would have been a few years ago before the Combine Textures option.

Dave

Yes. That is a known issue but the work around isn't hard. I haven't heard from the author since I posted this blog entry and it doesn't appear that there's an updated version so decimal entries it'll have to be.

Being intimately familiar with the construction of that shed, I found I knew very little about that sort of woodworking. I learned a lot watching the videos so far. And my wife wants to get rid of the shed I built a few years ago and start over. It is certainly a nice shed and the videos are great.

Dave

Jonas, I'm happy that there was some clarification but I'm sorry if that wasn't clear enough. If there isn't a good surface to reference off of as in rotating the single plane. It is click and hold as you click on the the center of rotation and drag along the rotation axis. Then click for the start of the rotation and drag around to the desired angle or at least in the right direction before entering the rotation angle. It is still really a two-click operation. Note that the axis of rotation doesn't have to be along an edge on the thing being rotated.

Jake, thank you. I'm glad that helped. I really don't want there to be any mystery to these tools. With the combination of the Tape Measure and yellow Protractor tool, you can work out some really cool things using the rotate tool.

Dave

Jonas, I'm glad that worked and that the Move tutorial helped. You have a good suggestion and I'll do that next.

Ian, typing an 8 would make it difficult indeed. Glad you got it sorted. I use the * on the number keypad. -Dave

I hope Tim doesn't mind. I'm going to guess you are referring to the line created at the join between the straight line and the radius. Try running over that edge with the Eraser tool while holding Ctrl (Option on the Mac). This will soften that edge. You could also select the geometry including the line, right click to open the Context menu (you discovered why it is called the Context menu) and choose Smooth/Soften. -Dave

Ian, I'm not quite sure I follow you on the backwards part. Perhaps you could drop me an e-mail and clarify?

As to the bed slats multiplying, this an example of making a linear array. There are two ways to do that. Both start by using Option+Move (Ctrl+Move on the the PC) to make the first copy of the original. If you know the distance between components, move the first copy that distance. Type in the distance and hit Enter to set the copy accurately. Then type *n, Enter where n is the number of copies. You can also type n*, xn or nx. The should all work. If you know the total length of the run of slats, which is more likely in the case of a bed, place the initial copy at the opposite end of the run, again using Option+Move. Then type /n, Enter or n/, Enter. Either of those should work.

Does that help?

Dave

If the offset distance was greater, your point would be valid. As it is in this model, the difference between the orthogonal distance and the radial distance is less that 1/128" and inconsequential. In any case I did use the radial distance.

Jeff, click on my name at the end of the blog post.

Jeff, out of curiosity, have you gone to Preferences>Extensions and checked all of the boxes? Preferences can be found under Window on PC and under SketchUp on the Mac.

Another thing to do is open the Ruby Console and try running the plugin. Do you get any sort of message in the console? If so, perhaps you could copy it and e-mail it to me.

Dave

Jeff, I'm not sure why the problem. I'll look into it though. Did you install progressbar.rb too?

Dave

I'd love to have this one in my collection.

Tonto2, Thank you.

Perhaps I don't understand what you mean by "see through". The cursor (Move tool in this case) won't "see through" an entity to reference to something behind it. The exception is that the entity being moved can be between the grabbed point the camera. The cursor can then reference to a point or instersection which is also hidden by the moving entity.

If you need to reference to something behind another entity, you could switch to wire frame view or temporarily hide the intervening entity. In some cases it might be possible to move the reference point or create a new one that is visible. If you can lock your move in the correct direction, the reference point to which you are moving the entity can be off to the side. You could make a reference point out in space with a couple of intersecting guidelines.

Does that help? You could e-mail me if you wish. I'd be happy to converse more.

Dave

Hi Larry,

I'm glad this was helpful for you.

Might I suggest that you try building all of the parts while working in the same scene? This can eliminate a lot of the Move operations needed to assemble the project. If you want to use various scenes to show those parts individually, it is easy to move copies away from the original model. You don't need quite the degree of accuracy in the Move operation if you are just dragging a copy of a component or a sub-assembly because you only need to drag it away far enough to get it clear of other views.

The Hide tool is very useful indeed for temporarily hiding something to open up your view.

Dave

Tonto2, I'm glad you are finding some methods that work for you. There is more that I think you'll find helpful. My next blog post is going to be on the Move tool. I hope you'll check that out.

Dave

Thanks. I used a found image of stained paper as a watermark image and added a sketchy line style over it. The image showing the table with the top removed was done with the same style as the first but I zoomed back a ways and then cropped the image tightly.

My apologies. I had no intention of being insulting.

I don't know why you are finding that SketchUp doesn't "pick up the presence of the second part." I have never had that happen.

As to assembling components in complex models, building them in place is entirely possible even for parts assembled concentrically on a shaft. If you want to make the parts separately and assemble them afterward, one option would be to place the component axes to give you a desired insertion point. Then you can use guidelines or other references in the model to aid in placing the components.

If you'd like, I would be happy to set up a "live" demonstration with you. Just send me an e-mail by clicking on my name at the end of one of my blog posts.

Dave

jhrob, remember that this is a plugin. the ZIP file should be extracted into the Plugins folder under SketchUp. You'll end up with a file called CutListAndMaterials.rb which is 155Kb and a folder called cutlistui. Both of them need to be in the Plugins folder. Then restart SketchUp.

Hopefully Tim doesn't mind me chiming in to answer Tonto's question.

The trick to assembling 3D parts is to use some logic when grabbing one with the Move tool. Grab the component you are moving at a point that will correspond with a point on the other component. You may still need to orient your view differently but you are working in 3D after all.

Tim and I both advocate drawing with the parts assembled in the first place which reduces the need to move components quite so much.

The guideline created with the Tape Measure tool and the Protractor tool could be used as paths for the Move tool if needed. The tool will easily follow the guideline.

Dave

I forgot to say thank you.

Thank you.

Dave

Hello Drake, I think I understand what you're asking about. I can make up something about doing the intersection. As far as getting the materials to be applied to the new faces, you could do this: Assume your "Rubik's cube" is made of two different kinds of wood (walnut and maple) and for ease of description, you want to turn this cube into a sphere. Make all of the geometry for the walnut blocks one component and all of the rest a second component. In this case you won't make each small block of wood a component.

Draw the sphere and make a copy of it. Paint one sphere with the walnut material and the other in maple. Cut (Ctrl+X) each sphere in turn and put it inside the corresponding component. Run the intersect and delete the waste. When you've done this for each wood, you should have everything painted as you wish.

I'll try to demonstrate that but it'll take me a few days to get to it.

Dave

Tom, sometimes I find I can scrape a sliver out with the edge of a utility knife blade. Just drag the blade in the opposite direction that the sliver went in.

Packing tape is sometimes useful for getting hold of a sliver, too.

I just tried it with a 3" long run of dovetails with no problem. Here's a link to a JPG export of the result.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3547/3825134906_48533f30d1_o.jpg

Perhaps you could send me the SKP file showing the problem you run into?

Dave

Nick, I'm glad you got it worked out. Good on Josef, indeed.

Still I wonder why you had difficulty with it.

Dave

Hi Nick,

That's odd. Several people reported to me that they had managed just fine on Wednesday and I did it a few minutes ago with no problem. Maybe it is fixed.

Dave

This looks like an interesting table and book.

John, thank you.

Check out the WoodenBoat Store. You can download the PDF of the original plan for this table. That's what I worked from. Although the document I made is much more detailed than the file they offer, I got everything from that one sheet.

Dave

Joel, there isn't any way to post files in comments to the blog. You can contact me via e-mail by clicking on my name at the end of the blog entry.

Douce, no you don't need to purchase the pro version. At least I wouldn't recommend that until you've gotten to the point where you can't do what you want to do with the free version. I expect you won't find a need to buy the pro version at all.

As to how to get started with SketchUp, I would suggest watching the tutorial videos on the SketchUp site itself. Also lok through the blog entries here. Don't forget to look at the archives from the old blog platform. there's a link on the right side of the main Design. Click. Build. page.

Drop me an e-mail if you'd like and I'll set you up with some additional stuff.

Joel, that sounds like an interesting plugin. I'd be interested in trying your plugin.

In SketchUp it is certainly easy enough to place copies of a component such as table legs all at the same height with just the native Move tool and its copy function. Although I didn't show it in the video for this blog post, I would normally only drag in one copy of a leg component if I already had it drawn. Then I would simply copy that component as needed around the rest of the model using the Move tool.

Hi Sharon,

Thanks.

By simplifying the assembly into components, there may be a chance of re-using the components in other models so not only is it efficient for the current model, it can save time later as well.

Tim's the guy who did these turnings originally. I'm currently sans lathe.

Welding the edges referred to using the Weld plugin (I've got a link to it in the last post I made about plugins. to weld the line segments together so they act as a single entity. Circles and arcs, while made up of multiple line segments, act as single entities when selected or for operations such as Push/Pull and Follow Me. If a profile is made up of a combination of arcs and line segments, edges will show from those intersections after either Push/Pull or Follow Me. These edges can be cleaned up with either the Soften option from the Context menu or by holding Ctrl (Option on Mac) while running over the edges with the Eraser tool. Welding the edges beforehand eliminates the need to do either one of those things.

Follow Me explodes curves so if you copy the profile off the end of the resulting geometry to use it later, you'll find you need to reweld or later soften the edges. I would guess that Tim had already run Follow Me on the profile before he sent it to me which meant I ended up with the results shown in the first image of the turned shape.

The Weld plugin also comes in handy when you have a lot of edges to select for copying or other operations. You can make it possible to select a whole string of line segments with a single click.

To see a very simple difference with welded and unwelded edges, draw a circle and then next to it, draw a 24-sided polygon. Use Push/Pull to pull them up to 3D. Notice the difference between the two. Before Push/Pull, they look identical. The difference though is that the circle's segments are welded together while the polygon's edges aren't.

jdspdx, Bezierspline is indeed a useful tool.

FWIW, if you've checked the Examples box under Window>Preferences>Extensions (SketchUp>Preferences>Extensions on the Mac), you'll get Point at Center in the Context menu if you right click on a circle of an arc. If the circle has been exploded as it would be after a Follow Me operation, Point at Center won't work. Then Centerpoint.rb can be useful.

Dave

mrossk,

Is there an echo in here? ;)

This is a good question. In the case of a splayed table leg, I would leave the component axes aligned with the global axes so that the leg would come in aligned correctly. I would move the component axes to a top corner or the top center of the leg though. After the legs are placed I would then Change axes on the leg component so the bounding box fits more efficiently around the leg to make the cutlist make sense.

If you make a component of that sort in a current model, save the component in your "Legs" library before you change the axes on that one. Clearly this is one of those things where you need to be thinking ahead a little farther than just, "I wonder what's for lunch." I'm not always so good at that part.

Dave (now wondering what's for lunch)

CS, I used a screen capture application to record what I did on the screen and Windows Moviemaker for the rest.

Sorry. I usually include my e-mail address at the end of my blog posts. Here it is: drkr4109@gmail.com

Ed, I'm sorry you're having trouble with it. Is it possible you used two wood grain materials instead of a wood grain and a color?

I did a quick little video grab showing what happens when I used a texture and a color. You can see it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8294157@N08/3731366419/

If you don't get it sorted out soon, send me the SKP file and I'll take a look.

Another option is to temporarily make hidden geomtry visible (View menu) and apply the dimension to either the longest hidden edge or between edges as appropriate. The dimension will still be visible when the geometry is hidden again and it will update with changes to the component.

scrudriver, I believe I answered that question in my reply to Chuck.

I believe Tim's comment regarding smoothing had nothing to do with the actual chair. Instead, I believe he was referring to smoothing in the SketchUp model. Since the model as it is serves its purpose, there would little value in investing time and effort into doing that.

Dave

Baben,

The link to the Bend plugin was given at the top of the article but I've added a link to it at the bottom of the article along with a link to Bezier.rb.

Dave

Chuck, I imagine you're right that most wooworkers are using the free version of sketchUp and thus wouldn't have access to Layout.

As I mentioned under the image of the plan's front page, you could make image exports (File>Export>) and then import those images into a word processor such as MSWord and create the plan document there. Or you could use a program such as Illustrator for that. There are some drawbacks to working that because you won't have a direct link to the SketchUp model so if you edit the model after starting to create the document, you'll need to re-export the affected images and replace the out of date images in the document.

You can put leader and screen text right in the SketchUp model if you wish. You'll probably want to make additional layers for controlling the visibility of that text since you probably won't want to see the same text in all views.

Actually, if you can get what you need right out of sketchUp, you could just print from SketchUp or make the 2D exports and print them. I suppose it depends upon your audience for the plan.

Dave

Ken,

Take a look at the image at this link: http://finewoodworking.taunton.com/assets/uploads/posts/2364/FP_Cabinet_Overall_xl.jpg from my blog entry here: http://finewoodworking.taunton.com/item/2364/creating-a-project-plan-in-sketchup

In it you can see my set up for a cabinet with exploded views and so on. In the lower left corner you can see the entire cabinet. that was the original drawing in that case. Then I copied the model to another location in the drawing space and pulled that copy apart to make the exploded view.

If you move the components in your original copy of the model, they will show that way in any scene you make. You need to make a separate copy of the model to explode for the exploded views.

Hopefully that will give you some ideas.

Dave

I'm glad you had good luck with this.

As to the image quality, most of those images are screen grabs. The two images of the pull in brown are JPG exports and the original 2D image with the reversed faces is what was sent to me. All the rest are direct screen shots though.

Marinho,

No worries about calling me David. My mother used to call me that, too. When she used my middle name I knew I was in trouble. :)

You are correct. The current version is f. To my knowledge, the only place to download it is from the first post in the thread I linked to on the Sketchucation forum. You will have to register there to be able to download it. That's not such a bad thing though.

Regards,

Dave

Randy, could you send me the CSV file that is giving you trouble? I'll take a look.

Dave

Hi Randy,

You can force the board foot calculation to look at all components less than one inch thick as if they were one inch by checking the 4/4 box at Use Nominal Sizes. Click on the Layout tab and then the Boards tab to get to it. Then also check other nominal sizes as needed for the thicker parts.

Remember you can also determine whether thick boards will get split as well as wide boards. there are settings for board width and length as well.

Dave

Interesting

Steve, it may be that a future version of SketchUp will allow one to set a default browser even if the default browser isn't IE. Unfortunately that's not within my control.

The SVG file is a graphics file. It will open in Firefox and I think Safari. I open it in Inkscape, which I mentioned above in the blog post. There I can manipulate the image as if it was any other image file and I can put several layout images on a page for printing.

Although it may not be apparent, I have participated in a number of forums (not all of them woodworking related) and get notifications of replies. Design. Click. Build. is a blog format, however, and not a forum.

Regards,

Dave

If I may add... there is an alternative to creating a screen shot of a table for insertion into Layout.

I open the CSV file in Excel and adjust its appearance there. I usually end up rearranging rows and deleting some columns. Then I copy and paste it into Word. There I convert it from table to text and then save it as an RTF file. I also usually end up changing the font style and size before saving.

Next it is on to Layout. I go to File>Insert and choose the RTF file I just saved. It gets imported into a text box automatically. The text can be edited as in any other text box, the font and size can be changed if desired and so on.

As with SketchUp, there's almost always more than one way to get a job done.

Dave

Steve, I think the browser thing is driven by SketchUp. Have you tried opening the SketchUp Help resources? I believe it will use IE, too.

You can save the layout images by checking the SVG file and the CSV file of course. I'll pass on your comments to him regarding other options.

FWIW, the files are being saved into the same directory where the SKP file resides. This seems to be a fairly common thing with a number of plugins that output files of one sort or another. I'm not familiar enough with the script to know if that's just a convenience or if there's some reason why we don't get an option of Save in... location.

Dave

Hi Steve, I'm glad you got it worked out. Without looking at the rb file, I wouldn't have figured out that you had a copy of the other cutlist plugin installed.

FWIW, the current cutlist plugin (Version 4.x) is written by a different guy than the earlier one but they worked together for a short time and the new plugin is based on the old one. I think you'll agree that the new one is a major improvement over the old one.

I always make it a habit of replacing .rb files when I update. Weird things happen when you have multiple copies or mix an old copy of an rb file with new support files.

As to getting e-mails for threads (blog entries) you're following, I'm not sure it's possible. I don't get notification when someone comments on my entries either.

Dave

Steve, is this the first install of SketchUp 7 for you? Or did you uninstall and reinstall it? Have you gone to Window>Preferences>Extensions and checked all of the boxes you find there?

Out of curiosity, open the model that doesn't work for you. Go to Window>Model Info>Statistics. Set the drop down box to Entire Model and check the box for Show Nested Components. How many component instances and component definitions does it indicate there are in the model? Does this jive with what you think there are?

The author of the plugin told me he had a similar report from a user. The user sent the model that was giving him trouble but the author couldn't duplicate the behavior. The user ended up reinstalling SU and the problem went away.

Drop me an e-mail and we'll see if we can take this farther.

Dave

Steve, I'll look into it and post here again.

Dave

Afaque, the link is in the second line of the text. The plugin is available on the Sketchucation forum. You do have to sign up and log in there to be able to download the plugin.

David, I'm not familiar with Appleworks but there may be an import function. Another route would be to use Google Docs since it will import CSV files.

Good luck.

Dave

Hi Mike, Glad to know that helped. Keep plugging away.

Dave

David, the Print button is disabled at this point so it's not you nor is it your Mac. You can export a CSV file which can be opened in a spreadsheet application such as Excel. You can then print that. I end up manipulating that table anyway to delete some info that I don't need so opening it in Excel is a good thing.

I don't know exactly what will be included in the next update but I understand there are improvements in the works for the plugin. as far as importing the images into Layout, you can do that now if you convert them to PNG or JPG files from SVG. I don't know if it is possible to get the plugin to generate a different image file, though. SVG files are vector based while JPGs and PNGs are raster based.

Hi Phil,

You wouldn't be able to move the side moulding component and adjust the length of the front one at the same time but it isn't difficult to make the modification. To change the length of the front moulding piece, open that component for editing and drag a left to right selection box around the end that needs to be longer. Make sure you get the entire end of the moulding included in the selection. You could also double click on the face of the miter but the selection box is quick when you can't see that face. Next get the Move tool and move the selection in the direction needed and type the distance followed by the enter key. Close the moulding component by selecting the side component or clicking out in space with the Select tool.

With the side moulding component selected, get the Move tool and move the component the same distance that you moved the end of the front.

It takes longer to read this than to do it. Unfortunately the same thing doesn't work on real wood.

Cheers,

Dave

Andy, the link is to the Sketchucation forum thread where the plugin is available.

I'd like to see some of your drawings from this sometime.

Dave

Kent, there are some more basic tutorials on the old blog. Click on Archive in the box on the right side of the page that contains "About Deisgn. Click. Build."

E-mail me and perhaps we could set up a little time for a one on one tutorial time.

drkr4109@gmail.com

Tenbears, please contact me via e-mail and we'll see if we can get you sorted out.

Did you download progressbar.rb?

Thanks Nick. That does work although I find it somewhat erratic. I actually tried to use that when setting up the video and I couldn't get the inference to work along the green axis line. It does sometimes work however. If you have a drawn line or a guideline your method will work all the time.

I use both methods depending on what I'm doing.

Dave

I hope Tim doesn't mind me chiming in. The Intersect operation won't modify the breadboard component unless the component is open for editing. It's essentially the same as any other modification you might want to do (except Scaling). You have to be editing the component to make any changes to it.

Dave

Bill, you're welcome. it's a fluid thing right now. V0.25, or 2.5, depending on what you read, was just released.

Have you tried the rotate tool? Select all of the geometry and rotate it about the origin 90°.

You can also realign the global axes. Click on Tools>Axes and then set them as you would a component's axes.

When I import a 2D CAD file that needs to be oriented vertically, I generally just rotate it so it is standing up before I get busy and draw anything else.

Let me know how you get on with that.

Dave

Bill, I'm aware of those images. They are nice photos. I would suggest that before using them, though, you resize them. They are much larger (higher resolution) than you need for SketchUp and could create performance issues on your computer. JPG file sizes of 100 to 200 KB should be just fine for materials.

I do try to control it. I didn't have any problem with it on my computer.

Hi Bill,

Yes, I do have a lot of wood grain materials in my library. Unfortunately very few of them are of much use and I probably should delete them. They've been collected from a number of sources. I mainly find materials as images in Google searches. You need to be selective in your choices of images for materials. Large files should be reduced in size to prevent them from bogging down your computer. Highly figured woods and those with distintive features such as knots don't tend to work well because the features will end up repeating. Images of straight grained woods tend to work the best. Also keep in mind that photos of actual wood need to be evenly lit or they will look strange in the model.

You can import any image into SketchUp and use it as a material. You should give it a try.

Dave

Of course personal tuition is hard to beat.

Hi Pickles,

I haven't seen any books specific to SketchUp and woodworking. SketchUp was designed originally as a sketching tool for architects and thuse the books that are out there tend to lean more toward showing its use for that.

If you've got specific questions about using the program, I'm happy to help. You can contact me directly via e-mail (click on my name at the end of the blog entries) or search through the blog posts here on Design. Click. Build. Specific questions are more easily handled via e-mail, though.

If you're in the Northwest part of the US, I'll be teaching a couple of SketchUp classes in June in Port Townsend, WA. You might be interested in signing up for one of those.

Dave

DaveS, that's nice to read. I'm glad that there was something to spur you to think in sort of out of the box ways about approaching things. That's always part of my goal with these sort of odd videos.

Scaling that way, John, will work if you don't hold Ctrl which invokes scale about center and you push from the correct handle.

It's pretty hard to keep up with Fredo.

So when will we see your plugin?

I woke up this morning to discover that a new revision was released over night. It's now 2.0b. Don't for get to follow the the directions in the link I included.

Dave

Jack, my lines are thin because I've unchecked Profiles in the Edge styles settings dialog. Go to Window>Styles and click on the edit tab. See the image here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/Styles.jpg

You can make that change part of your starting template by making editing the setting along with other settings such as the back face color. Mine is set to green as shown on the cylinder in the screen grab linked to, above. You can also change background color if you wish. Mine is set to white. Then go to File>Save as Template, give the file a name and check Use as default template. Then save it. Do this with a blank drawing so you don't have the template opening with the something you've already drawn.

There are some additional settings you can adjust for your starting template. These include increasing Precision and removing Length Snapping if you wish. Change these settings under Window>Model Info>Units.

Dave

Yes, I know the inferencing tools extremely well as well as the arrow keys and yes, they have no real world equivalents.

Ron, I'm guessing you're referring to this one. http://blogs.taunton.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?nav=main&webtag=fw-designforum&entry=100

Will that give you what you need to know?

Dave

Yes, I have a lot of plugins. I haven't made a current list of them but I will say there are very few that actually get used. I have them because of the instructing I do. Don't install plugins or at least don't keep them installed unless they are useful to you. They slow down start up and clutter menus.

As far a dovetail plugin, I've not seen any let alone a "good one." Dovetails are simple to draw manually--you only need to lay out and draw a single socket. The rest is all copying (Ctrl+Move) and Push/Pull. I've heard of a couple of people saying they were working on plugins to do this but I've never seen any results.

Glad you got it to work. As I said in my previous comment, the Layout part doesn't work on Mac. You can check the SVG box and it'll save SVG image files of the layout for you.

Dave

Norman,

Did you extract the folder and file from the ZIP file into the Plugins folder? This plugin will work on Mac except for the HTML display of the layout. You can export SVG files to circumvent that problem though.

Cost is a plugin example that is packed with SketchUp.

Brice, I think I have done something related to using scenes and layers to create an animation but I've just posted a new one for you.

Dave

Thank you Scott. Actually I should say, "Nice work" to you. I just drew what I saw.

Randy, you're welcome. Yes, the plugin will work just fine on the free version of SketchUp.

Dave

Bob, yes. It's a known issue and it's being worked on.

RundD has a good point about using a large dimension from the original to set the size properly but it is also a good idea to check with a crossing dimension because it isn't unusual to end up with an image that isn't scaled exactly the same in both directions during scanning.

-Dave

I'd have to buy a lathe first. ;)

It was spelled out in the article I referenced but in a nutshell, there are two centers for turning. One is the vertical axis for the foot. The other is the slightly angled axis for the rest of the leg.

Dave

Hoop36, Print Screen works fine in Windows XP. It is still supported.

I'm sorry that printing from the blog isn't working for you. Unfortunately, Tim and I have no options for making any changes along that line. The folks who do are aware of the issue and I'm sure it will be fixed when it can be.

Dave

Like Tim, I also don't care for the heavy dark Profile edges when I am drawing and I've unchecked the box. I also don't want to see a horizon line and instead use a white background while drawing. I prefer to maintain face orientation with back faces are always on the inside so I set my face back color to something obnoxious and bright so it is easy to see. It also makes it easier to spot where there are missing faces and correct those.

If you want your style changes to "stick" for future models, remember to save it as part of your template. If you are making a new template with these settings, click on File>Save as Template..., give it a name and check Set as Default Template.

Dave

Ray, SketchUp is much like a lot of other things. You start with the basics and work your way up. If you get some good basic training, you ought to be able to manage the learning curve fairly easily.

At this point on my screen there are probably more icons from plugins that from the native tools. None of the plugins are required to make SketchUp work and my suggestion is that you learn SketchUp without them. Then add a few plugins that seem useful. I have a lot more plugins than I use on a regular basis but I do that because I'm constantly teaching others to use the software and the plugins come up.

Make sure you download the free version of the program and then read through the blog posts here. Also look at the videos on google's sketchUp site to get ideas about how the basic tools work.

Ask questions here if you wish or e-mail directly. You might find your question turned into a tutorial.

Dave

Zool, what sort of "downloadable items" are you referring to? Other than links to plugins (that will work in SU6) I don't generally post downloadable SketchUp content.

Dave

maplwood, it's kind of hard to say without seeing the model that is giving you trouble. There's not a lot of detail in your question.

Chris, there is a plugin called Unfold that will do what you need. It is available here: http://sketchuptips.blogspot.com/2007/08/plugin-unfoldrb.html

jerwhitt, although I am using the pro version, you can print templates with the free version as well. The same instructions apply.

Hopefully Tim won't mind me answering a couple of questions.

1bri, An arc drawn with the Arc is always a circular curve. If you want a non-circular curve, you can do several things. One would be to draw an arc and then scale it to fit. You can also use a plugin called bezier.rb or another called bezierspline.rb to create the curve. A second degree Bezier curve will create a parabolic curve.

Bob G, if you want a gride made up of guidelines you can make a linear array as you would with a regular line. Place the first guideline, select it and copy it with Ctrl+Move. If you want a 1" grid, move the copy 1" then hit Enter followed by *n, Enter where n is the number of copies of the line you want created.

If you're drawing a box joint or dovetails that are regularly spaced, you might consider copying the lines for the joint along the edge rather than laying out all those guidelines and drawing each socket individually.

By the way, I find it useful to have a keyboard shortcut for deleting guides so I can clean up the clutter quickly.

Dave

Ecuadorian, yes there is if you have all those plugins. Perhaps you could complete your comment by listing the plugins you used and give the sources for them?

shoorty777, I'm sorry you're having difficulty. When you look at the Plugins folder you should see a folder called "skin" and a file called "skin.rb". If you llok in the "skin" folder you should see the files as listed in this screen shot. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/SkinFolder-1.jpg

Make sure that you have all the boxes checked under Window>Preferences>Extensions. Also select the Skin toolbar from the View>Toolbars menu.

You should be able to select the two edges and run the plugin and have it fill in the space between. I hope that helps.

Dave

woodruf, thank you and you're welcome.

Regarding the Router Boss, I doubt you'll find anything more about it here on the Design. Click. Build. blog but you can find out about it at chipsfly.com

Dave

storri, it sounds to me that you haven't opened the component for editing prior to drawing the lines for the dovetails.

I'm not certain about uploading tutorial files but I'll look into it.

daltxguy, I suppose there's not been enough demand or someone would have done so. When the weather starts to cool off for you, perhaps you would do it? Hint, hint.

ifkerby, My guess is that you are still using version 6. Is that correct? If so, there is an added step that I left out of the process. The quickest thing to do would be to draw a line with the Line tool along the end of the board so that it intersects with the vertical line. That will result in breaking the vertical line. then Push/Pull will work correctly on the end of the half pin.

With version 7 this step is unneeded because the intersection is done automatically.

HOpe that helps.

Dave

1bri, you could just double click on the component to open it for editing rather than exploding it. Or you can right click on the component and choose Edit Component.

the blue face is the back face color. Select the blue faces, right click and choose Reverse Faces or select the white or light gray face, right click and choose Orient Faces.

Dave

Yes, you could use the Scale tool if you don't mind changing the scaling on the joints as well. Suppose you scaled the box sides to be 50% longer. You would also increase the height of the tails/sockets and change the angles in the joints. Then you'd need to scale the thickness of the front and back (the pin boards) to compensate. If you used the Scale tool to make the drawer deeper, the tails, sockets and pins would get wider and the angles would increase. If there was a groove for the bottom panel, it would get wider.

If you drew the first drawer box for, suppose, a chest of drawers and then used the Scale tool to make all the other drawer sizes in the case, you'd end up with different joints for every different size of drawer. You'd also end up with different thicknesses for some of the parts. I think traditionally the drawer stock would be planed to the same thickness for all of the drawers unless there are some very tiny or very large drawers in the project.

Thanks Mike,

Tim beat me to linking to the archive for info but I did get your e-mail and sent back your file with something to get you started. Hope that helped.

Dave

Hoop36,

Posting the comment once would be plenty.

You should also have Ruby Script Examples. I would see about getting a fresh download of the program and reinstalling SU7

Hoop36, Go to Window>Preferences>Extensions and check all the boxes. Then close and reopen SketchUp. If you've installed the CutList plugin in the right place, it should be available in the now visible Plugins menu.

Adrian, thank you.

Yes, I am using the pro version but everything I've done could be done in the free version as well.

The wood grain materials I used aren't standard SketchUp textures. They are textures I found doing image searches. You can import any JPG and use it as a texture if you wish.

Dave

PSeverin,

the reason I was told for half pins rather than half tails at the ends of a run of dovetails is that there's better control over the pieces if they choose to cup. The pin board can't go very far at the edges for the same reason the tailboard can't be pulled out that direction. The Tailboard can't go anyway because you have a good long grain glue surface between the half pin and the tail.

If you place tails at the ends, you don't get those benefits.

Paul, I'll try to get a video done for you and post it. Thank you for the support.

Dave

Here's the link to the CutList plugin.
http://tinyurl.com/6bhfge

Erick, glad to help. Just call me "speedy". No wait. That'll set me up. ;)

David, my apologies for not doing this sooner. Had I known...



Dave

rlafferty,

Karl has given you decent advice regarding the difference between the pro version and the free version. As far as what you can draw they are the same.

There is a plugin which will create very nice cutlists. I have linked to it in a previous blog post. The cutlist for the cabinet shown in this blog post took less than 30 seconds to make. You can also use SU7's Report feature to create a CSV file that can be imported into Excel and manipulated into a cutlist.

Dave

NHLawer, have you got an easier method?

Erick,

I've done something in the past but even I am having a hard time finding it in the blog archive. I've cleaned up my process though and made it more efficient. I'll make a new turoial for that.

mics_54, thanks for giving it a go.

Dave

No, if you have nested components, you'd need to make the individual components inside the nest unique as well as the super-component. Actually you'd only need to make the super-component uunique if you'd need to change the positions of the components inside relative to each other as in moving the sides to make a wider drawer.

Since the copy of the drawer wouldn't be the same as the original, you'd probab;y want to make the super-component unique anyway so you could give it a new name. FOr example if you drew the top of three drawers first, you might give the super-component the name, "Top Drawer". Then after making a unique copy for the middle position you might change its name from, "Top Drawer#1" to "Center Drawer" and so on.

Ted, the Report Generator does create a report that is sort of like a cutlist but it doesn't really contain the information one would want in a cutlist. The report provides attribute information about the component such as its name, layer location relative to the origin and size. If you are making dynamic components you can add attributes to the component that would appear in the report. The CSV version of the file could then be imported into a spreadsheet and the numbers crunched as desired.

Ted, I'm glad you got it worked. As to why you're called "teamman" is anyone's guess. Did you add that as your user name or nickname?

Dave

Nick, I use layers, too. In fact there are about a dozen layers in this model. I didn't end up using them throughout the scenes on this drawing as much as I do on others because of the way I was adding and modifying scenes. I found it easier just to copy the components I wanted off to the side.

I did manipulate layer visibility for some of the close up views. I should have mentioned that too.

Using layers is a good way to control which elements are visible in your scenes.

Thanks for catching that.

Dave

CDH, would you be willing to send me your SKP file? I'll see if I can help you out. --Dave