SketchUp! is better than hand drawing, really.

[Brice Burrell]

Dave, hang in there you'll "get it" sooner or later. The SketchUp for dummies is by a guy named Aidan Chopra, Aidan works for Google. I've not read the book but I have seen his videos base on it, here's a link to his website were you can check out them. aidanchopra.com This will give an idea if the book is for you.

Rey, I've seen the video before, I might have to look into picking one up, thanks.

 

[daves1996]

I am in the process of drawing my house in SU and I am having a blast with it. It is not to scale  because I didn't want to run around the house all the time taking measurements. Definitely has a learning curve to it though.

Dave

Sounds like a good "excuse" to buy a laser tape measure.

Thanks, I have been looking into getting one of those. It does sound like a good "excuse".

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Brice,

Thanks for your instuctions and continuing encouragement!

I'll check out some of the materials on the Aidan Copra's website.

3:16 PM, initial checkout done!  Found this helpful video among the large collection.  This may solve my major problem in trying to design my coffee table.
Making Component inside Model

Dave R.

 

[Brice Burrell]

I think Aidan's videos are great, I know I've learned a lot for them. I don't know if you figured out the whatt's going wrong making your arrays or not but here's a couple of videos I made that might help.

The first explains how to use the move tool to move objects, make copies and arrays.



The second video takes these skills shows you how to make use of them.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Brice,

After I replaced Version 6 with Version 7, the arrays function worked.  I plan on watching and trying more of what is taught in Aidan's videos.

Dave R.

 

[JayStPeter]

Version 7 seems to fix some funky things under Vista.  I guess that could be one of 'em.  There were some others that I noticed as well.  The best fix is I can now click on a skp file to bring the program up instead of having to bring it up, accept the "yes, I really want to run the program I just clicked on under Vista", then load a file (where it doesn't remember the place where my files are so I have to navigate there).

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks,  Jay.  You're helping restore my sanity!

I don't know how to use SketchUp, but following on Brice's recommendation, here is a link that should pull up a large number of tutorial videos by Aiden Chopra.
Aiden's SketchUp Video Tutorials

I plan to work my way through several of these.  Several focus on particular problems with SketchUp.  He also shows many shortcuts.

Dave R.

 

[daves1996]

Great videos there Brice.

Dave

 

[Brice Burrell]

Great videos there Brice.

Dave

Thanks, these are my first attempt at making video tutorials, it's not easy, at least it's not for me. I used a cheap mic and a free program called Camstudio for the screen capture. The program isn't bad for being free I just don't know how to adjust all the settings to improve the video quality for upload to youtube. I might spend some time making a few more videos like the second one, maybe a series of "Putting it all together". The basics of SU are covered very well in other video tutorials but there is a lack of good tutorials on how to take the next step and even less on how woodworkers might better use SU. Glad you liked the videos.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Brice, you have encouraged me to get really serious about learning SketchUp in this my third attempt.  To that end, I ordered the StechUp for Dummies book last night.

It remains to be seen whether I will be thanking you or blaming you about a month from now.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Brice, you have encouraged me to get really serious about learning SketchUp in this my third attempt.  To that end, I ordered the StechUp for Dummies book last night.

It remains to be seen whether I will be thanking you or blaming you about a month from now.

Frank, I've seen the book but I am familiar with the author's work, he's a great teacher. Be sure to check out the link to his website the I posted above you'll be able to watch his videos, highly recommended. If you run into any trouble don't be afraid to ask questions, I'll help you anyway I can. Good luck.

 

[tbellemare]

Brice:

Is that you in the default SU screen?

It sounds like Chopra is calling him "Brice".

Tom

 

[Frank Pellow]

Brice, you have encouraged me to get really serious about learning SketchUp in this my third attempt.  To that end, I ordered the StechUp for Dummies book last night.

It remains to be seen whether I will be thanking you or blaming you about a month from now.

Frank, I've seen the book but I am familiar with the author's work, he's a great teacher. Be sure to check out the link to his website the I posted above you'll be able to watch his videos, highly recommended. If you run into any trouble don't be afraid to ask questions, I'll help you anyway I can. Good luck.

Thanks Brice.  I looked at some of the videos and read and extract from the book before I ordered it.  I was favourably impressed with both.

Thanks for the offer of help.  You are a busy man, so I hope that I don't have to take you up on the offer.

Cheers,  Frankl

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Brice,

For a first effort using the various software applications and your microphoen, your SU tutorials are excellent.  I did notice the voice quality and volume is not yet equal to that of Aiden Chopra, but he is obviously very experienced (and good) at making them.

I wholly agree that some video tutorials showing how to put different elements of SU together when designing cabinetry and furniture would be a great help to FOG members.

My bet is that Frank P. will be an ace using SU within 3 wks after receiving his instruction book.

Then both of you can help teach me!!  ;D

Dave R.

 

[Frank Pellow]

...

My bet is that Frank P. will be an ace using SU within 3 wks after receiving his instruction book.

Then both of you can help teach me!!   ;D

Dave R.

Dave, you have a lot more confidence in me than I have in myself.  Besides, I don't think that I will have much time over the next month or so to work with Scetchup.  During that time, I need to master the program called Sony Vegas Movie Studio for a non-woodworking project that I need to deliver on.  I just downloaded that program this afternoon and am even more confused by it than I am by ScetchUp.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

I'm sticking to my prediction.  You are a software ace, I'm still learning how to do basic things on a PC.  Either or both of my PC (Dell Inspiron running VISTA) and Earthlink modem (ZyXel) crashes at least a few times each week.  Only recently have I learned how to restore/reload them without having to wait eons of time for some technical support person in India or Phillipines to assist me.

SketchUp use is slowly coming together in my mind, but I am a long way from being able to model what I want.  The problem is that many SU skills are needed to create a decent model of anything but the simplest boxes.

Dave R.

 

[Bluenose]

I used SU to virtually build my small shop. It was an invaluable aid with helping my limited carpentry skills get my mind around the building process. It also made ordering supplies much easier. Funny, there were actually times where my building had progressed ahead of my SU modeling so I went inside and "caught up".

This post came at a perfect time for me. For some reason now that I am working on storage solutions inside the shop I seem to have forgot about SU. Thanks for the reminder and push Bryce.

Does anyone have an MFT3 SU model?

Cheers, Bill

 

[johnsonri]

Absolutely GREAT post there Bluenose!! Looks like a great space that you have there....both virtual and real.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Bluenose, the diagram looks good, but the real thing looks great?  Do you have photos of the inside?

 

[johnsonri]

...and did you move your skylight to the other side of the building from what you have in SU, or do you have two skylights?