This looks like ten bucks well spent

[tomsalwasser]

Google Sketchup Guide for Woodworkers, The Basics

http://www.tauntonstore.com/fine-woodwo ... 67125.html

[garys]

It depends on how you build things. I've never found any use for a computer or computer software for designing my builds. I design them in my head and build them on my Shopsmith. I've been doing it that way for 30 years and it always works out for me. Trying to draw it up on a computer would just delay me getting the job done.
As long as I have a tape measure and some brain function left, I can keep cutting wood and building things.

[berry]

I like SU a lot and find it very useful. That said I have two major problems with it:
1) I don't use it often enough so even when I have "learned" how to blah blah by the time I need it again it's left my mind.
2) There are so many choices to learning SU it's bloody difficult to find the right one. Maybe it's different for each of us?

I've started keeping notes for my self with 'how-to's' I use.

I hope it pans out for you Tom, please let us know what you think.

[forrestb]

2 or 3 years ago I bought Dave Richards SketchUp videos (there were 6 individual videos) and I expect, Tom, that you are buying the same thing. It is one of the most useful instructional videos I have used (outside of Tim Rousseau's videos). The nice part is that Dave is available to answer questions on FWW Knots SketchUp folder. He also has many how-to's on FWW Design Click Build blog along with Tim Killenwood. They have been doing it for a long time and you can find most of your answers there already on video.

I have found that my designs in SU translate directly into the shop. You have to recognize that your precision in the shop is nowhere near to SU precision so adjustments might be needed in the shop. Modifying a SU file to conform to that stringer that you just cut a hair shorter that you designed in SU is no big deal. I did have one SU project that really needed +/- 1/128 inch precision in widths in order to remain square across the project and was able to hold that with my SS and Ben Robert's idea on using the Stop Collar to adjust the fence.

I also find that I enjoy sitting down and designing something in SU almost as much as cutting wood. SU makes it that easy and doing future projects design keeps my SU practice sharp. I am not a whiz by any means (I use the free version) but am competent now.

Forrest

[tomsalwasser]

Thanks Forrest, I'm glad to know someone who thinks like I do thinks highly of the Dave Richards Sketchup videos. I always do drawings for my wood projects by hand but I want to take it up a notch. Like berry I've dabbled with Sketchup but put it down and then I forget what I used to know. I think Sketchup may be like Excel or Photoshop, two other programs that I know and rely on. A person will never know everything these programs can do but I find utility in the small subset of functionality that I've mastered. I think the key is to learn it and use it regularly. And I know I will really enjoy using Sketchup!

[sawwood]

Thanks Tom for posting about this program. I went and checked out the videos, now $7.77, and bought them on the spot. I then went and found the program Sketchup (free version) and downloaded and installed it on my computer and began toying with it. Whoa!!! The program is complex and amazing. Probably way more than I can ever figure out. The videos are really good at explaining most of it, but they run through it all so fast it has my head spinning!!

I have now started to sketch out my project, a TV stand, which I started some 2-3 years ago, but got bogged down in all the details. I constructed some drawers for tapes and dvd's as well as the base, but then the project stalled. I have sketched out the design by hand many, many times, but can't seem to get the dimensions figured out.

My hope is this sketchup program will get me past the details and move this project forward. Looks like a lot of learning and designing ahead.......

I see Tim Killen has an ebook as well, only $6.50. So might get that as well.

[dusty]

I have been playing with Sketchup for a couple years and it is becoming almost a necessary tool to be used for every thing that I build.

I have been working to return a 1969 Aristocrat travel trailer back into a usable RV. Sketchup has been instrumental in getting that work done. By using SU, I can tell how things fit even before they are built. Every module in the RV has been produced as a scale drawing. I enjoy the drawing phase almost as much as the building phase. Especially when it works out.

[sawwood]

Reviving this thread..........

Hijacked from another thread/ post by BuckeyeDennis (giving credit where credit is due!) and inserting HIS link into this thread on Sketchup tutorials.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:

"I've been wanting to get proficient with Sketchup for quite some time."

http://sketchupforwoodworkers.com/

Oh, wow,more tutorials!!! I really like these tutorials on Sketchup. They are similar to the other videos, but a little (not much) slower with very good explanation of the terms and all the tools. Still gets my head spinnig though. But the best part is these tutorials appear to be FREE!!!! Thanks Dennis

[robinson46176]

Such things are fine for those that want or need them but I have always been and expect to remain an "in my head / seat of my pants" guy.
I don't mind learning new stuff, in fact at times I almost crave it but while I can work fine from plans I would rather not. I'm having too much fun with life to let it get dragged down in techno-play.
One big factor is that I don't just have "a hobby". I have dozens of them and I have literally thousands of other interest especially in history and science. In those I choose to enjoy more of it at the theoretical level and let others wallow in the fine details.
I have confessed before that I am generally more interested in the shop, the tools and the history than I am in making any particular project in any of my shops. I don't believe that I am alone in that...
A lot of guys love just turning pens and nothing else and that is fine. Everybody should pursue what they like best. I might even turn a few pens myself but I'm one of those guys that want to turn them out of wood that I grew, felled, sawed on my mill and dried in my kiln and cut to size in my shop. I still have ambitions to drag the logs to the mill with Rosie Belle my Belgian draft horse but that is going to take a lot more training. For now I'll just stick to using one of my antique tractors...
I may be old but I am still planting trees.

[ChrisNeilan]

I may be old but I am still planting trees.

Bingo!