Sketchup for Dummies

[etc92guy]

Ed - Are you using a video card thats internal to the motherboard or one that sits in a slot? If you have a slot mounted card with the manufacturers driver you may pick up some speed because the card will do the work rather than the processor. And if your play with Sketchup, at 233 or 662, your going to need all the megahertz you can get.

I don't know your full situation, but I just finished scrapping the last 233 in the family. It's not worth the investment to upgrade. We added some money and replaced the motherboard with one that is more current.

Don't mean to be a buttinski, but I would rather see you get some real value. These PC's are definitely not Shopsmiths.

[reible]

Hi Dusty,

Just to give you an idea of what I'm running...

XP Pro
2.2 GHz processor(512 internal cache)
2 Meg memory (I have a third chip to put in sometime which would max it out)
ATI 9800 Wonder 128 memory (soon to not work TV card)
200 GB main hard disk (SATA 1) (a replacement 500GB to add sometime)
20 GB SCSI "cache disk" (160 SCSI)
200 GB USB2 back up hard disk
22" LCD screen
5 button mouse

When I built this about 6 or 7 years ago it was a hot system, but today with dual core processors, and faster everything I keep thinking I should start building a new machine... of course there is always that money thing... I'm being held back by only having PCI slots and a single 8X AGP slot so I'm limited on faster disk controllers and video cards... I've even managed to crash the video card twice while using sketchup... one time the VPU was able to recover the other time I had to reboot.

I'd say if you can just upgrade the whole system, even if you update a few parts you will still be way behind the curve. Of course that is only my opinion.

Ed

[tom_k/mo]

Hi Dusty,

Just to give you an idea of what I'm running...

XP Pro
2.2 GHz processor(512 internal cache)
2 Meg memory (I have a third chip to put in sometime which would max it out)
ATI 9800 Wonder 128 memory (soon to not work TV card)....

Ed

Ed, hope that's Gb and just a typo...

[reible]

Back to my current project... I did a front and rear rail see below. I did a 7-1/2" extrusion of each and did not mess with the magnetic strip or holes at this point.

[ATTACH]2453[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]2454[/ATTACH]

Now I still haven't gone back to fix the counter sink hole issue. It looks like it should be a snap with the instructions provide. I should also recheck the dimension between holes as either the table or the inserts or maybe both are wrong... when I put it together the holes don't line up.

I think that will be all for today.

Ed

[reible]

No wonder it is running so slow....

Yea messed up, must have been all the sketchup work I was doing.

Hey at least I know someone read the post! Maybe it was a test, yea that's it, it was a test and you passed, good job! I'm like Norm, I make very few misteaks so this was an obvious test.

Ed

Ed, hope that's Gb and just a typo...

[dusty]

I don't think I have the aptitude for this Sketchup stuff. Ed, I am again impressed; this time with your rails. Like the main table, I took a run at the rails. Those were also failures too.

I sort of get it but I just can't get the details that make the drawings realistic.

Example: I can get some rectangles drawn on the top of the tables but I can't get them narrow enough nor are they properly spaced.

It probably just requires practice but I may not have the patience to ever get enough practice.

Congratulations on yours. It looks like you and tom will both be teaching classes soon.

[reible]

Hi Dusty,

Please don't think I'm just catching on to this faster... I do have a background in mechanical drawing and did a lot of graphic design work as well. I don't know this program very well but the ideas behind it are similar to other tools I've used. I worked in a research environment and most of my years were in what they called "forward looking work" our job was to be working on things 6 to 12 years ahead of where the industry stood. So to get funding you had to make them think you had a handle on what was going on. Early on we did models and used the model shop and art department to make us things or did them ourselves. A few of us got together and decided if we could use computer tools we could get from the ideas we had to paper/view graphs a lot faster... and as funding came we could keep going as the details were ironed out. So making it look real by adding details is something I learned along the way... now it just learning this tool.

If you think it might help I can start another thread and give a few points on how I go about building stuff, it may not be the best way 'cause I'm still learning too but it might get you started. Got any part you would like to start on?

You also need to keep in mind the more detailed the model the more computer resources it will use up. So you could end up with a shopsmith that would take a NASA computer to assemble.

Ed


[quote="dusty"]I don't think I have the aptitude for this Sketchup stuff. Ed, I am again impressed]

[dusty]

Remember, I am using Sketchup version 6.

When I select an object to do something like a move or copy the whole things turns dark. In the tutorials what happens is the edges turn blue. Is this a learning problem, a problem at all or is this a feature (limitation) of the version I am trying to use.

Once I have selected something and made it turn dark, am I suppose to be able to reverse the process. The undo and escape functions don't help?

[curiousgeorge]

Remember, I am using Sketchup version 6.

When I select an object to do something like a move or copy the whole things turns dark. In the tutorials what happens is the edges turn blue. Is this a learning problem, a problem at all or is this a feature (limitation) of the version I am trying to use.

Once I have selected something and made it turn dark, am I suppose to be able to reverse the process. The undo and escape functions don't help?

Dusty,
I'm not sure about the turning dark part, but if you have something selected and you want to un-select it simply click somewhere outside the selected area.

[dusty]

Dusty,
I'm not sure about the turning dark part, but if you have something selected and you want to un-select it simply click somewhere outside the selected area.

Nope. That does not work for me. Once again, I suspect that it has something to do with my computer configuration. Many aspects of Sketchup work as advertised but not everything.