Hi,
This is for beginners. I'm using V7 but I don't think anything I'm show is different then in V6. For the sake of going through this and not confusing people along the way please if you can restrain from posting other ways of doing the same thing until the whole project is finished. Also if you can hold questions or problems until the end I think it might help.
I will use screen captures to show some of the steps and use words along the way to explain what I'm doing. Please keep in mind I am no expert but I have got a few things working so I'm sharing here.
By way of setting up sketchup here is what I have done to make my experience better. First for mechanical drawings this fraction thing doesn't work all that well so start by making a template for this project.
To start with when you bring up sketchup V7 it looks like this
[ATTACH]2475[/ATTACH]
Please pick the Engineering - Feet and start sketchup
The screen opens looking like this
[ATTACH]2476[/ATTACH]
Just to get an idea of the scale of this I make a 3' x 3' x 3' cube and this is what that looks like
[ATTACH]2478[/ATTACH]
This might be nice for some project but for today we will make some changes. Start by going to the Window Menu and clicking it, you should see something like this
[ATTACH]2477[/ATTACH]
If you now click on the Model Info another window opens that looks like this
[ATTACH]2479[/ATTACH]
Under units we see the format is decimal and feet. We are going to change that from feet to inches...
Please go to the next post.
sketchup lets draw something together
Moderator: admin
sketchup lets draw something together
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{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
Once you change to inches we now see that a few other things have changed we could make some changes but let's for now go on.
[ATTACH]2480[/ATTACH]
With this set you will now be entering inches and not feet. Before when I did the cube I typed in 3 x 3 then when I did the pull I again entered 3, the previous setting was in feet and thus the numbers entered were in feet by default.
You can go ahead and remove the cube if you built it and the guy too. At this point using the rectangle tool starting at the axis make a rectangle. Now type in 1,1. This will size the rectangle to 1" x 1" but it will be so small it will be hard to see.
[ATTACH]2481[/ATTACH]
Now zoom in until you have a reasonable size view of it on the screen. Using the push/pull tool pull up on it then type in 1 to make it a 1" x 1" x 1" cube.
[ATTACH]2482[/ATTACH]
Next we will go to the file menu and it should look like this
[ATTACH]2483[/ATTACH]
What we are doing is creating a new template, it will need a name and in this example I used "one in square cube" on the real one I did I called it "1 inch block" you can use any name you like. When you click on the file name: it defaults to the name with a .skp extension. It also has a box to set it as your default template... again that is up to you if you want it that way.
[ATTACH]2484[/ATTACH]
See next post.
[ATTACH]2480[/ATTACH]
With this set you will now be entering inches and not feet. Before when I did the cube I typed in 3 x 3 then when I did the pull I again entered 3, the previous setting was in feet and thus the numbers entered were in feet by default.
You can go ahead and remove the cube if you built it and the guy too. At this point using the rectangle tool starting at the axis make a rectangle. Now type in 1,1. This will size the rectangle to 1" x 1" but it will be so small it will be hard to see.
[ATTACH]2481[/ATTACH]
Now zoom in until you have a reasonable size view of it on the screen. Using the push/pull tool pull up on it then type in 1 to make it a 1" x 1" x 1" cube.
[ATTACH]2482[/ATTACH]
Next we will go to the file menu and it should look like this
[ATTACH]2483[/ATTACH]
What we are doing is creating a new template, it will need a name and in this example I used "one in square cube" on the real one I did I called it "1 inch block" you can use any name you like. When you click on the file name: it defaults to the name with a .skp extension. It also has a box to set it as your default template... again that is up to you if you want it that way.
[ATTACH]2484[/ATTACH]
See next post.
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{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
Go ahead and close sketchup.
Now when you reopen it either pick the default template or the new name you gave the template when we just saved it.
When the new window opens you should have a cube in the middle and it should be of a reasonable size to work with the dimensions we will be working with.
[ATTACH]2485[/ATTACH]
Now about the project we will be working on. Since I already have rails done and a main table the next thing on my list is to do a floating table. I will also be working in decimal numbers so get out your chart/calculator if you want or use another feature of sketchup... for this lets do a little test which will point out two things that should be noted.
Using the rectangle tool make a box and type in 15/16,15/16. Now pull up and type in 15/16. Go to the dimension tool and put some dimensions on the cube. You should see that you have a cube that is .938 on each side. So if you want to enter fractions you can... the second thing to notice is that the dimension is .938 where 15/16 is really .9375. This was because we have the precision set to 3 decimal place, if I were doing a real mechanical drawing I would work in 4 decimal places but for a sketch it is not worth it.
[ATTACH]2486[/ATTACH]
Now we have to come up with some dimensions to use. Again remember this is just a sketch and an example so lets start with saying the table is 7.5" wide and 22" long. To start with you can clear away the cubes you have up and start with a clean screen. Using the rectangle tool make a rectangle and type in 7.7,22. You may have adjust you view but it will look something like this.
[ATTACH]2487[/ATTACH]
The grooves in the table seem to be a bit confusing to some people so this may get us through how I did it and maybe that will be useful. By looking at the part you can see that the groove starts and stops with about a 1/2" of the ends. I put a guide line at the front and another at the rear. For this I start the guide from the red axis and pull in the green direction and rather then fight to get the mouse to get it right I type in .5. The line for the back is then done, using simple math 22 -.5 = 21.5 works but again since this is a sketch it is easier just to go the back line and come forward and this time the .5 is remembered by the tool so it is a "snap" to find.
From looking at the table the spacing of the grooves takes up 7" from far edge grove to far edge. From looking at it it would seem the the center of the top and the center of the center groove should be the same place. A guide down the center was added and measuring from the center line to right 3.5" and center line to left side by the same should work to determine where the groves are located.
[ATTACH]2488[/ATTACH]
I'll be back in a while to continue this so we will see you in the next post.
Now when you reopen it either pick the default template or the new name you gave the template when we just saved it.
When the new window opens you should have a cube in the middle and it should be of a reasonable size to work with the dimensions we will be working with.
[ATTACH]2485[/ATTACH]
Now about the project we will be working on. Since I already have rails done and a main table the next thing on my list is to do a floating table. I will also be working in decimal numbers so get out your chart/calculator if you want or use another feature of sketchup... for this lets do a little test which will point out two things that should be noted.
Using the rectangle tool make a box and type in 15/16,15/16. Now pull up and type in 15/16. Go to the dimension tool and put some dimensions on the cube. You should see that you have a cube that is .938 on each side. So if you want to enter fractions you can... the second thing to notice is that the dimension is .938 where 15/16 is really .9375. This was because we have the precision set to 3 decimal place, if I were doing a real mechanical drawing I would work in 4 decimal places but for a sketch it is not worth it.
[ATTACH]2486[/ATTACH]
Now we have to come up with some dimensions to use. Again remember this is just a sketch and an example so lets start with saying the table is 7.5" wide and 22" long. To start with you can clear away the cubes you have up and start with a clean screen. Using the rectangle tool make a rectangle and type in 7.7,22. You may have adjust you view but it will look something like this.
[ATTACH]2487[/ATTACH]
The grooves in the table seem to be a bit confusing to some people so this may get us through how I did it and maybe that will be useful. By looking at the part you can see that the groove starts and stops with about a 1/2" of the ends. I put a guide line at the front and another at the rear. For this I start the guide from the red axis and pull in the green direction and rather then fight to get the mouse to get it right I type in .5. The line for the back is then done, using simple math 22 -.5 = 21.5 works but again since this is a sketch it is easier just to go the back line and come forward and this time the .5 is remembered by the tool so it is a "snap" to find.
From looking at the table the spacing of the grooves takes up 7" from far edge grove to far edge. From looking at it it would seem the the center of the top and the center of the center groove should be the same place. A guide down the center was added and measuring from the center line to right 3.5" and center line to left side by the same should work to determine where the groves are located.
[ATTACH]2488[/ATTACH]
I'll be back in a while to continue this so we will see you in the next post.
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{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
One thing I forgot to mention and should have. Once you get started on this save the file as say "floating table" and then after a few steps save it again and keep this up as you go.
Now back to the project, well sort of. We are now going to use another of the cool things about sketchup and to show you that part we will take a small trip off to the side. By looking at the table we can see it has 19 grooves and 18 spaces between the grooves. We might now be thinking let's measure the width of the groove and the width of the space and use those numbers. OK take out your scale and that looks like maybe 7/32" for the space and and and boy that is hard to measure... maybe it is a quarter inch no no maybe it is 9/32 no that is to much how about 17/64 and now we can move on to the width of the groove.... and now we start the math, lets see 18 spaces at ??/64 and 19 grooves at ??/64 and this adds up to something and it will not likely be any decent numbers to work with. Bad mood now right? Hated this stuff in school and hate it more now???
Along comes fuzzy math where we can come up with some answers. For now I'm going to say that the space between looks like about .260 and the groove looks like .130. If this is correct then the groove + space equals .390. Now some of you can do the math and find that what we end up with is 7.15" of width and from the earlier measurement we did I had guessed at 7". So I am happy with the numbers I have to work with. If you think it looks different then yours then make some changes to what I have given you here... it's all good.
This next part also seem to be a little hard to get use to but we can work through it. We are now going to use the rectangle tool and make a rectangle using the guide lines at the front and the back along with the one on the right side. We want to make a groove but for now we are just doing a rectangle at this location. So go ahead and do that. Remember we want it to be 21" long and .130 wide.... problems??? Yea it works that way, but it is not a real problem, we just need to type in the numbers.
[ATTACH]2490[/ATTACH]
You can look at the lower right of your screen and see that mine came up to 21" x .247". The simple fix is to type in ,.130. you could type in 21,.130 that works too.
[ATTACH]2489[/ATTACH]
Now we have a rectangle that is the size we want for the slots. At this point maybe we should test this to see how it will look. To do that we are going to make 18 more of them. This is done using the move tool and click the "CTRL" key to get the plus sign so we are making a copy. Just before the move it should look something like this
[ATTACH]2491[/ATTACH]
We want to move the copy all the way to the left hand guide so it looks like this
[ATTACH]2492[/ATTACH]
and we want how many??? We want 18 more then the first one and we want them evenly spaced between the orginal and the one we just placed so type in /18. Please note that the center groove is also on the center guide line we made... the .15" (recall the 7.15") dimension has been resolved with no additional effor on our part. The result should look like this
[ATTACH]2493[/ATTACH]
Go on to the next post.
Now back to the project, well sort of. We are now going to use another of the cool things about sketchup and to show you that part we will take a small trip off to the side. By looking at the table we can see it has 19 grooves and 18 spaces between the grooves. We might now be thinking let's measure the width of the groove and the width of the space and use those numbers. OK take out your scale and that looks like maybe 7/32" for the space and and and boy that is hard to measure... maybe it is a quarter inch no no maybe it is 9/32 no that is to much how about 17/64 and now we can move on to the width of the groove.... and now we start the math, lets see 18 spaces at ??/64 and 19 grooves at ??/64 and this adds up to something and it will not likely be any decent numbers to work with. Bad mood now right? Hated this stuff in school and hate it more now???
Along comes fuzzy math where we can come up with some answers. For now I'm going to say that the space between looks like about .260 and the groove looks like .130. If this is correct then the groove + space equals .390. Now some of you can do the math and find that what we end up with is 7.15" of width and from the earlier measurement we did I had guessed at 7". So I am happy with the numbers I have to work with. If you think it looks different then yours then make some changes to what I have given you here... it's all good.
This next part also seem to be a little hard to get use to but we can work through it. We are now going to use the rectangle tool and make a rectangle using the guide lines at the front and the back along with the one on the right side. We want to make a groove but for now we are just doing a rectangle at this location. So go ahead and do that. Remember we want it to be 21" long and .130 wide.... problems??? Yea it works that way, but it is not a real problem, we just need to type in the numbers.
[ATTACH]2490[/ATTACH]
You can look at the lower right of your screen and see that mine came up to 21" x .247". The simple fix is to type in ,.130. you could type in 21,.130 that works too.
[ATTACH]2489[/ATTACH]
Now we have a rectangle that is the size we want for the slots. At this point maybe we should test this to see how it will look. To do that we are going to make 18 more of them. This is done using the move tool and click the "CTRL" key to get the plus sign so we are making a copy. Just before the move it should look something like this
[ATTACH]2491[/ATTACH]
We want to move the copy all the way to the left hand guide so it looks like this
[ATTACH]2492[/ATTACH]
and we want how many??? We want 18 more then the first one and we want them evenly spaced between the orginal and the one we just placed so type in /18. Please note that the center groove is also on the center guide line we made... the .15" (recall the 7.15") dimension has been resolved with no additional effor on our part. The result should look like this
[ATTACH]2493[/ATTACH]
Go on to the next post.
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{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
Since I like the look and placement of the grooves I'm going to remove them by doing an Edit, undo array. You will see why I did that in a few moments.
At this point we are going to introduce something that we really need to do with the "groove" we made. The groove is going to be a component. We will go through this now. The "groove" needs to be selected, pulling a box around it works well and you will end up with something like this
[ATTACH]2494[/ATTACH]
The component can be created by clicking the funny box with light blue around it or by using the right mouse button.
[ATTACH]2495[/ATTACH]
A box will appear on the screen like this
[ATTACH]2496[/ATTACH]
You can fill in the name and leave the rest of the information alone.
[ATTACH]2497[/ATTACH]
The result will be a screen like this
[ATTACH]2498[/ATTACH]
Now we can do the same move operation we did before but this time we are moving a component. Go ahead and make the copies and head to the next post.
At this point we are going to introduce something that we really need to do with the "groove" we made. The groove is going to be a component. We will go through this now. The "groove" needs to be selected, pulling a box around it works well and you will end up with something like this
[ATTACH]2494[/ATTACH]
The component can be created by clicking the funny box with light blue around it or by using the right mouse button.
[ATTACH]2495[/ATTACH]
A box will appear on the screen like this
[ATTACH]2496[/ATTACH]
You can fill in the name and leave the rest of the information alone.
[ATTACH]2497[/ATTACH]
The result will be a screen like this
[ATTACH]2498[/ATTACH]
Now we can do the same move operation we did before but this time we are moving a component. Go ahead and make the copies and head to the next post.
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{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
We are not to far from done.... as you will see.
A quick measurement of the thickness of the table gives us about 1-1/2", go ahead and pull the table top up that amount.
[ATTACH]2499[/ATTACH]
Now we need to zoom in on the upper left corner of the table top. Using the select tool on the "groove" you will see something that looks like this
[ATTACH]2500[/ATTACH]
If you double click again on the "groove" you will now be inside the part and have a screen that looks like this
[ATTACH]2501[/ATTACH]
Now for a bit of magic, if you pick the offset tool and make an off set of the rectangle by say .002 you will have something that looks like this
[ATTACH]2502[/ATTACH]
now with the push/pull tool pull down and use the dimension of .01. All of the grooves now have this done to them. It should look like this
[ATTACH]2503[/ATTACH]
See you in the next post
A quick measurement of the thickness of the table gives us about 1-1/2", go ahead and pull the table top up that amount.
[ATTACH]2499[/ATTACH]
Now we need to zoom in on the upper left corner of the table top. Using the select tool on the "groove" you will see something that looks like this
[ATTACH]2500[/ATTACH]
If you double click again on the "groove" you will now be inside the part and have a screen that looks like this
[ATTACH]2501[/ATTACH]
Now for a bit of magic, if you pick the offset tool and make an off set of the rectangle by say .002 you will have something that looks like this
[ATTACH]2502[/ATTACH]
now with the push/pull tool pull down and use the dimension of .01. All of the grooves now have this done to them. It should look like this
[ATTACH]2503[/ATTACH]
See you in the next post
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{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
You can now zoom out a bit and have a look at your new table. It should look a lot like this
[ATTACH]2504[/ATTACH]
Keep in mind this is not the only way to do this and I don't want to get you to confused as what was done so at this point questions and comments are welcome.
If someone wants to post a different way that is fine too. Keep in mind this is for us people new to sketchup and you can get way over our heads in no time I'm sure.
Hope you enjoyed this and I hope it was helpful. If you got lost along the way it now time to ask those questions too.
Ed
[ATTACH]2504[/ATTACH]
Keep in mind this is not the only way to do this and I don't want to get you to confused as what was done so at this point questions and comments are welcome.
If someone wants to post a different way that is fine too. Keep in mind this is for us people new to sketchup and you can get way over our heads in no time I'm sure.
Hope you enjoyed this and I hope it was helpful. If you got lost along the way it now time to ask those questions too.
Ed
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- ScreenHunter_034.jpg (74.55 KiB) Viewed 6429 times
{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
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dusty
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 21481
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:52 am
- Location: Tucson (Wildcat Country), Arizona
Well, I was not able to follow along step by step because of the differences between V6 and V7 but (with your PM assistance) I have been able to do all of what you have demonstrated here.
Again, because of my wondering off track, I do not have a drawing of the Mark V table but I have still been exposed to many of the features of Sketchup. I definitely have not mastered them but now I have besides surfing to do when I wake up at weird hours.
Thank you, Ed, for sharing your talents and thank you Tom for getting me started with Sketchup. Had it not been for your drawings being posted for our viewing, I would never have done this.
I downloaded my first version of Sketchup over a year ago and had hardly ever touched it. My first assessment was not favorable. How wrong I was.
Again, because of my wondering off track, I do not have a drawing of the Mark V table but I have still been exposed to many of the features of Sketchup. I definitely have not mastered them but now I have besides surfing to do when I wake up at weird hours.
Thank you, Ed, for sharing your talents and thank you Tom for getting me started with Sketchup. Had it not been for your drawings being posted for our viewing, I would never have done this.
I downloaded my first version of Sketchup over a year ago and had hardly ever touched it. My first assessment was not favorable. How wrong I was.
"Making Sawdust Safely"
Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
Many Thanks - Beautiful Presentation!
Ed - Thank you very much for your postings above!!!:D You have provided us with an easy to understand, precisely clear explanation of how to get Setchup working for us. I marvel at your teaching skills and patience in writing the directions and presenting the pictures.
Atta Boy, ED!
Thanks again! And - Boy! I'm glad you're back!
Atta Boy, ED!
Thanks again! And - Boy! I'm glad you're back!
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
Hey, I did it. I was somewhat slow, and had to start over several times. Thanks Ed, what a great way to learn. I hope there will be some more lessons coming.
Pat
Oregon
1992 SS 510, 11" Bandsaw on power station, 4" jointer, Pro Planer, Incra Miter 2000, Incra Ultimate Fence Router Pkg, Grizzly 6" Parallelogram Jointer.
Oregon
1992 SS 510, 11" Bandsaw on power station, 4" jointer, Pro Planer, Incra Miter 2000, Incra Ultimate Fence Router Pkg, Grizzly 6" Parallelogram Jointer.