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Started by DouginUtah, December 18, 2011, 02:45:49 PM

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DouginUtah

First, let me say I use AutoCAD, not SketchUp. I have downloaded it but have not yet started to learn it.

I subscribe to Daily Free Ebooks and today they had a book by Horst Sondermann on texturing, which led me to Amazon and another book he has written.

http://www.amazon.com/SketchUp%C2%AE-Sketchbook-Vol-1-ebook/dp/B0063TDP3Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324234849&sr=1-8

It is a free download if you are a Prime member. I just thought some here who use SketchUp might be interested in reading it.

If you don't have a Kindle there is free Kindle for PC.
-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

DouginUtah


Now I have a question or two...

I have watched a few tutorials and have done some practice drawings trying to get good enough to call myself a beginner.  :D

I drew a shed and didn't make it with a roof overhang at the soffit. Can't figure out how to move the roof edge so I have a 1' overhang. (Using push-pull I was able to get an overhang on the gables.)

Anyhow, I suppose asking a bunch of beginner SketchUp questions is not really appropriate for the forestry forum. So I wonder if anyone knows of a good forum where I can ask questions like the above?

-Doug

-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

beenthere

Don't know why this forum in this board wouldn't be good etiquette to discuss "sketchup" under a Sketchup thread.   ::) ::) 

Why send anyone off to a different forum, as some of us would also like to know the "how" to learn to use Sketchup better.
;)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Jim_Rogers

I don't have any experience with sketchup so I can't help you.
I hope someone who has experience will speak up and help you.
Good luck

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

dukndog

You can try to remove all the roof by right clicking in the lower right corner and dragging a box over the roof to select all the roof timbers. Once this is done, use the "move" tool to move it out of the way for your editing. Timbers will change color to blue once they have been selected.
I find most of the time, the cntl+z key fixes most of my mistakes. It goes back to the previous step and can step all the way back to the beginning of a project to the last save point.
Refer also to this post... https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,55065.0.html
Lot's of good info there as well. Clark also has a shortcut list to download in the downloads section of his website which helps tremendously with speed of operations, like spacebar for pointer, m for move, t for tape measure, etc.
Hope this helps, and I believe SU should be discussed here. Several people use it for the design of TF's as well as other items.

DnD
WM LT-15G25 w/PwrFeed, Mahindra 3510, Husky 385xp, Stihl MS261 and a wife who supports my hobby!!

jander3

Learning SketchUp made me insane (or at least a little more nuts).  But now, Sketch Up with Rubies, best thing ever for my basic timber frame plans.   



piller

I think a lot of folks are interested in learning to draw timber frames using sketchup (myself included) so I think it's good for folks to discuss the topic here.

In the last couple of days I watched three youtube videos by bweissvt about drawing a timber frame in sketchup.
I found the info very helpful. 

Perhaps you could post a sketchup example with your question?  Are you trying to extend the length of rafters?




DouginUtah


You guys are giving me too much credit. This drawing was done in the first half-hour of using SketchUp and is just practice making surfaces. No rafters.  :D
I watched this series of tutorials produced by Google:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPkv9tRuO-c&annotation_id=annotation_789334&feature=iv

Basically, piller, yes, I was trying to extend the length of the rafters (if they were there ;D ).

What I have found is that you need to create your drawing correctly as you go, since modifying it is a lot more difficult than modifying an AutoCAD drawing.

I just need to spend more time learning what can be done and what can't (easily) be done.

On the opening screen when SketchUp 8 starts there is a link (last one) that lets you print out a nice summary of all the commands and shortcuts, etc.


-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

piller

One thing I learned was that if you make a timber, for example a rafter, then use the select tool and click on it 3 times I think, you can then right click on it and select "Make Component".   A dialog appears, you give it a name, then you can click "Create". 

After you have made the component, you can use the move tool to make copies which will be identical to the first rafter (select the item, switch to the move tool, click the Ctrl key to make a copy, click the point on the selected item that you want to move from, use the mouse to drag the copy in the direction you want to place it, release the mouse, now you can type in a value, for example 2', this will move the copy 2 feet in the desired direction).  Then, after you have placed the rafter components in your drawing, if you edit one rafter and change the length you will change the length on all other instances of this component. 

A couple of other useful things are the array copy function of the move tool, and the "make unique" function which will let you make some components unique so they won't change when you edit something else.

Hope this helps. 

Jasperfield

SketchUp 8?

Is it reverse compatable with work done using 7?

DouginUtah

@Jasperfield,

I loaded something and got a message saying something to the effect that if you save this using SU 8 you will not be able to use it in SU 7. Sorry I can't give you better info since I went past it quickly.
-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

dlabrie

Quote from: piller on December 28, 2011, 08:35:17 PM
I think a lot of folks are interested in learning to draw timber frames using sketchup (myself included) so I think it's good for folks to discuss the topic here.

In the last couple of days I watched three youtube videos by bweissvt about drawing a timber frame in sketchup.
I found the info very helpful. 

Perhaps you could post a sketchup example with your question?  Are you trying to extend the length of rafters?
I watched those three videos as well and completed everything in them. Has the 4th video been made? I'd love to finish the project.
David in NH

jander3

Google sketchup also has a ton of how to videos:

http://sketchup.google.com/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

When you master the basic concepts, Clark Bremer has a few on his Timber Frame Rubies page that will get you started with Rubies and Timber Frame Joints.

jander3


SILVERTOOTH

I've been playing around with sketchup trying to make rafters. I see in Clarks ex., when I pull one of his rafter components from his library, it's inside a rectangle. Is this to keep the orientation? Can someone explain how this is done and why? I'm missing something somewhere.

Thanks, Joe

dukndog

First, welcome to the FF Silvertooth!!

It sounds like that Clark's "rafter" which you have chose is already set as a component. The "blue" rectangle around the component (rafter) basically shows all items included in the component instance. This keeps the orientation true to the actual drawings other components. It can be edited though.
By clicking with the right mouse button, some tools will come up where you can flip the component, rotate it, etc. You can also use the "rotate" button on the main tool bar to rotate it to different angles other than 90. Practice on using these tools and see if this helps you.
By double clicking on the component, it will make it gray, which enters into a different realm of editing. This allows actual component editing and is the only way to "make" the mortises which work with the TF Rubies.
Hope this helps and just keep on practicing....Rome wasn't designed or built in a day!!

DnD
WM LT-15G25 w/PwrFeed, Mahindra 3510, Husky 385xp, Stihl MS261 and a wife who supports my hobby!!

SILVERTOOTH

Thanks DnD, that makes sense. I thought it had something to do with the components editing and so forth, but was nearing the end of my rope with it.
Quite a learning curve with the SU and tf rubies, but will be great once I get the knack of it. Still making progress though.
Thanks Again, Joe

ballen

I too found sketchup a bit of a learning curve after using other programs...however, now I couldn't live without it.  In general, there are two "must" activities. 
1) As you draw, make each item either a component (as mentioned above) or a "group".  That way they don't accidentally attach themselves to neighboring items.
2) USE LAYERS to see things.  Someone mentioned moving items to be able to see underlying items for editing....Don't do it!...just put them on different layers and turn the layer you don't need off to gain full access to the part you are editing.  When you turn the other layer back on, it's right where you placed it originally so no need to move things once they are put in place.  I create layers for each of the building parts (roof, wall, etc.).  You can turn on the layer window in the "Window" command at the top.

Hope that helps.

Bill

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