Chiefwoodworker's Blog

Google announced the availability of SketchUp 8.0 on September 1, 2010. Both the free and Pro versions can be downloaded by going to the SketchUp Download Page. Before getting into some of the improvements, and there are some very significant ones, let me make an observation that is a little troubling. It appears that Google is implementing the “Bait and Switch” strategy with this release. In the past all versions of SketchUp had a free and Pro version. The free version was fully featured as far as modeling was concerned, i.e. all the drawing tools were present in both versions. In this version Google has implemented five drawing tools which are only available in the Pro version; and these tools are not just nice to have tools, they are significant productivity improvement tools.

To me this signals a trend where the free and Pro versions will grow substantially apart in the future, encouraging, even making necessary, users to purchase the Pro version if they wish to enjoy the drawing capabilities of SketchUp. I suspect this is a result of the enormous popularity of SketchUp brought about by the availability of the free version. Now that SketchUp has reached the “ubiquitous” milestone  we may even see the free version phased out altogether, or become so featureless as compared to the Pro version that it dies on its own. I hope not, but to this point SketchUp has been a little too-good-to-be-true, and all good things come to an end at some point.

To see all the new features in SketchUp 8 go to What’s New in Google SketchUp 8. But the five drawing features I have referred to above, which are only available in the Pro, are:

1. Union – joins together selected solids. (Solid is a new entity in SketchUp. It is a group or component which is totally enclosed and with no dangling lines or surfaces.) As far as I can tell on quick inspection, this tool is the same as a  new tool included in both versions called Outer Shell, but I need to investigate further to see if there is any significant difference.
2. Intersect – makes a new solid group from the intersection of selected solids and discards the non-intersecting entities.
3. Subtract – The intersecting portion of the first solid is subtracted from a second solid. The first solid is eliminated. Google refers to this as a cookie cutter.
4. Trim – The same as the Subtract except the first solid remains in place.
5. Split – Creates three solid groups out of two overlapping solids: the first solid minus the overlap, the overlap and the second solid minus the overlap. Similar to Intersect but the non-intersecting entities remain in place.

These logical operations are the missing operations found in most 3D CAD tools. Till now we have had to rely on the Edit/Intersect/Intersect with Model tool and lots of cleanup to perform these operations. The Pro version of SketchUp also comes with LayOut 3 and Style Builder 2. The improvements in these tools are also explained in What’s New in Google SketchUp 8. All-in-all this version release seems to be a significant improvement over SketchUp 7, especially for the Pro users.

It is really too bad that these new logical operations tools will not be part of the free version. I feel like I should personally apologize for Google, but since I have no relationship with Google I can only hope they will apologize for themselves.

For those of you who took woodworking shop in high school you are likely to remember this useful safety device. It was typically made from scrap 1/4” or 1/2” plywood and shaped to fit your hand. The High School Push Stick is most useful for pushing narrow pieces through a table saw while keeping your fingers far away from the saw blade. For this reason I prefer the narrower 1/4” version.

Anyone who has used this handy little device will agree it is invaluable in the wood shop. So I have taken to providing readers my most complex SketchUp model yet; High School Push Stick.skp. Download it by clicking this link.

Create A Template

Open the model and choose Camera/Parallel Projection. Choose Camera/Standard Views/Front. Zoom Extents and minimize the amount of white space around the model by adjusting the window size (this is necessary to print this model on a single 8 1/2” x 11” page). In the Print Setup Dialog box choose the Properties Button. Choose the Basic Tab and select Landscape. In the print Preview Dialog box uncheck both “Fit to page” and “Use model extents”. Enter 1 and Inches for both “In the printout” and “In SketchUp” (this produces a 1:1 print scale). Now choose Print at the top of the menu bar. If you have trouble printing to scale read Printing To Scale In SketchUp.

Sandwich the printout between two sheets of Self Adhesive Clear Plastic which you can buy at any office supply store or Amazon.com. Carefully cut out the template of the Push Stick and trace it onto a scrap of 1/4” plywood.

Cutout The Push Stick

There are three straight-line cuts that should be made on a table saw. They are: the 8 1/2” long line, the 1/4” short line and the 1” line. The three lines are perpendicular to each other. Cut these first. Next, use a jig saw, scroll saw or band saw to rough out the curves. Finally, with an edge sander and oscillating spindle sander (or just your hands) sand the curved edges to final shape. That’s it -  you now have a very handy and safe High School Push Stick.

Using The Push Stick To Shape Mullions & Muntins

You can make a career out of searching for the correct definition of mullions and muntins but don’t waste your time. Suffice it to say they are both parts of a window or door, and they frame its lights. I think of mullions as the more complex of the two which has one or more through mortises and two tenons.

Muntins on the other hand are less complex with no through mortise and two tenons. Definitions you will find on the internet vary all over the place; some even give the mullion a structural meaning similar to a stile. The tenons on a mullion usually fit into a stile or rail while those of a muntin fit into the through mortise of a mullion. Ok, with that as the definition for mullion and muntin let me demonstrate how the push stick can be used with both the router and table saw to shape them.

The most often used application for the push stick is to feed thin or narrow pieces of stock through a table saw. In the picture at left I am cutting two rabbets in a muntin by holding 3/4” stock against the fence with a feather board and feeding the stock with the push stick. Notice my hands and fingers are well clear of the red area and at least six inches from the blade. (There are numerous feather board designs that can be used allowing for taller and still narrow stock.) In this case the push stick is merely feeding the stock, but not assisting in holding the stock against the fence.

Another application for the push stick is to feed narrow stock through a router. In the picture at right I begin the feed with the push stick held vertically and pushing the stock while my fingers hold the stock against the fence. The feather board does not engage until the stock leaves the cutting area. Because I don’t want my fingers to encroach the area above the metal plate I am limited in the length of stock I can shape with the router. These pieces are about minimum size.

As the feather board engages I tilt the push stick to about 35 degrees and assist the feather board in holding the stock against the fence. Here my fingers also help out. They have encroached on the area above the metal plate, but only after the stock completely surrounds the router bit, in essence shielding my fingers.

Shaping mullions and muntins are one of the more dangerous operations in a wood shop and for that reason many woodworkers build windows and doors that have lights using imatation mullions and muntins. I applaud that choice and understand it completely. But the push stick and feather board can go a long way in reducing the risk and making this operation much safer.

A reader wrote me in the comment section of one of my blogs and asked how I like the Performax Pro 22-44 drum sander. He was considering purchasing one and wanted my opinion. I replied “I can’t say enough good things about the Performax Pro 22-44 drum sander”, and I can’t. So much so I thought I would write a post just about this invaluable tool.

This is not a power tool that gets used only on occasion – no sir. Nearly every board in my shop goes through it during at least one process step. Mostly immediately following the planner. I use it for final thicknessing of all parts using 80 grit paper. I may also use it for finish sanding of panels and other parts with 220 grit paper. This is especially true for stock that has grain direction changes that would cause tear out with a hand plane.

My thicknessing process starts with the planner where the stock is brought to within 1/16” or 1/32” of final thickness. If the stock is figured wood such as tiger maple or blistered maple I may even leave the stock 1/8” over sized because tear out on figured woods can be excessive. I will then bring the stock to within 1/32” or 1/64” with the 80 grit paper on the Performax Pro. Depending on other factors, I may even bring it to final thickness with 220 grit drum paper.

The drum sander has five significant advantages over the planner for final thicknessing. First there is negligible to no snipe at the ends. Hence you can save two to four inches on rough stock lengths.

Second, small nicks in a planner or jointer blade leave noticeable ridges in the wood. This only happens on a drum sander if you have a burn in the paper from clogging (generally caused by pitch pockets). But the latter is extremely rare while the former is quite common.

Third, with fine paper you can attain the final thickness while also leaving the stock with a finished surface.

Fourth, you can finish figured woods with no tear out, which is nearly impossible on the planner.

Fifth, and this brings me to another feature of the Performax Pro in particular, is that you can thickness wide panels. The 22-44 in its name means you can sand panels as wide as 22” in single passes, or up to 44” in two passes. Note in the picture on the right that the panel hangs out the edge of the drum sander. Simply turn the panel around to sand the remaining portion.

This can be a little tricky on long and wide panels, for example, 30” wide and 72” long table tops. You must be careful to keep the piece moving and prevent it from drooping over the edge due to its weight. It helps to have a helper in such situations.

One of the things about a drum sander is that it is relatively safe. You might get pinched if you are not careful but it is very unlikely that you would lose a digit or suffer a significant cut. In fact, if you use your imagination you can use the drum sander to de-risk otherwise risky shop operations. For example, tapering table legs can be a risky operation, particularly on a table saw. But you can taper legs on a drum sander very safely.

In the picture above left I have rough cut tapers on four legs using the band saw in free hand style (this is not a necessary step but one that makes things go quicker). No need to be accurate, just be sure to leave the taper line. Stay an 1/8” away from it if you are not confident about your free hand cutting ability with a band saw; or skip this step all together and do it all on the drum sander.

The jig is simple; use either 3/4” plywood, or as I have here, a Formica covered piece of particle board. Using double sided sticky tape place two pieces of 3/4” wood in the direction perpendicular to travel through the drum sander. Space them for the correct taper by sliding one board closer to or further away from the other until the taper lines are parallel to the jig surface. Place the rough taper legs as I have in the photo with one piece keeping the legs from moving beyond the end of the jig and the other providing the correct taper. You may wish to tape the top ends of the legs together to keep them from slipping sideways. Start with 80 grit paper and finish with 220 grit paper and feed the legs through while monitoring the taper lines. See photo at right above.

The finished legs are shown at left; they are completed and require no final sanding. I have found this method to be not only safe, but the final product is more accurate than when cut on the table saw. In addition there are no burn marks from the saw blade which is particularly troublesome with cherry. Lastly, any significant grain direction change is no problem for the drum sander, but might be for even a hand plane. These legs were made for an Office Table which you can read more about by gong to http://www.srww.com/office_table.htm.

Glue ups can create wide panels and no matter how careful you are the individual boards do not align perfectly. I generally leave panel stock 1/16” to 1/8” thicker than finished width. After the glue is dried I scrape any excess squeeze out from the panel and then draw numerous parallel lines on each side with carpenter’s crayon. I sand one side keeping an eye on the disappearance of the crayon marks. As soon as they are completely gone I turn the panel over and bring the opposite side to parallel. With 220 grit I then bring the panel to final thickness. See the picture at right.

Two things you need to know about this tool: One, you must have dust collection connected and running at all the times when you are using the Performax; Two, feed the material at half speed, using 1/8 turn on depth adjustment for each pass and don’t let the material stop. I have ruined several pieces of cherry when I first used the Performax Pro until I understood these issues.

One last piece of advice. If you do buy a Performax, it comes with a drive belt that moves the material which is similar to a sandpaper belt. Optionally they sell a rubber surfaced belt. Buy it. It’s worth the extra cost. The grip is better and it doesn’t mar your surface.

As you can see, the Performax Pro 22-44 drum sander is an invaluable and frequently useable tool. Not only does it do a better job in many situations, but it is often more accurate and safer. Its snipe free operation can result in less material used. And it can handle wide boards and panels that the planner cannot. It is the only tool that can handle figured or difficult wood without any chance of tear out. Even my trusty hand planes cannot guarantee that. This machine has been a workhorse in my shop and it is rugged and reliable. I wouldn’t hesitate a second to buy another if I found it necessary to do so. But I have a feeling this one will last so long that buying another will never be an option.

Wood Expansion Calculator 1.0 is now available. The picture at left shows some of the major changes.

When using the Relative Humidity input option the temperature can be specified in either Fahrenheit or Celsius. The other temperature scale will be calculated and also displayed.

When choosing a Calculation Mode input boxes appear for receiving user specified dimension inputs. These can be supplied in either Imperial (US) or Metric units.

Metric dimensions require one, and only one, unit; either m, cm or mm. The following are the only valid inputs:

     i m
     i cm
     i mm
     d m
     d cm
     d mm

Where i is an integer whose first digit cannot be a zero. Where n is a decimal number and the first digit cannot be a zero unless the decimal point is immediately to its right. In fact, a decimal number less than 1 must begin with a zero such as 0.967 cm. Note the space between the dimension and its unit. This is required.

Imperial dimensions may require more than one unit, for example 3′ 7 1/64" is a valid input. The following are the only valid inputs:

     i"
     n/d"
     i n/d"
     f’
     f’ i"
     f’ n/d"
     f’ i n/d"

Where i, n, d, and f must be non-zero integers who’s leading digit also is not a zero, e.g. 0123 is invalid. Note, unlike the Metric units, there is no space between the dimension and its unit; in fact a space will create an illegal entry.

Consistent with supplying the alternate units results as was the case with temperature, the output will show results in both systems of measurement. The type supplied by the user will appear first and the alternate second. A sample results page can be seen at right.

A number of bugs were fixed in this release but do not materially change the functionality.

There are future changes planned for Revision 2.0 that include but are not limited to the following:

1. Provide the capability for users to supply their own Regions and corresponding EMC values.
2. Provide the capability for users to supply their own Species and corresponding shrinkage factors.
3. Provide memory so that user settings and inputs are restored when next the tool is opened.
4. Strengthen the help messages, especially for the dimension inputs, and add more help features.

If you have any suggestions please pass them along in a comment to this post (preferable because others can see them) or forward them in email.

Download Wood Expansion Calculator here.

Well, I have finally started crafting the trundle bed I wrote about in the Trundle Bed Design series. Many family and unrelated projects got in the way of this project for some time. But no more excuses. The show must go on.

I decided to begin with building the panels for the headboard and footboard. The headboard requires a panel 22 57/64” tall by 40 1/2” wide and two panels 8 3/4” tall by 40 1/2” wide. The footboard requires two panels 8 3/4” tall by 40 1/2” wide.

The final thickness of the panels is 5/8”, but I prepare my stock for 3/4” and bring it to final thickness on the drum sander after glue up has been completed. This will allow me to take out any slight mismatches in the glue up joints which are unavoidable. In addition the drum sander can bring the finish panel to precisely 5/8” with 220 grit paper. That way, after shaping the edges, I can immediately apply several coats of finish, which I always do before affixing panels in their frames (The headboard and footboard are essentially a frame and panel construction.). Subsequent shrinkage of the panels will not reveal unsightly voids of finish.

Preparing stock for glue up requires the standard jointer, planner, jointer and table saw sequence to face and edge the boards. But the final step for me is always preparing the edges by hand with a hand plane. This accomplishes several things. First it removes any oils on the edge that exist from handling or are naturally secreted by the wood. This is especially important if the time from wood preparation to glue up is hours or days. Second the edge is given a glass smooth surface void of machine marks and scratches. Third I get a better edge, i.e. perfectly straight and square.

All these add up to a better looking and stronger glue joint. One of the tests I use for a properly finished edge is that I can get  a continuous, very thin shaving, of equal width all the way to the end, and the length of the shaving is the full length of the board. Notice the shaving above right. A Lie-Nielsen smooth plane is the one I use for the final cuts. But I will start with a jointer plane if the edge is close to straight, or a block plane if I have to cut short local areas to correct for a bow for example.

When I have finished preparing the edges with a hand plane I immediately glue up. If I have a number of panels to do, as in this case where I have five panels, I’ll prepare all the stock on the power tools. But only the edges for one panel at a time is prepared on the hand plane so that the time from edge preparation to glue up is short, keeping the edges from getting soiled or dinged.

I have tested glued edge joints numerous times and always found that a properly prepared and executed  joint will always be stronger than the wood itself. How long a joint will last I will never know because I won’t live long enough to see its failure. But the accelerated life tests manufacturers perform indicate these joints will still be going strong hundreds of years from now (barring abuse such as prolonged exposure to water, high heat or direct sunlight).

One other idiosyncrasy I have is that I always leave joints clamped overnight. True, the manufacture says you can work the wood after only one hour of clamping provided there are no undue stresses placed on the joint. But I am not sure what an undue stress is. This is an analog world we live in. Stresses don’t magically become undue at 10 lbs of force but not 9.9 lbs. So I am conservative but feel much more secure this way.

After curing for an evening the panel is ready for final thicknessing. I do this on my Performax Pro 22-44 drum sander. To gauge when a side has been entirely sanded and flat I mark the panel with red carpenter’s crayon in wide horizontal lines. When the marks are completely gone I have succeeded in flattening the side. See the picture at right. I use 220 grit paper for this final step. I will sand it one more time just before applying finish with 320 grit and an oscillating rotary sander.

I am careful during glue up to put the good side of the panel up, i.e. away from the clamp’s bars. This allows me to clean the entire surface unimpeded by the bars of the the clamps. See picture above left. I clean the other side too, but the bars always obscure some glue. When dried the backside will have little glue hills which I level with a putty knife. Still, there is remaining glue to be removed. So the backside is the one I drum sand first. Then I turn it over, mark the good side and continue drum sanding until I reach final thickness.

On a panel this wide each pass actually requires two passes. As you can see in the picture above right, the panel is wider than my drum sander. The 22-44 in the name implies you can sand a 22” wide panel in one pass, or one as wide as 44” in two passes. One note of caution about drum sanders; you must not let the work piece stop while going through the drum sander. If you do the sander will sand a horizontal valley into your piece deep enough that you may not have enough thickness left to remove it.

Once the panel is thicknessed I use a hand plane to create a square and straight reference edge. I then use that edge in my large panel cutter to square the panel to finished length. This panel cutter has been a life saver and workhorse for me. If you don’t have one I strongly suggest you make one soon. With it I can cut large panels (wider than a kitchen cabinet end panel) perfectly square every time, and with ease. The panel shown is 24” wide and 40 1/2” long. This panel cutter uses both table saw slots, has a high fence to keep your hands away from the blade and has a block that completely covers the saw blade as the fence passes it.

When the panel is cut to size I wet it down with mineral spirits to inspect for any remaining glue spots. Hopefully there are none. This step also gives you an idea of what the panel will look like when finish is applied.

Of course, this being cherry, it will darken considerably with sunlight and age. Most of the darkening takes place in the first few months of exposure to strong light, but it continues for a long time. In the picture at right the wood came from two piles, one which had not been subjected to light and one which had (it was on top of the drying stack). These pieces will darken to the same color in a few weeks time.

However, you will notice some sapwood in this panel. Purists argue that you should remove all sapwood when crafting fine furniture. I respectfully disagree. I have always felt that nature does a better job of designing wood than we do. I like to expose all “imperfections” in the wood, including dark pitch pockets in cherry, or cats paw markings. I feel they add to the piece. I am sure that the Shakers didn’t throw out pieces with these imperfections, and if its good enough for the Shakers, it’s good enough for me.

One of the really neat features of SketchUp is that you can print drawings to scale. I printed out the headboard to full scale (1:1). It took about 23 sheets of 8 1/2” by 11” paper, though most of them were blank and I put them right back in the paper stack. I taped one side of the swan neck together and then encapsulated it with self sticking clear plastic and made a template, which I then traced on the panel. Only one side is needed for a template because the curves are mirror images and you can flip the template.

After rough cutting the swan neck curves, I used my Delta BOSS with course paper to sand away the machine marks left by the jig saw. I usually use my band saw to cut shapes like this, but a 1 1/4” re-saw blade was mounted on it and I didn’t want to take the time to change to a smaller blade. The BOSS oscillating sander does a good job, however, in the end I had to finish the job with lots of hand sanding.

This panel is rather large for the BOSS table so I used adjustable roller supports to carry most of the weight while still making it possible to easily manipulate the panel. Note that the circle in the top middle of the panel is not cut out at this point. If I would have cut it out at this point, the shaper, which will be used to shape the edges, would likely destroy the delicate points that are formed by the circle (see the first picture).

The next task was to shape the edges. During design of the bed I chose to do this on a shaper because I could get a cutter that would form a wider shape than possible on the router. But the cutter has a rather large 5 1/2” outer diameter. Plus the shape of the swan neck is such that I had to expose most of the cutter to be able to manipulate the panel during shaping. This makes for a somewhat risky and dangerous cut. In situations like this I am always super alert, especially during the start of a cut when the shaper can grab the piece and throw it, or throw sharp pieces at you. Also, I am conscience of where my hands are at all times.

Finally I cut the circle with the jig saw and repeat the BOSS and hand sanding process. When cutting pieces like this where the panel has to hang over the edge of the table, I make the cut in sections, and support the cut-off by clamping it to the panel. That way it will not unexpectedly fall an split a piece out ruining the panel. These little extra steps can save a lot of work and material and pay for themselves many times over.

When the panel is completed I wet it down with mineral spirits again. This time I am looking for scratches or dings. This sometimes happens due to the hard surface of the shaper and BOSS tables. If I find a mark I remove it now. If I were to skip this step the imperfection would surely show up after finish is applied and would be much more difficult to repair at that point.

This concludes Part 1 of Trundle Bed Crafting. In Part 2 I will make the swan neck frames the will encapsulate the panel. Stay tuned.

I have written a number of blog posts dealing with techniques for handling the seasonal change of wood movement and I am sure to write some more in the future. If you have crafted much in the way of furniture, or other pieces constructed from rough wood, you know you have to take wood movement into account in design. Failing to do so will ensure cracks and structural failure. If you do not believe this let me point you to two very good articles outlining the problems and solutions. First, an article that appeared in American Woodworker, 1993 issue number 34. The title is Coping With Wood Movement – How to Build Furniture That Won’t Crack or Split, pages 38 – 43 and written by Jim Cummins. If you don’t have this issue you can find it on the internet by clicking here.

The second article is titled The Shrinking and Swelling of Wood and Its Effect on Furniture by Carl A. Eckelman. I will make this and other references available via Adobe PDF download at the end of this blog. Both of these articles outline specific construction situations, the effects of moisture and resulting wood movement on them, and techniques to avoid the problems that can arise. In both articles the author points out the importance of knowing how much movement to expect and that is the focus of this post.

Wood Movement – The Basics

Let’s start with a short explanation of why wood moves. (For a comprehensive coverage of this topic I have listed a number of articles and books at the end of this post.) When wood is alive and green it is made up of soda straw like vessels that tend to run end to end along the length of the tree. These vessels are made up of thin walls consisting of specialized cells. (See the scanning electron microscope photo of Poplar at left.) Both the vessels themselves and the cells that form their walls contain water. When the tree is cut and sawn the vessels begin to lose water and continue to do so until all the water is out of the vessels. At that point the cells that make up the walls still contain moisture. This point is called the Fiber Saturation Point or FSP. It is the point where the tree has given up all its “free water” but the cells are still saturated with “bound water”. This point is very similar in most trees and represents a point at which the tree (lumber at this point) still has a moisture content of approximately 30%. (Moisture content is the ratio of water weight contained in the specimen to its oven dry weight, i.e. no water weight. Many trees, when live, have moisture contents greater than 100% which means that water accounts for more the half its live weight.)

The drying process from green moisture content to FSP, while making the lumber less dense or heavy, does not cause any shrinkage and in fact the lumber is still in its weakest state when it reaches FSP. As the tree (lumber) continues to dry from FSP to 0% (called oven dry) it gives up bound water from the cells, shrinks and becomes stronger. The shrinkage is quite linear from FSP to oven dry and the total shrinkage, expressed as a percentage, can be measured in three dimensions: radially, tangentially and longitudinally. Longitudinal shrinkage, which occurs along the length of the lumber in the direction of the grain, is very minimal and is generally neglected.

Tangential shrinkage occurs along a line tangential to the tree’s growth rings and radial shrinkage occurs along a radial from the center of the tree. These two factors are called tangential shrinkage factor (expressed in percent) and radial shrinkage factor and can be related to two common types of lumber: flatsawn and quartersawn respectively. Tangential shrinkage is usually about twice as large as radial shrinkage but they each vary widely from species to species. In real life no lumber is cut exactly quartersawn or exactly flatsawn (also called plain sawn). As a craftsman you have to make a judgment call. If in doubt you might want to consider treating your lumber as flatsawn because that would be worse case.

OK, so we know that wood shrinks as it loses water from FSP to oven dry. But the reverse is also true; it expands as it takes on moisture from oven dry to FSP. So what makes wood give up and take on moisture? Its environment. Relative humidity and temperature, and both change throughout the year, usually from dry air in the winter to moist air in the summer. If lumber sits long enough in a given environment it will reach equilibrium with that environment. Suppose for instance that the average temperature and relative humidity have been 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 70% relative humidity for the past two months. It is likely that lumber stored in this environment will come to equilibrium at a moisture content of 12.9%. Clearly higher than one would like if one intended to build a piece that would reside in Arizona. This is why we bring lumber into our shop and let it sit for a few weeks; to let it reach equilibrium.

Most homes do not have humidity controlled environments and are subject to seasonal moisture changes. There have been a number of studies that have measured the outdoor monthly averages over the course of many years. Through the use of computer models, these studies produced maps and tables of indoor seasonal ranges by region of the country. The Department of Wood & Paper Science at North Carolina State University produced such maps in 2003 which you will find by clicking here. These values are called Equilibrium Moisture Content or EMC and represent the moisture environment a piece of furniture would be exposed to, on average, for each month and by region.

Wood Expansion Calculator

This brings me to the real topic of this post – a SketchUp Plugin tool called Wood Expansion Calculator. I created Wood Expansion Calculator to estimate just how much expansion and shrinkage you might expect in a given structural situation. I developed this tool because I have for years used a stand alone application called Wood Movement Master by Kite Hill Software which does precisely this. You have probably read some of my articles where I used this tool. Unfortunately, it is no longer available or supported by Kite Hill Software or its developer. I decided to pick up the gauntlet and provide the same capability in a SketchUp tool. So here it is: Wood Expansion Calculator ZIP File.

One note of caution. In my professional life (I am now retired) I was an electrical engineer and engineering executive. I started my career when CAD tools were nonexistent and you had to figure things out with paper, pencil and a slide rule. The advantage of this was that you developed a close feel for what you were designing. You knew the expected behavior intimately. Years later, when I was an engineering manager and CAD tools were ubiquitous, it drove me nuts to see a young engineer model a circuit, run the tool and take the results as Gospel. He/she had no feel for, or personal intimacy of the expected results. Don’t use this tool that way. It is meant to give you a quick, efficient, and yes accurate result so long as the input and assumptions are correct. If, for example, the temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit today at 90 percent relative humidity, and expected to be 30 degrees Fahrenheit and 10% relative humidity tomorrow, don’t expect wood stored in this environment to respond to that change no matter what this tool might indicate. Moisture takes time to enter or leave a specimen; that’s what equilibrium accounts for. So use judgment as well as the tool.

The tool itself is quite simple to use, and has Help notes for each input. To install the tool use WinZip to extract the one Ruby file and one folder to the SketchUp Plugins folder on your system. When you open SketchUp you can access the tool via Tools/Wood Expansion Calculator or go to View/Toolbars and check Calculators for a toolbar and icon (a tree). What you need to know to use this tools is the stocks current moisture content (best to use a moisture meter to measure this), the region of the country where you expect the final furniture piece to reside, the wood species, the stock type (flatsawn or quartersawn) and the construction situation you want to analyze (board centric, opening centric or breadboard end).

If you don’t know the stocks current moisture content you can use a Relative Humidity and Temperature mode to calculate it. But be careful. Consistent with two paragraphs ago be sure to use average temperature and average relative humidity of the environment the wood has resided in for a period of time long enough to reach equilibrium. Do not use seasonal or daily maximums. The wood’s moisture content will not respond to fast or temporary changes.

One other note; board centric, opening centric and breadboard end are not a specific construction method but a representative method. For example, opening centric includes drawer fronts that fit flush in an opening, but could also mean a panel that is framed to make a door. Breadboard end could represent any cross grain situation such as a mortise and tenon. Don’t let the labels limit your use of the tool. Understand what is being analyzed.

This tool currently works only with Imperial or US measurements.

For example 3′ 7 1/64" is a valid input. More precisely, the following are the only valid inputs:
i"
n/d"
i n/d"
f’
f’ i"
f’ n/d"
f’ i n/d"
where i, n, d, and f must be non-zero integers who’s leading
digit also is not a zero, e.g. 0123 is invalid.

In the future I will expand it to accept metric measurements. The region table is the contiguous US only. In the future I hope to get data for other regions of the world. But you can still use this data by selecting regions that you know are close to environmental conditions in your area. Also, in the future are plans to let the user build their own environmental tables or to add their regions to the existing table. Lastly, I plan to add persistence to the tool so that it remembers the last set of conditions analyzed and uses them as the starting point when the tool opens.

Please report all bugs directly to me, and include the conditions that resulted in the bug. Thank you in advance, and I hope this tool serves you as much as Wood Movement Master has served me in the past.

Related Reading

Centennial edition of the Wood handbook : Wood as an Engineering Material. This is an excellent reference book. You can download individual chapters in PDF format. Chapter 04: Moisture Relations and Physical Properties of Wood is particularly pertinent to this blog post.

Understanding Wood – A craftsman’s Guide To Wood Technology by R. Bruce Hoadley is a book that ought to be on the bookshelf of any serious woodworker. Chapter 6: Water & Wood is particularly appropriate to this subject, but the entire book is directed at the woodworker.

The Shrinking and Swelling of Wood and Its Effect on Furniture by Carl A. Eckelman was mentioned at the beginning of this post. It is an excellent article on designing for wood movement.

Download Wood Expansion Calculator Here

Depending on how you use SketchUp you may find these tools helpful. I tend to use a lot of layers and scenes in my models; especially when it comes to dimensioning them. For example, I typically use one scene per dimensioning view and add those dimensions and components to a matching layer. If you add layers via the + icon in the Window/Layers dialog box a new layer is added but visible to all existing and new scenes. This required going back to old scenes and making the new layer invisible. If the number of scenes is large this is a time consuming task.

Many moons ago I discovered add_hidden_layer.rb coded by Jim Foltz. It allowed me to add a layer hidden to all current and future scenes. It was a life savior, but still had a few minor problems; there was no tool icon and I really wanted to add a layer visible to the current scene but hidden in all others.

Another little annoyance is that SketchUp provided no tool to make all layers visible or all invisible, both of which I found I could use frequently. That was when I discovered layers_show_hide_all.rb coded by Madcello. It was perfect except it also had no tool icons.

To make my life easier, I combined these tools into one Ruby script adding the tool icons and the visible layer for the current scene functionality. The new Ruby script is called layers.rb.

To Install: Download the layers.zip file. Extract all contents to the SketchUp plugins folder. When completed be sure to check that a layers folder (containing eight icons) and the layers.rb script reside in the SketchUp Plugins folder. If you previously used either add_hidden_layer.rb or layers_show_hide_all.rb, be sure to remove them from the plugins folder. I hope this script improves your efficiency a little. Please report all bugs and strange behavior to jpz@srww.com.

Description of layers.rb

Menu Items:

• View/Add Visible Layer
• View/Add Invisible Layer
• View/Show All Layers
• View/Hide All Layers

Toolbar: Layer Tools – Includes four large and small icons. It is available under View/Toolbars.

Context-Menu: None

Description:

Add Visible Layer adds a visible layer to the current scene, but invisible to all existing and new scenes.
           

Add Invisible Layer adds an invisible layer to all existing and new scenes.
      

Show All Layers makes all layers visible.
              

Hide All Layers makes all layers invisible.

One of my readers sent me a note one day and asked if I had tried 3Dconnexion’s SpaceNavigator. He sang enough praises that I decided to give it a try. Now there are at least two of us singing its praises.

The SpaceNavigator is essentially a joy stick similar to what you may find in the cockpit of a fighter plane. However, instead of three degrees-of-freedom (pitch, roll & yaw), it has six degrees-of-freedom interfaced to six sensors. In essence it allows you to zoom in or out, pan right or left, pan up or down, spin, tilt and roll. Of course, in practice, all six of these are combined to provide fluid and smooth control of your 3D workspace. The really nice part of the SpaceNavigator is that it allows you to do this with your free hand (left if you are right handed and right if you are left handed), while still maintaining complete use of the mouse.

For those of you who do not care to read the details of my review, I will summarize it up front, including a test drive video. However, I encourage you to read the entire review, especially if you find the SpaceNavigator interesting.

Summary

After a few hours trying to understand this device and a few more practicing with it, I have come to the conclusion that it is a must for improving the efficiency of drawing. It gives me an additional, much needed, hand and more control over my model as I draw. As mentioned, the SpaceNavigator is much smoother than the mouse, comfortable in your hand and has a very natural control feel. It does have a learning curve that you need to get through but the effort spent is well worth it. The price is quite reasonable and the quality seems superb. I give this the old Siskel & Ebert two thumbs up. And, oh yeah, I can get rid of that old hard drive I have been keeping on my desk as a paper weight; this device is heavy.

I do have a few complaints and some wishes. The menu is a little clumsy. For example, Center of Rotation is grayed out unless other tools are deselected, forcing you to use the menu and toolbar to do what should require only the toolbar. The Help button on the toolbar is a waste since you only need it while learning the device. The Disable Rolling tool has questionable value in my opinion; I would get rid of its toolbar icon too. That frees up two icons which could be replaced with Auto Center of Rotation and Center of Rotation on Selection buttons. I would change the behavior of the three rotation tools such that whichever is selective is active and the other two are not.

Lastly, to quote MLK, “I have a dream”. Devices such as the SpaceNavigator, which have SketchUp specific drivers (or SketchUp specific modules within a driver), ought to expose all device hooks to the SketchUp Ruby API. This would allow users to: select which configuration of degrees-of-freedom they wish to use for different uses via a toolbar icon; adjust the speed either discretely or dynamically; customize the toolbar; and put the menu under any top menu they desire. I suspect this is easy to do from and engineering standpoint and it would motivate the SketchUp Ruby community to write all sorts of enhancements for this device.

But, as I said, . I really like this device!

A Video Tour Of A Hutch

I have a model I used for this purpose. It’s a Six Pane Oak Hutch which you can download for practice if you like. In this video I have the SpaceNavigator set up to simulate Orbit, Pan & Zoom tools – all in one left hand operated mouse. My right hand mouse is free for other purposes such as selecting and using the Center of Rotation tool (this requires that Auto Center of Rotation and Center of Rotation on Selection be de-selected). The feel of the SpaceNavigator is comfortable and natural. I strive to make deliberate and gentle movements. Click on the video to see how I do.

My Review In Detail

Let’s start at the beginning. When the SpaceNavigator arrived and I opened the package, I had three first impressions (there’s an oxymoron there somewhere). First, it was well packaged, encased tightly in a plastic container which in turn held it tightly in its box. Second, it is heavy and well built. And third, the fit and finish are high quality. It is designed to stay in place on your work surface. The SpaceNavigator is small, which takes up little of your precious workspace.

The SpaceNavigator comes with a self-starting CD which includes the necessary software and documentation. However, I recommend that instead of using the CD in the package you download the most recent driver from 3DConnexion. It’s likely that the driver on your CD is not the most recent and doing this will save you an unnecessary install. The driver is about 70 MB, so download may take a while if you don’t have broadband service.

Plug the SpaceNavigator’s USB connector in. After downloading the driver to a folder of your choice, click on the self extracting file and follow the instructions. You will be shown a quick video tour  to familiarize you with SpaceNavigator’s controls. Spend some time with the video, but in the end, only using SpaceNavigator will teach you its capabilities.

An 3Dconnexion Control Panel icon will likely be placed on your desktop or in your system tray or task bar.  Open it. If no other application is open the drop down box at the top will indicate “Any Application”. Now open SketchUp and the drop down box indicates SketchUp, meaning that the driver and plugins exist to interface the SpaceNavigator to SketchUp. Any changes you make in the configuration can be saved as SketchUp specific.

The Control Panel has four tabs. Select each one, one at a time and familiarize yourself with them. There is a Help file under the Help menu to explain the controls. On the Device Configuration tab you can choose the degree-of-freedom motion you assign to  Zoom In/Out from a choice of two degrees-of-freedom. Pan Up/Down will be assigned the other. You can also set the overall speed (sensitivity) of the device. I suggest you slow the speed down if you are a new user.

On the App Configuration tab you can restrict the SpaceNavigator to just Tilt, Spin and Roll by deselecting the Pan/Zoom check box, or alternatively, restrict it to Pan and Zoom by deselecting the Tilt/Spin/Roll check box. You can not deselect (uncheck) both at the same time but you can enable both, and that is the default case.

Checking the Dominant check box will restrict movement to one degree-of-freedom at a time, the one that the user inputs the most pressure. This may be helpful to the novice. The default case is unchecked.

The Reverse All Axes button reverses the behavior for each degree-of-freedom. However, this is probably better controlled on an individual basis in the Advanced Tab.

The SpaceNavigator has two buttons on the side which can be assigned to any number of commands including custom macros. This is done in the Button Configuration tab. I have assigned my left button to “Zoom Extents” and my right button to open the 3Dconnexion Control Panel. The left button “Zoom Extents” is very useful, especially for beginners who often lose their model off screen.

The advanced tab allows you to individually configure each degree-of-freedom. The choices are active-or-not via check boxes, speed and reversed-or-not via check boxes. You will spend a lot of time in this tab, configuring and re-configuring the active degrees-of-freedom, which is why I assigned the right button to it.

The SpaceNavigator also places a sub-menu on the Plugins menu called 3DxSketchUp. See picture below left. Under it are Auto Center of Rotation, Center of Rotation on Selection, Camera Mode, Center of Rotation, Disable Rolling, Toggle Toolbar and Help. Right off the bat I am going to suggest that woodworkers ignore Camera Mode and always leave it unchecked. I’ll explain in a moment. Check Toggle Toolbar to make the SpaceNavigator toolbar is visible. This is a redundant command in that it is the same as checking 3DxSketchUp under the View/Toolbars menu.

The SpaceNavigator operates in two modes: Camera mode when selected via the toolbar or 3DxSketchUp menu, or Object mode when not in Camera mode. In Camera mode the viewing scene will respond to what the camera sees as it zooms, pans, tilts, rotates or rolls. In other words it is like holding a camera, looking through the view finder, and moving the camera or zooming the lens. This mode is not very useful to the furniture designer. If you are an architect or landscaper it is very useful. I recommend leaving Camera mode deselected and operating in Object mode.

In Object mode, the model responds to the SpaceNavigator input and the Camera remains fixed. In other words we tilt, spin, roll, or otherwise move the object and what we see in the view is what the Camera would see. For example, imagine what a camera sees when mounted on a tripod and focused on a person dancing while move closer or away from the camera. This is how a furniture designer would naturally manipulate a model.

When in Object mode there are three choices for how the model responds to spin, tilt and roll: Auto Center of Rotation, Center of Rotation on Selection or Center of Rotation.

In Auto Center of Rotation mode the SpaceNavigator driver (software) analyzes the point-of-interest on the model and chooses the optimal center of rotation around which spin, roll or tilt will then occur. If you change the scene by zooming in or out, or change the viewing angle, the point-of-interest will change and hence the point of rotation. So each use of the SpaceNavigator could operate from a different point of rotation allowing for relatively easy loss of control if you are not an experienced user.

Center of Rotation on Selection allows you more control. What you do in this mode is select an object(s), group(s), or component(s) and the driver will find its center of volume to determine a point of rotation. When you deselect the object(s), group(s), or component(s) the point of rotation reverts to the center of volume of the entire model.

Center of Rotation allows the most control. This option will be grayed out on both the toolbar and the menu if either Auto Center of Rotation or Center of Rotation on Selection is chosen. Choosing Center of Rotation produces a magenta dot or X as you hover over the model. Click to choose a single point of rotation. This will essentially pin the selected model’s 3D point to a 2D display point of rotation and will ensure you don’t lose the model off screen – unless you pan it off. Center of Rotation is a good place for beginners to start.

Disable Rolling is a function that is a little difficult to understand. Being an engineer I needed to characterize this function to get a full understanding though not necessarily a full appreciation for it. Selecting it allows the driver to add intelligence to the SpaceNavigator control, presumably by throttling its sensitivity to certain degrees-of-freedom as the view changes.

To understand it I created a simple SketchUp model; a cube aligned with the axis and with one corner at the origin. I colored each side the color of the axis normal to it i.e. red, green and blue. Under the Advanced Settings tab in the Control Panel I chose Tilt, Spin and Roll one at a time with all Pan and Zoom check boxes de-selected. With Parallel Projection selected and for each selection of Tilt, Spin and Roll I chose Front view and observed how the SpaceNavigator responded. Next I chose the Side view and did the same. Next Top view and finally ISO view. I recorded my finding and then repeated the whole process with Disable Rolling enabled. Here are the results.

Let me define my nomenclature. R, G and B indicate the axis of rotation. H indicates a horizontal line across the 2D display as the axis if rotation. O indicates the origin as the point of rotation. And N indicates an axis normal to the screen as the axis of rotation. R(H) for example means the axis of rotation was the red axis which also happened to be the horizontal line in the 2D display. ISO was a view achieved by first selecting front and then ISO. Note this is different from say, Back and then ISO. So be aware I didn’t characterize all views necessarily.

Notice that Tilt always occurred around the horizontal axis no matter the view. Spin on the other hand occurred around the vertical axis in all views but ISO. In ISO view the blue axis started out vertical, but as I began the Spin the axis tilted about 30 degrees and then rotation was about the origin and vertical axis. This indicates something about how the engineers implemented the code but I am not sure of the intension yet.

Roll occurred in the axis normal to the screen in all cases. In the ISO case none of the major axes were normal to the screen and the point of rotation was the origin.

Notice the only “odd” behavior is the Spin condition in the ISO view, where the driver tilted the blue axis.

Next I checked Disable Rolling in the 3DxSketchUp menu (or on the toolbar) and repeated everything obtaining the following results.

There are four noticeable changes here. In the Spin/Top case Disable Rolling disables spinning around the green vertical axis. In the Roll/ISO case Disable Rolling switches to rolling around the blue vertical axis versus the normal origin axes. In both the Roll/Front and Roll/Side case rolling was disabled.

To understand a possible intention on the designer’s part with the Disable Rolling function you need to realize that in normal situations all six degrees-of-freedom are enabled and the view is likely to be an analog combination of Front, Side and Top. So as you operate the SpaceNavigator what you are doing is smoothly changing from each of these boxes to another. I believe the designers, in an effort to favor movement in the horizontal and vertical axes and the front and side views (which is our normal viewing range), desensitized roll or spin around the blue axis with this function. This is just a guess on my part.

After many months of using SketchUp, I have become accustomed to the Orbit and Zoom tools in SketchUp for manipulating a model. It does a very good job, though a little choppy, especially when creating videos. The wheel on my mouse is the Zoom function and the mouse itself is the Orbit function. The only problem is that the mouse is tied up manipulating the model and not available for tools at the same time. This means I need to switch tools frequently to both draw and manipulate the model.

Recognizing that the Orbit function is a combination of rotation around the horizontal and vertical screen axis, I can recreate this with the SpaceNavigator. I can also include Zoom, Pan Right/Left and Pan Up/Down, all in the same control. To do this I select all degrees-of-freedom and uncheck Disable Rolling. It helps to use Center of Rotation and pin the point of rotation near the center of your model. Now the mouse is free for other tools such as drawing. If you wish to create a video you have very smooth control of the model, and no cursor need be in the video.

As you are learning to manipulate the model with the SpaceNavigator set the speed to a slower position. Move the point of rotation frequently; keep it set to the point of interest in your view, using the Center of Rotation tool on the 3DxSketchUP toolbar.

You will discover there are a lot of combinations of settings on the Advanced Settings tab that are useful under various conditions. For example, when dimensioning a model it is often useful to zoom in very close to end points or intersections in order to ensure selecting the correct inference point. When doing this the model is so large that most of it is off screen. You can limit the SpaceNavigator to just a left/right pan degree-of-freedom (no zoom, tilt, roll or spin) and quickly find endpoints in image extremes without losing control of the model. This saves several tool selections when only using the mouse.

I will post a review of the SpacePilot PRO, SpaceNavigator’s biggest brother, in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

One of the most frequent requests I get is for a drawing set of the Shaker Tall Clock I crafted for my son to give his wife on their twelfth anniversary. I originally drew the model and plans in TurboCAD and printed drawings for anyone who wanted them. Later, I exported the model from TurboCAD to a .dxf file and imported the file into SketchUp. A lot was lost in the translation. Up to now that is all I had to supply anyone wanting to craft this clock. I recently looked at the translated files in detail and was embarrassed by the incompleteness.

Fortunately, I have completely updated the documentation, inserted missing information and cleaned up the model. You can download the new documentation from my Free Plans page. There you will find a complete SketchUp model with dimensions, a CutList Plus cut list file, an Excel cut list file, a .csv cut list file and a PDF file including both shop drawings and cut list. If you want a LayOut 2 file click here. You should have no problems crafting this clock if you so desire.

This  Shaker Tall Clock was inspired by a clock designed and built by Benjamin Youngs, Sr., circa 1809, of the Watervliet, New York Shaker Village. The original is held in a private collection. A photograph of the original can be seen in The Complete Book of Shaker Furniture by Timothy D. Rieman and Jean M. Burks, page 163.

Slightly larger than the original (81" H x 20" W x 9 7/8" D) this piece measures 85" H x 21 5/8" W x 12 5/16" D and is constructed from solid cherry hardwood.

Other changes from the original are the simple footed base, an arched waist door to complement the  arched hood and  arched side windows in the hood. The piece has been finished with 3 coats of hand rubbed Waterlox Original Tung Oil.

The hardware is polished brass consisting of drop pulls, one small pull for the hood door and a larger one for the waist door, a set of overlay hinges for the waist door, and a special pair of hinges designed specifically for tall clock hood doors which allow the door to clear the deep arched inset. The 8-day Kieninger clock movement is cable wound and weight driven with a top mounted bell that strikes on the hour and half hour. It was purchased from Green Lake Clock Company.

Although the design is traditional and simple keeping with the Shaker influence, the construction, on the other hand, is not. This piece is constructed using hand cut dovetails and mortise & tenon  joinery which will last for hundreds of years to come. To see the various stages of construction, details of joinery and explanation of technique, click here.

In this post we will complete the template we started in Creating A Custom Shop Drawing Template With LayOut 2 – Part 1 of 2. If you haven’t read that post please do so before reading any further. Hopefully you saved your .layout file from part 1, but if you didn’t you can download mine and pick up from there. When we left off our template looked as the picture at left. Everything we had drawn resides on layer Logo & Outline which is visible on all pages and locked to protect it from changes.

Now we are going to create a Date Box layer. This layer will contain the date the drawing set was completed and my website and blog addresses. It also will appear on every page. Add this layer by clicking on the + symbol in the Layers dialog box. Layer 3 appears and is selected. Notice it is unlocked and has one sheet of paper in the Pages icon. Click the Pages icon to change it to four sheets of paper (appears on all pages). Make sure the Visible eye icon is dark (not grayed out). Do not lock it at this time. We want to make changes to it which we can do now since it is selected (active). Rename this layer to Date Box by right clicking on the layer name and choose Rename. Leave this layer selected before going any further.

Remember we have a tall and narrow box that is 6 1/4” by 1/4” through which the grid is visible on the left side of the sheet. We want to place the contents of the Date Box in that tall and narrow box. First we have to create the contents by following these steps carefully:

1. In the Text Style dialog box click on the Align Center and Anchor Center icons in the Format tab. For Family, Typeface and Size choose Verdana, Regular and 8 pt.
2. Using the “Text” tool, and with the aid of the grid, click-drag-release a text box with the dimensions 6 1/4” by 1/4”, however, create the box such that the long dimension is in the horizontal direction. Before doing anything else with your mouse, notice the blinking cursor in the box.
3. Type the line of text immediately following this numerical list of instructions into the text box. Do not cut and paste this line of text unless you first paste it into Notepad and re-copy it to remove formatting. You will have to re-choose Align Center and Anchor Center if you do this.
4. Between .com and Blog insert 9 more spaces. Between /blog and Date insert 9 more spaces. This spreads things out using the entire box.
5. Go to the Window/Shape Style menu to open the dialog box. With the text box still selected click on the Fill button in the upper left hand corner of the Shape Style dialog box. The text box should now have a white background (assuming you didn’t change the color in the Fill color box next to the Fill button). Close the Shape Style box.
6. With the “Select” tool deselect and reselect the text box. Hover the cursor over the center of the test box just over the blue dot until you get a rotate cursor as shown in the picture below.
7. Rotate right by click-dragging the cursor approximately 90 degrees. Notice the measurement box at the bottom reads Angle and approximately minus 90 degrees. Release the cursor and type –90 into the Measurements box. The text box now runs vertically in the long axis.
8. Hover over a corner of the selected text box until a curser with four opposing arrows appears and click-drag-release the text box into position. With the “Select” tool deselect the text box.
9. Lock the Date Box layer by clicking on the Lock icon next to the layer’s name.

Website: http://www.srww.com Blog: http://www.srww.com/blog Date: MM/DD/YYYY

Our template should now look like the picture at right. Notice that the Default layer is now selected and that you cannot change the Date Box text. The only layers that can be selected are unlocked layers. Since the Default layer is the only unlocked layer it is selected.

We are now going to customize the Cover Page. The cover page is the page that comes first in a shop drawing set. It informs the reader of the customer or client’s name, the project’s name, the customer or client’s address and provides a short project description. Of course this is all a matter of personal choice, but for the purpose of this tutorial, that is what we will use as the definition of the cover page.

Before creating the content of the cover page we need to create a Cover Page layer. Click the + sign in the Layers dialog box and change the name of the layer to Cover Page by right clicking Layer 4 and choosing Rename. Type Cover Page and enter or just bring your cursor to the drawing area. This time leave the Pages icon set to a single page since what we will include on the Cover Page layer will exist only on one page.

We need four text boxes to be placed in the lower right hand corner box that is now blank. They will be roughly the same size so we start in the upper left hand corner and with the “Text” tool click-drag- release a text box roughly one quarter the size of the open area. Type the following into the text box:

Prepared For:
First-name Last-Name

Using the Text Style dialog box select the first line of text and format it to: Family, Typeface and Size choose Verdana, Regular and 8 pt respectively. Select the second line of text and format it to: Family, Typeface and Size choose Verdana, Italic and 10 pt respectively. This will make the client’s name stand out a little. Your template should look like that at left.

We can use the same process to create three more text boxes or use the copy/paste method. If you use the copy/paste method be aware that you may paste the text box exactly on top of the one you copied. That is not a problem; just use the “Select” tool and the opposing four arrow move cursor to move the pasted text box into position. Either type into the text box, or change the text if you used the copy/paste method, such that it looks like that at right. Notice the Prepared For: and Project: text boxes make use of larger italic 10 pt text. The remaining two boxes use regular 8 pt text.

Notice that the small red arrow is trying to tell us that one or more of the text boxes runs off the page. The Client Address: is the culprit in this case. I used the copy/paste method to place the text boxes so they are all the same size. Each can be customized based on its needs. Since the Prepared For: text box is never likely to use more than one line I can shorten its height and give that height to the Client Address: text box. The same is true for Project: and Project Description: In addition, Project description may need more width. We make these changes using the “Select” tool and the appropriate cursor to change the size of each box. Try to keep vertical and horizontal alignment of the starting point of each box. To keep the white area of the text boxes from covering part of the Logo & Outline lines you may need to turn off Grid Snap under the Arrange menu. This will allow analog placement of text box edges giving you more control. Turn it back on afterword. Having made these changes the Cover Page information should look like that at left.

Lock the Cover Page layer. In the Pages dialog box Page 1 is selected (it is the only page available at this point). Right click on it and choose Rename. Change the name to Cover Page. We now have a cover page template, but we also need and every page template for all the drawings that will go into the drawing set. In the Pages dialog box click the + sign to add a page. It will be named Page 2 by default. We are going to change this name to Inside Page the same way we renamed Page 1 to Cover Page. With that done and Inside Page selected, in the Layers dialog box make the Cover Page invisible by clicking on the eye icon to gray it out (it is not visible anyway because we created it on the Cover Page and made it appear only on that page with the single paper icon selection, but this is a good habit anyway).

In the Layers dialog box add a layer and call it Inside Page. Make it appear on all pages with the four page icon. Inside Page should now be selected in both the Pages dialog box and the Layers dialog box. Add one text box to the upper left hand corner of the open text area in the lower right. Insert the text:

Drawn By:
Drafter’s Name

Format the first line with Veranda Regular 8 pt text and the second line with Verdana Italic 10 pt text. Like before make this text box a little shorter and less tall to make room for other information. Again you may have to turn off Grid Snap under the Arrange menu. Turn it back on when you are done. Lock the Inside Page layer. Now the Default layer is selected as is the Inside Page in the Pages dialog box. What we just did held the assumption that the same person, Drafter’s Name, would draw the entire SketchUp model and create the shop drawings. With that assumption we fixed that information in the Inside Page layer and locked it.

To finish our template all we need it drawing title, drawing description and page number text boxes that will change on a page-by-page basis. This information we will put on the Default layer and we will leave it unlocked.

Create and place these text boxes using the same techniques as before and the following text:

Drawing Title:
Front View – Overall Dimensions

Description:

P2

Note that the Drawing Title: is pretty specific. That is simply because my custom is to have a front view with overall dimensions as the first page after the cover page (page 2) in all my shop drawing sets. Description: is a place holder; it could be Scale:, or Note: or anything else the drafter desires. Since the Default layer remains unlocked it is changeable at any time. As mentioned, the first page inside the cover page is always P2 in my convention. It too can be changed at any time.

There is one last little detail before we can save this file as a template. We added and Inside Page layer and made it appear on all pages, but actually we want it to appear on all pages but the Cover Page. In the Pages dialog box select the Cover Page and make Inside Page layer invisible by graying out the eye icon. Before saving this file let’s be sure everything looks correct. In the picture at the upper right is the completed Cover Page template. Checkout the dialog boxes on the right for content to be sure your setting are the same. Do the same for the completed Inside Page template shown in the upper left picture.

If you are satisfied go to the File/Save As Template menu to open the Save As Template dialog box. In the Template Name box give the template a useful name, e.g. SRWW Letter Landscape. This tells me it is a Swamp Road Wood Works template for 8 1/2” x 11 paper in landscape orientation. If you wish this to be the default template when you open a new file select Default Templates under Template Folder (although there is one more step to make it the default template). To make this the default template, go to File/New From Template to open the Getting Started dialog box. Select your template from the list and check the Always use Selected Template check box. Click Open. A new untitled file is opened and ready to go.

If you had trouble along the way you can download my template file and peruse it to see what I did. This post completes Creating A Custom Shop Drawing Template With LayOut 2. However, stay tuned for Creating Shop Drawings With LayOut 2, which will explain how to use this template with a SketchUp model to create a shop drawing set.