Thu 16 Dec, 2010
Beginner’s SketchUp Tutorial, The Video Version–Part 5
Click Here To Comment/Comments (5) Filed under: SketchUpTags: Design, SketchUp, Software, Table, Tutorial, Video
OK, by now you have seen, and hopefully read, the Six Rules for 3D Modeling in SketchUp at least three times. If not, you might want to review them before proceeding with this tutorial.
Preparing to View the Video
A completed SketchUp model of the Bedside Table can be downloaded from my website srww.com. Select the Free Plans menu button, scroll down to Tables and locate Bedside Table from the list. It is available both in native SketchUp file format (.skp) and as a PDF file (.pdf). Before you view the video take time to familiarize yourself with its design and dimensions. For this Fifth part we are especially interested in the Drawer Trim, and Drawer Pull. You may want to print out the Trim and Pull scene(s) for reference.
Downloading the Video to Your Computer
Sometimes the performance of your internet connection, the load on it at a particular time of day, and the length of these video tutorials can all conspire to provide you a frustrating and impossible viewing experience. If this happens it may be preferable to download the entire video unto your system and view it on your local video player. The video file is an mp4. It can be viewed with most video players including QuickTime and Media Player. If you have a default, or user specified, file association for .mp4 you may have to delete it or use a download manager to download this file. Otherwise the associated application will be invoked and file streaming will prevail over downloading. There are numerous free download managers on the internet. Be careful, and do some research to locate one that is not loaded with spyware or viruses.
To download this video click here or paste
http://blip.tv/file/get/Chiefwoodworker-BeginnersSketchUpTutorialPart5134.mp4
into your download manager.
Viewing in Your Browser
You may find it easier to view the video in full screen mode. Start the video before selecting this mode. To enter full screen mode click the little screen icon at the bottom of the video player. When in full screen view hold your cursor near the bottom of the screen to access the video player’s controls. Exit full screen mode with the Esc key. This part is approximately 50 minutes long. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show!
See you in Beginner’s SketchUp Tutorial, The Video Version–Part 6.
Don Butler says:
Joe,
I want to commend you for your excellent video tutorial. Your expertise with SketchUp is plainly evident.
I also get some good ideas from watching how you follow the work flow. I have often found myself floundering in a complicated model because I got the work flow wrong.
But, please, allow me to make a small complaint
About 65 years ago when I was in Junior High (as it was then called) I was taught in drafting class how to make an isometric view. It was the draftsman’s easy was to show a part with the top, one side and the front all at once.
Teaching us the mechanics of drawing in perspective would have taken all semester.
Years later, I was teaching my own students the mathematics of full perspective drawing.
Why?
Most of my students were not able to freehand perspective properly. There was always something not quite right and it made the whole drawing goofy looking.
But why perspective instead of isometric?
Same reason. It makes the eye, or to be exact, the brain, uncomfortable with the view.
I’m trying to understand why you do the drawing in isometric mode and go to perspective mode at the end.
It doesn’t bother me too much until you orbit around the drawing. At that point my brain wants to barf.
Of course, it’s your tutorial and you’re the teacher in this case. You can do it any way you want to.
In my own practice, I draw in perspective and NEVER use the isometric view.
My right brain goes bonkers in isometric mode!!!!
I know its probably unimportant to a lot of people, but to me, . . . well, I may not ever get used to it.
Best regards,
Don “Dances with wood” Butler
Joe says:
Hi Don,
Thank you for the kind words about this series. I appreciate your word and interest in my work.
Your complaint is both valid and constructive. But, I consciously use Isometric for drawing and Perspective for displaying finished views. Let me explain why.
First and foremost, the end product, I assume, of what woodworkers want from their modeling efforts is working shop drawings and in many cases full scale templates.
The advantage of Isometric is that you can scale the drawings (for example 1″ = 1′) and make measurements from the drawings you print. You can’t do this with Perspective drawings.
Even if you use “Fit to page” scaling for printed drawings you can make accurate relative measurements from an ISO drawing.
With ISO drawings all right angles are right angles in the drawing. Parallel lines are parallel in the drawing. In general all equal angles are equal in the drawing. This is not true of perspective. SO it is difficult in the shop to look at a print and judge if things are, say 45 degree miters or 30 degree miters if you print them out in perspective. No problem in ISO.
Often a craftsman will want or need a template to cut complex curves. You can do this by printing out full scale curves in SketchUp in ISO view; not so perspective. By the way I have numerous posts on how to do this.
ISO is much more easy to dimension than perspective.
In general, ISO is a better drawing view for design and technical documentation and is why it is the standard for engineering and architecture. Most professional CAD tools default to ISO and some don’t even provide perspective views.
It is true the eye is more comfortable with perspective for obvious reasons. And regardless of how a SketchUp model is drawn it can be viewed any way you want with a simple click of the mouse. Unfortunately, I have to choose only one way to do it in video because the viewer can’t choose their favorite method. So I choose the view that will provide the most information for shop drawings.
That said, when I do the video on texturing it will be in perspective view because what we are trying to accomplish there is a photorealistic drawing.
I know that some people have a real (and negative) negative reaction to ISO. But if you take an engineering drafting class in mechanical engineering, structural engineering or architecture you would learn that for nearly all technical documentation ISO is the correct way to draw. For realistic viewing of assemblies or finished product Perspective is the correct view. This is the convention I am trying to follow here.
This may not help you as far as your reaction to ISO, but I hope it explains my choices. Thanks again for your interest.
Joe…..
Peter says:
I’m stuck on Part 5 and was wondering if you can help. I am at the point where I am putting a dado on the back of the drawer front for the drawer bottom. When I watch your demo and you click edit component to edit your drawer front your guide lines you created for the dado are still present. When I click on edit component for my drawer front, my guide lines disappear. How do I get my guide lines to show up while in edit component mode?
Thanks for the great tutorials!
Peter
Joe says:
Peter,
When you exit Edit Component mode do the guide lines reappear? You may have menu View/Component Edit/Hide Rest of Model checked. If so un-check it. This will probably solve your problem. If not, send me you .skp file to jpz@srww.com as an attachment and I will let you know what the problem is.
And you are welcome for the tutorials. My pleasure.
Joe…..
Thomas says:
Hey Joe…
WOW!
To tell you a story, I have been on leave from work for about 2 months with a weight restriction of only a gallon of milk. So I had decided to learn “SketchUp” I had seen it in many free project files online and thought it was the cats meow! Needless to say I was having some terrible issues with it, looked online at several different “Educational” sites for this product, only to learn that they were seriously lacking in actual use education. They would usually show a short paragraph on what each tool does, but not how.
Again I thank you for your time and effort. I did receive your email about the issue with the rectangles on the inside of the leg faces.
Now I am off to Dimensions…
Thomas