On 4/20/2017 2:53 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 10:02:42 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/


Leon - how long did it take you to complete your drawings? I have a
friend of mine that owns a small remodeling company that just can't
get it kick started. He has been in the business now for many years,
and does indeed know what he is doing.

If I had to guess, and to the extend of those referenced above, 6-10
hours each, total, but that is playing with design changes too. I have
never sat down and worked start to finish on one big project like those
referenced above. I was not sure where I was going to end up at the
beginning. BUT modifications are easy.



As a sidebar, he has a degree in business that was a double major.
He went to a school in CA that had a degree (that had to be coupled
with business) in cabinet building. So when he graduated he was
fully qualified to run all aspects of a cabinet shop, and was trained
to do all aspects of the work needed from using the shaper to
accounts receivable management.

He hated working with only one or two guys in the shop, and he
loathed working alone.

This is a guy I spoke to you about before, one that you generously
allowed me to send some of your renderings (along with Swing) to him.
He was pumped up, as he was still doing his drawings by hand. I had
lunch with him a while back, and he had not finished his online
Sketchup courses, and was starting to forget what he had learned.
Now you sent me the renderings almost two years ago, so I figured he
would be whizzing along with his sketches by now.

I can't get him to understand that using Sketchup is like me using a
publication program, a word processor, or any other kind of layering
program. Certainly the end product is the goal, but using software,
the end product is achieved in a very efficient manner. To me, the
key to learning to use any program that will produce a finished
product is the complete ease of endless editing. After watching you
and Karl, I opined to my buddy that this was no harder than learning
the photo editor I use, the publisher I use, or the advanced features
of my word processor. He was enthusiastic as hell!

Now, we meet again, and he has fallen on his old ways. It takes him
weeks to render new drawings, days to redraw a detail or two, then it
has to be scanned, compressed and checked for readability if he wants
to email it. Otherwise, he has to hand carry drawings he paid to
have printed over to the client and the doodle their changes on the
newest renderings and start again. This is the way business was done
for decades, but not now, nor had it been done this way for about 10
years. He is rapidly falling not just behind, but out of the race
altogether.

When I present a drawing to a client I typically print the drawing to a
PDF file and send by e-mail They prefer this to anything else. Some of
my engineer clients actually load Sketchup up and I send the drawing
file for them to explore. I can send a PDF of any angle they want to
see. Modifications typically take 30 minutes to an hour depending on
how complex the modifications are. Adding wood grain to give the
drawing a life like look takes 3~5 minutes.

I might add that I use an optimization program to tell me how to cut my
inventory of lumber/sheet goods for maximum efficiency, whether that is
to save material cost or to save "Leon time cost".

Adding the named wood grains to the drawing also tells the optimization
program what materials to use for each part.

Oh and I use a plug-in program in Sketchup to import all of the
component/parts into the optimization program.

I will say that if he dedicated a weekend to learning the program he
would be able to do 95% of what needs to do. BUT the learning curve
would be greatly reduced if some one that is good with the program spent
time with him. Tutorials do not always emphasize the importance and why
to do things a certain way.

ALSO, and I can not emphasize this requirement enough. Both Swingman
and I have mentioned so many times we are almost blue in the face. In
fact a neighbor that is getting into woodworking was asking be about
problems he was having with Sketchup. This is probably the same problem
that every one has when learning Sketchup. Anyway, the neighbor came
over and when I showed him WHY he needed to learn to do this step I
think I literally saw a cartoon light bulb illuminate above his head.

While it seems trivial, as you can certainly draw with out taking this
extra step you might as well be drawing with a paper and pencil.
With out fail you should always make every piece/whole part of the
project into a COMPONENT. In Sketchup lines that touch stick together.
If you draw a cabinet door and do not make the center panel and each
rail and stile into COMPONENTS you will have great difficulty in moving
or modifying any part of the assembly.
If you draw a cabinet door with out making the pieces into components
and try to modify a part the other lines of the other parts will stick
and stretch into strange angles.

If you modify a "component" no other parts of the drawing are affected.

Additionally you can copy a component to another open spot on the screen
and modify it with out other parts, that it may be attached to, being in
the way, blocking your view. When you copy a component and modify it,
every copy of that component will automatically update, including the
original. I will often copy the component to an open location, modify
it, and then delete it. The original is still in its original location
with the modifications. This simply does not happen if you don't turn
your parts into components.

How do you make a group of lines into a component? Hi light all the
lines you want to be a component, right click and choose, make into
component. You have the option of naming the component, a good habit to
get into.

I am not saying that your friend is not using components but most every
one that finally realizes that you should make all parts into components
typically sling shot into being much more productive.

The order of drawing should be like this, a cabinet door for example.

Completely draw a rail or stile, but only one or the other but lets
choose the stile. Then make that part/group of lines into a component.
Now draw the rail and attach it directly to the stile while drawing.
Because the stile is already a component the rail lines will not stick.
Once that is drawn make those lines into a component. Next copy the
rail to the opposite end and flip it to make it a mirror image. Next
copy the stile to the opposite side and flip it to make it a mirror
image. Draw the center panel, make into a component and place in the
center. It typically takes less time to to do than to type. ;~)



I would like to make one more pass at him, send him the drawings you
published here, and some commentary from you on how long it took you
to do those. If this doesn't work, I give up. He is literally
losing business as he sees himself as a "traditionalist", and he
thinks folks like to see his hand drawings. Actually, the probably
do, just not a month after he makes his changes.

Yeah, that is no good. Modification should be easy and quick.


He needs the level of detail that you can generate with your drawings
as he always finds clients that are cabinet/built in heavy.
Otherwise he could get one of the many pieces of software out there
(some free!) that allow you to move walls and cabinets around in a
rudimentary way with pretty renderings.

Just a few words, sir. I am worried that my buddy will be out of
business soon, as he won't move into this century. His other problem
being that he doesn't know how to promote his company makes his lack
of technology a killer.


You can lead a horse to water.....

FWIW I copy part of my drawing to a blank area and move the parts apart
for reference/clarification.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/