On 8/31/2017 7:16 PM, Jerry Osage wrote:
On Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:46:59 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 8/30/2017 2:41 PM, Jerry Osage wrote:
I lurk here, and post now and then. I've learned a lot, but I have a
question that I haven't seen answered.

I still do my plans with a T Square and Triangles. I think I would like
to learn SketchUp. I have watched their Getting Started videos and it
seems pretty simple - at least to do simple things. Is it? What is the
learning curve like? Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.


I think the last time that I used a t square and triangles was in the
70's, I had a formal education in mechanical drafting and architectural
drafting.

Have you had any drafting courses? Do you know the tricks and shortcuts
to drawing manually? It will greatly help when moving on to CAD.

Just a basic course in HS. Self taught after that.

Good enough, you should understand or remember the basics.




Anyway I began using CAD's in 1986 and up until about 8~9 years ago used
AutoCAD LT. Then I switched to Sketchup. I hope I never have to change
again. This program is is the bench mark now with woodworkers.

I can see that, some of the things I have seen in SketchUp is amazing.
It is just that I can whip up a set of usable plans on my drafting table
and be in the shop working while I would still be futzing around with
ShetchUp. Since I have no CAD training experience, ShetchUp is harder
that it looks - at least to me.

Certainly it is but the tutorials are very informative.
I will add this . When drawing in 2D you typically show the front, top
and side view of an object. Using triangles and a T-square you can put
our lay out lines to extend to the top and side views from the front
view. Unfortunately with paper and pencil you can make a mistake and if
you are not good at visualizing yo may leave out details.

When you draw in 3D in Sketchup you can see mistakes instantly by simply
rotating the object/part. If it does not look right it probably is not
right. It is easy to determine if the drawing is doable.










I am going to say that one of the most important things to learn
IMMEDIATELY is to make separate parts of a project into a component.
Highlight all parts of the object, right click, and select Make Component.

Yes, after learning to do that, and make groups, things have gotten
easier.

Good to know that you have learned that and realize the importance. So
many new to Sketchup, especially including myself, learn the hard way.
I have a whole model of my home with no components. I make it work,
after I finished the whole model of my home is a single component. For
my furniture pieces, that I have designed/drawn for my home, I have
inserted the pieces into the model home drawing to see how it will look
when built and completed.



You will absolutely not progress beyond baby steps until you learn to do
this and it is very simple.

WHY?

All lines of a part or object will stick, stretch, and contort if you
try to move or modify them. Until you make all lines/pieces of an
object into a component you will not be able to add other attaching
lines/parts to the drawing with out creating havoc.

Think of taking a trip and you come to a fork in the road. One fork
goes to Components, the other fork goes nowhere.
If you take the fork to nowhere you will travel endlessly in the wrong
direction. At some point you will realize that you should have taken
the Component fork. You cannot take a short cut to get out of this
mess, you will have to go back to the fork in the road to to in the
correct, Component direction.

Look for videos that cover COMPONENTS. Don't go on until you understand
the importance of learning to use components.

Again making parts into components is STUPID SIMPLE. There is no excuse
to not learn to do this IMMEDIATELY. Otherwise yo might as well be
trying to draw blind folded.

Do you get my drift? LOL

In all honesty not using components makes using Sketch up extremely
difficult for EVERYBODY.

Past that Sketchup is pretty darn simple to learn, especially if you
have any CAD experience at all.

That seems to be the rub - I have no CAD experience - except that
self-taught it was Hard to learn and I never progressed very far...

Keep after it and practice practice practice. Pick something simple you
want to draw and review videos to accomplish what you want to do.



I guess I'm just impatient - and lack experience with using CAD. And
things like - should these components be made into a group and then
selecting the right thing if I want to modify it. There is no substitute
for experience, and I don't have much with SketchUp - yet.

Be patient. For me it was, one day it clicked.

Lets say you want to draw a cabinet door. 2 rails, 2 stiles, and a
center panel. Draw the top rail and make it into a component. Draw a
stile and make it into a component. You have half the border of the
door drawn. You can draw mirror images of both components again OR you
can copy the stile and the rail component and /flip them into the
correct orientation. Drag the parts together like you are putting them
together in your shop. Draw and add your center component. right click
the component and select flip, that can be done on any of the 3 axis,
you end up with an end for end flip, a top to bottom flip, or a front to
back flip. This takes a little time to learn which flip is necessary.

Now if you select all assembled components of the door you can right
click and select make into a group. When you do this you can move the
whole door assembly as a unit. Think of grouping components as gluing
the pieces together in the shop.

The beauty to copying a component vs. drawing again is that if you copy
a component one or a hundred times you can edit any one of the
components and all copies of the component will reflect the
edit/changes. If you want to change only component, say to have a hole
for a knob of the door stile, right click and select make unique and
then edit.

You will learn which method of editing is best for you. Remember you
can make a copy of a deeply placed component and place the copy in an
easy to view and edit location somewhere else on the drawing. After
editing that copy, delete the copy and the original deeply hidden part
will reflect the changes.

To edit, select the component and tipple click. You will see an edit
box form around the component and all copies will grey out. Then do
your editing. Or select the component and right click and select edit.

You can edit a component that is inside a group but it can get
complicated. To ungroup, select the group, right click and select
explode. This will work on a component also so be careful as you may
turn a component into a bunch of lines that are difficult to edit or move.






I will be happy to answer any questions you have, AFTER you have learned
how to makes components.

That may be a mistake... Thanks for all the input.


Not a problem.