Probably on topic but not necessarily woodworking.

Sketchup

For those of you that use Sketchup I have a cool trick for you to try
out. I use it on occasion and it is very beneficial. I think that
Swingman and have discussed using this trick but I don't think either of
us have shared this.

ANYWAY....

When I design a piece of furniture I typically will place the drawing
inside a scale model drawing of the room that it is going to go in to.
I am currently designing an entertainment center to fit inside our
"entertainment nook" The nook is approximately 22" deep, 98" wide, 88"
tall on the sides, and then on top of the sides is an arch that reaches
96" tall. I am filling the void basically.

I am going to run a sheet of 1/2" walnut plywood, ripped in half,
vertically on the back wall of the nook. A walnut cabinet will set
below and will be as wide as the nook and be about 32" tall. The walnut
panels will be offset from the back wall 3/4" so that they will appear
to be floating. There will be a 2" gap between the two panels and at
the ends of each panel and the behind exposed wall will be painted flat
black. In the center of the panels will hang a big screen TV.

Because all of this fits close to the back wall but not against the wall
and almost fills the wall, the details of the TV mounting bracket,
hanger strips for the panels, etc. are difficult to see when located in
the model drawing of the nook.

Now the trick. I want to see how the whole thing will look before
building so I color all the parts of the drawing including the walls the
correct color. From outside the nook area you cannot see into the nook,
the wall color is opaque. This however blocks the very narrow view of
how things are fitting behind the TV and the floating panels.
So to be able to see through the walls of the nook from the out side of
the nook I change the outer side of the walls to a transparent
color/material. The inside side of the nook walls remain opaque.
In effect this creates a one way view through the wall, you can see in
but cannot see out depending on which side you are viewing the wall.

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:52:45 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:


Now the trick. I want to see how the whole thing will look before
building so I color all the parts of the drawing including the walls the
correct color. From outside the nook area you cannot see into the nook,
the wall color is opaque. This however blocks the very narrow view of
how things are fitting behind the TV and the floating panels.
So to be able to see through the walls of the nook from the out side of
the nook I change the outer side of the walls to a transparent
color/material. The inside side of the nook walls remain opaque.
In effect this creates a one way view through the wall, you can see in
but cannot see out depending on which side you are viewing the wall.


As Artie Johnson used to say on "Laugh In," "Very Interesting."

I don't use Sketchup but I do use Pro-Engineer. I'll have to give it
a try.

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:37:51 -0500, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:52:45 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:


Now the trick. I want to see how the whole thing will look before
building so I color all the parts of the drawing including the walls the
correct color. From outside the nook area you cannot see into the nook,
the wall color is opaque. This however blocks the very narrow view of
how things are fitting behind the TV and the floating panels.
So to be able to see through the walls of the nook from the out side of
the nook I change the outer side of the walls to a transparent
color/material. The inside side of the nook walls remain opaque.
In effect this creates a one way view through the wall, you can see in
but cannot see out depending on which side you are viewing the wall.


As Artie Johnson used to say on "Laugh In," "Very Interesting."

I don't use Sketchup but I do use Pro-Engineer. I'll have to give it
a try.

I finally got around to giving your idea a try in Pro-E and it works
just like you described it. Thanks for the tip.

Can you "hide" parts in sketchup? I can select one or many parts to
"hide" and that just removes them from view temporarily. That
accomplishes the same goal as making one side of a part transparent,
so you can see through it, but with a lot less work.

On 9/1/2013 11:16 AM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
Can you "hide" parts in sketchup? I can select one or many parts to
"hide" and that just removes them from view temporarily. That
accomplishes the same goal as making one side of a part transparent,
so you can see through it, but with a lot less work.

Yep ... using the "Hide" function in SU, in conjunction with the
"Scenes" function, is extremely handy for shop drawings and client
presentations.

--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://plus.google.com/114902129577517371552/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On 9/1/2013 11:16 AM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:37:51 -0500, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:52:45 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:


Now the trick. I want to see how the whole thing will look before
building so I color all the parts of the drawing including the walls the
correct color. From outside the nook area you cannot see into the nook,
the wall color is opaque. This however blocks the very narrow view of
how things are fitting behind the TV and the floating panels.
So to be able to see through the walls of the nook from the out side of
the nook I change the outer side of the walls to a transparent
color/material. The inside side of the nook walls remain opaque.
In effect this creates a one way view through the wall, you can see in
but cannot see out depending on which side you are viewing the wall.


As Artie Johnson used to say on "Laugh In," "Very Interesting."

I don't use Sketchup but I do use Pro-Engineer. I'll have to give it
a try.

I finally got around to giving your idea a try in Pro-E and it works
just like you described it. Thanks for the tip.

Can you "hide" parts in sketchup? I can select one or many parts to
"hide" and that just removes them from view temporarily. That
accomplishes the same goal as making one side of a part transparent,
so you can see through it, but with a lot less work.


Absolutely and you can still see the outline of the hidden object if yu
have hidden geometry turned on.

In my case I wanted a wall to be opaque on one side and see through on
the other.

On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 12:43:55 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 9/1/2013 11:16 AM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:37:51 -0500, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:52:45 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:


Now the trick. I want to see how the whole thing will look before
building so I color all the parts of the drawing including the walls the
correct color. From outside the nook area you cannot see into the nook,
the wall color is opaque. This however blocks the very narrow view of
how things are fitting behind the TV and the floating panels.
So to be able to see through the walls of the nook from the out side of
the nook I change the outer side of the walls to a transparent
color/material. The inside side of the nook walls remain opaque.
In effect this creates a one way view through the wall, you can see in
but cannot see out depending on which side you are viewing the wall.


As Artie Johnson used to say on "Laugh In," "Very Interesting."

I don't use Sketchup but I do use Pro-Engineer. I'll have to give it
a try.

I finally got around to giving your idea a try in Pro-E and it works
just like you described it. Thanks for the tip.

Can you "hide" parts in sketchup? I can select one or many parts to
"hide" and that just removes them from view temporarily. That
accomplishes the same goal as making one side of a part transparent,
so you can see through it, but with a lot less work.


Absolutely and you can still see the outline of the hidden object if yu
have hidden geometry turned on.

In my case I wanted a wall to be opaque on one side and see through on
the other.

It appears that either program can do both of those tasks. The reason
I use Pro-Engineer is that's what I was using at work before I
retired. The learning curve was much easier that way.

Later.

On 9/1/2013 3:55 PM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
On Sun, 01 Sep 2013 12:43:55 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 9/1/2013 11:16 AM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:37:51 -0500, Gordon Shumway
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:52:45 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:


Now the trick. I want to see how the whole thing will look before
building so I color all the parts of the drawing including the walls the
correct color. From outside the nook area you cannot see into the nook,
the wall color is opaque. This however blocks the very narrow view of
how things are fitting behind the TV and the floating panels.
So to be able to see through the walls of the nook from the out side of
the nook I change the outer side of the walls to a transparent
color/material. The inside side of the nook walls remain opaque.
In effect this creates a one way view through the wall, you can see in
but cannot see out depending on which side you are viewing the wall.


As Artie Johnson used to say on "Laugh In," "Very Interesting."

I don't use Sketchup but I do use Pro-Engineer. I'll have to give it
a try.

I finally got around to giving your idea a try in Pro-E and it works
just like you described it. Thanks for the tip.

Can you "hide" parts in sketchup? I can select one or many parts to
"hide" and that just removes them from view temporarily. That
accomplishes the same goal as making one side of a part transparent,
so you can see through it, but with a lot less work.


Absolutely and you can still see the outline of the hidden object if yu
have hidden geometry turned on.

In my case I wanted a wall to be opaque on one side and see through on
the other.

It appears that either program can do both of those tasks. The reason
I use Pro-Engineer is that's what I was using at work before I
retired. The learning curve was much easier that way.

Later.


Absolutely! You use what you are familiar with. I originally used IMSI
Designer back in the 80's, then TurboCAD then KeyCAD, then several
versions of Auto Sketch, then several versions of AutoCAD. after about
4 AutoCAD upgrades I needed a less expensive alternative. Google's free
Sketchup could not have come at a better time. Even the Pro version at
$600 is a deal compared to upgrading AutoCAD.

FWIW Sketchup was easier for me to learn than any of the previous
programs. It seems to do everything that I did with other programs with
fewer steps.