# SU Project for Beginners



## SketchUp Guru

24 January, 2007 The following tutorial was written prior to the release of SketchUp V6. With the most current version of SketchUp a few detail things have changed. Rather than edit the entire thread, I will make note of a few of those things here. I'm doing this based on memory so pardon my if I miss something.

In SU5Pro/GSU--Construction Geometry (Lines and points). In GS6/GSU6Pro--Guides.

In SU5Pro/Early versions of GSU--Hold Ctrl with Move or Rotate tool to copy. Later versions of GSU/GSU6/GSU6Pro--Press and release Ctrl with Move or Rotate tool to copy. It's a toggle function now. This applies to several other tools including the Tape Measure and Protractor tools.



John McM made a suggestion the other day for a step by step demo of sorts. I've come up with a fairly simple armoire design that we'll "build". Attached is a drawing I made of the whole thing. This drawing would be the sort of quick thing you'd make to use for communicating with a client (" 'Er indoors"). There are no groups or components and the thing is entirely hollow. No internal details have been drawn yet. At this point it would be simple enough to make changes. Does she want it wider or taller, 3 drawers instead of one. That sort of thing. Once we have approval from the client, it is time to move on to a detailed version to use for shop drawings. When we're finished it sould be possible to head out to the shop and start making saw dust.

The benefit to starting this way is that you have little time invested in something that might get changed dramatically before the project is really under way. Who knows, she might decide that it should be a tire swing instead of an armoire. :roll: 







The next installment will cover construction of a single part of the armoire. We'll get that part finished before we move on to the next part. 

Does this sound like what you had in mind John?


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## SketchUp Guru

Right. Here's the finished base assembly for the armoire. Here's how I got there.

_Note: terms in bold face can be searched in the SU Help files. If you don't know how to use the feature, please review the Help files for information_

I started by drawing a vertical rectangle to the dimensions of the front rail. The length is drawn without including the tenons. I knew how high the base would be so I drew the top of this rectangle at that height. I used *construction geometry* to lay out the location for this rectangle.

After drawing the rectangle, I used construction geometry to identify the height of the arc and the centerline of the rectangle. I'll use these to guide the next step of creating the arc for the bottom of the rail. I chose the Bezier tool to draw the arc. I set Degrees to 2. This is the number of spaces between editable points.






I set a point at each end of the rectangle and then set the center point along the vertical center line moving up until the curve met the horizontal guide line.






I erased the bottom edge of the rectangle--it is waste after all. Then I used the Push/Pull tool to give the rail some thickness.






The Offset tool makes quick work of defining the tenon on the end of the rail. I used 1/4" got the offset.






Push/Pull makes the tenon.






I repeated those steps for the other end. Since the tenons are both the same length, the second tenon is created by choosing the Push/Pull tool and double clicking on the face that becomes the end of that tenon.

The last step for the rail is to put a chamfer on the top front edge. I used construction lines to locate the ends of the 1/16" chamfer. A diagonal line and Push/Pull are all we need.






This rail is now complete. We'll make it a component so nothing else sticks to it. Making it a component allows us to give it a name and if we copy it later, it doesn't inflate the file size and if one copy gets edited, the copy(ies) get edited too.






The legs are next but it's time for bed. We'll pick this up later.


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## JFC

Thanks Dave . Now lets see if i can do this :shock:


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## John McM

Brilliant Dave, just what I had in mind. Doing installments is a much better idea too, much more manageable. Cheers
John McM


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## SketchUp Guru

Thank you, thank you. Since this appears to work, let's move on to the legs.

Actually, before we get started on the legs I'd like to make a suggestion. You'll notice that I use a lot of construction geometry for laying out my work. If I didn't erase thes lines periodically the drawing would get very cluttered. I have set up a hot key shortcut to erase all construction geometry. I use E as that shortcut. It is set under Window>Preferences>Shortcuts. You might want to do the same.

I used construction lines to locate the bottom of the leg relative to the shoulder at one end of the rail. I used the rectangle tool to draw the bottom of the leg.. This got pulled up to the top of the rail with P/P. I used inferencing to set the leg height. After starting the P/P, I put the cursor on the top of the rail and clicked.






Once I got the leg in place, I orbited around to the inside corner. I hid the front rail to get it out of my way for the moment.

I laid out the location of the mortises for the front and side rails using construction geometry. Then I drew the mortise by using the Rectangle tool and then P/P






Then I Unhid the rail.










I also put in the chamfer on the top outer edges. I strated the chamfer as I did on the rail but since it continues around the corner, I used *Follow Me* to make it. there are a couple of ways to handle the Follow Me operation. I like to select the path before selecting the tool.






Then select the Follow Me tool (I have F set as a shortcut for that) and click on the triangular face. Presto! Chamfers.






I repeated that for the chamfer on the bottom of the leg. In this case I wanted the chamfer to go all the way round the leg. I selected _all_ of the perimeter edges and continued as above. I could have selected the tool, clicked on the triangle and dragged the chamfer all the way round.

After that chamfer was completed, I made the leg a component. Then I copied the leg to the other end of the rail. Placement isn't critical at this point. 






Next, using the Scale tool, I *mirror*ed the leg. Note the -1 in the VCB.






And moved it into place.






That completes the first two legs. The side rails will be done in the next installment.


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## Good Surname or what ?

Wow! You wouldn't like to repeat this with a wall-hung tool cabinet would you? 

Seriously I'm tempted to scrap my current SU model and start again when you've finished this basic tutorial. I'm sure I'm doing things buttocks-about-face.

Phil


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## Roger

Thanks Dave. Following this with great interest ....... beats a manual and an indecipherable sketch any time


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## Jake

I'd change the thread title from "..for beginners" to ".. for all".

Loads of useful stuff as ever, Dave. Your threads always make me realise just how little I've scraped off the surface of this program, and how much better I could be doing things.


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## SketchUp Guru

Thank you guys. 

Phil, hopefully you'll be able to make that wall cabinet using essentially the same methods. I am still going to look at your cabinet drawing.

Jake, thanks. I just don't want the experts to think I'm telling them how to do it.  It really is just the way I do it.


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## Good Surname or what ?

Dave,

I cannot see a Bezier curve tool. Could it be that humble users of the freebie SU version like me do not have access to this tool?

Phil


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## SketchUp Guru

Phil, it could be that it is not included. Do you have a menu heading called Plugins? If not, open Windows Explorer and navigate to Google\SketchUp\Plugins. There should be a folder called Examples. In that folder you should find a file called sketchup.rb. Copy that to the Plugins folder. There may also be a file called bezier.rb if so, copy that to the Plugins folder, too.

If bezier.rb isn't there, click on this link. Download the file to the Plugins folder. Bezier.rb

After that open SU again. this makes the Ruby scripts load. You should find Bezier as an entry in the Draw menu.


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## Good Surname or what ?

Dave,

Thanks. I'll try that.

I've just followed your instructions using a basic arc. Great stuff.

But I have one question and that's about the way you did the second tenon. You mention a double click. I'm not sure I follow you. I just did the same process on both ends. Offset and then Push/pull. Are you saying that the double click somehow repeats the function on the other end of the rail?

thanks


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## SketchUp Guru

Phil, the double click only applies to the Push/Pull tool in this case. After you Push/Pull the first tenon to 1" (at least that's the length in the example) the next time you simply double click while the P/P tool is active and the surface you click on will get P/P'ed to the same length.

This works nicely when you have a whole lot of repetitious push/pull work to do. Those dovetails are a great example of that. You push the waste for one of the sockets and then double click on each of the remaining sockets. All of the sockets then get the same treatment as the first.


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## John McM

Dave this really is cracking stuff. It is much much easier to see you carry out an operation and feel "I can actually follow that". It's great to see I'm not alone either. There are a lot of folk who'll get loads out of this. And, if that's not enough, your throwing in loads of tips as well. Top man.

John McM


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## SketchUp Guru

John, did you see my last post in the FSUT Request thread?  

I'm glad you're finding it useful.

I'll get the next part up as soon as I can.


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## Alf

Very helpful, Dave. No danger of me having to wait for the next installment though - took me a while to find the Plug-in folder never mind draw anything...  :lol: 

Cheers, Alf


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## SketchUp Guru

Now we'll do the side rails. I'm starting at the back of the right front leg. A few construction lines for the lay out of the rail end.






Push/Pull to length and draw the Bezier curve as we did for the front rail.





Push/Pull to eliminate the waste.






Offset for the tenon.






Hide the front leg for a moment and make the tenon on the front end of the side rail. Chamfer the top edge. Select the entire side rail and make it a component. Unhide the front leg.

Copy the side rail, mirror the copy and move it into place as we did for the second leg. We could rotate the second side rail component to get its outer face outside but then if we edit one of them later the editing will occur on the wrong end of the other one.

Select both legs and copy the pair. Move them toward the back ends of the side rails.






Mirror both legs with the Scale tool.










Move the legs into place at the rear end of the side rails.






Draw the rear rail in between the rear legs. this is done exactly as the other rails but there's no curve and no chamfer. Just remember to make it a component, too.

[/img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/SketchUp%20Demos/BaseAssembly48.jpg[/img]

Draw in a corner bracket, make it a component, copy and mirror to the opposite side. Select both of those corner brackets, copy, mirror and move into place. 






















Open the Layer window, click Add and make a new layer. Give it a name.





I selected all of the components for the base and made the bunch a component. Edit the Base Assembly component and select all the parts. Open the Entity Info box and move the components to the Base Assembly layer.






Click outside the Base Assembly component bounds to deselect it. Then select the component again--you'll see a colored bounding box around the whole thing. Move that component to the Base Assembly layer too.

And here we have the completed base.


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## Chris Knight

Dave,
Smashing stuff - many thanks!


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## Fecn

Excellent turorial Dave.. Thanks. - Keep it coming.


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## SketchUp Guru

Thank you again for the nice comments.

I'll have the next installment perhaps later today. I should probably do some work, too. :roll:


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## SketchUp Guru

In the last part of drawing the base, I made a component of the entire assembly and I placed it along with the individual components on a layer called Base Assembly. I neglected to mention or show that I edited each component to put its geometry on that layer as well.

To do that, I opened, in turn, each component for editing. I triple clicked on the component to select all of its geometry. Then, in the Entity Info box, I changed the Layer to Base Assembly. It only needs to be done for one instance of each component. all the other instances get the same treatment automatically.


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## Scrit

Dave

Yet again I'm late to the feast...... Super tutorial and makes me realise just how crude my SU efforts are (Note to self: must try harder). Keep up the good work!

Scrit


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## les chicken

Dave

Not so much a tutorial for beginners but how to do it the "easy way". It shows how long winded I have been doing things, possibly to used to autocad.

You can imagine how long it took me to draw up that rolling table :roll: :roll: nearly as long as it took to make.

Keep up the good work

Les


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## John McM

Dave, sorry I missed how to mirror something using the scale tool. Do you click on the component, select scale tool and then type -1 in VCB ?
Or do you have to make a copy with cntl move first ?
Cheers
John


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## Nick W

1) Select the object
2) Activate the Scale tool
3) Drag one of the selection points to scale about its opposite point, use the <control> key at the same time to scale about the centre.
4) Either move until the VCD says -1, or move a bit in the right direction then type -1.


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## SketchUp Guru

Thank you all. I'll keep plugging away at it as time permits.

John, Nick gave you the right info. Make sure to grab the appropriate handle. In all cases in my demo I grabbed a handle in the middle of one of the faces. Push the handle toward the middle of the component. Then let go of the mouse button and type -1. If you hold the Ctrl key, the mirroring will occur about the centre point of the component. I always do this because the component then resides in the same space as before scaling.


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## Anonymous

Impressive stuff Dave and very clearly conveyed, thanks for putting in the time; loads of screen shots and posting them to forum does take ages


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## SketchUp Guru

On the off chance that I'm not being a bore, here's the next chapter in the construction of our armoire.

There is little new in this section so hopefully it'll move a bit faster.

We begin by drawing the bottom of the case. I figured out the desired reveal on the front and sides and set construction lines as guides right on top of the base assembly. Then I drew a rectangle. If you were so inclined you could measure for the required size of the bottom and simply type the diimensions after you start drawing the rectangle. I tend to work as I would in the shop by fitting subsequent parts to the existing ones.

After drawing the rectangle, P/P to give it thickness. At this point the bottom is drawn to the full dimension of the case. then I made the bottom a component.







To make it easier to work, I turned off the Base Assembly layer to hide the base. I unchecked the box for the layer in the Layer window.






I decided to draw the right side panel next. I started on the bottom of the bottom panel and drew a skinny rectangle. 






I set a construction line to the desired height of the case just to give me a height to snap to. This was set as a height above the floor. If I'd known the desired height from the bottom of the case to the top, I could have simply started the P/P and typed the distance.

I made the side panel a component, copied it, mirrored the copy and set it into place on the opposite side. When using the move tool, think about where you need to grab the "movee" and where it needs to go. In this case, I grabbed the panel at a lower outside corner and moved it to correspond with a lower outside corner on the bottom panel.






I also copied, mirrored and moved the bottom panel to the top.








The next view shows the lower right front corner of the case. You'll notice that the two boards overlap each other at this point. My initial plan was to do dovetails to join the case pieces. Except for the wood that gets cut away for dovetails, the boards meet this way so why not start them out there? As you'll see I chose not to use dovetails here. I'm saving them for a drawer. I do think this is a good way to start the case assembly anyway. We'll still need the boards in the same positions for the joinery we will do. Besides, we autmatically get some useful guidelines from the piece we aren't editing when we draw the joinery.

At this point I have selected the bottom panel for editing.






I've drawn in some construction lines to show where I want to cut the bottom panel. In reality, I could use the inferencing engine in SU to guide me along because I'm working off intersections and midpoints. I didn't do that because I couldn't show it in the screenshots the way they're made. If you want to see how the inferencing works I would highly recommend looking at the demo videos on the sketchup.com site.

So I drew the lines for the cut. Push/Pull takes care of the waste.






I repeat that for the opposite end of the board and the bottom and top are completed. Since the top is an instance of the bottom component _and_ the top was mirrored, not only is the joinery cut on the top panel, it is cut on the proper side of the board.






I did the same thing for the top and bottom on a side panel.






And all four corners of the case are done.






Next we'll add the dadoes for the dust panels and add the panels.


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## SketchUp Guru

This should be short.

After completing the exterior parts of the case I added the dados for the dust panels. I laid out the locations using construction lines. Then, while editing the side panel component I traced along the construction lines and pushed in the faces to create the dados. Since the side panel is a component, I only need to do this on one side panel.






I then clicked outside of the component to deselect it. With the rectangle tool I drew in the bottom face of the dust panel. It requires zooming in to be able to locate the proper corners to snap to.






Push/Pull makes the thickness. Then the rebate is traced on the front edge of the panel and Push/Pull is used to remove the waste. The panel is made into a component. The next step is to copy the dust panel to make the rest of them. Ctrl+Move makes the copies. Simply grab a corner and drag the copy until it snaps into place.











Repeat the copy/move until all the dust panels are made.






Note: if the spacing was consistent on the panels, it would be possible to copy the first one and move it the required distance. Then hit Enter, type *n (where n is the number of panels not including the original) and Enter again.


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## SketchUp Guru

Edge banding was applied by simply tracing existing edges to create faces and then using Push/Pull to give them thickness. I did one piece at a time, made it into a component, then copied and mirrored as appropriate. Mitres were easy. I just connected the corners.


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## SketchUp Guru

More construction lines and Push/Pull. I set out construction lines as guidelines and then edited the components, traced the construction lines and used Push/Pull to create the rebate. Afte the first Push/Pull operation, each additional one was done with a double click to get the same distance. The dust panels were also edited with Push/Pull.











[imghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/SketchUp%20Demos/CaseAssembly33.jpg[/img]

Finally the back panel is added with the Rectangle and P/P tools.


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## John McM

Great stuff Dave. I find it much easier to follow now I have the basics. I'm saving all these into a word doc so will eventually have a complete tutorial for constant reference for all future SU projects. I suspect without your help I might have dismissed SU as a CAD package for woodworking.

Cheers again
John McM


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## SketchUp Guru

Thanks John.

Here's the next chapter. We'll draw the crown which is rather simple. It adds a little trick that might be new to some. Otherwise this is pretty straightforward stuff. Although the crown for this piece is very simple, the same method would be applied to a very fancy crown moulding as well.

I laid out some construction lines to show the long sides of the crown piece. Then I drew a rectangle to the overall lenght of the piece. This will get a mitre but we can't do it just yet. Push/Pull gives it some thickness.











Chamfer is applied as on the base.






I went ahead and made it a component, copied it, mirrored and moved the copy into place on the opposite side. Makes little difference if you do this now or later.






I also rotated a copy into place but I made this component unique so it wouldn't get the same editing as the others.






I stretched the front one to the needed length guided by the side pieces.






Now, here's the tricky part. I add the mitre first to the side pieces. Of course I only have do this once because the other is a related component.

I selected the component to edit it. I drew a line indicating the location of the top edge of the mitre. this is the first edge of a Cutting Plane. Having mating parts together in their proper orientaion makes it easy to figure out where the miter will need to be. I completed the cutting plane by drawing around the piece. Note in the lower left corner of the rectangle, I didn't follow the chamfer. Instead I continued the lines to make four sides to the cutting plane. In the case of the chamfer it would have been easy enough to follow the chamfer but the method I use works quickly for more complex molding profiles as well.






I select the Cutting Plane and run Intersect with model. Then I erase the waste. Repeat that for both ends of the front rail and you're done. Here I've turned off the layer with the carcase.






Next time the doors.


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## SketchUp Guru

So this last section was a dud? Was it not clear enough or just nothing new? Doors will be coming but they aren't that exciting and really nothing new. Maybe this has run its course and the doors would be a waste of time?


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## nickson71

In realitiy I've just not had time to look at this bit yet ............ was watching an international football game on TV in a pub with Beer 


But the amount of info I've got out of this thread so far is amazing .......... before this I couldn't use sketchup at all ............ now I'm actually drawing things that look good.......... 


so I'm happily waiting for the rest of the project ......please!


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## gidon

Dave - this is superb stuff - I've been (slowly) working through this as well.
Please keep it up if you're able to.
Cheers
Gidon


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## Good Surname or what ?

Dave,

No most definitely NOT a dud. I have't had time to do this stage yet but I've never understood the "intersect with model" thingy. So this is my chance to get it under my belt.

Please keep going this is a great tutorial.

thanks
Phil


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## Alf

Dave, definitely not a dud - but I had trouble when I tried it (guess who's the dud). No idea what I did but I ended up with one side shorter than the other! Got a bit disheartened when I tried to start again and suddenly found rectangles would only draw on the diagonal and deleted the lot in frustration. I'm planning to try again this weekend; if it goes pear-shaped again then I fear a "Dave, what did I do wrong?!" thread coming on early Monday morning. Be prepared... 8-[  

Cheers, Alf


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## Johnboy

Dave, another vote for the not a dud!! I am following this with interest. I still use Alibre mainly but you are showing how to model accurately to set dimensions which I found difficult to understand in Sketchup. The more I see of your tutorials/tips the more impressed I become with sketchup.

John


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## John McM

Dave, No don't stop. This is terrific stuff, just sometimes "work" gets in the way. I have not had time to go through this last part but I will. You are helping loads of people with innumerable techniques. The great thing is this can be revisited until we get it.
Thanks again
John McM


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## garywayne

Hi Mr R.

I would most definitely like for you to carry on with said project. My brain (as small as it may be) has exploded, and imploded several times now, but I am busy picking up the pieces ready for the next installment. If you are willing.

I do have just one question.

What do you mean when you say,


> I started by drawing a vertical rectangle



How is this done?

The only rectangles I can draw are flat on the floor.

Keep up the good work, please, and, thank you.


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## SketchUp Guru

I will keep it up. thanks for the encouragement. I was mostly just trying to figure out if I should really abbreviate the door tutorial or not.

Gary, referesh my memory about which vertical rectangle I drew. In general, drawing it with the rectangle tool just requires that you orbit your view down low enough so SU will draw the rectangle vertically. The other thing you can do is make sure you've got construction lines that intersect at the opposite corners of the desired rectangle.


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## garywayne

Dave.

Right at the beginning, when you drew the base front rail.

You said:-


> I started by drawing a vertical rectangle to the dimensions of the front rail.


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## SketchUp Guru

Oh, I see. I guess I wasn't real clear with that and could have used another illustration. I used horizontal and vertical construction lines to establish the edges of the rectangle. I erased them to reduce clutter before going on to the part about drawing the arc.

Orbiting to a lower veiw point would also let you draw the vertical rectangle but without some point of reference it would be difficult to know where to put it. The construction lines solve that problem. 

The front rail could have been drawn anywhere and moved into place but I find it easier to use the construction lines to locate the geometry in its final place when I can.

Hope that helps.


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## mailee

No by all means keep it going Dave. I have been using SU for some time now and have still learned new things from this. Just because there is no feedback straight away doesn't mean we are not taking an interest. I suppose like me they can't always take it straight in but browse back through the postings trying them as we go. Keep up the good work it is great. I think I speak for everyone on here when I say a very big thank you for giving up your time to do this for us all.


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## John McM

Dave, I'm stuck on the cornice. I have trouble on the tricky bit. How do you select the cutting plane. I select the 4 lines that make up the cutting plane (as if you took a saw and cut the mitre) context click and selected intersect with model bit I just get a message saying "no intersections found between selection set and rest of model" It's probably obvious but I can't see it. 
Thanks
John McM


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## SketchUp Guru

John, here's a quickie of essentially the same thing. I drew the cutting plane longer than I did before to make it a little more obvious. After drawing the cutting plane I double clicked on the face which selects the face _and_ the bounding edges. After that I would right click and choose Intersect with model. you need to have the face selected as well as its edges.







Here's a close up of just that little triangle as I did it in the original. I did the same thing by double clicking on the little face extending out of the moulding. 






If you find it easier to make the cutting plane larger, that's fine. all the excess gets deleted anyway. I hope that makes sense.


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## John McM

Thanks Dave I'll have a go again tomorrow. I've a night shift to do now.
Cheers
John McM


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## Colin C

Hi Dave 
I am stuck at the start :roll: 
I am trying to do the first curve but when I try to get the top of the curve ( pull up the middle ), I get it on the line and push the button but the line jumps above the line :? .

What am I doing wrong :roll:


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## SketchUp Guru

Colin, does it end up looking something like this?





In this example SketchUp's inferencing engine is trying to be smart but isn't quite smart enough. It is aligning the point with the center of the edge of the rectangle. If that is a problem there are two solutions I can think of. First, zoom in tight on the central part of the rectangle which will give you finer control over the placement of that point.

The other option would be to make the rectangle taller to start so you don't get close to the center when trying to place that point.

One other thing comes to mind to ask. do you have Enable Length Snapping checked? If so uncheck it and try again. It won't change the inferencing thing (and there's no over riding that) but it will reduce some problems you might run into.

Hope this helps.


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## Colin C

Thanks Dave

It gives me some thing to start with


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## SketchUp Guru

Finally, we're ready to start the doors. The first step is to locate the centerline of the opening with a construction line. I'll also set construction lines at the top and bottom as well as a long the left side of the opening.





Next I hide the carcase and start drawing the door parts. I drew more construction lines but they aren't necessary. I drew the stile and gave it thickness with Push/Pull. It's hard to see but I moved the stile to the right 1/16” to allow a gap between door and carcase. I also shortened the stile by 1/16” on each end using P/P. 






This first stile was made into a component and a copy made. The copy was mirrored and its outside edge aligned with the construction line that indicates up the centerline. Then I moved the new stile to the left 1/16”. The rails were drawn in using the stiles as guides for length and placement.

I used construction lines to layout the groove for the door panel. Since the stiles are components as are the rails, only one stile and one rail need editing.






P/P makes lightning work the grooves.











Note: shadows are shown but only to add a bit of contrast. Leave the shadows turned off when working.

The rail gets the same sort of treatment.





Tenons are down with P/P the same way. No dozing off please.






The door panel comes next. Rectangle tool to the rescue.
















And the panel also gets made into a component.






Copy all five door parts and move them toward the right.






With all the right side door parts selected mirror the door with the Scale tool.






Move the door over until its left stile touches the right stile of the other door. Then move it to the right 1/8” which gives the proper spacing all around.






The doors are finished except for a bit of hardware.






The drawers are next and there's a neat trick we haven't used yet. It will make it possible to get away with drawing only one drawer.


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## Nick W

Dave,

Great series which I've been following with interest. Just one point on this latest lesson, which may come down to a point of style, but hey here goes anyway. At the point where you have drawn the five sub-components of the door, I would have selected them all and made a door component of them. You can then just copy this and mirror it for the other door.

Keep up the excellent work.


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## SketchUp Guru

Nick, you're right. I could have done that. Another thing I could do if I wanted to use the same style of door in the future is to save that door component by itself. (Right click on the component and choose Save component.) Then I could pull that door out again, resize as needed and move on.


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## John McM

Thanks Dave, nearly there now. I guess most of us will take a while to go through this series a few times to really learn all the little tricks.
Cheers
John McM


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## SketchUp Guru

And now the drawers. Although the plans I've been working from don't show them, I've decided to use dovetails for the joints and to make allowance for side-mounted drawer glides. The front dovetails will be half blind and the back ones will be through DTs. 

It doesn't matter which drawer we start with but I'm starting at the bottom. I laid out some construction lines indicating the corners of the space for the drawer. I also added a construction lines at the bottom of the drawer a known distance from the front of the cabinet. In this case I put it 24” out in front because the drawer wouldn't be that deep and I wouldn't have to work inside the cabinet to complete the drawer.






Using the construction lines as a guide I drew a vertical rectangle and used P/P to give it some thickness. This is the drawer front. I added some dimensions temporarily to help illustrate the tiny change about to be made.






As drawn the drawer front is exactly the same size as the opening. Clearly that's not a good idea. We'll use P/P to move each edge face in by 1/16” inch. I could have resized the drawer front in two steps—1/8” at a time but then I'd have to move the drawer to center it in the opening. It's really six of one and a half dozen of the other. 











After pushing all four surfaces we make the drawer front into a component. The lay out some construction lines as guides for the drawer side. I put a guide line at the mid line of the end of the drawer face (This is more for illustration than anything. You could manage fine without this one.) and another 7/16” in from the end on the back face. The 7/16” plus the 1/16” gap from the Push/Pull, above, create a 1/2” gap for the drawer slide.






I start a rectangle for the side as shown. Notice the inference lines showing referencing to the construction lines.






I put a construction line in as an illustration for the back of the drawer but I could have simply typed the distance in to get the line.






Push/Pull makes the drawer side. I make it a component, copy it mirror the copy and move that copy into place for the opposite side. A construction line at the other end makes it easy to locate the second side.

After that I draw the back. I draw it to the full height of the sides and front. I make it a component as well. Note that I start drawing it on the outside face of the drawer side. The opposite end will also be on the outside face of the corresponding side. Of course the real board would need to be made to this length to make allowance for the joinery.






Now we'll start the joinery on the front. First I add a rebate to the exterior face of the drawer side at each end.











Now we start laying out for the dovetails. I'm only doing a single pin and two half pins. You could do as many as you want. The procedure is the same for all of them. First a centerline for the middle pin and one for the top and bottom half pins. Those last two are set at 1/4” from the edge which is half of the 1/2” wide pin.






I added lines 1/4” off either side of the centerline, too. Then I start with the Protractor tool to set angled lines. I used 8° for the angle. The biggest trick is to make sure you get the angled lines running the right way but isn't that the biggest trick when laying out dovetails on the wood, too?






At this point it wouldn't make any difference if we cut sockets or pins first. I'm cutting sockets first. Edit the side component, trace the layout lines...











...and then Push/Pull the waste. Remember to waste the sockets in this case. Since the sides are related components, the sockets are done on the other side at this point, too.






Edit the Drawer front and trace the sockets. Waste the spaces between the pins with Push/Pull.






Here's the completed joint after repeating the last steps on the opposite end, too.






Plow the groove for the bottom panel in the side panels. I hid the front and back for the moment to make it easier to see.






Edit the front and plow the groove there as well.






Edit the bottom of the back. Push/Pull the bottom up so the bottom panel can slide in after the drawer box is assembled.






I repeat the layout steps for the dovetails then edit the sides and the back.






A rectangle starts the bottom panel.











Push/Pull completes it. I used x-ray view to allow me to push the panel into the groove on the drawer front.






We make the bottom panel into a component and we have a drawer. We could select all five components and make them into a component but we'd have to break up copies of the drawers later anyway so we'll skip it.






The next drawer is the same height as the first. I copy the components up by 7/8”(3/4” for the divider plus 1/16” for the gap at the top of the bottom drawer and another 1/16” for the gap at the bottom of the next drawer. I set construction lines just to show where we're going.






I copy the drawer up again to make the third one. Notice the top horizontal construction line. It is set to the height of the drawer opening minus 1/16” for the gap. This drawer is too tall for the opening. Hold on to your hats because we're going to fix that in a moment.


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Before we move on to resizing the drawer we need to make the components for this drawer unique. If we don't, resizing the parts for this drawer will resize the others and we don't need that. Select the front, right click and choose Make unique. Repeat that for the back and for one of the sides. We're going to take care of the other side using a Ruby script.






In case you don't already have it, you should get a Ruby script called Apply To. This script allows you to get a component definition from one component and apply it to another one. This is extremely handy when you forget to make components or when you need to change definitions as we'll do next. To use it you select the component whose definition you want to apply, right click and mouse over Component definitions. You'll get a fly out menu. Click on Get definition. Then select the component or components that you want to apply the definition to. Right click and choose Component definitions and click on Apply definition.

Alright. Back to the drawer.

Select the drawer side you made unique and get its definition. Then select the other one and apply the definition.











Now we'll start resizing the drawer to fit the opening. In the last image we can see there's a 1-1/2” difference between the desired height of the drawer and the current height. We could try scaling the drawer however that would change the scale of all the details too. In scaling the front for example, the dovetail pins and the groove would get narrower. We don't want that so we'll attack this differently.

We'll start with the drawer front. I hid the sides to get them out of the way. I also set the view to x-ray so we can see both ends of the drawer front. Edit the drawer front and use a left to right selection box around the top part of the drawer front. Include the middle pins in the selection box. A left to right selection only selects those line segments that fall entirely within the box. A right to left selection box selects all line segments the even partially fall in the box.

So a left to right selection and then the Move tool. Move the selected geometry down 3/4” (half the total required height change.)






Make a new left to right selection around only the top geometry this time. Move that selection down 3/4”. Presto! The drawer front is the right height and the the center pin is still in the center.






We repeat that for the back and then do the sides.






The drawer is now the correct height for the opening. It also fits the top opening so we copy it up 7/8”. We're finished with the drawers short of installing them. If we wanted to we could draw the hardware but I'll pass on that for this model.











Just a final note for this section of the tutorial. This resizing technique works well for these drawers and it is useful for things like cabinet doors and other similar things. One thing you need to consider in the case of dovetailed drawers is that the more pins you have, the more steps you'll need to use to keep the pins the proper size. The easy way to figure it is to count the tails. That'll give you the required number of steps. You need to figure out the distance to make each move step. Depending upon your point of view, at some point it might be just as easy to draw the new drawer from scratch.

Now that we have these drawer components and door components from the previous chapter, we might want to save these components for future use. If you use the same type of drawer or door construction frequently you might find it handy to have a “standard” drawer or door. You can import that component into other drawings and resize as needed to suit.

Next time we'll add a few details and then see how we can make working drawings from the cabinet model.


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Here's the armoire sans door/drawer pulls and hardware.




[/img]


----------



## John McM

Dave, I'm a bit stunned. I shan't even pretend to have grasped all that just yet. You must have a brain the size of a planet. I am constantly amazed at how good SU is in the right hands. If I can achieve even a tiny amount of what you do I shall be a very happy man. Until then I'll continue to deprive some village of it's silly person. How lucky are we in this forum to have found you!!! 
Again, thankyou. 
John McM


----------



## SketchUp Guru

John, thanks for that. It's not that I have a brain the size of a planet. It's just there's nothing much in there so SU fills the void.  Actually, once you figure out the tricks it goes very quickly.

Here's a quick little video clip showing that select and move trick from the drawer resizing part of the last chapter. Thank you to WiZeR for the web space.

Resizing


----------



## Colin C

HI Dave

I have a question :? 
How have you got all the icons on you pictures of sketchup :roll:  

Thanks for this as it will give me some thing to work on for the next 5-6 years :wink:


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Colin, I don't quite understand your question.


----------



## Jake

Print screen, Dave?


----------



## John McM

Dave, that little video clip was great. It is so much easier to understand something when you can see it actually being done. Video is definitely the way to go for tutorials, especially if you can get audio in there somehow. I really hope the webspace issues can be resolved. Topman
John McM


----------



## Colin C

Dave 

When I open SU, I have just the basic ones ( Line, Eraser and circle ), but you seem to have lots more and I guess it is easier to have more on the desk top than have to look for them  

I hope that is clearer


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Ah! I see. Yes, I have a lot of toolbars turned on. I do prefer that to having to go to the menus for everything. I also have a number of keyboard shortcuts set up for functions that don't have tools on toolbars.

Jake, I've been using Wink to do screen capture. The video clip was done using Wink, too.

John, I think you're right. Video makes it easier to understand some of the operations. I wish I could easily do video of everything and post it some place. The problem is small files end up requiring low resolution and that can make it difficult to see the actual operation being done.


----------



## Jake

Ah - try rightclicking with the mouse hovering over the grey menu strip - does it offer additional menu items to tick?


----------



## andrewm

Jake":2741yhbr said:


> Ah - try rightclicking with the mouse hovering over the grey menu strip - does it offer additional menu items to tick?



Doesn't for me but try: View | Toolbars and then select the ones that youwant. I'm with Dave here. I have most of them turned on.

Andrew


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Jake, as Andrew says, View>Toolbars will get you to the ones you have available. You'll notice in the video clip there are more toolbars turned on than in the stills for this tutorial. They were done on two different machines. for the tutorial I turned off many of the toolbars that I normally have turned on. Some of those toolbars that appear in the video clip are generated by Ruby scripts. Housebuilder is the second row of tools across the the top. there is a Selection tools toolbar and a Projection toolbar down on the left side.

My understanding is that those toolbars are not functional in Google SketchUp.

Edited to add: I also set the toolbars to show large icons for the tutorial to make them more visible when I reduce the image sizes after capture.


----------



## Good Surname or what ?

> A left to right selection only selects those line segments that fall entirely within the box. A right to left selection box selects all line segments the even partially fall in the box.



Another revelation!
Thanks
Phil


----------



## Colin C

Thanks 

I now have my toolbars on but now have to go through this thread and try to get it in my head ( like shoe horning an encycopedia in to a pea :roll: ).

I will just have to try harder :wink:


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Colin, the problem is you're not holding your tongue quite right. Try sticking it out on the left side instead of the right.


----------



## Colin C

Thanks Dave

I will have to try that as that might have been why some of it was sticking and some was not :shock: :wink:


----------



## Jake

Dave R":b42cw56y said:


> Jake, as Andrew says, View>Toolbars will get you to the ones you have available.



That's the problem with trying to answer sketchup problems on PC without sketchup installed on it. I should know better!


----------



## gidon

Dave
I use Wink - it's an excellent tool - but the free video hosting sites don't support the Flash format for upload (even though they convert your vids to Flash!). And converting from SWF to AVI only to go back to SWF is too much hassle in my opinion. Plus I reckon the Camstudio tool mentioned above seems pretty well suited for Sketchup actually (especially since your time is of the essence) - since you doing a lot of clicks anyway the file sizes aren't much bigger. 
But the biggest selling point is if you just record to AVI format, you can upload to YouTube - for free (up to 100MB files at a time).
The quality is the only issue, but I just tried it and I think it's good enough to see what you're doing. Could probably get better depending on what codec you choose in Camstudio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsCxmUfU25Q
Cheers
Gidon


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Gidon,

I do need to look at Camstudio. I didn't realize it did AVI output. Maybe Youtube and Camstudio is the answer.

Thanks.

Dave


----------



## SketchUp Guru

That video clip looks good enough I think. I'll have a go at it when I get a minute.


----------



## gidon

Dave
Great - look forward to seeing how it works out!
Cheers
Gidon


----------



## John McM

Chaps,

Google Video has some SU videos using Camstudio and it's free to upload to. Don't know the merits of this site verse Youtube, might be worth a look to compare quality etc.

Regards
John McM


----------



## gidon

John - Google have bought YouTube as of a week ago. I've tried their video site before - it's similiar to YouTube quality-wise. But I guess it'll become trivial as the merger unfolds.
Cheers
Gidon


----------



## garywayne

Hi all.

Dave, or anyone else come to that.

If you want to take screen shots you might want to take a look at this.

http://www.wisepixel.com/

Instead of printing your whole screen, you just print or screen capture the bit you want.

I find it really helpful, and easy enough to use even for someone like me.


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Thanks Gary.

FWIW, Wink will let you select the area you want to capture, too. I set it to do the whole screen for this tutorial so that the VCB and toolbar buttons would be visible.

I started playing with Camstudio last night and it will do the same. AVIs get real big real fast but if youtube will take them I guess that's alright.


----------



## SketchUp Guru

Alright, we've got the armoire drawn and it meets with 'er indoors approval and she's expecting us to build it now. We need some working drawings to print off and take to the shop.

There are a number of ways to do this but this is how I do it. I copy components out away from the model and move those copies around to explode as needed. Then I add dimensions and notes to remind me of what I have to do. Since I've spent this time building, there are some things I know are standard and might not dimension just to avoid clutter.

I make views of assemblies or specific parts as I feel the need. Each view gets a page so that I can easily come back and see it again simply by clicking on the page tabs.

Here are some examples of drawings I made for the armoire.

First, the base assembly. I exploded the parts with the Move tool. I don't put dimensions all parts. The legs are all the same so dimensioning one should be enough. I also don't dimension small details such as the mortises or the chamfers. A note about the chamfers gives enough information.







For small details I'll make another copy and zoom in so the dimensions can be read.






Some things work better with a 2D view or at least we don't need to see them in 3D. The drawing for the corner blocks is fine in 2D. I made four copies and laid them out with saw kerf allowances so I could figure out how much wood I'd need to make them. In this case I added a wood grain texture, too. This is basically to show the direction the grain should run on the parts. The grain direction would be understood from the size of the board I drew under the blocks so the texture wouldn't be needed.






For the side panels I copied them out and laid them next to each other. I left saw kerf allowance between them and laid them so their front edges are together. This shows me I can get the side panels out of a 48" wide ply panel. I would cut to the outside dimensions, cut the grooves and rebates and then separate the sides by cutting down the middle.

I didn't do it for this drawing but I would normally dimension the location of the grooves. Rebate widths and all depths would be given in notes rather than dimensoins.






Finally, there is a basic cutlist Ruby script that works pretty well. The dimensions are given as x,y,z and so you'd need to do a bit of adjusting to make a good list. It generates a CSV file (comma separated values) which can be opened in Excel and edited as needed. Here's a text version of section of the cutlist for the base.

Part #,Description,Width(X),Depth(Y),Height(Z),Layer
1-1, Base Corner Block,~ 4 61/64",~ 4 61/64",3/4", Base Assembly
1-2, Base Corner Block,~ 4 61/64",~ 4 61/64",3/4", Base Assembly
1-3, Base Corner Block,~ 4 61/64",~ 4 61/64",3/4", Base Assembly
1-4, Base Corner Block,~ 4 61/64",~ 4 61/64",3/4", Base Assembly
2-1, Base Front Rail,34",3/4",3 1/2", Base Assembly
3-1, Base Leg,1 3/4",1 3/4",7", Base Assembly
3-2, Base Leg,1 3/4",1 3/4",7", Base Assembly
3-3, Base Leg,1 3/4",1 3/4",7", Base Assembly
3-4, Base Leg,1 3/4",1 3/4",7", Base Assembly
4-1, Base Rear Rail,34",3/4",3 1/2", Base Assembly
5-1, Base Side Rail,3/4",23",3 1/2", Base Assembly
5-2, Base Side Rail,3/4",23",3 1/2", Base Assembly

If you need the cutlist script copy the following text and save it as CutList.rb in the Plugins folder of SU.

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Copyright 2005, CptanPanic 
# Heavily Based on ComponentReporter.rb, Copyright 2005, TIG
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for 
# any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided something the above
# copyright notice appear in all copies.
#
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
# WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Name : CutList.rb
#
# Type : Tool
#
# Description : Makes a cutlist based on all components in mode.
#
# Menu Item : Plugins -> Generate CutList
# Context-Menu: None
#
# Author : CptanPanic
#
# Usage : Call script using Plugins menu, and file name *-CutList.cvs is created in the model's 
# folder. It is readable by text editors, and cutlist programs like CutList Plus.
#
# Date : December 2005
#
# Version :	1.0 Initial Release.
#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

### = TIG tweaking 20/12/05 ###

###############################

require 'sketchup.rb'

### do class

class Reporter

### do def

def Reporter::components

model = Sketchup.active_model
### start undo...
model.start_operation "undo"
entities = model.entities
mname = model.title

### show VCB and status info...
Sketchup::set_status_text(("CUTLIST PLUS..." ), SB_PROMPT)
Sketchup::set_status_text(" ", SB_VCB_LABEL)
Sketchup::set_status_text(" ", SB_VCB_VALUE)

### check model...
mpath = Dir:wd
if mpath == ""
UI.beep
UI.messagebox("You must save the 'Untitled' new model \nbefore making a Component Report !\nExiting... ")
return nil
end

### setup list... ### do it instance by instance as layers might differ... TIG
clist = []
for c in entities
if c.typename == "ComponentInstance"
name = " "+(c.definition.name) ### allows names with - + at start etc
boundingBox = c.bounds
dims = [ boundingBox.width.to_s,boundingBox.height.to_s,boundingBox.depth.to_s ]
layer = " "+(c.layer.name) ### allows names with - + at start etc
clist = clist.push([name,dims[0],dims[1],dims[2],layer])
end#if
end#for c 
clist = clist.sort
###

### if no components exit...
if not clist[0]
UI.beep
UI.messagebox("No Components available to make a Component Report !\nExiting... ")
return nil
end#if
###

### write to csv file...
namecsv = mpath + "/" + mname + "-CutList.csv"
file = File.new(namecsv,"w")
file.puts("Part #,Description,Width(X),Depth(Y),Height(Z),Layer\n") ### title ###
i = 1
ii = 1 ###
ix = ""
cx = "" ###
for c in clist
i = i + 1 if c[0] != cx and cx != ""
ii = 1 if c[0] != cx
ix = " "+i.to_s+"-"+ii.to_s ### avoids 'date' format
file.puts(ix+","+c[0]+","+c[1]+","+c[2]+","+c[3]+","+c[4])
### gives sub-part numbers to same named compos; last = total
ii = ii + 1 ###
cx = c[0] ###
end#for c
file.close
UI.messagebox("CutList written into: \n\n" + namecsv + " \n")
###
### commit undo...
model.commit_operation

end#def components

end#class

### do menu

if( not file_loaded?("CutList.rb") )

add_separator_to_menu("Plugins")
UI.menu("Plugins").add_item("Generate CutList") { Reporter.components }

end#if

file_loaded("ComponentReporter.rb")

###


----------



## John McM

Dave, cracking stuff as usual. I love the exploded view with the notes. How do you turn off the bacground so it's white ? The other thing which is driving me nuts is pages. If you have a simple model with different views on their own page and then say add dimensions to 1 page, how do you stop it appearing on all the others ? I found the section tool by accident, thought this is terrific , tried to make a new page showing just the section and bingo, except everything else was mucked up. Ahhhhhhhh. Why is there an Update option on the page tab (under rightclick) and another on page manager ? And if you click this one it gives you another menu with update again. 
Still, everything else is the dogs ...........
Thanks again
John McM


----------



## SketchUp Guru

John, the quick answer to your questions is "Layers". Put the dimensions on a layer and turn the layer off in the pages where you don't want to see it. In the case of this armoire, I did not put dimensions and text on layers. I just copied the parts to other areas of the model space and limited the view before setting the page. Here's an overall view of the model at this point.






The background was set to white under Window>Model Info>Colors. I didn't have the ground and sky turned on as is the default case in Google SketchUp. The earlier views with the greenish background was set by clicking the little square to the left of the label called Background. Uncheck Sky and Ground to get rid of them.

As far a the sections go, you need to make sure you don't update Sections when updating the page. Right click a page tab and choose Page menu. Select the page you want to update from the list and click Update. Uncheck the things you don't want to change.

I hope that makes sense.


----------



## John McM

Yes got it now Dave, as usual the fault lies with me. SU really is terrific. Tourguide slideshow is amazing when you include a section of your model and a relatively slow transition. Thanks again
John McM


----------



## SketchUp Guru

And you all thought I was finally finished. I've got two more topics to cover. Please bear with me.

First, lets talk about Nested Components. These are components that lie inside a larger component. In the armoire model, each of the five components that make up a drawer are nested inside a "drawer component. The same applies to the doors.

SketchUp has an accessory called Outliner (Window>Outliner) that gives a list of all the components in your model. Here's part of the outliner for the armoire.






Notice I have selected the left door component and it is highlighted in the Outliner. I could have clicked on a component in the Outliner and it would have been highlighted in the drawing as well. Also note that under "door assembly" we have a list of the components that make up the door assembly. Those are nested components

The outliner is handy when your model gets to be very complex because it lets you see the relationship of components to each other. You can always add nesting components to a component if you want. We're going to do that when we make the knobs.

*Knobs*

I'm going to draw the knobs and install them on the armoire. This takes much longer to show than actually do. I started out with some construction lines to locate the centers of the knobs. You'll see I've only located points for one door and one of each of the drawers. Since these are components, I only need to edit one of each of them to have the work done in all of them.






I selected one door to edit, drew a circle which will be the path for Follow Me and I drew a plane to work on because I'm going to use a Bezier curve to define most of the profile of the knob. The size of the circle and the plane aren't critical. I also added some construction lines as guides and a line on the centerline of the knob. The weird blue stuff in the circle indicates that there are two faces in the same plane and the video card isn't quite sure what to do with them. It's no big deal for us right now.






I drew the profile of the knob using the Bezier tool. I set the degree to 4 before proceeding. I also added a short line between the end of the curve and the door to complete the profile.






I deleted the waste. You can see a second knob profile in the background. that one is being drawn in the other door component.






Select the circle.






Get the follow Me tool.






Click on the profile and presto! A knob. It's blue which means it is inside out so we'll fix that. I selected the a surface on the knob and then, from the context (right click) menu selected Reverse faces.











I selected that surface again, right clicked and chose Orient faces. I could have selected the entire knob and reversed all of the faces but I wanted to show both operations. Sometimes you have a mix of front and back faces and it is easier to use Orient faces in a case like that.











I softened the circle on the end of the knob.






Then I deleted the circular path from the follow Me operation.






And made the knob a component.






Two knobs are done and they are in place. It's time to make knobs for the drawers.

With the knob selected I click Copy from the toolbar at the top of the screen.

[imghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/SketchUp%20Demos/ArmoireKnobs15.jpg[/img]

I select one of the drawer components for editing and paste the knob.











Then I move the knob into place






And copy the knob to the other end with Ctrl+Move tool. Once the first knob is in place I can start the Move tool on the vertical construction line and drag the knob to the other construction line.






I repeated that whole procedure for one of the large drawers and I'm finished.






Since I was working inside components I only needed to edit one of each to complete the work on all.


----------



## garywayne

Keep it coming Dave. I think we could do with as much advise as possible.


----------



## John McM

And I thought you'd finished! You're full of surprises. Another cracking lesson. Cheers Dave
John McM


----------



## Anonymous

Hi Dave,

We haven't talked before but I have been avidly following one of your Sketchup 'tutorials' that you posted some months ago for constructing an armoire. I have to say that this has been truly excellent and made me realise what I can (or will be able to) to with the package.

Now for the problem....

I have got as far as the point where you are apply the top cornice and using the 'intersect with model' routine. I am able to draw all the cornice, then draw the intersect plane for the mitre, select it and make the intersection. This all works fine but the problem I am having is then getting rid of the waste. The program seems to ignore the new intersection and so when I go to delete part of a line, some or all of the component disappears with it. I have trield all sorts of combinations but just can't get it to work.

I am assuming that in your tutorial you overlap the two cornice pieces (at right angles to each other) prior to intersecting. This is what I have been doing but the intersect only appears to apply to one of the two components.

Any ideas??

Also, if I have an object on the screen (say a rectangular box) and a 
bring another object up to it so that they are touching I don't seem to be able to subsequently move either one without affecting the geometry of the other. If the objects are both defined as components then I can seperate them but not if they are not defined components. Is there any way around this?

Many thanks in advance and keep up the excellent work!!

All the best,

Paul.


----------



## SketchUp Guru

100wheeler":32gfi1z2 said:


> Hi Dave,
> 
> We haven't talked before but I have been avidly following one of your Sketchup 'tutorials' that you posted some months ago for constructing an armoire. I have to say that this has been truly excellent and made me realise what I can (or will be able to) to with the package.



Paul, thank you. I'm glad it is helping you out.



> Now for the problem....
> 
> I have got as far as the point where you are apply the top cornice and using the 'intersect with model' routine. I am able to draw all the cornice, then draw the intersect plane for the mitre, select it and make the intersection. This all works fine but the problem I am having is then getting rid of the waste. The program seems to ignore the new intersection and so when I go to delete part of a line, some or all of the component disappears with it. I have trield all sorts of combinations but just can't get it to work.
> 
> I am assuming that in your tutorial you overlap the two cornice pieces (at right angles to each other) prior to intersecting. This is what I have been doing but the intersect only appears to apply to one of the two components.
> 
> Any ideas??



If you've made the cornice piece a component, you need to be editing the component when you draw the cutting plane. Otherwise the Intersect with model has no affect on the component.

In the tutorial I did not overlap the cornice pieces. I drew one side first, cut the mitre with the cutting plane, copied it to the opposite side and mirrorered it and then moved on to the front piece. The front piece is actually a copy of one of the side pieces. I rotated it and moved it into place as needed to get the mitre to fit at the one end. (Copy the right side piece and rotate it 90° and move it to bring its mitred end up to the mitred end on the left hand side piece.) _That copy of the component needs to be made Unique before editing it._ Then I used Push/Pull to adjust the length of the front piece and cut the miter on the opposite end. With the front piece opened for editing, running Intersect with model would get you the lines for trimmming from the right side piece.





> Also, if I have an object on the screen (say a rectangular box) and a
> bring another object up to it so that they are touching I don't seem to be able to subsequently move either one without affecting the geometry of the other. If the objects are both defined as components then I can seperate them but not if they are not defined components. Is there any way around this?



No. That's the whole point. Geometry is connected to other geometry automatically unless you make components or groups. Actually, only one of the boxes would need to be defined as a component or a group to keep the two from sticking together. Is there a situation where making the boxes into components is a problem?



> Many thanks in advance and keep up the excellent work!!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Paul.



Glad to help.


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## Anonymous

Dave,

What a great help! Having read your reply, I performed the intersection first time! I should have asked earlier - I probably spent 6-7 hours trying to get the thing to work....

As for the component geometry, as you say there is no problem in generating lots of components. I guess I didn't really understand the importance.

Anyway, thanks again for your help. I will continue to follow the tutorial to it's conclusion. Hopefully I can get there on my own....

Regards,

Paul.


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## MooreToolsPlease

Hi Dave,
First of all I just wanna say thanks for such a great tutorial!
I have been with you every step of the way up until now, 
I'm having problems re-sizing the drawers.
Whenever I drag a left to right selection box, it doesnt pick up and highlight anything at all?
But it does select the whole drawer front when I want it to
Is there something obvious that I havent done here?


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## SketchUp Guru

Matt,, unfortunately I don't have much time at this moment to fully answer your question. I will later this evening.

If you see this before I get back to write a longer reply, tell me, when you do the selection are you doing it to a component that is open for editing or are you starting with nothing selected?


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## MooreToolsPlease

I have tried both and neither seem to want to work.
I have tried again from scratch with a new drawer, 
before I got too far along with it I tried it and I think [-o< that it will work


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## SketchUp Guru

I hope you do have it. I'm sending you a PM, too. Check that for some help.


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## SketchUp Guru

I think this tutorial has run its course. If no one cares I am going to delete the images from the photobucket album to make room for other images. I'll do this on Thursday if I everyone has finished with it.

Cheers.

Dave


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## Nick W

Dave,

If at all possible please don't do that. I think that this is a very good resource, and deserves to be kept. Could you not open another Photobucket account if you need the space?


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## Colin C

[-o< [-o< 
Please Dave 
Dont do it as I still have to try and work my way through it and as Nick has said, it is a great resource.


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## Alf

Ooo, Dave, _please_ don't ditch the images. [-o< [-o< [-o< 

Still adrift with SU, Alf


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## Chris Knight

Dave,
I have plenty of space - I can host this stuff on my site if you would like.

Chris


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## SketchUp Guru

Alright, don't grovel.  I'll leave the images. I didn't think anyone was using it anymore.

Chris, thanks for the offer. I'll leave them where they are now but maybe later we can do that.


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## seanybaby

Dave, great tutorial  I have read the whole thing this morning after playing with SU for a few hours and couldn't even mirror a line  

So this will be a huge help and i will go through the project from start to finish.

Thanks again


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## TonyW

Dave
Just came across your tutorials - absolutely great \/ 

I am not a SU user, however I intend to follow your examples and see how I can apply your drawing techniques to my application - Turbocad.

I know how much time and effort must have gone into this project. 

I do hope that you are able to keep the tutorials on line for the foreseeable future

Cheers  
Tony


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