![]() ![]() If you’re a beginner to 3D modelling, the free version, Web, is perfect for getting to grips with the programme. If you’re a professional wanting to learn Sketchup for carpenters, the Pro version might be your best bet. Another advantage of SketchUp Pro is its superb sandbox tools for modelling terrain and making realistic environments. SketchUp Pro lets you make amazing walk through animations, and Pro comes with cool – a great, intuitive way of presenting your 3D model. The simplest way to present a SketchUp model is by exporting an image of it, which the free version can do at a lower quality than Pro. And while the free one doesn’t, SketchUp Pro makes 3D models from 2D designs. The free version has a great selection of tools too. How does the free version compare with the paid ones? The Pro version comes with advanced tools for modelling and design presentations for Sketchup for woodworking professionals. There are some graphic card and hardware requirements but they’re basic enough. There are paid versions and a free version, originally called Sketchup Free and now called Sketchup Web, a limited but still awesome version that only runs on a web browser. It’s available for Mac and Windows machines. There’s just one installer and you set the language during installation. The downloading, installing and activating process is quick and simple. ![]() ![]() As a bonus, these patterns also gave me the exact location and size of the through mortises.First of all, you’ll need to download SketchUp. In addition to an easy to use cutlist, I also generated full size patterns for the shape of the side pieces. All I need to do is click on the right points in the model with the dimension tool, and SketchUp lets me know what the real sizes are.įor me, this is the ultimate reason for using SketchUp, it speeds up the process and gets me out to the shop sooner, armed with reliable information so I don’t have to stop building to revisit the planning. The other benefit is that if I have a carefully constructed model – I don’t need to do any calculating to arrive at sizes. It is also far more useful because I can include additional information, such as the size and location of joints, and when I refer to it I don’t have to find a detail in the drawing then hunt it down in the cutlist. The elapsed time between these two screen shots is about two minutes, far less time than it would take me to write a cutlist the traditional way. Because of the way SketchUp works, this process is quite fast. Then I grab the dimension tool from the toolbar and put in the dimensions I want to see when I’m selecting material and fabricating the parts. What I’m after is an arrangement where I can clearly see the size and shape of each part. When the parts are in the model, I move and rotate them so that they are in the same neighborhood. This is a simple piece with few parts, but I use the same approach with more complex projects. After completing the model, I navigate to an empty area and drag parts of the model from the components window into the model space. I did make some prints from the model to use as a reference in the shop, but what I find useful when building doesn’t look like a traditional drawing. When I built the piece, I worked from a SketchUp model. ![]() But the reasons why these types of drawings were developed isn’t because they are the best way to communicate information, this tradition developed because this is a quick and easy way to create a technical drawing by hand and put it on the printed page. We do it this way because we’ve always done it this way, as have other publications for the last century or so. As a reader, you expect to see this form and we’ve never really questioned whether or not this is what we should print. The first image (at right) is the illustration as it appeared in print, and the second image (at left) is the cutlist published in the magazine. 74 Book rack I built for the August 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Here is an example, using the Gustav Stickley No. This is the case with shop drawings, cutlists, and the adoption of SketchUp as a design and planning tool. ![]()
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