SU Project and Final Product

[Jon Fowler]

I want to begin by thanking you guys for all the fantastic information you share on this site. I discovered SU here and it has renewed my desire to design and build new wordworking projects.

I now have quite of few ideas drawn up in SU and attached is my original drawing and picture of my first project.

I have two Grandsons ages 3 and 5 and have to share a bedroom in a 2 bedroom mobile home so they don't have a lot of room for all the toys we buy them. This table rolls under their bunkbed and the drawers hold all of the Matchbox cars.

[John Schreiber]

Jon,

That looks great. Thanks for posting the SU file too. It's fun to look out how other people do their drawings.

Hope your grandsons get plenty of use out of it.

[Dave Richards]

Looks like a great project. I'll bet the boys like having it around.

Thanks too for posting the model. Of course I couldn't help myself. I fixed some minor things and made all the parts separate so it would be easier for someone to make a working drawing from it. I hope you don't mind.

[Jon Fowler]

Of course I don't mind!!! I consider it an honor to have you edit my work.

I grouped the individual pieces hoping it would reduce the over all file size so I could post it. That did not work so I zipped it. How did you reduce the file size?

[Dave Richards]

Glad you didn't mind.

How did I reduce the file size? Components, sir, components. If you look at my version you'll see that the box sides forexample are related--one is a copy of the other. The same with the internal frame sides and with the drawer parts. For the entire model there are a total of 29 component instances including the casters and there are only 15 component instances. In other words If you cut all the pieces and laid them out, there would be 23 pieces of wood plus six casters. (I did leave out the drawer glides, though.)

SU only has to keep track of the geometry for those 13 component instances, not all 29 parts. There is a big savings in file size with the casters. For some reason the circle that makes up the exterior edge of the tire has 26 segments (the default circle uses 24 segments). This means there are 26 faces and all those line segments around the tread of the tire. In your model, the caster wasn't a component so with 6 of them the file size would have been inflated a lot.

There were also a lot of unused colors in the In model tab of the Materials browser. I deleted those as well which helps to reduce file size.

[Todd Burch]

And, here is what a Ruby script can do for you. I ran exim.rb against Dave's version of the model to create an exploded diagram.

Todd

[Jon Fowler]

Time to do a serious search for a thread on running Ruby scripts. I have read about them here at Sawmill Creek and I tried to figure one out but could not get it to work. Does the freeby version of SU support Ruby to the same level as the pro version?

[Dave Richards]

Jon,

Yes, you can run most Rubies on the free version. Todd's the expert but I believe the primary difference is that the pro version supports added toolbars which are certainly handy for running some of the scripts.

Check out smustard.com--exim.rb is available there. A word of advice, though. Don't go crazy downloading scripts. They slow down starting of SU and fill up menus.

[Todd Burch]

I will tactfully reword Dave's advice on Ruby scripts:

Download any ruby script that you plan on using and that you feel will be used in your workflow. If you find you are not using it, move it to a different directory in case you want to use it later.

For the most part, as Dave says, there is very little difference between Pro and Free in regard to Ruby scripts. The single difference is that Free cannot run encrypted ruby scripts. The majority of scripts are not encrypted. If they end in .rb, they are not encrypted. If they end in .rbs ("s" stands for "scrambled"), they are encrypted and won't load in the Free version of SketchUp.

Todd

[Jon Fowler]

Thank you Todd and Dave.

I checked out the website for Ruby scripts and will probably download and try one out later this evening. I tried running one a few weeks ago and did not have much luck. I need to hunt down the instructions for running a ruby script. I am sure I have them somewhere in amongst the rest of the SU tutorials and hints Dave has posted.

[Dave Richards]

John, the instructions for running the script will vary depending upon the script. After installing the script in the Plugins folder, open it in a text editor such as Notepad. Scroll to the bottom. That last few lines will show you where the script should appear. In other which menu. Some scripts such as weld.rb require you to select two or more line segments before running it. Others such as bezier.rb require the script to be select before drawing the curve.

Search through the Design forum for more on scripts. There should be plenty to get you going.

[Jon Fowler]

Thank you Dave. That sounds to simple. I will copy and paste this hint into my One Note folder with the rest of your helpful hints I have found in the forums

[Robin Fowler]

My dear husband Jon Fowler passed away on December 20th. He was sitting on the couch with his laptop in his lap and saying goodnight to our grandbabies.

He then put his head back and died.

I am so thankful for any help you all gave him as he left these beautiful projects for our grandsons.

Thank you
Robin Fowler
Robinf@mfx.net

[Robin Fowler]

My dear husband Jon Fowler passed away on December 20th. He was sitting on the couch with his laptop in his lap and saying goodnight to our grandbabies.

He then put his head back and died.

I am so thankful for any help you all gave him as he left these beautiful projects for our grandsons.

Thank you
Robin Fowler
Robinf@mfx.net

[Todd Burch]

Wow. Sorry to hear that Robin. My condolences.

Todd.