What's the best way to do this?

[Jason Creager]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting to learn SketchUp again after several months' break and found my first drawing. I've been taking my time and working through the tutorials again, but you know how that goes when you have a specific goal in mind and you're itching to get to it.

This is a model of my uromastyx cage from when I first started. I drew this by drawing the rectangles, setting the size with the VCB, then pulling them into 3D. The dados were added by pushing into the board. I tried to rout through the board, but kept running into some hangup.

Somehow, I managed to define components of everything that was duplicated. If I can get a couple of nagging questions answered, I might be able to concentrate more on learning the entire program instead of being bothered by that "why doesn't it do that?" thought.

First, what's the most efficient way to draw this? I already knew the dimensions and already have a database to calculate the sizes for any new projects, but was this the best way? I also experimented with making a cube to size, then pushing it into shape but that seemed like the long way to do it.

Second, I would like to be able to add the sliding glass doors and track. Would it be better to model these in their own files, then import them as components? I assume the track would be a rather simple matter of defining the shape, then doing a FollowMe for the length. I'd really like to be able to show someone what their cage would look like ahead of time.

Thanks for the help while I keep trudging forward!

Jason

[John Schreiber]

I'm no expert, but I'll give you my two cents at least.

I think you are taking the right approach with the design. If I'm drawing something where I'm pretty sure I know what I am aiming at, I model each board or part in the place where I want it, make any modifications like dadoes or edges using some combination of eyeball and VCB, then make it into a component. If I know I'll need a copy of that component, I copy it right then and move it into place.

For the sliding glass doors, I'd find the exact specs for what you are going to use. Then you can draw them up either in a separate file or in the same file as the rest of the drawing. Since you will probably be using the doors in a number of models, you will want to do have them available as components. Right click on the component and "save as. . ." into your component library. Then later when you are doing another cage, it's a snap to go to "file" "import" and pull up the component which you need. You can then use the component as is or modify it.

You mentioned using "follow me" to stretch out the length of track. Assuming the track will be straight, I think that after you draw the profile of the track, the "push pull" tool is what you want. The time when you want to use "follow me" is when you are following a curve or going around a corner with a profile.


Good luck. I'd never heard of a uromastyx before, but now I can say for sure that I'm glad you are making cages for them rather than letting them roam around the house.

[Jason Creager]

Thanks, John. I've played around with it a bit more and came up with this. The glass track was easy to draw from memory and it's amazingly accurate.

I tried doing a scratch version by drawing the board profile, notching out the dados by measuring and drawing with a pencil, then pushing the face to size. I'm still having trouble moving things around easily and getting them to stick together and not merge, but I'm working my way through the manual and videos.

There's a lot to learn, but it's worth it. I showed it to a guy at work who used to do 3D animation. He was very impressed with SketchUp and its speed. I bet he'll spend a few hours sketching tonight.

[John Schreiber]

Here are some things I think of as tricks that I gradually picked up, but which I either didn't see or missed when I went through the tutorials. In no particular order:


Use construction/guide lines liberally. If you take the time to slide them into place before you modify an object, then the ending points of the lines or curves you draw are much more likely to end up in the right place.

Make each piece of wood into a component before you move on to the next piece of wood. That way, you can still reference and align with the already created object, but your new object will be independent of the old one.

Moving things precisely relative to other objects is easy if you first establish in your mind 1) what intersection of lines or midpoint will be the destination for the move and 2) exactly what part of the object which I am moving is supposed to end up at that destination. Sometimes you need to create the destination intersection, usually using guidelines, before you start the move. Then select what you want to move. Use the move tool to grab the part of what is selected which will go to the destination you defined earlier, then move that point to the new point. Sometimes it has to be moved a couple of times depending on the relative orientation of the objects. That took me a long time to learn.

Selecting things is different when you select from the right than from the left. If you select something by moving the mouse from the right, everything which is a part of what is inside your selection box will be selected. If you select something by moving the mouse from the left, only things which are completely inside your selection box will be selected. Knowing that makes SU much easier to use.


I'm sure a lot of what I wrote above was obvious to most people when they learned SketchUp, but I didn't figure them out until I had used it for a while.