Understanding and using SketchUp's native tools

No worries, yep I am an oldie newbie, I don’t mind changing, can’t stay in the past, thANKS AGAIN FOR POINTING OUT WHERE I CAN IMPROVE…

Have a great night,

Jack

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An observation from another oldie …

In a former life, I used a variety of CAD/CAM packages that integrated the creation of geometry with CNC operations. When you “drilled” a hole in a material, you created it by specifying the drill diameter and length, the spindle speed desired, the feed rate into and back out of the hole as well as an optional “pick” rate. The CAD part of the software showed the hole that was formed (including the cone at the bottom of a blind hole), and the CAM portion would output the “G” commands to actually drill the hole with a 3-axis mill (or other). At the time, this was the Holy Grail of the design-to-part-in-hand process.

Today, CAD and CAM have become more decoupled from each other. If you can design a part in 3D and tessellate it into an ordered mesh of triangles, it can then be 3D printed in a wide variety of materials that don’t care where a hole came from. Or if it’s round or oval or if it curves through the part. This separation of the design and manufacturing processes has resulted in products like SketchUp that allow a designer to easily create the geometry they desire without worrying too much about how it’s going to be made.

You can “build” almost anything in SketchUp using the basic tools and some patience. If the tools are not enough, you can add extensions (or plugins) for more specific operations (or write your own). When you’re finally ready to give birth to your creation, you can render it or plot it or 3D print it as desired.

IMHO, SketchUp rocks :wink:

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Thanks jimhami42, i too am trying to learn to decouple as it where from CAD/CAM, I have a degree in manufacturing, long time ago, things are different now, that’s ok, i’ll learn.

Have a great day and thanks for your response.

jack g

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The two cats too ? :wink:

Those I caught :sunny:

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7 posts were split to a new topic: How do you Stretch a Vertex?

The best way to learn something like SU is to build with it. Go to some woodworking sites and find some free plans of smaller/simpler woodworking projects. Model those objects like you’re physically building them. One pointer: for each assembly piece create a component of it.

GREAT idea!!! Especially the component part, I keep forgetting to do this, or group it, I’ll spend hours on a project, I need to change something in the middle, major problem.

I appreciate you taking time for me and sending me an email.

Jack

Sure thing Jack.

Right when I start on an object/part, I create a component out of it. Even if its just a rectangle at first, I make it a component. I’ve found that to be a helpful step in my modeling.

TIP: components vs. group - when you edit a component, any copies of that component are also edited in the same exact way. Whereas groups, if you edit one, its copy is not affected.

Thanks Karisfa,

Have a great day.

Jack g

More specifically, a copy of the group’s definition is made, and the group instance you are editing is made an instance of this new group definition. This is automatic “make unique”. You can also cause this manually via the right-click on a group, and choosing “Make Unique” from the popup context menu.

KEEP ON ASKING, SOMEBODY IN SKETCHUP WILL Have the answer for you

I can see how a ‘drill’ would be useful in making a hole along a path through several pieces of geometry. like through two ‘boards’ at once.

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It is a PRO feature, but Solid Tool’s Trim command can be used to “drill” one shape through multiple others:

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“Match drilling” is a useful technique for aligning things (like holes) in the real world under somewhat crude production conditions, and generally for one-off parts only, since you can hardly have interchangeable items if you’re going to custom fab each matching pair.

The availablity of inferencing in SU to align features or entire objects along any axis or edge more or less obviates any need for match drilling, and I daresay if there were some comparable “force” available in the real world, match drilling wouldn’t be needed there either.

Of course, you can simulate the operation of a long drill bit if you want to, even without Pro (using Intersect Faces), but it may or may not make sense or be necessary to “drill two holes at once” if you can merely project a hole onto another face at any time.

-Gully

Seems to me, I did mention that a ‘drill’ might be a useful ‘tool’ in SU, probably other folks also want a ‘drill’. For SU

Jack

Thanks for sending…

It seems to me that the first few thoughts that occur to someone about how to improve SU–before they’ve really even learned to use it–might not be the ones to adopt.

Even though a lot of new users may have the same ideas of what they’d like to see (one or two in particular come to mind), I think it’s telling that these ideas are hardly ever put forward by experienced users, which suggests that once one learns to use the program one stops asking for features that are neither as effective nor as versatile as the features it already has.

-Gully

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Makes sense, I agree with you, I have a lot to learn, I’ll be quite now…

Gully_Foyle, I want to say thank you for all the help you have given me.

Jack gilbert

these folks are helpful, but I would like to add a comment.

You mention that some ideas aren’t put forth by those with experience.

I would argue that they have learned how to do it other ways and that has become normal to them.

Not necessarily the intuitive way to do it. Nor are those ways always the most efficient.

Take the scale tool. it works great, but it I as a new user would love to see it display the longest length on the axis you are adjusting. Will this always get the right two points on each axis? No, but you can ignore it if not, and for simple shapes, it would likely be right.

Doing this would more often than not save time in the modeling process. It won’t add time ever.

I do love sketchup though and wish it a long long run.

Do you know that you can start scaling along that axis then type a specific distance with units (1.3m or 1’6" etc) and hit enter, and it will scale to that size.