I recently purchased Aaron’s book (yep, he has one) partially due to the fact that I was very curious as to what he’s written about Sketchup vs. what I already knew. Even a seasoned SU user like me, still had much more to learn, and his book proved it. I won’t go into further details of what the book contains (can’t give away spoilers), but what I will say is that his book clears up a lot of confusion, and even got me to take a step back and assess my process. There’s a wealth of information in this book that will help me be, not only a better modeler, but a better trainer to the people I work with.
One point that can be made for the way Aaron wrote this book is about how to create something from nothing, without the usage of 3rd party extensions. Granted, it was a simple object, but more to the point that with a little time and patience, you can achieve the same results on your own, with native tools, as opposed to possibly spending extra cash on an extension to accomplish the same goal. I’m not knocking authors of third-party extensions by any means (I’m just as guilty of using extensions, some paid for), but in doing so, I honestly was in a hurry, rather than really sitting down to just learn SU and all that it has to offer.
I’m not completely finished with his book yet, but for the majority of it that I have read through, my eyes are a lot more open to just how good SU is. I read a lot of comments in the community about development of SU by the staff, and how it may not be enough to please the masses, or in that certain functionality not being present, which makes users believe that 3rd party extensions are the only solution, but in truth, SU is a pretty solid piece of software that can do a lot more under the hood than people think, if they just took the time to really learn SU.
Long story short (I know, too late), Aaron did an excellent job of writing a book that really can teach beginners and seasoned users SU the right way, with well-thought out explanations, concepts and fundamentals, which are essential to using SU the right way. Considering that I’ve been using SU for 6 years now, I knew there were some aspects of SU I never investigated or bothered with, but now, I feel more confident with stepping back and reviewing everything I’ve learned and adding in a little more of what I hadn’t. Since I use SU both professionally and as a hobby, I may find that I won’t be using half of the extensions in my arsenal, in favor of going at it from scratch because in the end, doing it this way will cut down on errors and frustration much more than before.
Thanks very much Aaron, you did a great job!
