Newbie question. I am brand new to Sketchup. I am attempting to draw a bed platform with drawers and include material thicknesses. My current drawing has six sides; top, bottom, sides and front and back. I am attempting to add two drawers side by side and a third item, an opening in the front about half the length of the carcass.
Where I am struggling is pulling the front or rear surface moves the surface completely and not creating an internal drawer- example: three drawers. First two on the right and center run the entire length of the carcass. The one on the right is an opening running half the length with a drawer beginning after and extending to the end of the carcass. How do I do this? Hope this explanation is understandable. If I could draw it, :-), I could better show it.
Currently you have a simple box and nothing more. You should be modeling the individual pieces that you would make in the shop. So the top of the box would start as a large rectangle which you would extrude to 3/4 in. thick with Push/Pull. Make that a component so nothing sticks to it and draw a side of the box and make it a component. The side can be copied to the opposite side to make the second one.Keep modeling the parts. If you need to cut an opening for a drawer, open the component for editing and add the hole. Probably the Rectangle tool followed by Push/Pull. Keep going until you have the entire bed and all the parts modeled.
Your box is on the left. I’ve started to redo it as if each part is 3/4 in. thick. I’ve exploded it to that the parts are separate and not a monolithic thing like you’ve modeled.
With something like this it shouldn’t be difficult to keep things on axis. My preferred modeling method is to start with something I know–in this case, maybe the platform since its dimensions are driven by the size of the mattress. Then I would start adding parts to it. This way you don’t need to know every dimension for every part. You let SketchUp tell you that info when you need it. It should also give you an opportunity to think about the construction process and things like which parts should have exposed edges and which shouldn’t. Or what sort of internal framing are you going to need to keep the platform from sagging?
Remember to make the part a component before you move on to the next one. use copies when you have multiples that are identical to save yourself work now and later when you need to make changes.
After making the front and rear panels I sized them, 52"x18"x3/4". I then attempted to make the top and bottom panels, 52"x60"x3/4". But when I used the tape measure to measure the width and then adjusted the width to 52", it resized the front and rear panels to 8’ 6 7/8". Bed Platform Carcass 2.skp (124.1 KB) Bed Platform Carcass.skp (126.7 KB)
Don’t use the Tape Measure tool to change the dimensions. That’s a scaling operation and will scale all three dimensions proportionately. Also, when you use the Tape Measure the way you did, you scaled the entire model, not just the one rectangle. That’s not what you want to do in this case. If you want to make the panel larger or smaller, open the component for editing and use Push/Pull on the edge.
Use components, not groups for this. That will save you a lot of work.
Architectural units aren’t appropriate for this kind of project. Instead, use Fractional and set Precision to 1/64th in. Do this in Model Info>Units.
You’ll also save yourself work if you model in place. Here I’ve drawn the end panel to your dimensions. Then I copied it to the other end of the bed so there’s 60 in. between (which seems kind of short but it’s what you wrote)
It’s easily modified though.
With those two components in place, I drew the panel to fit between them using the end panels as a reference. This is less work and in this case, the only dimension I had to enter for the panel is the thickness.
You’re quite welcome. For what it’s worth, I use this same basic workflow for even the most complicated models. Easier, faster, less prone to developing errors.
Ha! Funny thing is you are correct- Mine is actually a 6’ bed. I had been talking to a friend about his truck who has a 5’ bed. So mine is actually 72" long. You are a true God send.
Use Move/Copy to place the copy straight back behind the front one. If you want 62 inches between them, you would need to move the copy back 62-3/4 in. to account for the thickness of the panel. Invoke the copy function of the Move tool by hitting Option.
Still mucking around here… my components are not lining up exactly. I can get them close but there are gaps. As I try to get them close they tend to jump past the intersection point.
When you grab a component with the Move tool, grab it by a corner that has a destination such as the corner on a neighboring part.
The dotted lines indicate you’ve opened the component for editing. Generaly if you are moving the component, you do not want to open it for editing. Single click on the component so it shows the blue bounding box as you see in my GIFs.
