I want to model it as if it was made out of wooden panels (say 16mm thick ply). I’m assuming I can model the individual panels and join them together? However, whichever way I model it, I can never get the panels to ‘join’ correctly at the corners of the box. Sometime it overlaps, or goes in the wrong direction, or merges into the adjacent panel. Sometimes a panel is missing an entire face! (Sorry, I’m not explaining it very well.)
Any tips for modelling ‘panels’ and ‘boxes’? Or can you point me to some appropriate videos?
Make the geometry for each part a component. Start with the bottom, draw a rectangle, use Push/Pull to give it the 16mm thickness, select the geometry, create a component. Then get the Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle for the edge of one of the sides. Pull it up to height select only this new geometry and make a component of that. Rinse and repeat for the neighboring side.
Maybe before you get into that too far you should go through the educational content at learn.sketchup.com
You also need to consider what type of joints you are going to use for your box. Google wood joint for boxes and take a look at all the different types of joints you can use. Butt joints are probably the weakest joints for a box so maybe box or dovetail joints might be more appropriate for your design.
Many thanks for the responses! I’ve decided to work my way through the tutorials (to stop me asking silly questions!) - thanks DaveR. Thanks also to mballes for the pdf on various wood joints. I was just going to model butt joints to get the overall size and shape, but that’s a really useful article.