Hello everyone,
I am new here and to SketchUp, but I have good modeling understanding and have used 3D CAD software before.
I have created a model in SketchUp Pro 2020 with about 60 components, everything to the best of my knowledge has gone well and is in order.
Now I would like to make a document with diagrams of each component with precise measurements of the components. Is there any easy way of producing this using the software or an extension?
I have used the OpenCutter extension, it gets close to what I need but only offers the overall length, width, thickness of each component. As mentioned above I need a more comprehensive list and diagrams of each component because some have cut out sections or 45 Deg angles at the end, other than that they are basic panels.
From briefly researching this topic I can see the CuttingList extension offered quite good results, but it is no longer available for the 2020 version. So I downloaded the 2017 Make version but cannot open a newer file, anyway this seems to be a very long winded way of achieving what I need.
Thanks for any of your advice, I am sure this topic has been covered and I just can’t find it!!
Cut list extensions report the dimensions of the components’ bounding boxes. To show more dimensions, you can create 2D views of the parts and add dimensions to them. I do this for woodworking plans using LayOut.
Which “CuttingList” extension are you referring to?
Correction to my first message, I have used OpenCutList extension for SketchUp 2020.
Again apologies for my second mistake, I meant CutList extension, which is only offered for previous versions of SketchUp, which I haven’t used but seems to offer people good results.
Ok, your option using Layout sounds good. I haven’t used Layout yet, is it easy to use? how do I select one component from the model?
It is for woodworking panels.
Does Layout offer more benefits than just simply adding dimensions to the model in SketchUp model view, like the uploaded picture I have just created. Other than obviously being a bit cowboy ha!
The CutList extension works just fine in SketchUp 2020 despite not being marked for it in the Extension Warehouse. It’s my go-to for creating such lists.
It is easy to use but you have to learn how to use it. LayOut is designed to take views of your SketchUp file and combine them with text, images and other content for creating documents.
You don’t do that in LayOut. Best practice is to create scenes in your SketchUp model that show the parts you need and use those as viewports in LayOut. Then use LayOut’s Dimension and other text tools to add the details.
It’ll work just fine for that.
Yes. You set the paper size you want to print to, set up the views–more than one on a page if desired, set scale for the viewports if appropriate (you can make full sized patterns if needed), add spreadsheets (I do that with the cut list output from SketchUp) and whatever other content you need. Of course like anything else, it’s only as good as what goes into it and that’s your doing. It would be worth spending some time with the Essentials and learn how to use LayOut.
Here’s a recent example of a plan done in SketchUp and LayOut. The dimensioned views of the parts are shown at full size so the shapes can be lifted directly off the sheet. The cutlist is inserted as a .xlsx file, lower left, and the exploded views are labeled with LayOut’s Label tool.
CutLIst 4 is still quite compatible with SketchUp 2020, but because the original developer passed away a few years ago nobody else can update the compatibility in the Extension Warehouse.
So, I watched all the essentials videos and followed along with the exercises.
So my understanding is I should make scenes of each component on there own with all other components hidden in the model and then import the scenes into Layout, where I can dimension and title all the individual pieces/components of my model. Is this a good method?
Yes, that is what all the cut list extensions do. Their intent is to show the size board you will need to cut out the part. To get the smallest possible board or to determine which way is taken as “length” you can change the axes of a component to align with the desired direction.
Edit: if you need full size patterns, it is a lot easier to create them using LayOut.
Well, sort of. Use tags to control the visibility of the components. Use scenes to create different views of the model. I often lump like parts into a single scene so they can be shown together. I make copies of components to create exploded views and 2-view or 3-view illustrations of individual parts for dimensioning.
In the screen shot I posted the other day, you can see the assembled copt of the model along with the exploded view, 2D views of the parts and a detail view showing the insertion of the wedge into the top of the post. Each of those is a different scene in SketchUp. This is what it looks like in the model.
Ok great, thanks for the help, I have looked up tags and have a basic understanding of what they are for now.
So I’ll create a tag for each component / or similar components and then create scenes to view separate parts in different orientations. Which I can then view and add dimensions to in LayOut using viewports.
