It’s me in my avatar, and my first name is Anssi. I definitely look older than Gully despite being 6 years younger. I am an architect, live and work in southern Finland. Projects that I am involved with are mostly to do with existing buildings.
My experience with computers started when, in 1986, a set of boxes containing an IBM AT 286 computer and AutoCad 2.5 was delivered at my desk and I was required to figure out how to get it running, never having used one before. The years have added things like Archicad and Revit to the toolbox.
I have been using SketchUp since version 3 (about 15 minutes of trying it out made it a must-have for me), and the importance of the forum as a source of information and help became clear to me from the start.
I bought my first computer in 1985. It was a Leading Edge Model D made by Daewoo, the first IBM PC XT clone. At work, the old, senior guys hogged all the PCs (strictly IBM), while all the real work was still done by the rest of us using vellum and graphite, quad pads, and our trusty hand calculators. That didn’t last long. Within ten years everyone did everything on their own computers, and within another ten years, if the network was down there was no point even coming into work.
I feel your pain. For more than twenty years, I managed to hide behind the on-line persona of “Aqualung” until Google forced me out of the closet a couple of years ago. Welcome to the fishbowl
My first love in life is programming; my second love is math; and my third love is multi-dimensional geometry (my zeroth love, of course, is my wife). My first CAD project was modeling the star-ship Enterprise in 3D from a set of detailed blueprints I received as a Christmas present. This involved using a Calcomp digitizer to input co-ordinate data into a Xerox Sigma 7 mainframe and then displaying different wire-frame views on a Tektronix 4014 display terminal and a Calcomp drum plotter for the hard-copy (I wrote the code to achieve this in FORTRAN using the Tektronix and Calcomp FORTRAN libraries).
My first “personal” computer was a used 12-bit DEC PDP-8/E computer with A/D and D/A interfaces and 4K of memory (I sort of got sucked into a black hole of machine language and assembly code for the next twenty-odd years). I also fell into cahoots with an injection molding prototyping firm that was using CNC to make their molds. I spent the next 15 years modeling various surfaces of plastic parts using a GE Calma system and (later) an SDRC Ideas solids package. These surfaces were then used to drive CNC 3-axis mills to sculpt the shapes into aluminum molds and graphite EDM electrodes.
One morning, about 18 years ago, I woke up and decided I wanted to work at the local community college where I have since spent most of my days managing servers and backend configurations for 20,000 students. When I first encountered SketchUp, I instantly fell in love with it (like many others). However, being the cheapskate that I am, I never used it beyond the free trial period. However, when I later discovered Google’s free version, I immediately downloaded it and have been using it ever since for various hobby-oriented activities (which has been mostly 3D printing for the last couple of years).
I have always liked helping people and that was one of the primary reasons for joining this forum (I also decided that I needed to leave my cave and get out more). To my pleasant surprise, I have learned a lot about SketchUp that I never knew before, thanks to the various contributors that actively participate here. This forum is a wonderful place for people to get the help they need and I look forward to contributing to that effort.
You’re expected to print it yourself. You’d better decide right now whether you want it to billow out behind you or just hang limp from your shoulders; you can’t have both.
That cape needs a pair of ‘Shorts’ to go with along with it.
…and while I guess I’m not qualified to tell any of the “Great, Almighty, and Powerful Sages” how to go about living their privilidged lives—There’s a little more at play here than just being on top of the stack, and getting to make up your own set of rules.
To put a word upon it. TRADITION.
Cape’s come with Shorts. and no SketchUp Action Hero should be embarrassed to put them on and wear them proudly. They don’t have to be made out of spandex after all, burlap could be used as a nice alternative.
There are of course alternative traditions at play. So perhaps for those who don’t properly identify with the action figure persona… perhaps the Mediaeval attire is more suitable. and if so then fine by me. Helmets, Shields, and Lances all have a dignified place alongside the cape. It’s only lacking a wee bit of historical accuracy.
…which of course brings us back around to SHORTS.
And incidentally, AlexB’s submission for a cape design has my vote. It’s very lovely indeed. and I might also add that I await her ideas for the rest of the getup, whatever form that might take.
I’ve been using SketchUp for about 12 years and helping others learn how to use it for about 10. Mostly I use it for woodworking-related projects but I’ve also used it for medical products, custom mounting solutions and all kinds of other stuff.
Walks on the beach are fine but I prefer to be out on my sailboat.
We’ve currently got two used dogs. We adopted them from the local shelter. They were picked up as strays. It seems they were always together so we couldn’t separate them.
Angled parking
I’ve decided that I would like the cape to hang limp from my shoulders. I’ve created a model that can be 3D printed, but it’s pretty big. So far, I haven’t been able to locate any vendors that can print it in silk ;(
I’m a 39 years old electrical engineer. (Yes, so “young” )
In the year 2007, I searched for a program to design our new house. There were some specific programs for house planning, but they all felt more or less inflexible. At that time, Google offered the free version of SketchUp 6 and I decided to give it a chance for this task and didn’t regret it.
In 2010 I joined the user forum at SketchUcation to get some plugins and answers from the experts. More and more I developed a taste for it and then wanted to help others get comfortable with this great software. After a while, I was invited to join the group of Top SketchUcators, which was a great honor and since then, I have been trying to help administer this great community.
Additionally, I have started this year to render some models, you can see some images in my gallery. Some of the models were build afterwards, like the beds of my children or the garden lounge for my wife.
In 2011, I created some models for Google Earth. I was very sad when Google decided to discontinue this possibility in favor of the automatically generated models from aerial photographs. In the same year, I created my first model for 3D printing and I have printed a lot of models since then because its a great pleasure to see the models come to life. I’m looking forward to get my own 3D printer in the future.
In 2012, I’ve started to educate architects, carpenters, draftsman and others at the local Community College on how to use SketchUp for their projects.
In the first half of 2014, I’ve joint the german SketchUp forum at sketchup-forum.de to help those german users who are not able to get the needed information from the countless english sources because of the language barrier. Additionally, I’ve started to create some german youtube videos and a SketchUp blog to provide some more german information for those who are not able to understand the english videos. Later that year, I become a part of the new Trimble SketchUp Forum and was invited to join the group of SketchUp sages, which was again a great honor.
All in all, it seems that I love to help others to use this great software and be a part of this great community…
Hey Jim,
Tektronix and Calcomp. Familiar words. Did you work at Tek? I was there for 18 years. An old Tek colleague, Craig Montgomery, worked for Calcomp out of California.
Hi! I’m Bear,
New to all of this. I’m a woodworker and wanted to learn sketchup to draw my own furniture plans and designs. Like I said beginner, REALLY! I am a MAC person and I’d like to know what kind of 3 button scroll mouse you guys would recomend for my MAC OS 10.11.3? Thanks
