So, I have not made much progress trying to self-teach with Sketchup, despite many hours of trying. I have a very hard time getting the drift of the nomenclature and much else of it, even though I have extensive experience building cabinetry.
Specifically, I cannot figure out how to do a number of things for designing cabinetry that are plainly SIMPLE in the real world, but totally beyond me in Sketchup. (Resizing a banded panel in only one direction, not expanding on a corner…)
I need to have help with learning this app, but I can only find instruction locally that costs as much as a used car.
Anyone here able to point me to a resource for instructor-led learning where I can actually ask questions and SEE what the answers are? One that doesn’t cost more than the software itself?
one that doesn’t cost anything but some invested hours is asking specific questions here with an uploaded attempt you did yourself. As an example see this thread: Wall Capping profile on a curve - #15 by Shep
In your case, a banded door panel should be resized with the ‘Move’ tool, not the ‘Scale’ tool. You move the entire selection of edges on one end (all edges that aren’t along the stretching direction) and move them in desired direction. Try it and you’ll see that all the sticky geometry stretches the door as you wish.
There’s always someone here to help you out when you get stuck. Don’t spend hours getting frustrated on something simple where you can have the answer and advise here much faster (for free).
but at least show what you did yourself to (try to) accomplish the task.
There’s also plenty of free help available in the many forums at http://sketchucation.com/.
You could even become a Premium Member to get ‘personal advice’ and lots of freebies etc at a very reasonable annual sub.
SCF also has a dedicated Woodworking subforum where people showcase, get advice on issues etc… Woodworking • sketchUcation • 1
There are even some specialized woodworking plugins only available from the SCF PluginStore. SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation
Thanks for the reply, Wo3Dan.
I guess the forums will be my way through.
As to that resizing banded panel idea-the panel itself is just a 3d rectangle of 18x1146x2198mm, and the banding is drawn as 2x18 rectangles along it. The banding overlaps at the top two corners (as would be needed in real life).
So, to select the outermost face of the vertical banding and ‘move’ it just makes the edge band get ‘fatter’, and leaves the overlapping top strip of edge banding right where it was… Ugh. It makes me feel so stupid, But the objects in Sketchup just don’t understand the relationships they have with each other and I don’t know how to ‘teach’ those relationships to it. So the ‘move using a face’ idea won’t work with my limited understanding of how to properly tell the app what I am trying to do.
Anyway, will take in your advice and try uploading the file to a forum and ask for help.
And as to the ‘don’t spend hours getting frustrated’ bit - too late! But I’ll keep at it!
…So, to select the outermost face of the vertical banding and ‘move’ it just makes the edge band get ‘fatter’, and leaves the overlapping top strip of edge banding right where it was… Ugh. …
You should select all geometry at one end, not just one face.
Maybe attached file explains better what to do then just words. It’s a window example, not that different from what you are after with resizing the door. Frame_Window.skp (79.7 KB)
Remember that the ‘selection’ should be made on basic geometry, not on groups or components.
It is edges (and faces) that you want to move.
LOL - sorry, but your suggestion steps right into my problem.
"Basic geometry’ is square, rectangle, circle, triangle.
“All geometry” is anything I can see.
<shakes head, face in palm>
I’m stuck in real-world standard meanings of these terms, and have a very difficult time understanding what you mean by ‘basic geometry’ when all the lines in my drawing describe rectangles of varying dimensions.
It’s OK, I know it’s me not the app.
BTW- I’m moving this to a new thread, as now I am discussing ‘how to’ stuff and it doesn’t fit the opening post. I’ll be happy to see any new suggestions on learning resources here though.
Basic geometry is geometry in the most simple form of entities: edges, faces, guides, section planes etc.
You can group entities. The group isn’t considered basig geometry but grouped.
Picture a simple rectangle. If you would want to stretch it you select all basic geometry at one end (here just one edge) and move it.
If the rectangle is grouped, you enter its editing context and inside the group you again select that single edge (basic geometry) to move it.
A simple rectangle could also be stretched with the ‘Scale’ tool. But this isn’t the case with a more complex form like your banded door. It has more geometry at the ends. The ‘Scale’ tool would also stretch the end geometry itself, the mitter. Now only the ‘Move’ tool will do the job. Move one end (all its edges including miter) to stretch the more complex form.
Actually you select all the edges on one side where your selection window only crosses edges parallel to the direction you want to stretch in.
If you are dealing with groups and/or components, you’ll have to enter the grouped environment to get to the "basic"edges inside.
Drew: Posting your model helps the responders immensely, will speed up the learning process for you having comments tailored specifically to the problem you are having. The links TIG and David provided above are especially good for starters.
I have learned so much about SU from YouTube…there are hundreds of awesome videos on there for beginner and intermediate, plus all the videos from the conferences, meetups, etc.