Total Noob trying to figure it out

Hey all, Total Sketchup Noob here. I’m working on my very first Sketchup project after doing the first four tutorials. I’ve uploaded a file so you can see it if you like. office - right shelving.skp (63.6 KB) I’m still making adjustments to it, but I’m happy with how it’s coming along. Also trying to figure out how to tell Cut List 4.1.12 that the material I’m using is MDF or plywood so that it will know it’s a sheet product. Pardon me for anything I haven’t said right. :slight_smile: I’ve only been woodworking for about 7 months now. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

This is a two-step process. First, you must paint the appropriate objects with a material that you give a name such as “plywood” or “MDF”. Then you must make sure that CutList includes that name in the list of Sheet Material Words in its UI. The extension actually does a pattern match, so it will find the words in its list even if they are part of a material name. For instance, “oak plywood” and “birch plywood” will both be caught if the list contains just “plywood”.

That was a great answer! Thanks!

Ok guys… Here is the updated look at it. If you look closely you can see the guides I’ve made for the tambour door. Trouble is, I have no idea how to create a tambour door in SketchUp. I also didn’t bother making “holes” where the adjustable shelves will be. I’ll make those on the fly.

So, I think I’m done with this. I think it’s ready to print out and get to work… Now I’m hoping that all of my work will be rewarded… Is there a way to print out an exploded view with all the dimensions called out so I know what I have to dado and trim, etc? After all, isn’t that one of the reasons for doing it this way?

This is my very first SketchUp drawing and I like it, but I’m really open to any feedback you guys might have on how I could have made it better. Thanks in advance for any help!

office - right shelving v2.0.skp (220.2 KB)

seems ok… good job on your first go at it :thumbsup:

you have a slight error on the piece with the arrow… the front face is sticking out a little bit and overlapping into the verticals… push/pull it towards the back; snap to the backside of the vertical for proper alignment.


also, right here:
you have a tiny little extraneous line sticking out… best to try to avoid things like that as they can become nightmares down the road with things like solids or inferencing.

(not the unsoftened line which is visible in the screenshot… zoom way in and there’s a little piece of leftover geometry)

but notice when you check the ‘entity info’ (right click-> entity info) of the components in the model, most of them are showing as ‘solid component’… this one though is not being recognized as solid… it’s because of that little line… there’s another little line on the edge towards the back… get rid of those then the component will be solid)

Wow, Jeff, that was great feedback! Good eye man! I’ve cleaned those issues up and am making some more additions. Can I ask another question??? After I’ve gotten this thing drawn completely, is there any kind of extension that will explode it and give me dimensions or do I have to do that manually?

I can imagine two things you might mean by “explode”.

If you want the parts of the drawing rearranged so that they are separated from each other, I believe one of TIG’s extensions can do that (forgot which one). It arranges all the components separately out along an axis. I don’t know of anything that automates making the sort of “exploded parts diagram” you typically see in a manual - there is too much judgement involved in choosing how to place the parts.

If you just want a table listing the width, length, and thickness of each ComponentInstance or Group, the CutList plugin generates that.

If you mean Exploded view, it’s not a Tig Plugin, but you’ll find it at sketchucation.
Eclate Deplace