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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2009-09-28, 16:48

I've dabbled in this app a bit in the past, just screwing around and trying to get my head around it. But in the past week, I've really hunkered down and now I'm kinda addicted...



Any other SketchUp hounds here? For a free, fast-loading app, it way more precise and powerful than I ever knew!

As you know, the Google site where you download it comes with a gob of tutorial vids. Those are all well and good, but it wasn't until I stumbled across this site - SketchUp for Woodworkers - that it really "clicked" for me.

Watching those 7-8 videos there, I learned more in 30-60 minutes than I had the previous week, and all the "official" videos. The guy does a great job of explaining things. So if, like me, you weren't getting anywhere and simply not grasping things fully, give that Woodworkers link a shot.

Beyond that, this would be a good thread to share tips and tricks, or share drawings (a big, "catch-all" SketchUp thread is what I was picturing).

In just four days, I've used it to design a corner desk (I'd been doing it in Illustrator, but to bring into 3D dimensions and "fly around" it has been a blast), mock up up my Mom's bathroom remodel (which, thankfully, I'm not doing!) and even "visualize" my friend's front yard in KC, where I'm traveling next week to help her put up picket fence. She was quite impressed, and was finally able to "see it in her head", the approach were were going to take.

It's a great tool for the very things I enjoy most (furniture and gizmo ideas and design, plus room/house/yard projects). I'm constantly doing something in those areas, for fun or profit, and I can see how this would be a great "see it before you begin" tool. And you can't beat free.



It appeals to the same part of me that Illustrator does, I suppose...the clean-line, precision "draftsman" aspects (measurements, angles, rotations, constructing things, mockups, designing things for a particular space, etc.), as opposed to the more soft-edged, layered, "artsy" vibe of Photoshop, Painter and things like that (I've never been a painter or "artist" in that type of way...watercolors, painting fruit or landscapes, etc.).

I'm a hard-edged, tape measure and protractor kinda guy...and more now than every before.



SketchUp totally plays to that, and fits me like a glove.

7.1 just came out last week, BTW.

So, let the thread begin. I'd love to learn some cool tricks and tips, and even see some work done by others. That's how I get my "push"...
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