SketchUp Users: A Challenge?

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Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
I'm just curious. Would the SketchUp users among us be interested in a an occasional challenge? I could give you some images of something I've drawn in SketchUp and let anyone who is interested ply their hand at drawing it. After a few days we could talk about how we approached drawing it and see what we could learn.

(This might be in the wrong place. Sorry about that.)
 

TracyP

Administrator , Forum Moderator
Tracy
I'm just curious. Would the SketchUp users among us be interested in a an occasional challenge? I could give you some images of something I've drawn in SketchUp and let anyone who is interested ply their hand at drawing it. After a few days we could talk about how we approached drawing it and see what we could learn.

(This might be in the wrong place. Sorry about that.)

Actually this is the perfect place for the type of challenge you propose. And Thank you
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
I would certainly be interested in these challenges. I barely know sketchup, but it would be fun/informative to see what people do.
 

Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
Excellent! Thanks for humoring me. ;)

So I don't want to make the first challenge too difficult. Perhaps you could all give me some idea what level you consider yourselves at.

How about this little box for a first challenge? No need to texture or render it.



Here are the basic dimensions.


The detailed lid:


And an exploded view:



If you find there are missing dimensions, remember you are woodworkers. Figure out what makes sense.

You have until Friday, Aug 30. Post an image of your model and if you found something especially tricky or troublesome, describe it. That'll give us some talking points.

Have fun.
 

Acelectric

Wayne
Corporate Member
Oooo dovetails right off the bat, and on a "simple" beginners challenge. That should give you some idea of my level of SU ability. But I will give it a shot and see what happens.
 

mlzettl

Matt
Corporate Member
Dave,

This is a great idea. It makes me think more about work flow and efficiency.

Box 2.jpg

Matt
 

Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
Good work, Matt.

Thinking about workflow and efficiency is a good thing. Did you find things you could do more efficiently while you were drawing this?

I can't tell in your drawing but did you put a hole in the nut?
 

mlzettl

Matt
Corporate Member
Thanks Dave,

I did find a few things that I could do more efficiently using features that I don't commonly use. For instance, when laying out the dovetails, in order to reproduce the spacing and size that you had drawn, I found that dividing the end line into segments facilitated the process. When I am drawing dovetails in Sketchup, I do it like I normally do in the shop, not like I did here. I tend to use varying size dovetails in my work, and I lay them out by eye. I generally do it that way in Sketchup. So, this process refreshed my memory on a feature that I don't use too much. I also used the plugin that locates the center of a surface to center the dowel hole, dowel, etc. That is another function that I don't use very often, so it is always useful to be reminded that features and plugins exist that make things easier.

The drawing was pretty straight forward though. It didn't take me too long to do, but I did have to back track a couple of times when I realized that I had some incorrect dimensions.

As far as the hole in the nut, that is a good pick up. I didn't think that you would let that slide.:wink_smil I actually noticed it just as I was finishing up, and then got sidetracked, and forgot about it until after I had exported the JPEG. It's good to see that you are looking at these drawings carefully, to say the least. :gar-Bi

By the way, I hope you appreciated the fact that I used one of your styles, the graphite 7.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I have learned a lot from your Sketchup blog, and I look forward to more critiques in this forum.

Matt
 

Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
Matt, that's perfect! I'm happy you found some ways to improve your efficiency. Some of those features that we don't use often can get forgotten so it is good to practice them from time to time.

I have a different method for laying out equally spaced, equally sized dovetails but I'm glad you found a way that works. When I drew the box I didn't use any plugins but that's also a choice thing. I like to think it is best to use native tools whenever possible.

You're right. ;) I wasn't going to let the lack of the hole in your nut slide. :D

I wondered about the style you used. I have to admit I couldn't tell it is one I made but then I think I've made over 100 of them by now. Many of them are subtly different from each other. Glad you find the blog helpful.

-Dave
 

Acelectric

Wayne
Corporate Member
Ok I got it. Here they are. I forgot to delete the guide lines before saving the first pic.





challenge1.jpg


challenge1open.jpg
A couple of firsts for me. First time drawing dovetails. In fact I have never used dovetails in woodworking so I had to guess at the angles.

Also I generally use SU to make assembly drawings so I don't normally include details. But now that I know how to use the follow me tool I may start. That is a really neat tool and makes it easy to make the routed details.


 

Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
Excellent work, Wayne. I'm happy to hear you had a few firsts with this. Your dovetails look just fine.

Although you can add lots of fine detail, you should only add enough to get the job done for the drawing. That said, since you two are over-achievers, perhaps you'd like to go back to your models and break the corners as I did in my first image. :D
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
Excellent idea Dave. We're excited that you've joined NCWW and we're off to a good start as expected!

Yes, "Sherlock" will find details that we didn't know existed.
 

patlaw

Mike
Corporate Member
Unfortunately all I know how to do is to start the program. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to come back and follow along with this thread. Getting started is the hard part. I love a challenge.
 

Dave Richards

Dave
Senior User
Unfortunately all I know how to do is to start the program. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to come back and follow along with this thread. Getting started is the hard part. I love a challenge.

We'll have to see what we can do to help you along.
 

mlzettl

Matt
Corporate Member
Excellent work, Wayne. I'm happy to hear you had a few firsts with this. Your dovetails look just fine.

Although you can add lots of fine detail, you should only add enough to get the job done for the drawing. That said, since you two are over-achievers, perhaps you'd like to go back to your models and break the corners as I did in my first image. :D

Dave, you remind me of some teachers that I used to have way back when - never satisfied. :roll: OK, corners broken. Now, what else have I forgotten?

Box 3.jpg
 
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