Introducing the Solid Tools in SketchUp Pro 8

Every new SketchUp release contains at least one modeling tool that’s guaranteed to save you a ton of time and effort. SketchUp Pro 8 contains five.

The all-new Solid Tools let you perform additive and subtractive modeling tasks (some folks call them Boolean operations) on subsets of your geometry. It’s really not as complicated as it sounds; basically, you use the Solid Tools to generate forms using other forms in your models. You do so by adding them together, subtracting one from the other, and finding the areas that they have in common. Plenty of 3D forms are much easier to make this way – you’ll find uses for them all over the place.

Fascinated by technology? Look into an IT online course

Read More

Cutlist and Layout from Sketchup

If you’re a fan of Sketchup for creating woodworking models, then the next obvious step is to use Sketchup to help you create cutlists and layouts. Sketchup plugin Cutlist 4.1 does just that. CutList 4.1 sketchup plugin helps you determine how much of each material you need to produce your design, taking into account nominal sized lumber with allowances for finishing to final size. Then it goes one further and lays out all of the pieces on boards or sheet good sizes of your choosing. Then you should be all set to head for the lumber yard to get all of the materials that you will need with no return trips.

Read More

Make a Nightstand in Google SketchUp (Tutorial)

Nice little tutorials on how to make a nightstand in Google SketchUp.

I’m a firm believer in keeping the saw sharp.  Really sharp.  So that means you gotta sharpen the saw regularly.

Read More

Sketchup Shorts #4: Virtual Materials II - Tiling it Seamlessly

So a point was raised in my previous installment of this blog regarding tiling appearance of materials (once you assign your custom material to your model and scale it up you’d see the same material pattern repeat over and over again with distinct horizontal and vertical lines (the seams) that separate those repetitions.

Read More