Modeling software

[Frosty]

Has anyone used Google Sketchup? SketchUp Home

I just downloaded a free copy, watched a couple tutorials and it looks a lot easier than the old version of Autocad I've been using.

There are free and "pro" versions of course and seemingly a lot of useful features.

Anyone try Google Sketchup?

What you think?

Frosty

[chyancarrek]

Hey Frosty,

I played around with it about a year ago and it's a great little program. Very easy to use - really aimed at folks who are CAD challenged (like me).

I used it to create a 3D model of my shop then placed it in Google Earth on my property then wrapped a picture of the outside of the shop around it. Worked pretty well for a freebie.

Not sure how it would work as a modeling program for smaller pieces - I've never output anything from it.

[Frosty]

I'm running into something disturbing. When I try to look at the instruction links it opens in Internet Explorer, I'm running Firefox as my browser. When I try to close IE it starts opening new windows at a rate of maybe 2-3/sec. and I have to hit the reset button on the computer tower. ctrl/alt/del doesn't even work. :mad:

I can't find a way to change browser preference in Sketchup either.

Any ideas?

Frosty

[rfb343]

So what yer saying is that its likes IE? and not the mozilla thing?

[Frosty]

It doesn't seem to like anything else, including being shut down. Trying to close the IE browser while on one of the sites has resulted in an unstoppable cascade of new IE windows. I may have tried shutting it down while it was still loading and with whatever link Google Sketchup has with IE may get stuck on stupid. maybe I am, I never know about these things.

Didn't billion dollar Bill just buy Google? That might account for it.

Anyway, I've been playing with it for a couple hours now, downloaded a couple component libraries and have a fair representation of my new shop drawn with stove, window, man door and garage door opening. I haven't found a 12' x 12' door and haven't been able to figure out how to scale up a smaller one.

Heck, I haven't figured out how to change the color of siding. Seriously you should be able to change the color of siding or has billion dollar Bill decreed what color siding must be now?

Well, back to the drawing monitor. :cool:

Frosty

[John Martin]

Internet Error. You can probably open up the file and edit the start of it, or go to your firefox browser, and like try to block-pop ups, and then only allow it to open in firefox. works for me.

[piglet_74]

Frosty, It looks like Sketchup has a software requirement of IE6 or better. I'll try to play with it at work tomorrow and see if I can cause the same problem.

Rob.

[nuge]

sketchup is very powerful and the basic commands work like a childs toy (good for me). much more intuitive than some of the other cumbersome options.

[Frosty]

I have IE6 or better installed I just don't use it. I think trying to close the browser before it finished loading caused a whippyroundloop in the connect to IE link thingymAjig. :confused:

I've been playing with the program without looking at the tutorials and having no problems.

I'm starting to like Sketchup. It isn't particularly good design software as it's really hard to be precise with it but it's grand for seeing how things will look, arranging furniture (toylz) and landscaping. (hiding the good stuff from the wife)

I have a decent rendering of the shop. Have figured out how to scale things. (by using the scale button!) Downloaded a few component and material libraries and will start messing with importing photos soon.

I'm thinking this will work really well for taking a few pictures of a client's house, fireplace, etc. and rendering drawings in place for proposals and bids.

Now if somebody could just figure out how to slice bread by the loaf!

Frosty

[terry]

I have been using SketchUp for about 18 months to create working drawings for metalwork designs. It is very easy to use, but - like all tools - it takes some time to learn.

To increase the usefulness of SketchUp in metalwork design, I have written some "plugins" (extensions) for SketchUp. They draw curved tapered shapes common in decorative metalwork (see attached figure) and calculate the amount of stock required to make the tapers. These plugins are available free of charge on the website www.drawmetal.com - Metalwork Design. That website also has examples of metalwork fabricated from SketchUp drawings.

Please note that the plugins are "beta" software...meaning they do not have any obvious bugs (or bugs known to me) - but they will benefit from more testing.

I have not had any issues with precision. SketchUp supports specifying dimensions with as many as six decimal places.

Terry

[skunkriv]

Wow! Terry,welcome to IforgeIron. Thanks for the info (and for doing the work!)

[markb]

Wow! Terry,welcome to IforgeIron. Thanks for the info (and for doing the work!)

I just want to second the above.

[Frosty]

Thank you Terry.

This is exactly what someone on another forum was looking for that tipped me to giving Sketchup a try.

While I realize Sketchup is capable of drawing to ridiculous degrees of precision it's still not CAD which is what I meant. Poor wording on my part is no reflection of the product. I like it.

Thanks again and welcome aboard.

Frosty

[Frosty]

Terry:

While I hate to sound like a dummy I'm used to it after all these years.

I downloaded your plugins, moved them to the plugin folder but can't figure out how to get them working.

I'm using the free version of Sketchup 6 do I need the Pro version?

Thanks,

Frosty

[jake pogrebinsky]

Gentlemen,i have to say this.Frosty knows just what a freak i am,and the rest of you are just about to find out.I only wish that i was articulate enough to explain how strongly i feel about this,and,in the same time,how i respect everyone else's thinking-please believe me!But:

YOU ARE VERY WRONG!!!


Electronics,mechanisation in general,is what's killing blacksmithing.
QUALITY in forging can ONLY be achieved intuitively-by forging.IT cannot be substituted by CAD,or anything else.
Scrolling tools and jigs are the beginning,completely mechanised production is the logical end.In between-the loss of anything valid both to you,and the customer.
The shapes of the ironwork are determined by it's crystalline structure,and the weakness and the inefficiency of a human hand is exactly what ALLOWS it to take place,not INTELLECTUALISATION.
And,yes,of course i'm starving,holding these views.
And,yes,they'll pry my hammer out of my cold,dead fingers,when i do finally croak of malnutrition and my pathological,misguided stubborness,but:
Verily,i say unto thee-do not degrade our poor beleagered trade any further,and thyself in the process-let the WalMart perjure their eternal soul-go forth,and FORGE something...The cost-,and other efficiencies are for the bean-counters,not blacksmiths.
With the absolute respect to all of you,Jake Pogrebinsky,Galena,AK.

[Dodge]

Welcome to the site and don't hold back, Jake. Tell us how you REALLY feel Seriously tho, I don't know any blacksmiths that don't start with at least a sketch. In my own experience, I have found many of my customers can't always visualize what I want to do for them. The sketches help communicate. DaVinci even used sketches. CAD is just an electronic sketch. CAD can't swing a hammer. It is still up to the blacksmith to make the steel look like what the customer and he agreed upon. The better representation I can show my customer, the more confident I think they will be that they will get what they contracted for. The actual work is what they will get. Not the drawing. Just my 2 cents :)

[Dodge]

Terry,
Welcome! I downloaded the free Sketchup but haven't had time to "play" yet. I am very interested to learn more about your plugins and how to make them work with Sketchup :)

[markb]

I had the same thought of sorts when I looked at the add on. But I think the Egyptian artisans used children for their good eye sight, looking through a drop of water for a magnifier. Time and technology march on, use the tools of your choice.

[Frosty]

Jake, buddy:

Sketchup doesn't build anything. All it does is turn a rough sketch into a 3D drawing the customer can walk around, change colors, scale or change components in a few seconds rather than my having to redraw it all by hand. Sure I can draw the project quickly, do the same walk arounds, tweak it and print it before the customer sees it as well.

These plugins simply make drawing scrolls curves, tapers and the like easy on me. The material estimator isn't necessary but it's there.

So, how do you estimate how much iron to cut for a scroll?

To make it a little more realistic, let's say it's a scrolled shelf bracket someone wants you to reproduce and wants say a hundred and you have to buy and ship the steel to your shop.

I'll post my method for estimation in a bit.

Good to see you posting again Jake.

Frosty

[Travis Covington]

Jake, It's good to see you on here. If you get a chance look at our website at the newsletter I think you will get a kick out of it.
Travis

[Ian Wille]

Terry,

Welcome and thanks for the plugins! I just downloaded Sketchup today, and have been playing around with it, and am looking forward to using the plugins to create nice (and easy to alter) 3D images for projects.

I too am having trouble getting the plugins to work. I followed the instructions in the User's Guide, but I get an error message (says Error Loading File...) when I open Sketchup, and they do not show up in the Extensions or plugins sections. I am using Mac OSX version.

Again, thanks and welcome to the site!

Ian

[Mylore]

I too am having trouble getting the plugins to work. I followed the instructions in the User's Guide, but I get an error message (says Error Loading File...) when I open Sketchup, and they do not show up in the Extensions or plugins sections. I am using Mac OSX version.

Ian

I also use Mac OSX. When I downloaded the plugins, Ruby Scripts, they all came down unziped for me (extension .rb). They all downloaded the my desktop, I then just moved them to:

Hard Drive/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 6/SketchUp/Plugins

and they worked for me, just have to look under the Draw pull down or the Tools pull down depending on the plugins you got. It tells you where the ruby script will be found in the text just above the download link.

Hope this helps a fellow MAC user.


*EDIT* Sorry guys, just realised the problem was with Terry's plugins, not the ones off Google, so I downloaded them and got errors as well, gonna try and figure it out unless someone beats me too it, or I will bounce it off a few freinds that work for IBM tech support and all bought Mac's so not to deal with the same problems they get asked about at work on their own computers (yes I am verry PRO MAC..sorry guys) :)

[jake pogrebinsky]

Thanks,everyone-i agree,absolutely,and very happy that you took what i said with the just right number of grains of salt.I think i like the way Dodge put it best,but all of you make a lot of sense.
I always sketch,for myself,and for the client,but it's a dangerous thing to do,or can be-there's a certain motion to the way our hand/eye/mind sees curves,and it's not nesessarily the same way that the iron bends,or otherwise forges.
One can get so good over the years as to be able to know the difference between the sketching and the future forging,but it takes a lifetime...
Yellin(i'm not bringing him in because i'm some kind of purist,but he was a darn good blacksmith)would not accept a sketch from one of his guys as a proposal-he demanded a forging,to be sure that the guy could actually do it.And maybe that's my problem-i know that i can't forge many things that i can sketch.

[terry]

Sorry to hear that some of you are having installation problems...

For Mac users:

Please verify the following...

If you use Safari as your web browser, you right-clicked on the drawmetal_plugins.dmg (5mb) link and selected either "Download Linked File" or "Download Linked File As..."

If you use Firefox as your web browser, you right clicked and selected "Save Link As..."

Next, you double-clicked on the downloaded file drawmetal_plugins.dmg to mount the disk image "drawmetal_plugins" - agreeing to the terms displayed there.

Next, you clicked on the drawmetal_plugins disk image in the Finder to open it.

I don't know the name of your startup disk, but let's assume it is MacintoshHD.

Next, you dragged all of the files and the folder in the drawmetal_plugins disk image to MacintoshHD>Library>Application Support>Google SketchUp6>SketchUp>Plugins.

Next, if SketchUp was already running, you quit SketchUp and restarted it because SketchUp cannot load plugins dynamically. It is only aware of whatever plugins are in the Plugins folder when it starts up. It does not become aware of plugins whenever they are added to the Plugins folder.

Are there any more details to the "Error loading file..." message?



For PC users:

Please verify the following...

If you are using IE as your web browser, you right-clicked on the drawmetal_plugins.zip (124kb) link and selected "Save Target As...". IE normally prompted you for a folder to which to save files, and it provided the default filename "drawmetal_plugins.zip".

If you use Firefox as your web browser, you right clicked and selected "Save Link As...". Firefox prompted you for a folder to which to save files, and it provided the default filename "drawmetal_plugins.zip".

Next, once drawmetal_plugins.zip was downloaded to your hard drive, you expanded the zip file.

Next, you copied the expanded files and the folder that resulted to C:Program FilesGoogleGoogle SketchUp 6SketchUpPlugins.

Next, if SketchUp was already running, you quit SketchUp and restarted it because SketchUp cannot load plugins dynamically. It is only aware of whatever plugins are in the Plugins folder when it starts up. It does not become aware of plugins whenever they are added to the Plugins folder.

Hope this helps...

Terry

[Mylore]

Ok back already....

Ian, did you copy the ctsMaker folder as well into the plugins folder? As soon as I did (didn't do it the first time only the three files in the .dmg file where what I moved) I go no errors when I opened Sketchup again. Now I just have to play with it a bit to see what new toys I have for this overly fun program.