Newbie Question: Placing objects on top one another

rocker9455 · 2 Oct 2008, 19:34

Hi everyone,
As you may guess i fairly new to sketchup (you can probably tell from my drawing) i am having trouble drawing a lamp (for a school project) i need ideas on how to mount the shade in sketchup, i want to use dowels so that means drawing cylinders, which i can do!

here is a screenshot:

(or http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7580/basefw5.jpg ) if it doesnt display properly
how can i place the cylinders and then place the lamp shade ontop of them, i want to leave a small gap in between the lampshade and base.

Thanks,
Will Price

Tobobo · 3 Oct 2008, 07:13

I'm not totally sure what you want to do, can you post a sketch?

ridix · 3 Oct 2008, 13:17

One way is to make the cylinder away from the lamp first, than move it into place with Move Tool.

rocker9455 · 3 Oct 2008, 17:13

heres what i want to do:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7926/base123yh7.jpg

remus · 3 Oct 2008, 18:59

The way id go about it is to offset the outer edge of the base to act as a guide. Id then draw a circle on one corner of the offset and pull it in to a cylinder. from there you could copy the cylinder across to each corner, using the offset as a reference. See the tut for more detail.

lampshade tut.skp

remus · 4 Oct 2008, 05:48

If you first select all of the top outside edge of the base then go tools->offset. You can then just offset the edge inwards from there.

rocker9455 · 4 Oct 2008, 09:40

thanks that is really helpful , i was just wondering how do i go about setting an offset? hehe

Will

Edit: this is how far I've got so far, ive done the offset and cylinders, its just placing the top on now!:
Base.skp

rocker9455 · 4 Oct 2008, 11:00

Thanks, ive got the offest sorted now just mounting the Shade how do i do that?

Paris · 4 Oct 2008, 17:32

@rocker9455 said:

Hi everyone,
As you may guess i fairly new to sketchup (you can probably tell from my drawing) i am having trouble drawing a lamp (for a school project) i need ideas on how to mount the shade in sketchup, i want to use dowels so that means drawing cylinders, which i can do!

here is a screenshot:

(or http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7580/basefw5.jpg ) if it doesnt display properly
how can i place the cylinders and then place the lamp shade ontop of them, i want to leave a small gap in between the lampshade and base.

Thanks,
Will Price

Assuming the bottom of the shade and the top of the base are the same size.
Set your view to Top and draw a square the size of your dowel radius in each corner.
Draw an X to find the center of the square and use the circle tool to draw a circle in the square.
Use the Select tool (arrow) to highlight the area outside the circle and delete them. You should now have a circle inside each corner.
Use the orbit tool to turn the shade upside down so you can see the circles and then use the push/pull tool to pull the circles into dowels. Pull until they extend lower than the shade. You should now have a shade with four dowel legs. Highlight the shade and dowels and create a group.
Use the move tool to place the shade on the base. You can then highlight it all and make it a component.

Hazza · 4 Oct 2008, 20:36

@paris said:

Draw an X to find the center of the square and use the circle tool to draw a circle in the square.

... or install the free CentrePoint plugin from Smustard.

rocker9455 · 5 Oct 2008, 17:51

Thanks Hazza, Remus and paris you have all been exceptionally helpful
here is my finished result (http://www.filefactory.com/file/5d8fbe/n/Final_Design_skp ).
Please comment on it to what you think. Keep in mind I'm only 14 and that
was the first thing i have ever done in SU! I hope i can become involved
in this forum

Hosted on 3D warehouse (if you prefer it to file factory)
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=89fe9b63f07cde0fdd381eae8554f9d4&prevstart=0

Paris · 5 Oct 2008, 18:13

@rocker9455 said:

Thanks Hazza, Remus and paris you have all been exceptionally helpful
here is my finished result (http://www.filefactory.com/file/5d8fbe/n/Final_Design_skp ).
Please comment on it to what you think. Keep in mind I'm only 14 and that
was the first thing i have ever done in SU! I hope i can become involved
in this forum

Hosted on 3D warehouse (if you prefer it to file factory)
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=89fe9b63f07cde0fdd381eae8554f9d4&prevstart=0

Looks great. Now all you need to do is download the Podium free version and add some light.

SU Podium | Rendering for SketchUp made easy

SU Podium is an easy to use rendering plugin for SketchUp - Add photo realistic lighting, materials, and reflections to your drawings

(www.suplugins.com)

rocker9455 · 5 Oct 2008, 18:23

thanks i appreciate the support i will have a look at podium now

remus · 5 Oct 2008, 20:54

I wouldnt worry about it for the moment, but your model is huge! i made a similar model quickly, just to check, and it was about 30 Kb compared to the 5.4 Mb of yours. Not really sure whats making yours so big, as ive purged it a few times and had a quick look for strange stuff but i cant find anything obvious. Anyone got any ideas what could be causing this? im rather intrigued now.

Hazza · 5 Oct 2008, 21:03

Pretty good for a first model, although I can't figure out why it is 5 meg in size for such a simple model.

Hazza · 5 Oct 2008, 21:04

Remus bet me to it after I had an idea and went back to the model but STILL didn't find anything.

rocker9455 · 5 Oct 2008, 21:06

well the texture for the base was a picture, was about 2mb (high quality scans of wood) but the shade is only a little picture (just created a 40x40 pixel drawing in gimp and coloured it in half blue and yellow) and fiddled about with the settings to make it look good, hope this helps hehe

remus · 6 Oct 2008, 05:53

That would probably do it

rocker9455 · 6 Oct 2008, 06:24

hang on a sec, i just checked it again and it was a 5mb picture hehe
and again thank you all