A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

Gaieus · 21 Jun 2009, 19:21

Graham,

The very first thing that you MUST do in order to properly organise you model is to group certain elements (or make components of them especially if there are more than one instances of them like windows, doors whatnot). Before this, don't even touch the layers because you will end up in a big mess.

Make your groups/components in a "logical" way. Say make a single group of all the walls on the first floor, make a separate group of the floor itself etc. (only you know what YOUR logic should be here). You can then examine and edit all the group/component hierarchy in the Outliner (Window menu). You can easily hide/unhide groups/components in order to access interiors and be able to insert staircases for example.

Only when you have already made your groups/components, "place" them on different layers to control visibility (and only that with SU as layers do that but don't separate geometry from each other).

If this means to restart your model then don't hesitate to restart. No-one (I believe) succeeded with his first model. You can even copy certain elements from one model into another one so you may even "rebuild" your more proper model by using simple Ctrl+C to copy in one model then Edit > Paste in place in another one. This is also good to add geometry into an existing group if you accidentally left something out.

gclyde · 21 Jun 2009, 19:28

Thanks Gaieus,

It was my first attempt. But got stuck!

It took me hours to do too....the thought of re-doing everything is daunting.

I do take your point about creating groups and layers etc. I kind-of know that now. Is there an easy that I can do that with what I have done already? I am still getting to grips with groups and layers - the penny has not quite dropped yet though!

I am sure that I will get there with a little help and guidance from you guys

Gra

Gaieus · 21 Jun 2009, 19:58

It's never very easy to make logical grouping from a complex set of geometry but never hopeless (although sometimes takes longer than redoing...)

What you can use is what I suggested (let's say this is with the walls):

select as many faces of the walls as you can easily
right click > Group
now select the rest
press Ctrl=X (this will cut it out)
double click on the group to edit it
go to Edit > Paste in place (you can assign a shortcut to this operation to speed up modelling - see Window > Preferences > Shortcuts - I use Shift+Ctrl+V for this but y6ou can go with anything you like)
repeat these steps until all the faces and edges of your walls are in this group
NOW make a layer, name it Wall (or something)
right click on your wall group > Entity info
change the layer from Layer 0 to Layer Wall
uncheck the visibility of your wall layer and the wall disappears.
now do the same with something else that you think should logically belong to each other (say the floor) and turned into a group...
Ir, at the end, you end up with a couple of stray lines that don't seem to belong to any groups, don't worry just delete them. When grouping geometry, edges that are shared with geometry outside of the group will be duplicated so you are pretty unlikely to erase something important.

x2ferp · 22 Jun 2009, 07:12

Hello masters, im happy to be part of this forum. i had a hard time logging in but finally i made it. one thing i would like to ask, when i view most of the topic i cannot completely relate myself to it because a statement always showing up like this;

"You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post."

Is this normal? or is there anything that i forgot to clik on or do something in my account? hoping for your enlightenment and answers. thank you very much.

Gaieus · 22 Jun 2009, 09:46

Hi Chris and welcome.

There have been some problems lately with the browser cookie settings, please, have a look at this announcement and try to delete your browser cookies.
you may also need to delete your board cookies (you can find the link at the bottom of the page).

Jack Barnhill · 30 Jun 2009, 01:30

Hi! I just found this forum thanks to a posting by DaveR on a woodworking website. I've dabbled in various CAD and modeling programs over the years but have never gotten too serious about them. I'm trying desparately to learn as much as I can about SU to help me with woodworking designs and documentation.

I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can on this forum and, eventually, being a contributor.

Jack

cuevasj1126 · 1 Jul 2009, 23:57

Hello everyone My name is Javier Gonzalez and am new to this forum so I would like to introduce myself because so many great people have share their knowledge and experience of sketchup like tips, tutorials, plugins.... with all of us and this have been very helpful not only for me but for some of my friends. I am currently a student trying to get my bachelors in Architecture and would like to THANK all of those people for taking the time to improve our sketchup abilities. I would try to upload something one day even though am not as good as most of you.

Javi

Gaieus · 2 Jul 2009, 02:02

Hi Javi and welcome.
Don't be shy about your work so don't hesitate to share it if you wish.

mel3dx · 5 Jul 2009, 07:36

Hi my name is Mel, I'm registered user for a long time but haven't visited a long time. this site is great!!!

remus · 5 Jul 2009, 18:04

Hello Mel, good to see you posting

NOHD · 7 Jul 2009, 01:29

hi! i've been using sketch up for about 2months now. I'm searching the web for free sketchup plug ins. I'm looking for useful plugin tool that can easily make the edges round or can make irregular shapes. can i download it here? thanks. im hoping to learn more about sketch up from this forum.

Dhon

Gaieus · 7 Jul 2009, 10:06

Hi Dhon,

For "rounded/bevelled" edges, see Sketchy Bevel and Round Edge.

For "irregular" shapes, there are lots of different plugins (both free and commercial); it all depends on what you need.

NOHD · 7 Jul 2009, 14:17

@gaieus said:

Hi Dhon,

For "rounded/bevelled" edges, see Sketchy Bevel and Round Edge.

For "irregular" shapes, there are lots of different plugins (both free and commercial); it all depends on what you need.

noooo. i dont know how to use .rb files.=( and i dont know how to use the ruby console.=(

TIG · 7 Jul 2009, 14:37

The '.rb' script files go into the Plugins Sketchup folder. On a PC it's typically in...
C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins\

On a Mac it's slightly different...
/Library/Application Support/Google/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/plugins/

Sometimes the files come in a zip file, if so just extract them into the Plugins folder, note that any icon images or similar support files might need to be extracted into a separate sub-folder, this way it will do it for you...

Some scripts have 'readme' or 'help' files that explain how to use them - there's also a lot of stuff on the Ruby Forum about many of them. Script .rb files are just a text file of instructions... If you want to open a .rb file in a plain-text editor like NotePad.exe [Note: never use a word processor as accidentally saving the file would probably reformat it and mess up the code], you can then read the first section where there's almost always explanatory text on usage etc...

After putting the files into that folder the next time you open Sketchup you'll have the new commands loaded automatically... To stop afile loading either move it into another folder or add .txt onto the name's end so it won't auto-load.

You don't have to do much more to use a script - most rubies run by picking their command off the Plugins Menu, some have their own toolbars and others work off the right-click context menu. Some do load in another menu like 'Draw'. A very few of them work by typing their command into the Ruby console...

NOHD · 7 Jul 2009, 23:58

Thanks Gaieus and TIG! ive finally installed the Sketchy bevel and Round Edges. im going to study it, thanks again!!!

NOHD · 8 Jul 2009, 00:43

How about this one? how can you install .rbs like this? http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/bezier.rb do i copy and paste it on a notepad and then change the file name with .rb?

Gaieus · 8 Jul 2009, 06:15

rbs files are just "encrypted" (scrambled) versions of rb files and work the same way as rb files. Do not rename them just use them as simple rb files. (The authors of these files may want to hide the code and this is particularly the general practice with commercial plugins).

NOHD · 9 Jul 2009, 08:18

@gaieus said:

rbs files are just "encrypted" (scrambled) versions of rb files and work the same way as rb files. Do not rename them just use them as simple rb files. (The authors of these files may want to hide the code and this is particularly the general practice with commercial plugins).

ohhhhhh.. i just saw the sketchucation's PlugIns index. i was having a hard time searching all over the net for PlugIns.
can i ask you a favor? can i post here 2d images and can you tell me how to do it in sketch up? im having a hard time doing irregular shapes on sketchup, but no problems on flat surfaces. thanks, you've been a big help

Gaieus · 9 Jul 2009, 09:25

Surely post anything you have questions about. After all, this is what this forum is for!

If it's some specific issue however, just feel free to start a new post (instead of adding to this topic) so that it won't get lost/hidden in this long thread.

duceolsen · 14 Jul 2009, 21:12

Just saying hi as I am new here,
I do architectural work in the Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio area, I have been using sketchup for about four years (before it was google). Lately I have been doing all of my renders through kerkythea.

I am here for any tips, hints and suggestions I can get.