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What's your beginners tip?

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  • G Offline
    GoldenFrog
    last edited by 26 Jun 2010, 23:49

    @unknownuser said:

    Look at other users' models, especially their WIP (Work in progress. AKA an unfinished model) models. You might see how they do it. You might learn a new trick or a new way to use a certain tool. Don't be afraid to ask someone how they made a model either.
    Agreed. But about saving, that's why SU has autosave πŸ˜‰ Though it is always good to be on the safe side.

    Remember, great minds think alike, and fools never differ.

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    • P Offline
      pilou
      last edited by 27 Jun 2010, 07:17

      Save is cool but when your file becomes some big that is less cool πŸ˜‰

      Frenchy Pilou
      Is beautiful that please without concept!
      My Little site :)

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      • G Offline
        Gaieus
        last edited by 27 Jun 2010, 09:47

        The problem with autosave is exactly what Pilou says. When your file becomes rather large and it "hits" you the worst time, it can take forever. Imagine you are in an operation with a heavy ruby plugin (which can take a while in itself, too) and then in the meanwhile comes the autosave.

        I basically turned it off and got used to saving the model at every possible and "logical" time (mainly after some major steps). However it would be a risky thing to suggest this...

        Gai...

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        • G Offline
          GoldenFrog
          last edited by 27 Jun 2010, 21:11

          Ah, well, being a rather lazy person, I never make models so large tht it takes a long time to save 'em, but I get your point.

          Remember, great minds think alike, and fools never differ.

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          • L Offline
            liam887
            last edited by 13 Aug 2010, 02:10

            @gaieus said:

            The problem with autosave is exactly what Pilou says. When your file becomes rather large and it "hits" you the worst time, it can take forever. Imagine you are in an operation with a heavy ruby plugin (which can take a while in itself, too) and then in the meanwhile comes the autosave.

            I basically turned it off and got used to saving the model at every possible and "logical" time (mainly after some major steps). However it would be a risky thing to suggest this...

            ditto

            although when you forget to manual save..................... 😞
            happens more than i will admit lol

            VISIT MY ONLINE GALLERY
            http://www.robotsvdinosaurs.com/

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            • B Offline
              boofredlay
              last edited by 13 Aug 2010, 02:42

              I did the same. And now I am hard wired to hit save before any plugin operation πŸ˜‰

              http://www.coroflot.com/boofredlay

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              • G Offline
                Gaieus
                last edited by 13 Aug 2010, 10:08

                Yes indeed, I also forget to save sometimes and once it did happen to me that I splatted and lost some hours of work - exactly the worst timing as it was a tight deadline.

                That's why I also wrote it would be risky to advise this...

                Gai...

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                • D Offline
                  Design1
                  last edited by 14 Aug 2010, 15:09

                  Model somthing that is accesable to you, your house, letterbox, a piece of furniture etc model and delete/build until you get it right. Emulating the real world will force you to uncover new aspects of SU you may not otherwise stumble upon.

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                  • D Offline
                    DreadedOne509
                    last edited by 20 Aug 2010, 16:07

                    As a beginner myself (more aptly called a newb) I can say with confidence that the first
                    thing someone should do is RTFM (read the 'manual'). It's long, boring, etc etc et al ad nauseum but more than worth it.

                    Just the toolbar and tools sections are worth the time and effort. There are so many context and tool altering keyboard
                    key combination's for the various tools that it'll really be worth your while.

                    "Thought's of Dread"

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                    • J Offline
                      jgb
                      last edited by 17 Feb 2011, 21:52

                      It's a mistake I made by the bushel when I started using SU.

                      I made multiple copies of grouped geometry instead of making them components.
                      My rule now is if ANYTHING is more than 1 occurrence, it is a component.

                      So when I did convert one of the group copies to an identical component (select, explode, make comp) I was faced with the task of replacing the same groups with that same component, in the exact same position. When I moved the comp into the groups position, it would snap into position and I was not able to select only the group to delete it.

                      I tried several things with variable success, until I stumbled on this simple solution.

                      Before you move the comp onto the group, edit the group and add a single line from any point to outside its existing bounding box, then close it.
                      Move the comp into place. It will still snap in place.

                      Now simply click on the extended group line and you can easily select and delete only the group. 😎


                      There is also a TT tool that replaces identical groups with an identical comp, but it does the whole drawing, which is not what you may want, and if even the slightest difference is present, or the group is nested, it will not replace the group.


                      jgb

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                      • S Offline
                        Speaker
                        last edited by 18 Mar 2011, 21:18

                        If you want to completely get rid of Sketchups face shading while keeping the colour, then turn on the shadows and set the light slider to 0 and the dark slider to 80. I found this useful for making the RBG value of the faces to match the one in the material editor.

                        http://i.imgur.com/94vJn.jpg

                        http://www.youtube.com/user/latvietis1234

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                        • J Offline
                          JosefaHoge
                          last edited by 19 Mar 2011, 19:08

                          Hey

                          thanks for your beginning tips. They are really helpful for me to develop my interest and expertise and most importantly understanding the tool.

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                          • J Offline
                            jgb
                            last edited by 20 Mar 2011, 19:11

                            Regarding non-coplanar problems. If the attempt to face keeps failing, even after you have drawn and redrawn all the lines multiple times, here are a few ways to help find the culprit. Not always successful, but usually eliminates the co-linear line problem.

                            If your triangular, rectangular or multi-line entity fails to face, you need to revert it to triangles. Draw lines from vertex to vertex, being careful to let SU tell you that you are using endpoints only, before you click. Zooming in helps, but if you encounter the clipping plane getting in close, then turn OFF perspective. (Camera; Perspective) Then you can get in real close.

                            Another problem with drawing lines is where you are trying to draw a line (from A to B) that is not quite on-axis, and SU will tell you it is "constrained by line at point". Simply ESC and draw the line from B to A. Usually works. This is probably the biggest culprit creating co-linear lines.

                            Now let's say you do have a suspected co-linear line. You delete both of them, and redraw a single line, but the face still won't form. The culprit here is the tiny line segment formed at the vertex after the 2 co-linear lines were drawn. It can be nearly invisible unless you zoom in real close, and that takes time. So rather than go looking at all 3 corners for it, try this.

                            Turn ON the Entity Info dialog box. You also need to turn on hidden lines. With the object viewed such that there are no other endpoints behind the suspect vertex, use the left to right select in a very small box just covering the vertex, and not any whole lines. If Entity Info says no selection, the problem is elsewhere. If the Entity Info says there is a very tiny line (or more than 1 line) then there is the problem. Just delete all of them. Do all 3 vertexes. This may deface other adjacent faces, but now you can delete a line and redraw it endpoint to endpoint to reform the faces.

                            Note that this will NOT find a vertex gap, but deleting and redrawing lines at endpoints cleared of tiny fragments will cure the gaps.

                            Another culprit is trying to face on a curve or arc line. Since there is no real endpoint within the length of the line, placing other lines to form a face may not be right on, and this can create a tiny fragment or gap to throw off the face. Just explode the curve/arc and that will help finding the true endpoints on the curve.

                            When you have the whole object faced with triangles, you can start deleting the internal lines making all those triangles to get back to your multi-line face. If a face disappears doing this, then that triangle was not co-planar with the rest of the face, and you have to redraw that section in a co-planar manor. Or, just UNDO the deleted line, and make it soft and smooth (Entity Info box again).

                            And with all that, I still spent 2 1/2 hours yesterday trying to get a triangle to face, and ending up deleting the whole section around it and starting over.


                            jgb

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                            • Dave RD Offline
                              Dave R
                              last edited by 20 Mar 2011, 19:54

                              @jgb said:

                              I made multiple copies of grouped geometry instead of making them components.
                              My rule now is if ANYTHING is more than 1 occurrence, it is a component.

                              So when I did convert one of the group copies to an identical component (select, explode, make comp) I was faced with the task of replacing the same groups with that same component, in the exact same position. When I moved the comp into the groups position, it would snap into position and I was not able to select only the group to delete it.

                              I tried several things with variable success, until I stumbled on this simple solution.

                              Before you move the comp onto the group, edit the group and add a single line from any point to outside its existing bounding box, then close it.
                              Move the comp into place. It will still snap in place.

                              Now simply click on the extended group line and you can easily select and delete only the group. 😎

                              I only make components, not groups. Then I never need to waste time making the conversion from group to component later. If I want to replace one component with another, it's automatic so I don't have to add any extra geometry to be able to get hold of one later. I've never found a case where a group is preferable to a component. Even when there's only one occurrence of something, I make it a component.

                              Etaoin Shrdlu

                              %

                              (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

                              G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

                              M30

                              %

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                              • J Offline
                                jgb
                                last edited by 21 Mar 2011, 13:28

                                @dave r said:

                                I only make components, not groups.

                                No argument with that. I almost always end up converting a group to a comp when finished with its design.
                                The main reason I keep groups is to cut down on the extensive list of comps (many of which would be sets of comps) I would create during the design. I use the groupings to segregate sections of geometry to avoid unwanted merging, then explode the group once done, but within a comp. I also usually group several comps into 1 coherent set, where I may have a slight difference in the set makeup in various places in the model. Groups and comps both have their advantages and should be used accordingly.


                                jgb

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                                • Dave RD Offline
                                  Dave R
                                  last edited by 21 Mar 2011, 13:53

                                  "Groups and comps both have their advantages and should be used accordingly."

                                  Yup. Just never have found a need for groups even when nesting components. Depends upon ones workflow and style and it is good the SketchUp is so flexible.

                                  Etaoin Shrdlu

                                  %

                                  (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

                                  G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

                                  M30

                                  %

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                                  • mitcorbM Offline
                                    mitcorb
                                    last edited by 21 Mar 2011, 16:20

                                    @Dave R:
                                    One of your best beginner's tips only recently mentioned elsewhere, is the use of an upscaled component instance to do intricate modeling which would be very difficult (empty faces, unresponsive inferencing, zoom clipping)with the object at its intended scale. Since scaling an instance does not affect the other instances, this allows great freedom. All editing done on the larger instance is immediately reflected in the smaller. When finished, simply delete the larger instance.
                                    This one really stuck with me. I have pretty much stopped whining about the scale problem.
                                    Salute πŸ‘

                                    I take the slow, deliberate approach in my aimless wandering.

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                                    • Dave RD Offline
                                      Dave R
                                      last edited by 21 Mar 2011, 16:37

                                      Thank you very much for that. And of course if you make an extra copy of the component and scale it up before editing, you can discard the large copy when you've finished. No need to worry about scaling it back down and getting it in the right location. Actually there are a number of cases where I will pull out a copy of a component to edit it rather than hiding the neighbors. And example of that can be seen at 5:20 in the video here. And I wouldn't think of just moving a component before editing with the intent of moving it back.

                                      None of this is useful to those who prefer groups to components.

                                      Etaoin Shrdlu

                                      %

                                      (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

                                      G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

                                      M30

                                      %

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                                      • J Offline
                                        jgb
                                        last edited by 21 Mar 2011, 17:35

                                        Dave said "if you make an extra copy of the component and scale it up before editing, you can discard the large copy when you've finished. No need to worry about scaling it back down and getting it in the right location." πŸ‘

                                        For the less experienced SU modelers, you need to scale up the copy of the component OUTSIDE its bounding box BEFORE you edit it. If you edit the comp, THEN scale it up, all copies will scale up as well.

                                        Anything you do to a comp on its bounding box, such as scale, rotate, apply material/color (and a few others) applies only to that particular copy of the comp. Anything you do to a comp IN edit mode applies to all copies.

                                        If you need to make a change to the geometry of only 1 copy, make it UNIQUE first, then edit. However that isolates that copy from any changes to/from other similar comps.


                                        jgb

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                                        • mitcorbM Offline
                                          mitcorb
                                          last edited by 21 Mar 2011, 17:58

                                          @jgb:
                                          I think this is an important clarification. πŸ‘

                                          I take the slow, deliberate approach in my aimless wandering.

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