A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members
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Rob, best would be to start a new topic for this (it can easily sink here) and please, attach files - skp and maybe screenshots - about what you are trying to do...
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hi, i just recently discovered SU and find it interesting...
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Hey everybody, I just joined up because I just discovered SketchUp and downloaded the free version 8. In fact I was searching for an online concept art forum and stumbled upon this site which led me to the program. I am so amazed and excited that there's a free 3D modelling program out there! I've always had a lot of ideas floating around in my head, gadgets, buildings, spaceships you name it. But i'm not that great at drawing, I'm decent but not good enough to really put my ideas onto paper exactly as I visualize them, anyway hopefully I'll get good at this!
Just tried using it and was epicly lost. Figure I'll start with the most basic shapes and work my way up from there. That said, how do I make a cone? Or a dome? or a sphere? It's a miracle I got circle square cylinder and cube down haha! Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
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Hi Devin and welcome!
Indeed SketchUp is a great discovery to anyone who stumbles upon it.
As for the shapes you mentioned: they are made during a "lathe" operation with the Follow me tool
See an example file below.
FollowMe.skp
First you select the path (a circle) with the Select tool second you simply click on a "cross section" of the desired shape with the Follow me tool(you can find it under Tools or activate all sorts of toolbars from the View menu)
Ah yes, and when you ask something, do not log out and visit the next day but wait a couple of minutes.
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I've been doing residential drafting for years using my self-taught CAD skills. I had some experience with SolidWorks in University and I started playing with Sketchup a couple years ago. Now I'm making the jump to Sketchup Pro and Layout for all of my construction drawings after seeing the amazing work that members on this site have been able to do with it.
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Hi.
I am wondering how I can make part, not all of my model See-through, like glass.
Something like this:
Thanks!
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There is already a Transparent material library in your Material browser. Once a material is in your model already, you can add transparency to virtually anything - just go to the edit tab and find the opacity (transparency) slider at the bottom.
Note however that SketchUp will never render your "glasses" fully realistically (like with reflections and such). But that's another discussion anyway.
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Hello,
My name is Maaya & I basicly a newbie in SketchUp world (just intalled SU 8 couple hours ago).
I want to say 'Nice to meet you all, & Please help me in my study to become a good architect" bowing -
Welcome Maaya. Hope to see you as an experienced SU users soon!
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Hi everyone,
Starting with SU 8 free, I feel like I lead a charmed life; weeks of tutorials to dive into, hundreds of techniques developed, rough spots smoothed, new tools and plug-ins and an international community of intelligent, creative and unusual people. WOW!
I did my first 3-D graphics in 1984 for a Vivitar service magazine cover. The Penguin software could only do wire frame, but it looked very high tech for 1984. To convert the image to a usable format I shot slides with 2-second exposures on high contrast film off of a 1000 line resolution monitor.
I’ve done 3-D on a Mac every chance I could get on the low-end software like Ray Dream and Strata Vision. Never could justify the big ones because I wasn’t making a living doing it.
I did get to do a rotating 3D Time Warner logo for one of our products when I worked at Warner New Media. It was chrome and the B/W bit map I used for the reflection was a rustic French bathroom. I think that was with ArchiCad. It was originally supposed to begin animating as a line of CDs, hence the disc structure. By the time it was done it was just a rotating logo.
Now I do photo illustrations, restorations and regular photography. I started with Photoshop in version 2 and when layers were added in V.3, I started teaching it to all of my friends, and then to clients, and then incorporated it in all my classes. The last one “Interactive Media Product Development and Production” was in 2003 at USC School of Cinema – Television, now the School of Cinematic Arts.
Now I’m part of the working “retired” living on the frontier in the high pine country of east central Arizona. I’m making more time to follow paths through the Internet, one of which led me to SketchUp. The work of the members is so extraordinary that I could spend a month examining all of the models. Even my favorite building in the entire world, Chateau de Chillon in Switzerland, has been done, and quite well too.
One of my first projects is the All-Terrain-Vehicle that I did 22 years ago. The biggest challenge is to make the tire treads. Since I remember a lot about how I did it the first time, it will help me understand how SU works.
I will not be so verbose in the future. I don’t chat much, too much going on, but I will be around. Happy to be with you, rock on!
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Hi Llyod and welcome (again)
Well, nice and impressive work you have been doing for the last couple of decades. I really hope you will (first of all!!!) find SketchUp a really fun tool to work with. If so, there will definitely be no problems.
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Hello everyone. I'm Raptor_101. I've been using Sketchup for a while now, however I haven't used it much until recently. I've mainly wanted to be able to create 3D models of aircraft, which I'm still learning how to do, and spacecraft. I haven't really completed many models as each one has been more of a learning experience rather than a model-making one. I've learned some things the hard way, and as time goes on I've seen more about how to do certain things in Sketchup that I haven't known in the past. I came here mainly for the purpose of learning more about this program. I have seen what other modelers are capable of in Sketchup and I'm amazed. I hope to get to that point someday.
Anyways here's two models that are completed:
http://gf-44phantom.deviantart.com/#/d415ebn & http://gf-44phantom.deviantart.com/#/d415fqjFor the second model I wish to apply textures that aren't tiled and are tailored to fit the shapes on it. I am still looking at the forum as I type this and haven't found anything really related to this in the Tutorials Index thread unless I missed something.
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Nevermind, i got it fixed now
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More questions
Is there a way to move Grouped objects on the X, Y & Z axis?
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Geschwindigkeit
Sounds like you need to find some basic tutorials - there are lots out there - just Google...
To Move a Group you Select it and then choose the Move tool, pick the start-point and start to move the Group along one of the axes [approximately], when the 'guide' turns to the axis color - e.g. red for X - you can hold sown the shift-key to lock movement along that axis. Pick another point or type in the distance you want to complete the Move of the Group.
As well as locking movement with the shift-key you can also lock Move to an axis using the arrow-keys - one tap to lock, one tap to unlock - the different arrows represent different axes...
As well as locking to an axis you can use the shift-key lock to lock to another direction - e.g. if you hover the mouse over a non-orthogonal edge the 'guide' turns magenta when parallel to that edge - you can then lock to that. If you move off at right-angles the alternative magenta 'guide' can be re-locked perpendicular to that edge too, instead of parallel...
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Hi Gaieus.
Today I am very happy to Join this forum.
As you know that I knew about the Google SketchUp in the
Fancy A ride Around the Forums. in Google Help Forums.
Now as I am here. I know I'd learn so much here.
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Hi Indra and welcome! You will find endless amount of resources here!
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Hi from another Noob.
I am a mechanical engineer so am used to working with 3D CAD software. I have just gone freelance in a field not requiring a full blown CAD, but where it would be nice to produce the occasional 3D drawing to illustrate the product I am selling.
I am finding it somewhat frustrating knowing what I want to do but not yet knowing how. I do however find that it is far easier to learn something new when a specific task needs to be done rather than trying to plough through tutorials and the manual.
It looks like I may soon have to go for the "pro" version or have to learn Ruby in order to realise the full potential.
I guess there are a few long nights ahead!regards
Tim
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@zach said:
Hi, I started Martin's "Edges to Rubies" tutorial prior to last summer. It seems like an excellent tutorial, but I stopped using it (and SketchUp) for the past 6 months due to other time commitments. I've waited so long to restart, that I think that I'll need to start over again to get my bearings. One initial directive that I was unable to resolve the first time that I started Martin's tutorial (and I'd like to get it right this time) is "How to Create a Working Directory". Martin suggests naming it C:\carrige_house -and that seems fine, but I'm not sure how I create this (file?). I have windows vista. I've tried Google, but that doesn't seem to bring up what I'm looking for. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Zach
You must have found out a long time ago by now.
For those still not sure, here are the steps
Go in Window (Ms icon) type “cmd” in search box (or open it from 'all programs' then select 'accessories', when the command prompt appears (the black board), type from where the cursor blinks “mkdir carriage_house” (without the quotation marks) then press enter. Close the Cmd blackboard. Go back to search (in Window Icon) and type the name of the directory, in this case type carriage_house, it will show its exixtence: simply a new folder. Right click and select “open folder location”, where your new folder will appear. -
Hi Opal,
Welcome to SCF! Nice cake
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