A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

Korgen · 16 Nov 2011, 01:28

Hi, My name is Brian and I just joined. I have been using SU 8 for a short time. My business is Main Street Woodcraft and I am currently re-designing some dinning chairs inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright because the furniture maker sized some of the elements too small for structural stability. I am using ScetchUp to explore modifications and how they might be true to the original design. I am attempting to make the cushions more realistic and have tried the soften edges tool and the loop subdivision smooth plug-in but nothing has worked well so far. Any suggestions?

RichardCherry · 22 Nov 2011, 19:49

Wanted to pop in and say hello to everyone. While I have messed with SU a bit in the past I tended to gravitate more toward Blender for my modeling needs. I am a hobbyist so, unlike a lot of folks here I am not a professional

I primarily create models so I can turn them into paper models and since I am leaning heavily toward doing a lot of architectural models I wanted to give SU a try. I cam across an artist by the name of ixlrlxi's work and was completely stunned by what can be done with SU. And after a little researching I found this wonderful site. What a fantastic resource!
Looking forward to spending a little quality time with the fine folks here at SketchUcation

If you wish you can see my work here:

(siriusartworks.deviantart.com)

Cheers!
Richard

mitcorb · 23 Nov 2011, 02:07

Hi, Richard:
On behalf of the crowd here, Welcome to you. Nice work on DeviantArt. I like the tower sketch.

finnishXchange · 25 Nov 2011, 01:51

Greetings from Finland!

I'm excited to be a new member of this forum after browsing the impressive work. So far I've only used Kerkethea with SU, but am excited to start trying others while learning from you experts. Also it will be fun to get into some of the discussions and share some of what I learn.

Is there a good way to import Autocad plans into Sketchup? I hope to try the plug-in by ThomThom "Cleanup" to fix the cad files, but maybe there is a better way?

Thank you!

Troy

Gaieus · 25 Nov 2011, 09:16

Hi Troy and welcome,

With the pro version of SU, you can import cad files. If you have the free version only, maybe this plugin will help:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31186

milky6282 · 29 Nov 2011, 03:50

Hi.. My Name is Milky
Im from Indonesia...
this time i dont have any question yet... But im very excited to be apart of this forum...
Nice to get here..
Thank you..

Gaieus · 29 Nov 2011, 07:46

Hi Milky and welcome!

irwanwr · 30 Nov 2011, 17:16

hello,
my name is irwan. i've been using sketchup since early SketchUp 6. primarily just because i like drawing. didn't use SketchUp for a while. thus, i jumped from SketchUp 6 to 8.
it's nice to know that there is a forum like this SketchUcation after a while looking.

chevy · 1 Dec 2011, 15:02

Being a newbe to Sketchup, I did a little playing around with it and watched quite a few of the MANY tutorials as I learned (and continue to learn) about the basic tool functions. Now that I have familiarized myself with the basic toolbar functions, I thought that I would join a forum in order learn a little more "in depth" as I create new designs and projects (my first was a simple Gazebo).

Now with that having been said, forgive me for asking stupid, dumb and/or silly questions AND forgive me for asking this following question in this forum ... Direct me to the right forum location in order to get the question answered.

Now for the question ... I have a flat surface that I want to create a raised or possibly a recessed image on from a jpeg picture that I have (using the jpeg as a guide). To get a little more specific, the flat surface is a kitchen cabinet door and the jpeg that I want to get on the face is of a drawn image of a bundle of wheat. The question that I have is what suggestions and/or directions are out there as to the best way of achieving this task.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to participation in this forum in the future. Maybe one day I can be one that helps answer others questions rather than always being the "Question asker" ... LOL

Chevy

Gaieus · 1 Dec 2011, 16:53

Go to File > Import and select the image type as the file. Then you have two choices on the right: import as image or import as texture. Both can be used but best would be if you could post the image as well the door so when I show you both methods, you can see it with your own example. Attach the file under the text area you are typing.

chevy · 1 Dec 2011, 17:24

Thanks for the reply. Here are the two items that I am attempting to merge (per wifey's deman ... oops ... request)

Gaieus · 1 Dec 2011, 17:25

Try again, Chevy, they did not attach. Don't use the multiple attachment feature as it is broken. Attach one file (add file) and then add another one.

chevy · 1 Dec 2011, 17:37

Let's try this again ... hope it works this time

Cabinet Door 3.skp

Gaieus · 1 Dec 2011, 17:43

Do you only want the wheat or also the grey background on the door?

If yes, the image needs to first of all be converted to png with a transparent background instead of the grey now. Then we can move on. Can you do that? Do you have a proper image editor?

Gaieus · 1 Dec 2011, 17:57

This would be without any recessing or raising - just placed on the kitchen door as an image entity (I made a not too good quality, transparent png image of it and added some wood texture to show how it would look like when you paint the door). To raise or recess, we need to explode the image and process it with a plugin that will create real geometry around the edges. Warning: it may become quite a heavy model that way.

Cabinet Door 3.skp

chevy · 1 Dec 2011, 18:21

What I was hoping to do is to just transfer the wheat image onto the door facing and somehow raise or recess the image it as if the wood facing has the wheat image carved or routered into the wood. Once I get all of the doors taken care of, I have drawer facings that need to be embellished to match the doors. Just so that you will know, these items are for a kitchen island with cooktop that I am designing for the wifes upcoming MAJOR kitchen remodel. The wheat jpg is actually a pattern for etching glass that was used on a couple of glass panels in her China Cabinet. Obviously, she wants the island to mimic and match the cabinet.

As for the image editor, I have Photo Shop and Paint Shop Pro. Both of which should come in as useful tools to use with SketchUp. All I have to do is to learn how to integrate either one or both with SketchUp. AS I stated in my first post, I am a newbe to SketchUp (only a few weeks of use) and have a lot to learn. I have a lot of hand drawn renderings collected over the years that I have drawn and hope to recreate them in the program rather than having a 3 ring notebook filled with paper, dividers and tabs.

@gaieus said:

Do you only want the wheat or also the grey background on the door?

If yes, the image needs to first of all be converted to png with a transparent background instead of the grey now. Then we can move on. Can you do that? Do you have a proper image editor?

Gaieus · 1 Dec 2011, 23:53

Okay, so I made the image into a png with transparent background. You will also need to develop this technique.

Another completely different issue is that it is still an image "floating" in front of your cabinet door. Just like a painted pattern over the wood texture.

In order to raise (or recess) it, you will need to

turn it into a face with the image applied as a texture on
somehow trim the texture so that there are edges around the visible parts.

1 is easy: select the image, right lick > explode...

2 can be done with this tool (a plugin): http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=33445
(I have never used it so I have no experience with it)

chevy · 2 Dec 2011, 00:36

Thanks for the tips! I have been "tinkering" with this off and on for most of the afternoon. I appreciate the advice that you have given, it was/is very helpful! With the use of Paint Shop I have started the process of "cleaning up" the wheat image and removing the gray background. My workweek begins tomorrow so I guess that I will pick back up on this sometime Monday or Tuesday. Again ... Thanks for the help!

Chevy

quote="Gaieus"]Okay, so I made the image into a png with transparent background. You will also need to develop this technique.

Another completely different issue is that it is still an image "floating" in front of your cabinet door. Just like a painted pattern over the wood texture.

In order to raise (or recess) it, you will need to

turn it into a face with the image applied as a texture on
somehow trim the texture so that there are edges around the visible parts.

1 is easy: select the image, right lick > explode...

2 can be done with this tool (a plugin): http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=33445
(I have never used it so I have no experience with it)[/quote]

Chistabo · 13 Dec 2011, 19:15

Hello to SU community!

My name is Simon, from Slovenia.

Using SU7.

I have drawn simple Astrology SU file, and am currently manually moving the Planets around the chart. With Component Attributes / RotZ, to simulate moving of Planets in Degrees.

There is a Swiss Ephemeris (SE or sweph) from Astro.com, that has Planets positions calculated from x BC to x AD. It is written in C language. All major astrology software uses this SE file for calculations.

There is also sweph4ruby wrap-up.

Currently I am trying to find the way for Planets to be moved in real-time, using some Ruby programming and SE or sweph4ruby.
That is, program some script to read sweph4ruby (or original sweph or sweph.dll) and apply Planets coordinates to SU components.
Absolute beginner with Ruby.

Can you please point me to someone with similar interest or who is willing to give some advice to newbie like me? Will learn on the go, have done it before.

I know majority of you guys and gals do not believe in Astrology, but that is not the matter of discussion now.

Thank you for your help,

Best regards,

Simon

chevy · 14 Dec 2011, 14:08

I want to thank the SketchUcation Forums along with the people involved for such an expansive knowledge base. In particular Gaieus and Muriel (whose post I no longer see in the thread) for helping me with the "issue" that I had with my FIRST real project. Thanks to these two, I finished my blue prints and delivered them to the cabinet maker for construction to begin. Although I was about a week behind schedule which in turn put me lower on their completed waiting list, it was worth it in this instance. He was so impressed with the detail and clarity of what was designed utilizing SketchUp that he said that he was going to check out the program himself.

I have been coming to the forums pretty much every day since signing up here, reading the various subject posts and continuing to learn more about the program. I found a few plug-ins that sure would have come in handy during my designing phase that would have cut the "aggravation factor" along with the "time factor" way down. I have now downloaded and installed with the first one being BZRoundEdge(Being a "Newbie" ... I had no clue about them at the time).

My message and/or suggestion to the new users and new members ... read the forums! Use the tutorials! Watch the videos ... pause the video and practice with the new information as you watch it! IF by some chance an answer is not found ... Post your question(s)! Speaking from experience, reading the various post(s) will (more than likely) answer your question(s).

Now a message for Gaieus ... thank you for the "welcome" and a personal THANK YOU for the assistance!

Chevy