Newbie Question: Placing objects on top one another

Paris

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

@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

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

@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

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

remus

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

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

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

rocker9455

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

That would probably do it

rocker9455

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