Su for furniture design
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hi woodworkers
i have a friend who is a very skilled pro furniture maker/general woodworker. he is keen to start modeling for design purposes and also for presentation to clients
so i have offered to get him started with SU which i know pretty well.
then it occurs to me to ask whether SU is good ("the best") for this type of work, or if there is some more specific app out there? i'm pretty sure it's a dumb question, especially to ask here
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I use it for furniture design all the time. In fact that is my primary use for SketchUp. I think it works quite nicely for that. I do everything from rough sketches to final shop drawings with cutlists in SU. Whether it is the best I couldn't say. It works well for me so I've found no reason to look elsewhere.
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excellent, thanks dave, that's what i was hoping to hear! Don't know why i asked really:)
my work is architectural, but of course the modeling principles are the same
shop drawings and cut lists ... does that mean you are using layout?
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Dave is perhaps too modest to advertise the fact that together with Tim Killen he has a very active role in educating folk in the use of SU for woodwork/furniture design. The Fine Woodworking site here http://www.finewoodworking.com/blog/design-click-build is their baby.
Dave also seems to have unlimited patience in helping people with SU questions in various woodworking forums and his own furniture designs in SU are a great inspiration.
He certainly does use Layout, I bought the Pro version of SU after seeing his comments on it!
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It depends on the type of work his is doing. If there is a CNC, lots of curvy work, need for precise holes and dimensions, lots of articles, banding, fast and accurate reports SU is not the best option.
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Thank you for the nice words and the plug, Chris. I appreciate that very much.
As Chris says, I use LayOut, too, for creating presentation packages, plans and construction documents. I think the combination of SketchUp and LayOut is excellent for use by woodowrkers. LayOut has a much more sophisticated set of dimensioning tools and I rarely use those SketchUp any more except for quick things for myself.
Dedmin, I will admit that SketchUp can be challenging for curvy, sculptural work although in the last week I drew up a very nice Windsor rocking chair with the seat scooped out and the steam bent spindles and back posts. Awhile back I drew a Bombé chest which has a fair number of curves. The curves in that piece could be smoother but I was drawing it to show how to draw it. It's plenty detailed to work from in the shop, though. Currently I'm working on full size patterns for that chair using LayOut to create the 1:1 drawings and the construction notes. As for precision, you can work to precision in inches of mm to 6 places right of the decimal which is considerably higher precision than one needs with wood.
I'm curious about your comment about "lots of articles". Could you elaborate? I regularly draw furniture models with lots of parts and have no problems. I can also get an accurate report from SU or a cut list faster than I can get a sip of coffee from the cup in front of my keyboard.
Steve, I think your friend will do alright with SketchUp. If you haven't already, don't push him to buy the pro version until he has given the free version the once over. When he gets the idea of drawing and working with components and so on, then he'll want to move up to the pro version and start working with LayOut, too. Besides, in the pro version of 8, he'll also get the Solid tools which will be very handy for a lot of operations that woodworkers would use.
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I agree with chrisjk, Dave is a geek in using SketchUp. Much of what I know about SU was learnt from him. So, thank you once again Dave!
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@dave r said:
Thank you for the nice words and the plug, Chris. I appreciate that very much.
As Chris says, I use LayOut, too, for creating presentation packages, plans and construction documents. I think the combination of SketchUp and LayOut is excellent for use by woodowrkers. LayOut has a much more sophisticated set of dimensioning tools and I rarely use those SketchUp any more except for quick things for myself.
Dedmin, I will admit that SketchUp can be challenging for curvy, sculptural work although in the last week I drew up a very nice Windsor rocking chair with the seat scooped out and the steam bent spindles and back posts. Awhile back I drew a Bombé chest which has a fair number of curves. The curves in that piece could be smoother but I was drawing it to show how to draw it. It's plenty detailed to work from in the shop, though. Currently I'm working on full size patterns for that chair using LayOut to create the 1:1 drawings and the construction notes. As for precision, you can work to precision in inches of mm to 6 places right of the decimal which is considerably higher precision than one needs with wood.
I'm curious about your comment about "lots of articles". Could you elaborate? I regularly draw furniture models with lots of parts and have no problems. I can also get an accurate report from SU or a cut list faster than I can get a sip of coffee from the cup in front of my keyboard.
Steve, I think your friend will do alright with SketchUp. If you haven't already, don't push him to buy the pro version until he has given the free version the once over. When he gets the idea of drawing and working with components and so on, then he'll want to move up to the pro version and start working with LayOut, too. Besides, in the pro version of 8, he'll also get the Solid tools which will be very handy for a lot of operations that woodworkers would use.
Dave, Your blog and tutorials made me took deep into learning SketchUp, but while it was a love at first sight SU has a lot of drawbacks. If You worked in a company where design and actual shop work is done by different people You know what I mean. With my english it is hard to explain, so better to show some videos - http://www.youtube.com/user/bazissoft#p/u
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I tried to watch some of that video but, not understanding Russian, nor knowing what application he is using, I'm not quite sure what I should see. In the case of the original poster, I don't think his friend is doing the kind of production work you are doing. I think he is working with real wood and not so much sawdust and glue. That said, I don't really see any problem with using SketchUp for creating cases pieces from sheet materials. This morning I am working on a desk for a client. Most of the case parts are plywood and I'm not finding any shortcomings in SU.
So what application have you decided to use instead of SketchUp? Perhaps you could list the drawbacks of SketchUp?
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That is what I said it depends on the type of work. If You are working with a CNC, banding, holes for hardware and joinery, lots of hardware from Blum Hettich Grass SketchUp falls short: here is a video of Hettich Selection - it is based on AutoCAD and works with hardware from Hettich
http://www.screencast.com/users/dedmin/folders/Jing/media/5cd51e16-09a7-4fba-9ae4-e5f36403f33d -
That's interesting although I wouldn't call that woodworking and I didn't see anything I would show to a client.
I think you are mixing woodworking and manufacturing which for most woodworkers and cabinet makers, are two different worlds. The average woodworker whether hobbyist or professional is not doing flat pack furniture like the stuff you work with. If folks want that kind of stuff they go to Ikea or Walmart.
I looked at the Hettich site but didn't find anything like a download link for that program you showed. Is it from them? Is it a sort of add-in for AutoCAD. Can you do what you are showing for free?
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This is what we are doing in the East Europe and in Europe as a whole - it is not like in the USA. That is why it is hard for You to understand - it is very different. This program is not free - costs 250 euros and comes with AutoCAD 2008 OEM. It is made by Imos - the most advanced furniture software to work with panels - http://www.imos-cms.de/index.php?id=8&L=1
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Yes, it is very different from what we are doing here as well as what woodworkers I talk to to in Italy, the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand are doing. Again, I wouldn't class what you are showing there as woodworking.
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@unknownuser said:
Again, I wouldn't class what you are showing there as woodworking.
May be - but the subject is
@unknownuser said:su for furniture design
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And the question was about a woodworker using SketchUp.
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thanks for this discussion, it has made the situation very clear.
SU will be perfect for my friend's needs. he is a creative guy, part artist as well, but not too computer savvy, so the friendly appeal of SU will suit him much more than a harder autocad type feeling. i can see what you are saying dedmin - in my arch work also, i could not use SU as my sole cad tool, even with layout. but as a creative development and visualization tool it is excellent.
dave, i like the advice about not buying pro straight away - it will be a while before he can model proficiently anyway. he is doing one off pieces to be made by himself, so i think the basic SU dimensioning tools will be fine. also if each part is modeled as a component, then it is easy to produce simple shop drawings. also with all the great plugins available like shape bender, simple loft, booltools and others, it's possible to model just about anything that can be modeled with a non-nurbs application
dave, i will certainly plug him (and myself) into your great website - an amazing resource
@unknownuser said:
I can also get an accurate report from SU or a cut list faster than I can get a sip of coffee from the cup in front of my keyboard.
i'm curious about how this is done. i'm sure you have explained it before - is there a link you can give?
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Hi Steve,
I have indeed written about it both here and on the blog. Here's a link for you. You can download the plugin from there.
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very nice!
thanks dave
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You're quite welcome.
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@caddict said:
hi woodworkers
i have a friend who is a very skilled pro furniture maker/general woodworker. he is keen to start modeling for design purposes and also for presentation to clients
so i have offered to get him started with SU which i know pretty well.
then it occurs to me to ask whether SU is good ("the best") for this type of work, or if there is some more specific app out there? i'm pretty sure it's a dumb question, especially to ask here
Hi, thanks for your given information, please let me know his contact details so that I can talk with him. I need to design some furniture for my open living space. I'm waiting for your earlier response...
Thanks in advance!
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