A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

DexterK

Hi everyone,

To say that I am out of my depth here would be a understatement. I'm a 35 year old Grape grower that regularly stares at the computer in complete confusion, but I have always had an interest in plans and building (I still have a graph book around somewhere with house plans I used to draw when I was about 10). I did tech drawing in high school and pretty much blitzed, but never did any more than that. I've never found a program that would work the way I thought it should (probably not the programs fault ), until now!! I drew up a steel frame bench that I built to post on a related forum and thought I had the thing sorted, but it really only used the features explained in the 'chair tute' and now I am stuck trying to draw some pipe fitting and 'T' pieces, so here I am, about to try out your search function.

I look forward to learning some stuff I've been intending to do for years.

Cheers,
Dex.

Gaieus

Hi Dex and first of all welcome!

As a newly registered member, until we figure out what exactly you would like to accomplish and whet we can help with, please, take this grape vine component from the warehouse (click on the image to download):

TheTim

Greetings!
My name is Tim, I'm 17 years old, I'd like to start off by saying, This site is great and the administrative feedback is very supportive! Now heres a little about myself,I use sketchup to build art, You give an artist a canvas he or she will give you art. If I'm given an axis I will give art lol. I build the art as as not just for fun or architecture but also to help me relieve stresses. I'm only average skill at the program, and I'm glad I came across this site, because I am always looking for ways to better my skills, or new tips and plugins! Sorry if I didn't post this in the right topic, please bare with me lol like I said its been a stressful time. lol
Looking forward to seeing members and their tips! Thank you for reading! Good day!
-Tim

Gaieus

Hi Tim and welcome!

Best would be to show off with your work and don't get discouraged if some folks take "critiques are welcome" seriously!

valence87

Hello all,

My name is Valence. I played with CAD when I was a kid, but SketchUp is the first 3D modeling program that I've used in about 20 years. I hope to use it for a mix of work and personal projects. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to coax Chris Fullmer's Shape Bender into making a closed ring, even though I know it's not supposed to

Cheers,
Valence

jwoods007

After years of anonymously researching answers to my own questions in your forums, I've decided to become a member. My wife and I just gave a presentation at Coverings 2010 in Orlando on "Using SketchUp to Convey Design Concepts to Construction Trades and Homeowners Regarding Bathroom Renovations" to a group of about 40 architects/designers. And I cited SketchUcation as one of my primary resources.

Also, I noticed that on Solo's website, he has an unfinished page which will include renderings and finished projects by Rebeka Stoppel (AKBD).http://solosplace.com/KITCHENSANDBATHROOMS.aspx That's just like me and my wife! Jeff Woods (SketchUp renderings, plans, tile installation and Tanya Woods (AKBD). Solo's work is incredible! (Although as a tile installer, I thought the grout joint placement should be different in one rendering And I'm looking forward to learning some new tricks. Specifically, modeling plumbing fixtures and improving my Layout skills.

Thanks in advance,
[url]xstylesbath.com[/url]

Gaieus

Hi Jeffrey,

I have just had a look at Skeng but it seems that it's Windows only. Nevertheless it's a nice application (even though it is for seemingly a considerable amount of $$$)

smoscowitz

I am new here. Just downloaded sketchup yesterday.
I want create plans for an entertainment center.
Don't really know how...seems sketchup is set up for perspective

Hockeyhead61

Hey, I have a question. I'm building a sports stadium, and I'm sculpting individual seats (and making them components, of course), but I'm running into kind of a weird problem here - when I zoom out away from the model, all the components turn into just a bunch of big, grey boxes. Is this normal for high-poly models, or is it a problem with my computer/graphics card?

BTW: I'm new here. Hello.

pyroluna

right. so, I found the I-introduce-myself-thread.
I'm already being quite active around here, I think, but I thought I should properly introduce myself sometime.

So here goes.
I'm Martha, I'm 26, I use SketchUp enthusiastically both for work and for fun. I work at Design8, the company that imports SketchUp Pro in the Netherlands. I teach SketchUp in single-day-trainings, mainly to architects, interior architects, city planners etcetera. Diverse model-making is also part of the job. From buildings for Google Earth to dynamic furniture.
Next to that, I study architecture at Delft University of Technology, but I'm not that good at it, so I'm basically focusing on my job instead. The knowledge learned there does come in rather handy though.
The things I am good at are basically anything that is graphic+computer; SketchUp (though not as good as some of you), Photoshop, Maya, Rhino, Mental Ray, V-Ray, Artlantis, well, I could go on. I will not. However I will share with you one of my very first renders. It was originally made in the year 1993 (or thereabouts) in POV-Ray. The code for this render was as follows:


camera {location <0,0,-20>
	look_at <0,3,20>}

light_source {<-5,50,-20>
		rgb 1
		parallel
		point_at 0}

background {rgb 0}

global_settings{max_trace_level 4
		radiosity{}}

fog {fog_type 2
	distance 7
	rgbf <.9,.9,.9,.5>
	fog_alt 1
	fog_offset -3
	turbulence .5}   
  
light_source {<-4,-1,-20> rgb .3}

plane {y, -5
	pigment {rgb -.25}
	finish {reflection 1
		phong 1}}

blob{		
#local a=0;
#local c=0;     
#local b=0;
#while (a<1800)
cylinder {<0,6-b,0><0,19,-15>,.7,.8
	pigment {rgb <abs(sin(c/10))/5+1.0, abs(sin((c+5)/10))/5+1.0, abs(sin((c+10)/10))/5+1.0>}
	finish {phong 10
		reflection .5}
	rotate a*z
	translate a/20*z}
#local a=a+3;
#local b=b+.02;
#local c=c+2.9;
#end }

This is the result:

ps, hockeyhead61. yes that's normal. if you wait a few seconds, the chairs will reappear. It will help to reduce this behaviour if you make your chairs very low-poly. (having few polygons)

thinkstorms

Here i go! I'm Keldric Sevenston, i'm a Google SketchUp n00b in Texas. I found this forum searching for a way to push\pull multiple faces, found the JPP plug-in here and (with some help from Gaieus) i joined up.

• I've now watched about 12 hours of videos (SO helpful!) but i am embarrassed to say - so far i can't figure out how to usemy newly DLed installed Joint Push Pull plug-in. It is probably dead simple, but this is the very firstGSU plug-in i have installed, and i just can't find it. I've searched here, and YouTube... maybe i don't know the right "jargon" to search for. Don't see a "read me" either in the zip file. Any help you could send my way would be great! •

I've done a lot of 3D: Lightwave mostly, POV Ray, Bryce, Ray Dream Studio, a little DAZ, but i am still new to GSU. I do like it, but i need some plug-ins and tutorials to really get up to speed.

Thanks!

TIG

@thinkstorms said:

Here i go! I'm Keldric Sevenston, i'm a Google SketchUp n00b in Texas. I found this forum searching for a way to push\pull multiple faces, found the JPP plug-in here and (with some help from Gaieus) i joined up.
• I've now watched about 12 hours of videos (SO helpful!) but i am embarrassed to say - so far i can't figure out how to usemy newly DLed installed Joint Push Pull plug-in. It is probably dead simple, but this is the very firstGSU plug-in i have installed, and i just can't find it. I've searched here, and YouTube... maybe i don't know the right "jargon" to search for. Don't see a "read me" either in the zip file. Any help you could send my way would be great! •
I've done a lot of 3D: Lightwave mostly, POV Ray, Bryce, Ray Dream Studio, a little DAZ, but i am still new to GSU. I do like it, but i need some plug-ins and tutorials to really get up to speed.
Thanks!

Let's check you downloaded it OK...
You got a zip file.
You should have extracted the files/folders in it - these go into your Sketchup Plugins folder, in the same relationships as in the zip file - that is some files go directly into the folder and others are in a sub-folder called JPP_Dir - copy that folder and its contents to Plugins too - do not move the files around...
Restart Sketchup.
I haven't tried this... but if JPP toolbar isn't listed on the View > Toolbars menu then Window > Preferences > Extensions might be needed to enable it [I think not though...]
Now you should have a Plugins menu item 'JPP...', a toolbar available to you 'JPP...' and a right-click context sub-menu 'JPP...' if you have one or more faces selected...
There is a PDF help file available within the ../Plugins/JPP_Dir/ called 'Tutorial Joint Push Pull - English - v1.1 - 20 Feb 08.pdf' - this covers the basic tools - there are also several tips in the thread that you downloaded from here...

FilipAGuy

Hello guys in this wonderful comunity. My name is Filip and Im landscape architect. Im 25 years old and from Slovakia. I stared using SketchUp few months ago so I supose myself as newbie or noob I thinking about buying Pro version so now Im in testing and learning fase. So Im glad to be a part of this forum. Cheers guys

Gaieus

Hi Filip and welcome to SCF!

Buy Pro and we'll get some percentage (no, just joking...)

tacianomm

Hello everyone!
My name is Taciano and I'm a Brazilian computing student.
I use SketchUp for about two years, but I consider myself way far from an advanced user, as I don't use it that often.

I've just registered here and would like to know how you guys create animations on SketchUp.
Well, with animation I mean real animation (complex models interacting with other models), not just moving cameras and physics effects.
I know one Plugin that is specifically for this, SU Animate, but it isn't free.
SketchyPhysics can do some things either, but there's so little documentation (in the Wiki) and the tutorials of it are so basic that is really hard to do a good animation without getting on code.

So, I would really appreciate if you have any suggestions on how pass from beginner to advanced.
Thanks!

Gaieus

Hi Taciano and welcome!

I do not use SketchyPhysics myself so I cannot advise but we have a dedicated subforum for it under the Extensions... forum.

Leoniva

Hi I just joined today. I am going on a Sketchup course next week just to get started, this really looks very interesting. I downloaded sketchup but unsure how to download bender into my plugin tab?

Gaieus

Hi Leoni and welcome!

What course (and where) are you going?

As for Shape Bender (I guess); it is just a bunch of files and subfolders packed into a zip archive. I am not sure where Program files are on Win 2007 (???) but there should be something like this on an XP:
C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins
and you need to extract all the files in the zip archive straight there. Not into another subfolder Windows tends to create for unzipped files but straight under the Plugins folder keeping the whole file and subfolder hierarchy already in the zip archive intact.

Psycoderek

Hi
My name is Rod and i started using sketchup yesterday, 25.06.2010 after finding it by accident. So far I am just browsing the tutorials and looking at plugins and rubies to add extra dynamics to the software. I have started modelling and found it a little easier than Blender and Truespace to create basic models. I hope to do something a little more daring later when i have mastered the basics fully.

Thanks gang.

Rich O Brien

Hi Rod,

Welcome to SCF, is Psycoderek your alter-ego?

Enjoy browsing around and post back with your problems. Members here are very helpful and don't charge too much!

Rich