It depends on what the details are and how you need to show them in LayOut. It might be easier to model them in SketchUp and create scenes to use for viewports in LayOut. After you've set up the viewports (making sure you do not modify the Camera properties) you could save as a scrapbook so those viewports are available to drag in to your CDs when needed. For 2D symbols and such, it would probably be better to draw those in LayOut as Scaled Drawings than to draw them in SketchUp. Make sure you group the elements of each symbol so they behave as a single object.

I would suggest that you make sure you keep your SketchUp detail model files as lightweight as possible. When you add one of those viewports from the Scrapbook to your CD you are adding the SketchUp file as a reference which can bloat your LayOut file and possibly cause performance issues depending on your hardware. You can see that if you add one of the supplied 3D arrow objects from the Scrapbook.

Another option that may help with file management is to create details in SketchUp and then after rendering the viewports in LayOut as Vector or Hybrid, exploding them so they become LayOut drawing objects instead of SketchUp viewports. This would reduce their overhead in your CDs because they no longer carry the entire SketchUp model.

Different options depending on what you need exactly.

@Rich-O-Brien I agree. I also like seeing what is possible without electronics and computer controllers. Although it might be a bit anachronistic, modeling these steam engines in SketchUp makes it easier to understand how they work and appreciate the designs.

Thank you!

Thanks! There's really not a lot to it. I make multiple copies of the components along their route of travel. There's a different tag applied to each of the copies and then a different one of those tags is visible for each scene. This screen shot shows a simpler engine model with four of the 24 tags turned on. There are 24 scenes for the animation.

It gets a little more complicated with an engine like the horizontal Muncaster because of the steam valve and the linkages.

Here's the resulting animation:
https://flic.kr/p/2n7xvyh

Thank you all.

And because Mike suggested it...

Or another version.

@L-i-am said in A Small Table and a Watercolor Painting on an Easel:

Is that an original painting that is yours?

Yes. I own the painting. It was given to me about 60 years ago by a great aunt.

@L-i-am said in A Small Table and a Watercolor Painting on an Easel:

I am nit picking here, and that artis stool would almost always have 3 legs as do all milking stools have 3 legs for stability

True. If it was a stool it probably would have three legs. But it isn't a stool. It's a small side table.

Thank you. The glass is part of the cylyinder. It gets heated with a flame underneath. The piston is the metal round-ended bit inside.

Another machinist's model. A 2 cylinder engine for a paddle steamer with reversing qear. The paddles are articulated so their angle changes as the wheels rotate. Still need to time the valves and properly align the eccentric straps with the eccentrics and of course add screws and nuts.

Rendering straight out SU2026 with a wee bit of simple post processfor the soft shadows and background color.

Thank you!

Yes. My model is based on a small desktop machinist's model. I believe it was based on a real one but I have no idea how large it would have been.

Another little engine. These are addictive.

For reference, the flywheels are 100mm diameter.

@Rich-O-Brien LOL! One side is flat and the other concave as on the real mirror. I was too lazy to set up to measure the exact curvature bit it's pretty close.

Here's a little boxer engine intended to run on compressed air. For reference, the large gear is about 50mm dia.

Like usual I haven't added screws