Because I just finished.

<< >> lol.

Tom, like I said, my project is similar to the picture, but not exactly. My design is more of a residential-type structure, so my windows are going to have frames, etc. So, I need to draw them.

I think the easiest way for me to do this is going to be through interconnecting flat panes. However, I'm going to download the Draw on Surface suite anyway, because it look like it'll save some headaches in the future.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Honolulu, I definitely didn't notice that. Thanks for pointing that out O_o

And I don't want to download anything because, as much as I love this program and drafting in general, I'm a lazy SOB when I want to be, lol. I would rather get straight to work and get the job done than have to download plugins to finish a project =/...

Okay, thanks.

I didn't want to have to download anything, but that just sounds incredibly useful, lol.

I'm trying to draw something similar to (but not exactly) this:

I tried doing what I would imagine to be the logical thing: draw the window, then draw the building, then stick them together.

I forgot that you can put objects on a curved surface =/

So how would I go about doing it? I don't have any rubies or plugins or anything (except sketchyphysics, and somehow, I don't think that's going to help), and I'd prefer not having to get any for this one thing, so native tools are preferable.

Ah, thanks. That worked.

Yep, that's what I'm playing around with right now.

I'm having some issues getting the controller thing to work.

I've got two blocks with a hinge in the middle, for testing purposes. I name the joint "Main," and then hit play to get my control display up, and I get an error message that says, in a nutshell, "I REFUSE TO COOPERATE MUAHAHA."

I'm sure I'll get it eventually, though.

Aha! I got the wheels to turn.

I did a few things differently, and I'm not sure which one fixed it =/...

I put the joint on the inside, between the body and the tire. Before I was putting it on the outside. I also clicked after I ctrl+clicked the mother object. That probably seems like one of the "duh" things, but it never even crossed my mind. I absentmindedly hit enter and went on my way, lol.

But whatever it was, it worked.

I think once I figure out how all the different joints work, I can do some pretty cool stuff with this.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, guys. I know noobs like me probably get pretty annoying, lol.

I tried that, it's not working =/...

Okay, I'll outline what I'm doing step-by-step, and you tell me where I'm going wrong. I'm sure it's some stupid mistake on my end.

For testing purposes, I'll try to make a wheel on a car, and push it.

1. Make rectangle; pull it into box.
2. Make circle; pull it into cylinder.
3. Make the rectangle a group.
4. Make the tire a group.
5. Copy tire 3 times.
6. Place tire on box (repeat for all tires).
7. Place hinge on the center of the tire; use the opposite center as axis (this makes sense in my mind as how to do it, lol). Repeat for all four tires.
8. Group tire and hinge together (repeat for all tires).
9. Click "Joint Connector."
10. Select one hinge, then box (repeat for all tires).
11. Place over static ground.
12. Hit play.
13. Attempt to push.
14. Instead of turning, wheels hilariously fall off like it's a Loony Toons cartoon <.< >.>

Oh, okay. Sorry.

So I have to hit play before I can view what SP is "seeing" my geometry as?

Also, I'm still not able to use the Joint Connector tool. I kind of assumed all I did was click the icon, then click the joint, and then the "mother" object, but that doesn't seem to be working =/...

EDIT: I got my first successful movement. It was just a ball rolling down a ramp, but I think I'm finally beginning to understand the basics of this program. If I can get the joints to work, I think I can proceed in leaps and bounds.

EDIT2: One more question. I know you need to group everything before using SP. Would a component work just as well? I'm not really sure how all they're different, except that you can make changes to a copy of a group without changing the original. If I, say, made a wheel of a car, and needed to copy it, could I make that a component instead? Or does SP only use groups?

Play the simulation?... How do I do that?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, this is my first day using SP, lol.

The thing is, it won't show me the geometry that SP "sees." It acts like I didn't do anything =/

Ah, outstanding. Thanks.

Question: I was reading the tutorial that phy told me to look at in the topic, and it talks about debugging to make sure the shape is right. I can't do that; under the right click menu, it goes Debug>Readback Collision Geometry and that's it, no "Run."

Alright, cool. Checking the link right now.

Thank you.

Hey, all.

I started playing around with SketchUp about a month ago, after my Drafting teacher told me to try it out, since I had gotten pretty good at drafting programs like AutoCAD, Revit, etc.
It was a little hard to get adjusted, but I've really gotten to enjoy SketchUp, and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it.

I downloaded SketchyPhysics today because I saw some examples on YouTube and decided that I wouldn't mind trying it out. But I'm definitely over my head at the moment x_x... Any tips and such would be appreciated, lol.

One thing in particular I've noticed is that when I try to use the Joint Connector tool, it doesn't connect my joint to the object. It displays the words "Requires SketchyPhysics 3 CR1" Am I doing something wrong, or did I download the wrong version? =/

Anyway, I look forward to learning a lot while I'm here. Hopefully I can turn SketchUp into a valuable tool in my repertoire.