Posts made by Sparky Watts

Thanks, Gaieus, I was up early (grandson woke me up at 5 am), so I've been working with it on and off all day. Got it all put together finally about 30 minutes ago. Worked well to save each part as a component, then copy and paste them into each other as a progression. I may have done some of the things the hard way, but I got them done, nonetheless! Now I think I'll go design a scale model of a nuclear reactor, inside and out, down to the last needle and dial....or maybe I'll just take a nap.

My friends call me Sparky. It's a long story, but amusing nonetheless. A buddy on a Jeep forum tipped me off about Sketchup during a discussion about building a trailer. So, I downloaded it and started playing around with it a few days ago. Today I started drawing up my plans for said trailer. So far so good (considering I started about 8 hours ago). Now I've come to a point where I need some pointers from the experts. Let me just state for the record that I haven't done much plan drawing since my high school drafting class, many decades ago. I've done a bit of blueprint reading in a previous job building aircraft furniture for Cessna and Raytheon bizjets. I am not computer literate, nor am I much of an artist. However, I have done quite a bit of woodworking in my own shop, building cabinets, shelves, hopechests, etc. I rarely ever followed any plans, nor drew any, just keeping the general idea in my head and building off of that. Now, on to the problems:

Since I couldn't figure out from the tutorial videos how to draw the entire trailer with the details I wanted (a friend wants plans of my finished trailer so he can build one, hence the need for detailed drawings), I have started by making a drawing of the sub frame, main frame, and the frame for the bed of the trailer. I haven't gotten around to drawing out the railings or tailgate yet, nor have I drawn the spare tire carrier, axle, tool box, or other small additions. So, what I have is three separate drawings, and now I want to put them all together into one. Eventually, after drawing up the other parts previously mentioned, I need to know how to add them to the completed drawing so that I can view the entire trailer as one whole concoction. Any help?