Beginner SketchUp Tutorial for Woodworkers Video 2

okay in this video I'm gonna be using
the 3d modeling software Sketchup in order to model one maybe even two
woodworking projects now if you haven't seen the first video where I've gone
into details covering the basic concepts of Sketchup when you're first learning
it as well as the basic tools and their functions then that is linked for you
down below I've kind of formatted this series to work together to where that
one is used for all of the lengthy details and this one is gonna be me
strictly going through how to model something and verbally calling it out
please feel free to pause the video at any point and repeat a step also if
anything confuses you then please reference back to the first video where
I go into detail on each topic real quick before getting started this isn't
about modeling quickly or efficiently at this point I'm just trying to get you
started feeling comfortable with the programs and understanding what tools
are available and how they're used especially in this case and a
woodworking project so let's get going alright let's go ahead an open Sketchup
by double clicking on the icon whenever it pops up I'm going to double click on
the woodworking one which is gonna by default put us in working in inches when
I think about where to start modeling something I often think about how I'd
build it in real life if I were to build a table in real life I would build the
table top first place it upside down and then build the legs and aprons on top of
it and at the very end flip it around so that's how I'm personally going to model
it to start off building the table top I'm going to hit R for rectangle
remember to use those short keys I'm gonna start drawing the tabletop at the
origin point of three axes I'm gonna click once don't forget to release the
mouse and don't hold it down drag out in the direction you want the tabletop to
go and then start typing in let's say four feet , six feet and hit enter now
right now this is a 2d shape you can use your navigation tool orbit to look at it
and see that it is 2d in order to turn a 2d shape into a 3d shape
we're gonna hit P for push-pull hover your mouse over the surface and you'll
see the blue dots that lets you know that you're able
to use this tool on this surface I'm gonna click once you grab that surface
and now you can start either pulling or pushing it let's go ahead and pull up in
this case feel free to over exaggerate and we're gonna type in three-quarters
of an inch and hit enter but you know what I think
that that looks a little bit too small let's go ahead and make this an inch and
a half we already pulled it up three-quarters of an inch so to make it
an inch and a half I'm going to simply click on it once again pull up type in
another 3/4 of an inch and hit enter and now this tabletop will be in an inch and
a half thick now this is a brand-new part that we just modeled and Sketchup
meaning that if we hit the spacebar to go back to our select tool we can click
on each individual line and face separately from one another before
moving on we want to turn this tabletop into a component putting it under a
protective bubble and keeping all of these individual lines and faces
together as one to do that I'm gonna triple click it notice how everything is
highlighted and dotted and blue now I'm gonna hit G which is the shortcut to
make something a component and title it tabletop and then hit enter now whenever
you try to click it you'll see that everything is already highlighted in
blue that's your visual cue that it has been turned into a component alright
let's go ahead and draw some legs now with my recommendation to draw directly
on your model whenever possible instead of drawing off in the modeling space and
then bringing that part in so since I want legs in each one of my four corners
my tabletop that's where I'm gonna use my navigational tools and zoom in to go
you can go to any one of the corners now I'm gonna hit R for a rectangle and I'm
gonna start drawing the leg hover the mouse over into one of the corners click
once to start the tool pull out into the direction you want to go again
over-exaggerating it's just fine then type in 3 inches comma 3 inches and hit
enter and you'll see that it pops to that size now let's turn the 2d shape
into a 3d shape by hitting P for push-pull let's grab on to the surface
of the leg and start pulling up before clicking a second time to drop it let's
type in 36 inches and hit and there we have the leg let's go ahead
and triple click everything right click and say meat component leg enter now
what we could do is hit our 4 rectangle go over to this corner and draw another
leg however don't forget that the move tool also has the copy feature in it so
instead of drawing something brand-new let's just make a copy of this leg and
place it over into these other corners to do that I'm going to get into the
move tool by hitting the short key M on the keyboard hit option now we're gonna
move this leg remember to always grab it by a corner that'll leave one behind and
allow you to only move the copy since I have it grabbed by a corner I can hover
my mouse on the corner of this tabletop click a second time to drop it and now
whenever I use my navigation tool orbit and I zoom in
I can see that it's lined up perfectly flush all right now let's practice by
placing it in the other two corners I'm gonna hit em for move grab it by a
corner click once to pick up the part hit option to copy it and then hover
your mouse into the adjoining corner use your orbit tool to orbit around hit M 4
move grab it by a corner click once to pick it up option to copy and then hover
your mouse in the corner and click a second time to drop it heading that
spacebar key to go back to your select tool and getting you out of the move
tool and there we have a table with the four legs if we're building this table
for real we're actually gonna want these legs probably inside a little bit and
not flush to the edge so let's set a few guidelines and move them in a set
distance I'm gonna hit T for tape-measure hover on one of these edges
I'm gonna click once to activate it and you'll see that as I drag that dotted
line will appear that's my guideline now be watchful on
which axis you're on you'll see here that I can very easily pop from green to
blue green is either X or Y depending on what direction you're facing and then
blue is always going to be vertical the Z so make sure that you are on the right
axis then let's type in three quarters of an
inch and hit enter we're gonna need this on all four sides so let's go ahead and
practice and repeat setting these guidelines click once on the edge pull
on the direction you want to go type in 3/4 and hit enter now we'll have a visual reference on
where we need to place these legs to make them all perfectly inside hit the
spacebar to go to your select tool click once on the leg you want to move and hit
em 4 move remember to grab it by a corner since I'm gonna be moving it to
the intersection of these two guidelines I'm gonna grab it from this outside
corner and move it inwards you can click once to pick it up hover your mouse over
the center section and you can wait for that inference call-out to pop up if it
makes you more comfortable and then click a second time to drop the part use
your navigation tool orbit to orbit around to the other legs and repeat hit
the spacebar to go to your select tool and for move grab it by a corner and
move it in now to save yourself a step you could have very well have done this
at the beginning whenever you were first drawing the leg however the goal of this
video is to allow you to practice so I intentionally took you the long way
around remember it's a good habit to get into keeping a clean modeling space so
now that we're done with all of these guidelines let's go ahead and clear them
out go up to edit and say delete guides now let's make an apron that goes from
this leg to the inside of this leg to do that I'm going to model directly on the
inside of one of these legs go ahead and use your navigation tools to orbit
around and zoom in think about what the profile of the apron looks like and
let's draw that hit our four rectangle hover your mouse into the corner and
then click once to start the tool then start pulling in the direction you want
the rectangle to go now let's type in the dimension we actually want it to be
let's make this three-quarters of an inch
comma three inches and then hit enter to take the 2d shape to a 3d shape let's
switch over to our P for push-pull tool click once on the surface and then start
pulling it feel free to use your navigation tools while you have a tool
open you'll see that I'm gonna zoom out and then zoom back in to be
to see the inside of the leg that we're gonna be pulling this apron to remember
that the push-pull feature allows you to either type in a set dimension or it
will pop whatever you're holding to the surface of whatever you hover your mouse
on so I can hover my mouse to the inside of this leg and it will pop to the
inside so since we know the tool does that let's hover our mouse on the edge
of this leg and then click a second time to drop the apron now when you orbit
around you'll see that the apron extends from the inside of this leg perfectly to
the inside of this leg this is something brand-new that we just drew in Sketchup
so let's quickly turn it into a component before moving on it's a triple
click it to select everything hit G and let's name it apron and hit enter now we
drew this apron flush with the legs but let's go ahead and make a nice little
inset I'm gonna zoom in so that I can make sure that I'm hovering my mouse
over the right corner I'm gonna hit em for move I'm gonna pick it up by either
corner but I'm gonna go ahead and choose the outside one start moving it over in
the direction that I want and now let's type in half an inch and hit enter this
is gonna move this apron end from a starting position to half an inch in now
let's go to the other side of the table and make a copy of this apron to place
over on this side let me go ahead and show you two ways of doing this one way
would be to hit the infirm move tool zoom in a little bit so that you can see
where you're placing your mouse click once on the corner hit option to copy it
and then start moving it over now if you place it flush with the outside of this
leg you could click a second time to drop it then you could zoom in a little
bit pick it up once again by clicking it move it inwards and then type in half an
inch and hit Enter that's one way let me hit control Z and show you the second
way you can hit T for tape measure and draw yourself a half inch guideline on
the inside of this table leg and that way when you hit spacebar to bring up
the Select tool select the apron hit m4 move grab it by a corner click it once
to pick it up option to copy it you can zoom out and
then zoom back in so that you can see that you are in fact placing it on this
guideline and click a second time to drop it now you just eliminated this
step of having to move it a second time then you just have to go up here edit
and delete guides to have a clean modeling space now to get the aprons on
the two short sides of the table we can do one of two things we can either draw
them brand new from scratch just like what we did on the long ones or we can
take and make a copy of these long ones and then shorten them and that's
actually the way I'm going to show you just so you can practice the rotate tool
remember that the rotate tool also has a built in copy feature just like the move
tool I'm gonna hit the spacebar to bring up my select tool and select one of the
longer aprons hit Q to bring up the rotate tool make sure that the
protractor is facing the right axis to rotate this apron over in this
orientation in this case you're gonna want it on the blue axis click once on
the top of this apron to start the tool then pull out in any direction click a
second time to create a grab point and then you can start pivoting it however
we don't want to just rotate this one we want to make a copy so go ahead and hit
option before you drop the tool to create a copy of it now you can start
rotating in the direction you want to go and then type in 90 and hit enter and
there we have an apron that we'll be able to place in between these two legs
to move it let's go ahead and hit m4 move grab it by a corner that makes
sense in this case I'm gonna go for one of the bottom edges so that I can line
it up to the inside of the leg I'm gonna click once to grab a hold of it then
hover my mouse on the bottom of this leg corner I'm gonna click a second time to
drop it into place however remember that we inset these aprons in by half an inch
so let's go ahead and orbit around you get a better perspective hit m4 move and
let's pick this up and move it inside by half an inch and click once to pick it
up type in half an inch and then hit enter
now let's go ahead and shorten it to be flush to the inside of the leg remember
that whenever you make a copy of a component any change you make to one
we'll also be reflected in all the other copies so if I were to edit this
component and hit P for push-pull to shorten things it's gonna shorten the
two long ones you don't want that so first I need to select it by hitting the
spacebar I'm bringing up my select tool click on this one apron right click and
say make it unique now whenever I double click it I hit P for push-pull hover my
mouse over the end I want to shorten click once to pick it up and it won't
change these other two that I want to remain long now we can hover our mouse
on the inside of this leg and it will snap it perfectly flush to it hit the
spacebar to go to your select tool and click anywhere outside of that shadowbox
to stop editing the component now let's move it around so that we can get a good
visual for the inside of this leg I'm a going to set a guideline half an inch in
so I can move my apron directly to its location I'm gonna hit t4 tape-measure
I'm gonna go to the edge click once to start it start pulling in the direction
I want to go and type in half an inch and then hit enter hit spacebar to go to
your select tool click on the short apron once hit m4 move go to the
appropriate corner and click once to pick it up now hit option to copy it and
start dragging over to that outside leg I'm gonna go ahead and zoom in and then
whenever my inference tells me I'm not on the line I'm gonna click a second
time to drop the apron now you can zoom out and see that we have a completed
table oh let's go ahead and get rid of that guideline by going to edit and
delete guidelines now what you can do is use a navigation tool to either orbit
around 180 degrees or a second way of doing it is by selecting everything I'm
gonna hit spacebar bring up my select hold and draw a box around the entire
table so that everything is selected now I'm gonna hit Q for rotate now make sure
that your rotate tool is on either the red or green AXI you click once to start
the tool pull out in any direction click a second time to create a grab point and
then start moving it now you can type in 100 and
and hit enter and I'll pop it to that dimension now you can't leave it of
course anywhere you want to but whenever I move things I typically like to hit em
for move grab it by a corner and then place it back into the origin point and
there we go a nice and simple table to give you a little bit more to
practice on I want to model together a simple cabinet with two shells de toad
into the sides I'm gonna hit r4 rectangle click once to start the tool
and pull out let's go ahead and type in 24 inches comma 18 inches and hit enter
let's turn this into a 3d shape by hitting P for push-pull and pulling it
up 3/4 of an inch hit enter I'm gonna hit my spacebar to
go to my select tool triple click it hit G and make it a component I'm gonna
title this bottom and hit enter this is gonna be the bottom of the cabinet now
let's build the walls of the cabinet I'm gonna hit R for rectangle and go to one
of the sides I'm gonna click once to start the rectangle tool then start
pulling it out in the direction I want to go I'm gonna hover my mouse over this
back edge so that I can click a second time and drop this rectangle this way I
know that it's the exact length that I need it to be since it goes from this
front edge to this back edge however it is definitely not the correct width to
change that I'm gonna go down to the bottom right and I'm gonna leave 24
inches alone however I'm going to select this second dimension and change it to
be 3/4 of an inch and hit enter now all we'll need to do is hit P for push-pull
click once on the surface and start pulling it up how tall do we want our
cabinet to be let's just say we want it 36 inches and hit enter it looks a
little tall let's go ahead and click once on the top surface and pull it down
4 inches to make it 32 inches total this is a brand new part that we've just
modeled so before moving on we need to triple click it hit G and make it a
component by calling it aside now that we have the two main parts of the body
made up all we'll need to do is move and copy each one to make the top and the
other side let's start off by making the other side hit the spacebar and select
the side if it's not already selected hit m4 move grab it by a corner that
makes sense hit option to copy it and drag your mouse over to the corner of
the bottom click a second time to drop the part in place hit the spacebar to
bring up your select tool and click on the bottom now to hit m4 move grab
by a corner that makes sense hit option to copy it and drag it up to the top
click a second time to drop it into place and this will be the body of the
main box now let's say we want to add two shelves in here that will sit on two
dedos I first want to line out where I want the dedos to be placed and then
draw them in let me use my navigation tools to warm it around and get a good
visual of the inside of one of the sides I'm gonna hit T for tape measure and set
a few guidelines on where the dedos need to be placed go to this bottom edge of
the side and click once to start the tool drag up and then type in 8 inches
and hit enter that'll be the start of the first dado since we're using 3/4
inch plywood we're gonna need it to be 3/4 of an inch so I'm going to click
once to start the tool drag up and type in 3/4 of an inch
and hit enter if I want my second shelf to be 8 inches above this one now I'm
gonna go to the top guideline click once again in order to start the tool drag up
type in 8 inches and hit enter now let's repeat sets draw a second guideline 3/4
of an inch above that one now that we can visually see where we need to draw
lines to make up the dedos we can start editing this component which is the side
and use the line tool to draw them in to do that let's double click on the side
you'll see that shadow box pop up which is the visual cue that you're editing a
component now you can hit the L for line tool hover your mouse over the
intersection of the side and the guide line and then drag it across the
opposite end click a second time to drop the tool go ahead and repeat on all of
the other three guidelines you'll see as we do this to one component it's
reflecting the changes to its copy which is that second side now it is facing the
wrong direction but we can deal with that at the end after you're done
drawing your lines let's use the P for push-pull feature to recess these dedos
in you'll see that as you move your mouse around you'll have different
options for which surfaces you're allowed to grab on to and utilize it on
grab on to one of the Daito surfaces click once to start the tool push in and
let's type in 3/8 of an inch and hit enter now let's go up to the second dado
and repeat click once to start the tool three eighths of an inch hit enter and
now we'll have to dedos the same depth click anywhere outside of that shadowbox
to stop editing to keep a clean modeling space let's go up to edit and say delete
guides now of course we want the data is on the second side to be facing the
inside we could use the rotate tool however there's another feature in
sketchup where you can hit your spacebar to bring up your select tool select the
side now you can right-click and you have the option to flip along apart
along any three of the axes in my case I'm gonna need to flip this along the
green axis in order to get the data's facing the inside so I'm gonna right
click say flip along and hit components green however if you don't know which
axis to flip along always feel free to click on one and if it's not the correct
one remember that you can hit control Z to back up one step and then you can try
one of the other axes now that these sides are facing the correct direction
now I can start drawing in the shells that go in between them of course a few
ways that you can do this and everything else one you could hit the T 4 tape
measure go to the far side on one of the dedos and then drag the tape measure
tool across to the other side to get an exact dimension of the rectangle that
you need to draw however a much quicker way of doing it is to draw a rectangle
directly in between each one of the dedos let me show you how to do that go
ahead and hit R for rectangle zoom in so that you can make sure you're drawing it
in the right starting point and I'm gonna go to the top of one of these
dados and click once to start the tool now I'm gonna zoom out and then zoom
back in over on the other dedos corner and click a second time once I'm
hovering my mouse on it you'll see that it drops this 2d rectangle squarely in
between the two now we can use our P for push-pull grab on to the surface and
then just hover our mouse on the edge on the outside of the side if you click a
second time to drop it and then orbit around you'll see that it ends up being
perfectly flush now of course this is something brand new that we just modeled
so let's turn it into a component before we try to move it and copy it down to
the other dedo spacebar to bring up the Select tool triple click it hit G and
let's call it shelf and then now we can select it and then hit em for
move grab it by a corner hit option to copy it start dragging down until we
hover our mouse into the corner of the next dado click a second time to drop it
into place and now we have two shelves now if you go out to your shop and
you're actually building this cabinet what I would typically do is hit t4 tape
measure and then I would measure across the shelf and know that I need to cut my
board to this exact dimension to fit perfectly between these dedos it truly
saves a lot of time to model it first now figure out the orientation on what
you want to either be the front or back and let's draw a back on it again
I'm just gonna draw it directly on the model I'm gonna hit R for rectangle I'm
gonna click once in a corner to start the tool and then click a second time in
the opposite corner to stop the tool and drop it in place I'm gonna hit P for
push-pull click once on the surface and pull it outwards in this case and then
type in quarter of an inch and hit Enter it's brand new something that we just
modeled so let's triple click it hit G to make it a component and title it back
then hit enter I'm gonna go ahead and stop there for
this video I really hope that this at least gets you going and gives you
something to practice really for me being self-taught and Sketch up it the
the kind of defining moment where really started absorbing the information and
not just understanding the concept of the tools was whenever I modeled
something that I personally built in the old life so that's what I recommend you
do find something the simplest thing that you have built and try to model it
be looking at it and use these tools to model it and if you get confused and of
course reference back TV longer formatted video where I go into detail
on the concept and the tools leave me a comment down below and let me know what
you think and of course check out the rest of the learning resources that
Sketchup already has available how's he soon

See also  VIDEO: Making and Installing Wood Bow Tie Inlays

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