Home Archives for Design SketchUp
June 20, 2012 By

Bob Lang will teach SketchUp in a Google+ Hangout

BobLangovershoulder-300x258A novel way to learn SketchUp!

Bob Lang, Executive Editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine, will start using Google+ hangouts as the medium to teach his now-classic classes on Woodworkers Guide for SketchUp.

Are you interested?

If you are interested, head on over to his blog, and sign up. He kicks off this initiative on Saturday, June 23, at 12 noon EDT (New York time). As hangouts accept a maximum of ten people, up to nine people can sign up – Bob must also be in the hangout.

KUDOS, Bob, for starting this – I wish you the best of luck using the new technology for distance learning!

 

Filed Under: Blog, Computer, Design, Google+, Hangouts, SketchUp
June 11, 2010 By

Woodworkers Guide to SketchUp and my drawing skills

I received my copy of Bob Lang’s e-book Woodworkers Guide to SketchUp last week. Thanks, Bob! I am sure this computer-based tool WILL take me to the next level with SketchUp!

For years I have been using eCabinet Systems to design furniture. But that is about to change. With this new electronic book, loaded on my laptop and ready to go any time I have a few spare minutes to play with it, I learned in less than two minutes how to make Groups:

Arranging parts into Groups.

I love to make boxes; this includes drawers for furniture. I have puzzled for a long time about the “secret” to making dovetailed boxes using SketchUp. I will fret no longer, as this Guide makes it child’s play:

Dovetails the "easy" way.

I am convinced this was the learning tool I needed to take my drawing skill to the next level with SketchUp. I have been using it during spare time, and it works – the wonderful, short videos reinforce the text. I even cheat sometimes, and watch the video before reading the text in some sections… You can read a great review by Christopher Schwarz on the Lost Art Press blog here.

Run, don’t walk, to buy Lang’s CD from his web site, CrafstmanPlans.com. Until July 1 you will save $10; the special introductory price is $29.95, which includes free shipping.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Model, SketchUp Tagged With: , ,
September 8, 2009 By

SketchUp 7 to design furniture, and TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio 6 for screen capture

Download this episode in Quicktime format
Duration: 3 mins., 4 sec.

Baby steps.

As I write this I am reminded of Zoe Maria, our #6 granddaughter. She will have her first birthday in two weeks. But two weeks ago she started walking, one step at a time, then two, and now will go all the way across the living room before throwing herself on the floor; or rushing to catch my leg before she throws herself on the floor. And so it is for me with both SketchUp and Camtasia Studio.

What I show in this video is old hat to those of you who use SketchUp. However, every now and then I share with you something new in the shop – this time I show off what I did with SketchUp 7, and a short screen capture I did with TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio version 6. I am a newbie with both of these programs, but I feel like I have accomplished a lot, just by getting this far.

I owe thanks to Bob Lang for convincing me to give give SketchUp a try one more time. I attended his SketchUp session during Woodworking in America in St Charles, Ill. a few weeks ago. In 90 minutes Bob showed me – no, he proved to me – that I really must use this nifty program to design furniture. Bob did magic on the screen when he showed the audience how to make a little table, complete with all the joinery! Those of you who have read my blog for a while might remember I have used eCabinet Systems software to design cabinets. But that program mainly uses plywood, using nesting and CNC machines; designing with solid woods requires a little harder work.

As I found a little time to relax over the weekend, I fired up SketchUp and launched Bob’s 21st century workbench model, which I downloaded from the Popular Woodworking area of Google’s 3D Warehouse. And, while playing with the 3D model, it struck me that I should also try my brand-new Camtasia Studio, version 6.

Although I made several mistakes in this video, I share with you two things: First, even though I know very little about both SketchUp and Camtasia Studio, I was still able to produce a short video! And second, it is OK to make errors, for we all learn from the experience of others. The best thing to come out of this: In a few weeks I will chuckle when I watch this video again, for I will realize I probably should have waited until I had more experience under my belt.

I will use this particular video as a reminder of two things:

  1. Where I was on the learning curve with both program on September 2009, and;
  2. That, no matter what, using the programs on a regular basis will make me better. Practice makes better, or something like that. I will be able to see my own progress!

Enough, then, and on with the show. Please let me have your feedback and let me know what you think, either via regular e-mail to sandal_woods@bbwi.net, or via the e-mail tab on the menu for the blog. It is OK if you think I should just give up on this effort. But I won’t reject nice, kind words of encouragement.

My special thanks to Betsy Weber, TechSmith’s Chief Evangelist, for her generous support aimed at furthering the video enhancement of my blog entries. If you are interested in screen capture for your computer, I suggest you read her wonderful blog, The Visual Lounge, and also the TechSmith web page, to learn about their terrific products.

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Filed Under: 3D, Blog, Camtasia Studio, furniture, SketchUp Tagged With: , , , , , ,