Models from the “New Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp” are available in the 3D Warehouse. Click on the image to get there.

The “New Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp” is entirely digital. If you want a paper and ink version, you can print out the pages, but then you’ll miss out on the embedded videos and links within the PDF. This post details the features that aren’t possible in a printed book.

When I try to learn how to use software from a book, I get frustrated because it’s a pain to switch from the reference in my lap (or covering the keyboard) and the program I’m trying to learn. With the “New Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp” you can have the book open in Adobe Acrobat Reader and at the same time you can be working on a SketchUp model in another window. That makes it easy to read a little, watch a video and try the technique for yourself, all without losing your place in the book.

One of the models available for download in the 3D Warehouse collection.

If you’re working through the book, you can also compare the 3D model you’re working on to the ones I used to illustrate the book and record the videos. Last night I uploaded several of the models to the new “Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp Collection” in the 3D Warehouse. You can download any of these models, either through your web browser or directly through SketchUp. Then you can zoom, orbit and generally explore the models.

You can take things apart and see what the joinery looks like, check out how the models are organized with scenes, layers and components and you can use bits and pieces of my models in your own models. The image below is the Shaker stand from Chapter 11. If you put your mouse cursor on the image you can orbit around the model by pressing the left mouse button, and zoom in and out with the scroll wheel. And if you click where it says “3D Warehouse” in the lower right corner you can get to the model in the collection.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE “WOODWORKER’S GUIDE TO SKETCHUP COLLECTION” IN THE 3D WAREHOUSE

— Bob Lang