In the almost 10 years that I’ve been teaching people how to 3D model with SketchUp, I’ve learned a lot about the many ways different people learn. Each of us is a little different in the way our brains absorb … Continue reading →
SketchUp 2017 has just been released and the new version is definitely a change for the better. Almost all of the changes are “under the hood”. Much like rebuilding the engine of a car, SketchUp has reworked their “graphics pipeline”. … Continue reading →
I will be teaching a two-day SketchUp class on June 2 & 3, 2016, at the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio. This two-day class (Thursday and Friday) will cover how to use SketchUp to design, plan and problem solve … Continue reading →
What do middle school students and amateur carpenters have in common? Neither group realizes how tricky and troublesome compound angles can be. Carpenters will have fits trying to run crown molding and one group of middle schoolers recently hit a … Continue reading →
One of the most popular posts on this blog is my “SketchUp Shortcuts Cheat Sheet”, a handy list of the shortcuts I use all the time. Those are all standard shortcuts that exist when you install SketchUp. A few years … Continue reading →
For efficient work in SketchUp, you should use keyboard shortcuts instead of clicking on the icons in the toolbars, at least for the most often used commands. One of the quirks of SketchUp is that the obvious way of doing … Continue reading →
Twitchy Index Fingers & the Move Tool When I teach SketchUp in person I get reminded of the basic issues that confront many people. If you can get past these hurdles you’ll be well on your way to mastering the … Continue reading →
Since the first post on this site in August, 2011 I’ve written about woodworking, the American Arts & Crafts period and SketchUp. My interest in SketchUp began with my own use and that led to teaching other woodworkers how to … Continue reading →
One of the most flattering things that can happen to an author is an inquiry asking “Can I use your book as a resource for my class?” It makes me feel a little proud and it also makes me want … Continue reading →
SketchUp is a program that tries to make things easy. There are inferences at the ends and midpoints of every line. When you get close to one with the mouse cursor a colored dot appears along with a yellow tag. … Continue reading →
Last week I spent a most interesting day in the tech lab at a Michigan middle school, showing a group of five (a middle school technology teacher, an 8th grade science teacher, a high school technology teacher, a high school … Continue reading →
SketchUp 2016 was released a few weeks ago, with a few new features and under the hood improvements. You can find the full list of features (and download the latest version of SketchUp) at this link. If you use SketchUp … Continue reading →
Most good builders know and use the Pythagorean Theorem, even if they never heard of Pythagoras or slept through high school geometry. It’s easier to remember 3-4-5 than an ancient Greek and it’s a reliable way to make something at … Continue reading →
What I like most about modeling in SketchUp, compared to working with pencil and paper or in 2D CAD is that I don’t have to worry about what finished drawings or details will look like until after I’ve built a … Continue reading →
Back in 2012, I wrote a series of posts titled “10 Things I Wish I Had Known About SketchUp” The series grew out of a presentation I gave at a woodworking conference. It turned out to be a popular series, … Continue reading →
A few years ago my son talked me into playing a video game, one where we had to run around an imaginary world with people shooting at us. I sucked at it, big time. I got blasted before I could … Continue reading →
When I was sitting in my high school geometry class I wouldn’t have believed you if you had told me that one day I would standing in front of the class, suggesting that geometry was not only useful, but interesting … Continue reading →
In my post on making a template for through mortises, I used a full-sized paper pattern that I printed from a SketchUp model. A reader posed the logical and obvious question “can you print a full-size pattern from the free … Continue reading →
SketchUp is a great tool to quickly draw parts for furniture and cabinet projects. Even better is the fact that if you know how to organize all the bits and pieces of the model you hardly need to draw at … Continue reading →
With the release of SketchUp 2013, many of the tool icon images changed. What hasn’t changed is that for efficient work in SketchUp, you should be using keyboard shortcuts instead of clicking on the icons in the toolbars, at least … Continue reading →
One of my favorite features of SketchUp Pro is the solid tools. I do a lot of detailed models of furniture, and these tools make my life a lot easier and my work go much faster. I can take a … Continue reading →
When I teach SketchUp classes, I try to spend at least half my time looking over the shoulders of students, answering questions and coaching them past the hard parts. The answer to almost every question (and the solution to the … Continue reading →
This is an example of one of the videos embedded within Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp. Follow Me can be one of the most frustrating tools in SketchUp, unless you know the trick revealed at the end of this video. This … Continue reading →
