The SketchUp Tips & Tricks thread

BorgMan

First: if you have any usefull tips, don't hesitate to post them in here! I'll be updating this first post every time an interesting tool or plugin comes out.

Well... Welcome reader! It appears that you, among many, are using (Google) SketchUp as your primary modelling tool. Don't be taken aback by what others might say: SU is a great tool, but it's got it's flaws. However, there is this very nifty thing in SU that makes life a LOT easier:

The Ruby scripts!

These scripts are user generated, and while they're not all fantastic, some of them really are and can lift your design up to the next level. Here's a few of them, but be advised that you need to register over at the Sketchucation Forums before you can downlaod any of the attachments. It's well worth the minute it takes you to register, though

RoundEdge: to make the edges of your objects rounded.

SU --> Ubuntu: In this thread, a user has managed to get SU working on a Ubuntu Linux distro, in combination with WINE. This might come in handy for those of you who rather run Linux.

Tools on Surface: These tools can make your SU experience a lot more easy, as they enable you, for one, to offset on a curved face; something that's impossible with the normal offset tool.

Joint Push-Pull: Now this one is a winner: push/pull any shape you have on a curved face just the way you like it. So far the creator hasn't been able to let curved faces follow a path, but I think that'll come sooner or later.

Shape Bender BETA: Probably the most sought after function for SketchUp is a way to bend shapes and text around a certain point, for example to print a registry onto a hull. This here plugin does just that, bear in mind though that it's still a beta but you should all be helped with it ^_^

Weld: This ruby welds several lines to eachother, as long as there is atleast some sort of curve in them. This comes in handy especially when you are planning on letting an object follow that particular line, which means that there won't be any obscuring lines when you're done and that needs to be smoothed afterwards.

Now that you have the tools to make your modelling experience easier, let me guide you to the program that makes your models look nice:

Kerkythea.

Ofcourse, you can use other renderers, but the plugin for SU makes it all so much easier. To get this to work, this means that you need two things:

1) The Kerkythea Installer
2) The SketchUp plugin.

As is true for all other plugins, make sure that the SU2KT plugin is extracted into your Plugins directory of SketchUp.

I'm not done with this just yet, but it should give those who just dabbled into the modelling scene a bit of a point to hold on to. If you got questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them

bbzwbbzw

Very helpful rubys! Look forward to more of this.

BorgMan

Tip of the Day:

You can up the segment (and thus the poly-) count of a circle or arch by context clicking on the circle before you let it be part of a 3D action and hit Entity Info; the box which says Segment Count can be edited. I advice to go up to 48; that will give nice renders but won't make your computer howl in utter desperation when you are revolving around the model.

If you make, say, a dish, if you use a circle as a base that has already been part of an action, it might end up segmented though. Fret not! When it has the shape you want it to, hittingthe Eraser tool in combination with Shift will soften the edges (making the resulting face one whole) or Ctrl to hide the edge (which means the resulting face will be treated seperatelly; comes in handy when making decals). Hope this helps you guys out a bit

bbzwbbzw

As Borgman pointed out in another thread, the panel lines will not show up in a render.

D.M.J.

Thank you all

I've spent a while playing with Sketchup on the lengthy London Underground journeys to and from work. This help has made Sketchup into something I can actually use to make use of this "downtime".

[Deleted User]

Actually, if you switch on "Outline" to "Strong" in the Materials section in Kerythea, the panel lines do show up, just that the whole part is outlined like in a comic or something. Also, it wrecks havoc with your hidden geometry....

Thorero

Also you could try using the Offset tool on all the panels, then pushpull them down about 1 1/4".

BorgMan

If two sides are practically the same, that won't work, as the resulting faces will be next to eachother, yet again creating a single surface...

[Deleted User]

this is the best advice on SU i've gotten and i'm luvin' it! I could never figure out the best way to do paneling and now i feel like a fool for not having seen the simplicity of it all!

DanKegel

I've put together a master page of all known wine / sketchup issues and tips, it's at
GoogleSketchup - The Official Wine Wiki

BorgMan

Double-U Tee Ef! The whole existence of SU7 just slipped right past me!?! I'm... ashamed...

liam887

im not necro posting I just thought as this was a sketchup oriented tut I would post here instead of making my own thread, here it is> i mostly for editing models in photoshop directly form sketchup but you can use other programs if you want. If you ise UV maps then itll be even more help for you than it is for me!

BorgMan

Wow, that's an excellent tutorial! I'm sure it'll come in handy In the meanwhile, I've been playing around a bit with Dynamic Components. I haven't figured them out entirely just yet, but I can see that this will become a very important tool for all SketchUp users!

liam887

what will lol this tutorial, or dynamic components? or both? Its not anything to do with sketchy physics I cant get that as im on a MAC :-(
Ive decided to take sketchup into battle and go head to head in the 3D challenge but i doubt i will fare well against those other programs.

BorgMan

Both Good luck on the Challenge, I'd love to enter but I'm busy as hell with school right now. Better luck next time

experiment442

A good thing for panneling is to cut up the face of the panneling then raise them one at a time, and scale them by .95 it helps when you're doing small pannels, if you make the texture a dark colour in the gaps then make the tops a lighter texture, it comes out like welding splits.

BorgMan

Just for the record, I added a link to Weld; see the description in the OP

[Deleted User]

As Requiested by BorgMan [now with corrections - my bad...]:

Sketchup Concept Spacecraft Modelling [plus a car!]
Hiya All

Just thought you all [SU modellers] might want to check out the following sites for some interesting modelling walkthru's [unfortunately they are in Russian].

I am going to convert to Word format, after contacting the Authors as using Google Translate is a pain everytime you want to read the tutorials.

Creating A Car Concept [very very good]
Original Link:
ixlrlxi - ???????? ?????? ?????????? ? Google Sketchup. (warning - 6Mb)

Google Translate Link:
Google Translate

Creating a Concept Spacecraft in Sketchup [an excellent tut up there with the car one]

Original Link:
Kar'sArt - The process of concept art: making of a space ship (Apis Cruiser)
Kar'sArt - The process of concept art: making of a space ship (Apis Cruiser)

Google Translate Link:
Google Translate

Creating a Spacecraft in Sketchup
Original Link:
RENDER.RU -> Oeiee -> Iauea ieeioeiu -> Iiaaeeeiaaiea a SketchUp, ieiaeaiu e iaoiau eo eaoaiey

Google Translate Link:
Google Translate

I have not picked up any viruses by visiting these sites but I would warn everyone on the off chance, to visit with sheilds up just in case!

Enjoy & Laters

BorgMan

Thanks for sharing! Though you might want to hit the EDIT button on your post and copy/paste that code instead; right now you just got plain text without any links

[Deleted User]

Sorry to necro, but I'm just strarting sketchup and have an insatiable appetite for tutorials, especially ones about making spacecraft. Can you help me satisfy my craving?

rwking

Also, sorry to necro a thread, but how do you use sketchup to create hull grid lines on a surface......that show up when rendered in kerky?

Starship

If youA’re talking about grid lines over a box, for example, you can draw the lines, offset (inset) them, do a negative extrusion over the desired pollys and, later, render the object. But donA’t take this as a final word, cause IA’m just a newbie in sketchup. Surelly waht I wrote will works, but I donA’t know if it is the easier way.