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 shapy you have on a curvedface 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.

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".

[fongsaunder]

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...

[kenefdz]

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