Google SketchUp

[douginala]

Is anybody using Google SketchUp to do pre-design work on bodies?

[Rod Turnbull]

I use coreldraw

[douginala]

This is a quick example of how SketchUp can be made to work.

I've used it some for help in designing RC truck parts.

Rod, I also use CorelDraw and have since Ver 3. The 3D ability of SketchUp is amazing however. It's just too easy to let the means become the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gvan9fvzmU" target="_blank

[Rod Turnbull]

Oh I like the google program... I use it more for landscape design. For the cars there are a lot of parts to most of the things I put together and sketchup is not as friendly as coreldraw for pushing and pulling nodes and parts around, working in transparent layers, incorporating and manipulating photos, reworking body lines to fit around the standard wheel base. As you added these features to a 3D program, you may have more power but the program gets more complicated, what I like about sketchup is the simplicity because you can jump right in and start using it... one of those you can't have your cake and eat it too scenarios. (I've only used the free version of sketchup)

Then when you consider that I print it out in 2D and make templates from the plans... and basically cut the parts in 2D then turn the piece and cut in 2D again, you are just really adding an extra step to the process. All of my details are carved out once everything is glued together... if I need to look at a model, I just google some photos of what I'm building since I like to build cars that look real. If I designed original stuff I can see where sketchup would be a perk.

Now for most people I can see where sketchup would work nicely if the design is not too complex, it gives you a good idea of what you are building by drawing one side and pulling it out to the width of the car as you did with the fender of the cobra. I'm sure it wouldn't take a lot more work to add in other details from the parts sheet but I had problems when it came to the 3D curves... like stretching the lines you have marked up on the front of the cobra all the way back the car and then erasing the corners that hang out of the design. The process seemed more time consuming than it was worth, but I may be working at it in a backwards way.

[Rod Turnbull]

Talk about more time consuming... check out the SKETCHUP GENERAL LEE BUILD on youtube.


https://youtu.be/R3xUGhxh6yY

[douginala]

Talk about more time consuming...


Now, ain't that the truth. For me personally, I don't see using SU too much for PWD, but it is there for anybody who wants to learn more about 3D models.

The kids find this sort of thing far easier than I do.

[Pinewood Daddy]

I use SolidWorks. It's great for calculating the COG automatically!!

[Rod Turnbull]

...and it is easy to just jump in and use. If you're looking to design you own stuff, this didn't take long to put together, however to actually make something like the General Lee... not me, I don't have an extra week to blow on computer doodles.



Now maybe someone can help here... I found no easy way to copy over the rounded corner of the window and paste it on the other side as a mirrored image... it would also be nice to be able to pull out a line without having to pull out a whole face as the blocked wheel flares would be nicer if the were indeed flared... filling in areas are a pain, it should auto fill and round off or something like that... also it would be nice to be able to move single point on the line, right now if you don't like what you see, you need to redraw the line and erase the old one.

[douginala]

I don't have an extra week to blow on computer doodles.

He said it took him four months, and snagged some of the components.


I found no easy way to copy over the rounded corner of the window and paste it on the other side as a mirrored image.

You might try "move and copy" then mirror it with "scale". I don't know if that would work. If you want to, send the the windshield component I'll mess arround with it some and see what I can do.

[Rod Turnbull]

He said it took him four months, and snagged some of the components.

Some people are slow

Actually I have the audio turned off on my computer so often, I forget to turn it on and listen to what is actually going on.

And the scale kind of worked for me but it was not pretty... some resurfacing, connecting some bits that were not quite right and some guestimation (measuring is for people who are spacially challenged )... and it looked OK... it's no click copy paste mirror drag and drop.

[douginala]

it's no click copy paste mirror drag and drop.

Corel will spoil you in a big hurry.

Glad it worked out.

[Rod Turnbull]

Couldn't sleep and I got bored...

This is the guts of the Ferrari I just made... took longer to do this in SketchUp than it did to cut it out of wood.

[Rod Turnbull]

Figured out the translations... to mirror an object you need to group it and then go into the properties of the group and flip it over one of the axises.

[douginala]

I hate to be thick... but.

I can't grasp how rotating about an axis (flipping on axis) will mirror. Please help me out here.

Oh, crud. Hardly the same thing. Flipping works great.

Thanks for the heads up.

Your car is looking good BTW.

Are you using perl for the compound curves?

[Rod Turnbull]

perl? nope just drawing lines, filling them in, grouping them together, and smoothing them out... can I assume perl is a better way to do it?

Any one got some official BSA wheels I can put on this?



and you figured out the rotate/flip thing? I couldn't find it at first because the objects I wanted to mirror where not in a group.