Thanks so much Michael and Samantha..really really appreciate all the help.

Samantha thanks for the phone offer I might take you up on it
at a later date. I want to try and master this before asking for help via the phone.

Samantha..I enjoyed reading your blog..Being a woman myself I can relate 100 % !

Fairin you are a riot (Stick People) LOL

Yes Rainer, when you move your parts, think of moving along each plane like you would on a chess board. One straight line/direction at a time!

As you face sketchup visually, the green moves towards you and away from you (north/south), your red is the east/west, and blue is up & down. if you need to move something that is in the distance on the green and you want to bring it up to the red, it is easier to pivot your view, so that green now is east/west, or left/right. grab your part and move on the level (to the left/right) toward the red. if you watch closely, the green will show on the screen as long as you are moving level. Once you have reached the area of the other componant, pivot your screen back to the front view, then move that part directly up /down to the desired line-up. Watch that the blue line is always showing during your move. remember, if you completely blow a move and your part ends up out in the boonies, go to your tool bar and use the ‘go back/return’ feature and it will put the part back to it’s last spot.

If this has been too confusing… I can walk you thru it via phone… let me know.

Rainer,

To bring pieces together you can start by clicking on the “select arrow” in the top left corner. Use it to drag a box over one of the pieces to cover it in blue dots. At this point you can do almost anything to that part or group that you have selected. Once selected use the four pointed move/copy tool to click on it and move it to the other part. I always move objects on the red, blue and green dotted guides as apposed to the black dotted multi-directional line. In other words I move it in one direction at a time, (easier to control).
While the part is still selected, you can click on the scale tool to match it up, rotate it or even paint it with a single click.
Also, while selected, you can use your move/copy tool to copy, just hold down your Control key when moving it and it will magically move right out of itself into a duplicate!
As for your shelled out problem when you flip it over…try this; create a cube and put a circle on it, now pull the outside away. Is this causing your problem? Now try the same thing but before you pull away the outside, draw two lines from the circles edge to the cubes edge and pull the outside away in two pieces, one piece at a time. Hopefully this little trick will keep your model solid.
Another great feature is “get models”(box with yellow arrow) to add things like tea pots to your model.
And so on…have fun!

Samantha

I managed to get some 3d parts up..different sections /diagram parts.

The thing is now they are too far away from each other and on different planes.

Is there a way to drag parts closer to other parts so I can put them in order ?

Thanks ?

WOW thank you everyone for all of this info…. EN will be most happy not to have to look at my stick people once i get the hang of this :)))

Thanks Tim..I’ll download and take a look at it.

I don’t know how you would feel about trying to learn yet another program, but you might want to try 123D made by AutoDesk. You can download it from their website(can’t post any links yet). You can it by just doing a google search for 123D. This program will also allow you to make 2D drawings that you could potentially send to a machine shop or prototype maker down the road.

Thanks Greg !

There’s a feature called Follow Me Extrude that may get you results you like. I’ve barely used SketchUp, because I’m happy with my current tool, but extruding is the typical way to create something like a teapot spout. There are some tutorials out there for it.

Thanks for the replies everyone :)

Samantha

I’m still messing around with (I’m stubborn and hate to give up) SU and getting the feel for the basics and doing OK in that dept.

I need to make something like a curve teapot spout to my sketch in 3d of course and it’s all messed up. I tried searching youtube videos
but no luck. No it’s not a teapot but that’s the only way I can explained it without giving too much away :D

Another thing..I wanted to add some text and followed the instructions but when I go to click where I want it
nothing happens.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

I love it… I’m no expert at it but seems to get the job done for me.

I personally just couldnt get Sketchup. Maybe its a right brain/left brain thing. But I do pretty well with just the basic Paint Feature. You can also save a pic and draw or erase on it to get ur point across, or just pull out some paper and colored pencils or a black sharpie and draw away and then scan. Yes Im a simple one. :)
Or I have also paid for quality 3D computer renders and quality sell sheet quality drawings…well worth the money, just ask around for people that do it. :)

Hi Rainer,
I use Sketch up quite often. For a free program, it’s pretty good. I’m sure I’ll never be an expert, but I have managed to do several basic 3D designs for some of my product ideas and I’ve been happy with the results. I believe that I can do a 3D of my products with enuff resemblance and accuracy that EN would have NO problem getting the ‘picture’, although I do NOT draw to scale, You can turn and view all sides and angles of my products. Lisa is right about doing organic curves, but I have not found a reason to try to 3D a pear or a ball, but basic circles and curves are no problem. I have also used it for some basic graphics for a gameboard that I am working on.

If you are having problems making the drawing into a proper 3D (front vs. back), why dont you do the front, export it in 2D & save it, then do the back of the product and again, export & save it in 2D. if you have all the basics as well as a good explanitory write up, it should be good to submit.
Thinking in 3D and then drawing in 3D is interesting, and a bit tuff at first, it takes practice. Just remember to save in 3D, OFTEN as you make change or additions to your drawing (under a diff. name… box-1, box-2…etc.) That way you can go back and make changes at any stage if you feel you have gone in the wrong direction and need a re-do. The program will also do an occasional generic save while you work. I’m happy to help you any way I can with Sketchup. nda

hiya — sketchup is great for certain things — but really struggles with doing organic curves. we use it a lot for our work we do (outside of product) but for product, it can be difficult to get curves (esp. ergonomic ones) working well. that’s the major pitfall…

Jim-

Thanks for the kind words, appreciate it! I’m all about trying to help others whenever I can as it may save them from making the same (or better) mistakes than I have made. I’m starting to feel good about everyone here and this looks like the place I’ve been looking for all these years. Former USAF enlisted(correct)and my brother is former Marines, brother in-law is former Army. Feels good to be here, thanks again! ; )

Hi Ralph

The thing is I don’t have a picture because it’s in my head .

Sketch up is driving me nuts..just when I think I have it down with the basics I flip it around to gander at the 3d look and
it has holes all over the place …lol

ugh !

Ralph, welcome again to Edison Nation. I want to say you enrich us with some pretty useful information and it’s great to see such ambition and zealousness (if that’s a word) on your part. I’m a Navy vet, but it’s also nice to see an enlisted (?) Air Force vet do well too. Best wishes on your inventing journey.

Rainer-

Sketch Up isn’t too bad overall, but there are even simpler ways to turn out good drawings. One is basically a raster or illustration that is created from a picture you take. Assuming you have an object to photograph, most graphics apps (Photoshop, Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro,etc…) have the ability to turn a photograph or picture into ‘Line Art’. I have used this technique before with detailed pics that I didn’t want to re-render with great results.

It pretty much follows the outlines of your object in the picture and leaves out the rest. Then you can either import and redraw over it, or physically print it and trace over the image that was created.

~Frank

I think you know what I’m trying (badly) to describe here. Maybe you (or others)could chime in?