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Computer-Aided Design in SketchUp. Open SketchUp , and click Template Choose the Engineering template with Meters as the unit of measure.
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Open SketchUp, and click Template • Choose the Engineering template with Meters as the unit of measure
SketchUp will sometimes look and behave differently depending on your OS. For instruction pages that are specific to Apple’s Mountain Lion or Windows 7, look for the icon in the upper right hand corner
Adjust your Toolbar • Turn on the Large Tool Set under View>Tool Palettes>Large Tool Set • Add the Standard Views, Styles, and Shadows items to the toolbar by navigating to View>Customize Toolbar… and dragging the Standard Views, Styles, and Shadows items into the toolbar • Your screen should look like this when you are finished
Adjust your Toolbar • In the View menu, choose Toolbars • Choose the Large Tool Set, Shadows, Styles, and Views, and uncheck Getting Started. You can drag the toolbars to put them on the same line.
Your axes are labeled with different colors to help you with perspective • Click on each of the different views to see how they change your perspective z-axis (blue) y-axis (green) x-axis (red)
The person on your screen is there to help you with perspective and ratios. It is not a necessary part of the program and can be deleted if you prefer. For our purposes, I will delete mine.
Now click on the Top view button • Your screen should look like this
Draw a line • Select the pencil tool from the tool bar to draw a line that is 2m long. From this perspective, you can draw in the xy–plane. • Click your mouse to choose one endpoint of the line. Move your mouse around to see how you can choose the direction of your line and how the line changes color as it lines up with the x or yaxes. • At this point you can draw your line in two different ways. • Click somewhere on the page to determine the other end point of the line, look at the Measurements Box in the bottom left of the screen to see when your line is exactly 2 m. • Hit the tab key to highlight the text inside the Measurements Box, now point your cursor in the direction you want your line to go and type “2” into the Box, and your line will be drawn exactly 2m long. (The default unit is meters)
You can dictate the dimensions of any shape you draw by using the Measurements Box • Try drawing a rectangle that is 1m by 50cm • Select the rectangle tool • Click your mouse to determine the upper left corner of the box • Hit the tab key to highlight the text in the Measurements Box • Type “1, .5” and hit enter • What do you think will happen if you enter “-1, .5” instead? • How could you draw a rectangle that is 30mm by 2cm?
Once you draw a shape in SketchUp, the program recognizes each of its parts separately. You can highlight and delete, or make adjustments to, just one side of a rectangle, or the center. • Deleting one side automatically deletes the center. Why do you think that is?
Draw a rectangle • Change your view to Isometric • Your screen should look similar to the one below Drawing in 3D
Now choose the Push tool • Left click in the top plane of your rectangle and move your mouse up. • Again, you can specify an exact height by pressing the tab key and entering a value into the Measurements Box (value will be in meters) • Notice you can also make your box go “underground” by moving your mouse down or entering a negative value into the Measurements box
Choose the following options from the toolbar • X-Ray • Shaded • Shadow • Your screen should look similar to this
You can change the angle of your shadow, by changing the date and time for your drawing • You can also adjust your view by… • Moving the screen around with the Pan tool • Rotating the screen with the Orbit tool • Zoom in and out with the Zoom tool
Add color to your box by choosing the paint bucket tool. • The Materials/Colors window will pop up, depending on if you’re working on Windows 7 or OS 10.8 Select “Colors” from the pull down menu
Choose a color and click on one face of your box • If the “Shaded” or “Shaded With Textures” options are not highlighted, you will not be able to see the color
Use the Orbit tool to rotate your prism and color all 6 faces • To move, rotate, or scale your prism you need to select the entire thing. Use the Select tool to draw a rectangle that encompasses the entire shape. Notice that selected items are highlighted blue. move rotate select scale
To deselect part something you’ve selected, choose the select tool, hold down the shift key, and click on the area you don’t want selected. Blue areas are selected, black/grey areas are not.
You can also hold the shift key down to click and select more than one object or piece of an object. Try deleting one edge and one face of your prism at the same time. • Now select the top edge of your prism that is closest to you. And use the move tool to change its position.
With the same edge selected, choose the scale tool to change its length. Click on any of the green boxes to scale the side in different directions. • Note: Once you have selected a shape or part of a shape, you must choose the Select tool and click somewhere else on your page to de-select it.
The rotate tool is more complicated than the scale tool. • If you want to rotate your entire object, you must first select the entire thing. (triple clicking will also select the entire thing) • If you do not select the entire thing, as you move your cursor, the pieces of the shape to be rotated will turn blue. The rotate protractor indicates the direction of the rotation.
Rotate a part of your box, then undo the action and rotate the entire thing. • Notice how some rotations may move part of your shape “underground”
Select the entire shape and use the move tool to bring the shape above ground. Zoom way in and use the rotate tool to be sure you are directly on the ground.
Create a new file called “Case_YourLastName” • Find the dimensions of your Board of Education in mm. • Starting at the origin, draw a rectangle to fit your board. Mine will be 10.2mm by 7.7mm. • Use the Tape Measure tool to verify that your rectangle has the correct dimensions. Making the Case
You can also use the Dimension Tool to measure your shape. The dimensions will change if at any time you scale the shape.
Use Push/Pull to give your rectangle depth. • Select the Dimensions Tool and click on one corner. Click again to measure the height of your case. Move your mouse out and click again to see your height dimension a short distance away from your shape.
When you decide that the height is appropriate, delete the top of the box.
One main thing your case is missing is thickness. • Delete your sides to go back to the original rectangle. • Decide how thick you want the walls of your case to be, and raise the base to be that thickness. (Mine is 3mm) • Draw another rectangle inside the first to create the walls. Make sure that the distance between the two rectangles is consistent, and matches the height you already created.
You will need to measure each edge to be sure of the thickness on each side.
Once you have made each edge the same width, select the outer rim and use the Push tool to lift it.
You have now made a basic case to hold your Board of Education. • However it is missing some crucial pieces • A lid • A hole for the power cable • A space for a battery • A hole for the USB cable • What else is it missing? • Consider this case for an arduino, or this one with a lid that slides off. • What are the main components of these cases? • What parts of these cases do you think are difficult to design? Why?
To create more sophisticated objects, we need to learn a few more things • Copying • Mirroring • Combining shapes • To illustrate these concepts I will download an object from the 3D Warehouse.
To copy an object, select the Move tool and move it while holding down the… • Control Key (Windows 7) • Option Key (Mountain Lion) • To mirror an object, select it, right click, choose “Flip Along”, and pick which axis to flip it along. An object that has a lot of symmetry may not appear to mirror.
To combine two objects, first move one so that it is intersecting the other in some way. • Then select both, right click, and choose Intersect Faces with Selection. SketchUp automatically creates new edges and faces where the two objects intersect.
Ready…Set…Create! • You now have the tools to start creating your SketchUp case. • There are, of course, many things SketchUp will do that we did not cover here. • Listed below are several online tools that can help you learn more and do more sophisticated things with SketchUp. • http://help.sketchup.com/en • http://www.mastersketchup.com/8-tips-for-3d-printing-with-sketchup/ • http://www.youtube.com/user/SketchUpVideo • Have fun!