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Shaker Lap Desk in SketchUp
14 commentsThe new Christian Becksvoort lap desk project was only online for a matter of days, when David Heim emailed me with a revamped SketchUp version of the desk. David edited Tim Killen’s brand new...
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Watermark Your Drawings
1 commentSometimes it is useful to add a watermark to your SketchUp drawings. Perhaps you want to add a notice of copyright or you'd liked to mark the images as drafts. You could do this in some image editors...
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The Curule Construction - and Ancient X-frame Chair Design
4 commentsWhile developing the Jefferson Campeche Chair (first in SketchUp, then in the shop), I ran across an interesting 20-page document titled, "The Campeche Chair in The Metropolitan Museum of Art". This...
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A Look At The Camera Tools
7 commentsA friend of mine and I were talking the other day and he suggested I do a blog post about the tools on the Camera toolbar. It's a fairly straightforward set of tools but I think there are a few often...
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Chamfered Post Table and Mortise & Tenon Joints
13 commentsTo help answer comments on the creation of mortise and tenon joints for the Chamfer Post Table in Chapter Nine of my book, I've created the video below. This shows my recommended...
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Bombe Chest - An Exercise in Complex Geometry - Pt. 2
2 commentsIn part 1 of this series, I showed a way to create the complex surface on the front of a Boston Bombé chest. In this installment I'll go through creating the case side, drawer fronts and the...
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Tongue & Groove Joints in Magazine Rack
12 commentsFollowing last week's publication of "SketchUp Guide for Woodworkers", I've received several questions on the making of the tongue & groove joints on the Magazine Rack. The specific reference in...
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Cut List Plugin Installation
17 commentsI've been contacted by several folks who have had difficulty getting the CutList plugin to work. The problem seems to come from the way they are installing it. Here are some screen shots that will...
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Free Download: How to Use SketchUp Tools
26 commentsGet a taste of what Tim Killen’s new book, the SketchUp Guide for Woodworkers, is all about by downloading a free chapter on how to use SketchUp tools. The chapter will help you get familiar with eight of the basic tools including the line, eraser, push/pull, select, rectangle, circle, arc, and tape measure tools.
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Bombe Chest - An Exercise in Complex Geometry - Pt. 1
4 commentsI have a bunch of great woodworking friends who use SketchUp. They are always coming up with challenging projects. One of my friends asked me about how to go about drawing a chest like the one...
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Special Announcement - My Book on SketchUp
56 commentsYesterday Fine Woodworking launched my new book, "SketchUp Guide for Woodworkers". See the link into the Taunton Store here. An e-book in PDF format, the first four chapters get you started with...
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A Tiled Floor - Creating a Material in SketchUp
Some friends of mine e-mailed me yesterday to ask about an easy and efficient way to create a tiled floor in SketchUp. Here's what I came up with for them. One option would be to draw the tiles as...
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Maloof and Templates by SketchUp
4 commentsI believe it is a record for me - that is, the number of templates used in one piece of furniture. Without them I would be lost...
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CutList 4.1.1 -- A More In Depth Look
21 commentsThe Cut List plugin written by Steve Racz is one of the more useful tools in my Plugins folder. I use it on nearly every SketchUp project I do these days. In my previous blog entry I announced the...
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Cutlist 4.1.1 For SketchUp Released Today
3 commentsI've written in the past about the very handy CutList and Materials plugin. The author has been busy during his southern hemisphere winter making some modifications and additions. Today he...
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Seat Frame for a Maloof Occasional Chair
2 commentsSome of my students and I are reproducing a Maloof Occasional Chair that has a tufted leather seat. I don't have information on Sam's design, and particularly whether he used a solid or a...
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A Fluted Quarter Column
2 commentsI was working on a SketchUp project recently that required some small fluted quarter columns. Conveniently, the March/April 2010 issue of Fine Woodworking has a great article by Jeff Headley on how...
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Updated with Video: Making a Shaker Knob
2 commentsA reader had difficulty creating a Shaker drawer knob. In particular, she found it difficult to place the path for the Follow Me. Also she could not get Follow Me to work with the turning profile...
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Turn a Straight Border Pattern into a Curved Border Pattern
2 commentsOne of our readers and a new SketchUp user was looking for a way to create a curved pattern for the rim of a bowl he has turned. He has a straight Celtic knotwork border to start with and wondered if...
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SketchUp 8 Pro: A Look at Some of the Solid Tools
6 commentsAs Tim mentioned in his last post, one of the new additions to SketchUp 8 Pro is the Solid Tools set. This is a powerful group of tools for performing Boolean operations. In this post I'm going to...
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About Design. Click. Build.
Learn the art and science of designing furniture in SketchUp with Fine Woodworking's official blog. Moderated by a devoted community of woodworkers, we feature step-by-step SketchUp tutorials on designing components, downloads of pre-built 3D models of furniture parts, and news and information about the evolving world of digital furniture design.
Basic SketchUp Tutorials
Learn the basics of building furniture in SketchUp with these classic posts from the Design. Click. Build. blog.
Creating a Project Plan in SketchUp
How I Draw in SketchUp
Axes in SketchUp
The SketchUp Move Tool
The SketchUp Rotate Tool
The SketchUp Scale Tool
Materials, Colors, and Textures
Applying Wood Grain Skins in SketchUp
Easy Dovetail Joints in SketchUp
Digital Project Plans
Download and modify SketchUp files for select projects from Fine Woodworking. View all. Top Sellers: Matt's Monster Workbench New England Pine Cupboard Garden BenchMeet the Authors
DaveRichardsI am a Biomedical Equipment Technician. I maintain anesthesia and respiratory equipment for the largest medical facility in southeast Minnesota. I...
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Tim KillenI am retired from Bechtel Corporation after 36 years in Engineering and IT management. I grew up among woodworking machinery in...
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