Replies

1. 
   daverichards | Mar 20, 2013 07:25am | #1

   Bill,

   Best book? Hmmmm..... Bonnie Roskes' books are probably the best out there. See 3DVINCI and SketchUp for Dummies, although written for V7 is still useful.

   Specifically for woodworking, take a look at TIm Killen's e-books in the Taunton store or there's my video which you might find helpful.

   There are three primary place to get plugins. Sketchucation, Smustard and the Ruby Library Depot.. I'm not familiar with tasmccarthy so I can't tell you where their plugins are.

   Top 5 plugins? Well, for my work, Weld (available right from the SketchUp website, Wudworx, Round Corner by Fredo6, Solid Inspector and Bezier Spline.

   There are a lot of interesting plugins out there but don't go collecting them like a packrat collects shiny bits of metal. Download plugins as you need them. Have lots of plugins will drag out the load time and you won't remember you have them later.

   -Dave

1. 
   BillA | Mar 20, 2013 11:27pm | #2

   newbie with questions

   thanks!

1. 
   bones | Mar 22, 2013 01:00pm | #3

   Best resource is Dave!

   Hey the man that responded to your question is the best teacher!  He took me from a newb to a pro.   The best addin I've found (and Dave reccomended) is Cutlst for Sketcup.   It definately shows you where your drawings are off just slightly with that "~" charactrer displayed as dimension.  That alone makes it worth it.   Now that I name my compents with materials, it quickly gives me an idea of BF required.  I just used it.  A client who found me after I posted my work here, wanted a cabinet I did 3" wider and raised panels instead of the tin panels.  I quickly was able to expand the drawing, and the raised panels, and ran sketcup and bing there was the new bf requirement.  Now I did add .30 for waste (just me) but quickly had what I needed to cost the job.    Love it!     The 2nd source would by youtube.  You'd be surprised how much is there.  I'm a visual guy and seing it done is much better IMO.     

2. 
   daverichards | Mar 23, 2013 07:46am | #4

   Thank you very much, Bones.

   And yes, CutList should have been in the list of top 6 plugins. My mistake. ;)

3. 
   gerry4 | Mar 29, 2013 02:47pm | #5

   Sketchup Resources

   Hi Bill,

   I'm a visual learner, too. I found a great resource in the video tutorials from Joe Zeh of Swamp Road Wood Works, http://www.srww.com/google-sketchup.htm, to understand and use Sketchup.

   Re the books, I agree the Sketchup for Dummies is a good place to start. 

   Re the plug ins, Cutlist is a top one, and there is a ruby script that Joe Zeh wrote that I use all the time, called "layers", that allows you to hide all show all, create new create hidden layers at the touch of a button. It is a very useful tool!

   Hope this is of help.

   Gerry