Sketchup for Woodworkers

New training series NOT affiliated with this site

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:59:02 GMT

You may have heard a lot about a new series of CDs titled “SketchUp for Woodworkers” from Bob Lang, one of the editors of Popular Woodworking magazine. This series has nothing to do with my site. He apparently decided to “borrow” the name. I can’t vouch for the quality of these lessons, but word on the internet is that they’re very good. $60 good? You be the judge. ;)

Quick Tutorial - Curved Tapered Leg

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:27:25 GMT

This tutorial covers a question from a reader. He asked how to do a curved taper on a leg, but only on two sides. At the end of the video you see me erase a couple of lines. You have to hold SHIFT as you click. Shift+Erase just hides the line from your view, as opposed to a real erase which would break the side of the leg open (try it and see!).

Sketchup 7.1 Now Available

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:44:38 GMT

Google just released Sketchup 7.1. There aren’t a ton of new features (although there is a new renderer which should help with large models) but there are several bug fixes which are always nice.

Quick Tutorial - Turned Leg

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:13:14 GMT

My first post in almost three months! Here’s another quickie tutorial on making a turned leg. If you’ve been following along with all the tutorials you already know tools and techniques to make a turned leg. It involves using them in a way you may not have thought of…

Quick Tutorial - Raised Panel

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:37:33 GMT

I’ve had a couple questions about raised panels recently, and while I haven’t had a chance to create a full-fledged tutorial on them, I put together a really quick (15 seconds!) video of me making a raised panel using the FollowMe tool. Check it out:

I'm still here!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:32:48 GMT

Sorry there haven't been any new tutorials recently, just been busy at home and work! I'm still here and I've received *so* much positive feedback, way more than I ever expected! I'm on vacation next week (driving up the west coast for my birthday!) but I'll get back to the tutorials when I get back. Thanks again everyone!

Dimensions and Printing

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:18:25 GMT

In this tutorial we see how to add dimensions to our drawings, how to set them up to print and add scenes so we can save “views” of our model for later.

Download (mp4, 57MB)

Added Discuss Link

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:47:27 GMT

I just added a “Discuss” link at the top. This will take you to a Google Group that I’ve set up specifically for the site. You can ask questions, share your models, discuss techniques…anything and everything that has to do with Sketchup and how you use it in your shop. Come on by and share your knowledge and projects!

Check out the Files section to see models that others are working on or to share your own!

Plug from The Wood Whisperer!

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:45:54 GMT

I’m only five days behind the times here, but the site got a mention in Wood Talk Online #50 last week! Wood Talk Online is a semi-regular podcast with Marc Spagnuolo, aka The Wood Whisperper, and Matt Vanderlist of Matt’s Basement Workshop. Thanks for the mention guys!

All Tutorials Now Available for Download!

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:04:19 GMT

I’ve had several requests to make the videos available for download so here they are! You’ll see a link to download the video in each post underneath the video player. These are H.264 MPEG-4 videos and should play back well in most players today. Depending on your system, clicking the “Download” link might try to open and play the file right in your browser. If that’s the case then you’ll want to right-click on the “Download” link and select “Save Target As…” (if you’re using IE) or “Save Link As…” (if you’re using Firefox).

You can get these into iTunes by going to File > Add to Library… and selecting the file. But, it won’t play back on your iPod or iPhone until you convert it. Go to the Movies page, select the Tutorial you want to convert and then go to Advanced > Create iPod or iPhone Version. When I converted on my system it created another file in my library that was named the exact same thing as the original. So pick one and try to transfer. If you get an error message about “this video cannot be played on this iPod” then just select the other video and try again.

I hope this makes it easier for those who were having problems streaming or just wanted to follow along offline. Thanks for the continued support everyone!