Google Sketchup - Come Along for the Ride

Betsy said:

In the beginning.....

So the journey begins. The trip is short this morning because I've got to start work shortly.

I'm a beginner at this program so thsy's where we are starting. I will do my best to answer, or find answers to all questions. Everyoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

So like I said short and sweet this morning.

First - definitely get a mouse with a scrool wheel-even if you have a laptop. I got my mouse out last night and it makes a HUGE difference in using the program.

Next when you open a new sheet there's this man standing there. Ten points to the one who can tell me his name! I know it already. Anyway - I don't like the guy. He's a sexist slob. How do I know this? because he appears to be walking and he has his head turned in the "Wow that's a good looking woman" turn. Just kidding guys.

To get rid of the little guy - use the select tool, the little arrow in the top left corner to select him and then right click and scroll up to erase or hide. You can also just click on him and then right click.

I believe to make him go away permanently you need to make a template. I'll get into that later this weekend when my home internet is fixed and I have more time.

"Snip"--you know what that is right-- snip a stray thread off your shirt or you snip at your wife-- wait that must be snap at your wife--sorry.

Snip is how you can stop what ever you are trying to do from happening again. Say, for instance you are drawing a line and are done and want now to draw a circle. You move your cursor to select the cricle but you are still dragging a line along for the ride to the circle tool.

To stop drawing your line, or rectangle or circle, etc. when you finish with the action press the "esc" or escape button. This "snips" off the line,ectangle, etc. and you can go merrily to another action.

OK, gotta go for now. Will do more exploring and more indepth blog this weekend.

Thanks guys and rememberEveryoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

In the beginning.....

So the journey begins. The trip is short this morning because I've got to start work shortly.

I'm a beginner at this program so thsy's where we are starting. I will do my best to answer, or find answers to all questions. Everyoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

So like I said short and sweet this morning.

First - definitely get a mouse with a scrool wheel-even if you have a laptop. I got my mouse out last night and it makes a HUGE difference in using the program.

Next when you open a new sheet there's this man standing there. Ten points to the one who can tell me his name! I know it already. Anyway - I don't like the guy. He's a sexist slob. How do I know this? because he appears to be walking and he has his head turned in the "Wow that's a good looking woman" turn. Just kidding guys.

To get rid of the little guy - use the select tool, the little arrow in the top left corner to select him and then right click and scroll up to erase or hide. You can also just click on him and then right click.

I believe to make him go away permanently you need to make a template. I'll get into that later this weekend when my home internet is fixed and I have more time.

"Snip"--you know what that is right-- snip a stray thread off your shirt or you snip at your wife-- wait that must be snap at your wife--sorry.

Snip is how you can stop what ever you are trying to do from happening again. Say, for instance you are drawing a line and are done and want now to draw a circle. You move your cursor to select the cricle but you are still dragging a line along for the ride to the circle tool.

To stop drawing your line, or rectangle or circle, etc. when you finish with the action press the "esc" or escape button. This "snips" off the line,ectangle, etc. and you can go merrily to another action.

OK, gotta go for now. Will do more exploring and more indepth blog this weekend.

Thanks guys and rememberEveryoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

In the beginning.....

So the journey begins. The trip is short this morning because I've got to start work shortly.

I'm a beginner at this program so thsy's where we are starting. I will do my best to answer, or find answers to all questions. Everyoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

So like I said short and sweet this morning.

First - definitely get a mouse with a scrool wheel-even if you have a laptop. I got my mouse out last night and it makes a HUGE difference in using the program.

Next when you open a new sheet there's this man standing there. Ten points to the one who can tell me his name! I know it already. Anyway - I don't like the guy. He's a sexist slob. How do I know this? because he appears to be walking and he has his head turned in the "Wow that's a good looking woman" turn. Just kidding guys.

To get rid of the little guy - use the select tool, the little arrow in the top left corner to select him and then right click and scroll up to erase or hide. You can also just click on him and then right click.

I believe to make him go away permanently you need to make a template. I'll get into that later this weekend when my home internet is fixed and I have more time.

"Snip"--you know what that is right-- snip a stray thread off your shirt or you snip at your wife-- wait that must be snap at your wife--sorry.

Snip is how you can stop what ever you are trying to do from happening again. Say, for instance you are drawing a line and are done and want now to draw a circle. You move your cursor to select the cricle but you are still dragging a line along for the ride to the circle tool.

To stop drawing your line, or rectangle or circle, etc. when you finish with the action press the "esc" or escape button. This "snips" off the line,ectangle, etc. and you can go merrily to another action.

OK, gotta go for now. Will do more exploring and more indepth blog this weekend.

Thanks guys and rememberEveryoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

In the beginning.....

So the journey begins. The trip is short this morning because I've got to start work shortly.

I'm a beginner at this program so thsy's where we are starting. I will do my best to answer, or find answers to all questions. Everyoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

So like I said short and sweet this morning.

First - definitely get a mouse with a scrool wheel-even if you have a laptop. I got my mouse out last night and it makes a HUGE difference in using the program.

Next when you open a new sheet there's this man standing there. Ten points to the one who can tell me his name! I know it already. Anyway - I don't like the guy. He's a sexist slob. How do I know this? because he appears to be walking and he has his head turned in the "Wow that's a good looking woman" turn. Just kidding guys.

To get rid of the little guy - use the select tool, the little arrow in the top left corner to select him and then right click and scroll up to erase or hide. You can also just click on him and then right click.

I believe to make him go away permanently you need to make a template. I'll get into that later this weekend when my home internet is fixed and I have more time.

"Snip"--you know what that is right-- snip a stray thread off your shirt or you snip at your wife-- wait that must be snap at your wife--sorry.

Snip is how you can stop what ever you are trying to do from happening again. Say, for instance you are drawing a line and are done and want now to draw a circle. You move your cursor to select the cricle but you are still dragging a line along for the ride to the circle tool.

To stop drawing your line, or rectangle or circle, etc. when you finish with the action press the "esc" or escape button. This "snips" off the line,ectangle, etc. and you can go merrily to another action.

OK, gotta go for now. Will do more exploring and more indepth blog this weekend.

Thanks guys and rememberEveryoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

In the beginning.....

So the journey begins. The trip is short this morning because I've got to start work shortly.

I'm a beginner at this program so thsy's where we are starting. I will do my best to answer, or find answers to all questions. Everyoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

So like I said short and sweet this morning.

First - definitely get a mouse with a scrool wheel-even if you have a laptop. I got my mouse out last night and it makes a HUGE difference in using the program.

Next when you open a new sheet there's this man standing there. Ten points to the one who can tell me his name! I know it already. Anyway - I don't like the guy. He's a sexist slob. How do I know this? because he appears to be walking and he has his head turned in the "Wow that's a good looking woman" turn. Just kidding guys.

To get rid of the little guy - use the select tool, the little arrow in the top left corner to select him and then right click and scroll up to erase or hide. You can also just click on him and then right click.

I believe to make him go away permanently you need to make a template. I'll get into that later this weekend when my home internet is fixed and I have more time.

"Snip"--you know what that is right-- snip a stray thread off your shirt or you snip at your wife-- wait that must be snap at your wife--sorry.

Snip is how you can stop what ever you are trying to do from happening again. Say, for instance you are drawing a line and are done and want now to draw a circle. You move your cursor to select the cricle but you are still dragging a line along for the ride to the circle tool.

To stop drawing your line, or rectangle or circle, etc. when you finish with the action press the "esc" or escape button. This "snips" off the line,ectangle, etc. and you can go merrily to another action.

OK, gotta go for now. Will do more exploring and more indepth blog this weekend.

Thanks guys and rememberEveryoneis welcomed to chime in with questions, answers, or corections to my answers.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Baby steps, the blind leading the blind

Finally have my internet connection back!!!! Don't realize how much you use it until it's gone.

Learning Sketchup is no easy feat. I'm going to make the admission that I'm an not technically savvy and so this project is going to be taken in baby steps. Hopefully, those who are like me, technically challenged, will be able to learn from my little foray into the computer age. For those who are more technically able, perhaps this will provide some good fodder for jokes or water cooler talk! (I won't be offended in the least if you post your jokes here-all us woodworkers should be able to laugh at one another.) They, whoever "they" are, say you can learn the program in an afternoon--- well fear not those who are like me,,,,, not everyone can-but we will learn.

Be it hereby known, I will not be defeated! I will learn how to use this program if it's the very last thing I do! Now you have to hold me to it.

But as always, any interjection of comments, questions, ideas etc or more than welcomed.

My very first HUGE tip is to go to this site: www.youtube.com/aidanchopra -- this is the man who wrote Google Sketchup for Dummies. The videos are very helpful.

I did buy his book and the book says there is a website www.dummies.com/go/SketchUpFD. that you can use-- but I went to the site and could not get it to work for me.

The Youtube videos help to explain what you read in the book.

By way of minor review - the book is ok-- but it is still more technical than I'm used to. I am very old school and some of the technical stuff is mind boogling. I'm not stupid, I just have a different way of thinking of things and I think you have to change your perspective a bit to get into the computer age. I'm working on that and perhaps working through this program will help me to do just that.

The first thing I see that I need to consider with Sketchup (in legalees-- "SU" from hereinafter) is that we are working in 3D-- with axises as our guide. In SU there are three "lines" or axises on the screen. Blue, red and green. You have to view these lines correctly in order to work the system. What makes it work for me is to imagine that the green and red lines (which are the ground) come together in a 90 degree corner. The blue line (which is up or vertical) connects at the red/green corner and goes up into the sky (into infinity and beyond). If I am physically standing up, the green line goes to the front of me on the ground and the red line would go to the right of me on the ground. The blue line would go up through my pretty little head (I jest) into the sky.

OK - before we get to far. One way that I think I need to change is that we need to use the terms that SU uses. So from now on those red, green and blue "lines" are "axis" (axises - plural). If you are going to be drug into the technical, computer world, might as well talk the talk.

These axises are VERY important to understand. You have to pay attention the axis that you are working on in order to draw correctly.

OK-- the dog is ready at the groomers so this is all for now. In those famous words "I'll be back."

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Baby steps, the blind leading the blind

Finally have my internet connection back!!!! Don't realize how much you use it until it's gone.

Learning Sketchup is no easy feat. I'm going to make the admission that I'm an not technically savvy and so this project is going to be taken in baby steps. Hopefully, those who are like me, technically challenged, will be able to learn from my little foray into the computer age. For those who are more technically able, perhaps this will provide some good fodder for jokes or water cooler talk! (I won't be offended in the least if you post your jokes here-all us woodworkers should be able to laugh at one another.) They, whoever "they" are, say you can learn the program in an afternoon--- well fear not those who are like me,,,,, not everyone can-but we will learn.

Be it hereby known, I will not be defeated! I will learn how to use this program if it's the very last thing I do! Now you have to hold me to it.

But as always, any interjection of comments, questions, ideas etc or more than welcomed.

My very first HUGE tip is to go to this site: www.youtube.com/aidanchopra -- this is the man who wrote Google Sketchup for Dummies. The videos are very helpful.

I did buy his book and the book says there is a website www.dummies.com/go/SketchUpFD. that you can use-- but I went to the site and could not get it to work for me.

The Youtube videos help to explain what you read in the book.

By way of minor review - the book is ok-- but it is still more technical than I'm used to. I am very old school and some of the technical stuff is mind boogling. I'm not stupid, I just have a different way of thinking of things and I think you have to change your perspective a bit to get into the computer age. I'm working on that and perhaps working through this program will help me to do just that.

The first thing I see that I need to consider with Sketchup (in legalees-- "SU" from hereinafter) is that we are working in 3D-- with axises as our guide. In SU there are three "lines" or axises on the screen. Blue, red and green. You have to view these lines correctly in order to work the system. What makes it work for me is to imagine that the green and red lines (which are the ground) come together in a 90 degree corner. The blue line (which is up or vertical) connects at the red/green corner and goes up into the sky (into infinity and beyond). If I am physically standing up, the green line goes to the front of me on the ground and the red line would go to the right of me on the ground. The blue line would go up through my pretty little head (I jest) into the sky.

OK - before we get to far. One way that I think I need to change is that we need to use the terms that SU uses. So from now on those red, green and blue "lines" are "axis" (axises - plural). If you are going to be drug into the technical, computer world, might as well talk the talk.

These axises are VERY important to understand. You have to pay attention the axis that you are working on in order to draw correctly.

OK-- the dog is ready at the groomers so this is all for now. In those famous words "I'll be back."

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...

Betsy said:

Tools - general stuff

So now we have to take a look at tools. There are LOTS and LOTS of tools to look at. But the three most important are the zoom, orbit and pan tools. It seems that their importance are in that order.

Again, I've definitely discovered that if you don't have a mouse you better get one. You can do everything with your keyboard and cursor - but you'll save yourself a whole bunch of aggravation by getting a good mouse.

Moving the scroll wheel back and forth zooms in and out. This replaces the tool that looks like a magnifying glass on the menu bar. This feature helps you to move in close to any particular portion of your project that you want to work on at any one time. When you have a lot of different portions of a project on the screen the zoom feature will be a big advantage. (Layers is another feature that will be useful as zooming - but that's way ahead of where we are now.)

Pressing and holding the scroll wheel down orbits - allowing you to move around the object and see it on all sides. This replaces the icon that looks like two arrows going in a circle. (It's the one right next to that ghostly looking hand.) You want to become an expert at orbiting-- you'll thank yourself for obtaining this little talent. Picture yourself wanting to look at the back of your house. The only way to do that is to walk from the front to the back-- orbiting is like walking to the back yard.

The pan tool-- that ghostly looking hand - this allows you to move the object around the window. It does not spin the object - just moves it from one side of the window to another. The mouse, in my opinion is less useful with this particular tool. To use the mouse you need to hold down the scroll wheel and at the same time hold the shift key down. This makes the pan tool appear - then moving the mouse around (all the while holding the wheel and shift key down) will make the object move around. I think it is easier to use the icon - you have to select the icon then hold the LEFT mouse button down to move the icon/object around. I just think it's easier to have to hold only one thing down at a time.

Those are the three tools you MUST get a grasp on before getting very far.

Hopefully I'm not going to slow for everyone--I'm sorry if I am-- I am taking a long time to get the hang of the program. One thing that I think is very helpful is to just start "sketching" and clicking and doing the little things to get a feel for what each tool does.

I think that the biggest shortfall of any book, article, blog, or instruction on any topic is that the person who is writing or teaching leaves out some of the little things that make such a big difference to actually using the program-- I call those things the "Ah now I get it" things. The writer or teacher does not leave these things out intentionally, but the little things are just taken for granted. These are the things that I need to figure out to use the program. So that's what I'm going to try to do here.

Hopefully it won't be too boring. But we are going to take baby steps. I figure I have till about September before I can get back in the shop so that leaves a lot of time for baby steps! Not really, while I have until September, I won't really go that slow.

One assumption that I've made that is not necessarily wrong as a whole, but is not exactly right-- (did you get that?) is that everything starts out as a shape - in other words you have to start with a rectangle or circle or triangle, etc. This is not right.

The important thing is that you have to have an edge and a face to get anything done. You can accomplish this with the line tool (the pencil) - you don't have to start with a "shape."

Just try this-- select the pencil tool, click on any spot then move your cursor to another spot and click again. You now have a line. Because it is a single line attached to nothing in particular it will be a dark line.

Now something about lines and SU in general. As you drew your line did you notice what color it was? If it was green, red or blue that means you are drawing parallel to one of those axes. If the line is black as you are drawing - that means you are not parallel to any axis. Most of the time you want to be parallel to an axis - that will make everything that comes after easier.

Now back to that line-- if you have not moved your cursor from where you clicked the second time, you may notice that green dot at the end of the line - that dot - no matter the color is called an "inference" you need to pay attention to those little dots. The green dots indicates that you are at the end of the line and if you click again while that dot is green and move your cursor around you will begin drawing a new line from the "end" of the first. If you move your cursor so that the green dot disappears along the line it should turn red, this indicates that if you start drawing from there that your new line will begin on an edge not the end. Pretty simple. If you keep moving the dot will change to another color - light blue to my eye - indicating that you are at the midpoint or center of your original line. There are other dots or inferences to watch for. But those are the main ones to start with.

Now back to the end of your line where that green dot is take a look at the bottom right of your screen - you'll see a little box that says "length". This is the value control box. You can make this a complicated idea - but it's not. It's a dimension indication tool - that's it. Move your cursor away from the green dot and watch the box - it will show the length of your line. This will help you when you start actually drawing and want to make something a certain dimension. Don't make it a complicated thing--try to keep this simple. (That's what I keep telling myself.) If you are drawing a line - it shows length, if you are making a circle, it shows radius, etc.

Now just to complete (well not exactly complete) the thought on edges and faces-- take your line and draw four that are connected at those little dots. Once you finish that last line you'll see that the inside of the four lines turns a light black--that light black space is a "face."

Now let's play with that face. Move your cursor to the tool bar and pick up the "select" tool. That's the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the arrow over the new face and click-- that will change the texture of the face into a bunch of little dots. ANYTIME a face is selected it will have these dots. Anything that is selected will be the portion of the object that will be changed by any following action.

You can "select" by clicking as well - you don't necessarily have to use the select tool.

ok that's all for now - all this left handed typing gets tough! More later.

As always comments, suggestions, questions or corrections are always welcome.

oh and just because I don't think a blog is complete without a picture---



there - I feel better.

Click to expand...