Using Google Sketchup to make templates.

puddingwrestler · July 06, 2012, 05:25:03 PM

Hello chaps!
I've decided to put together a step-by-step tutorial (EXCLUSIVE to What-If modelers mark you!) showing exactly how to use Google Sketchup to make templates your your projects.
You will need three pieces of software - they are all free.
Google Sketchup (Google's free 3D drawing program - a bit basic, but ideal for our purposes)
Flattery (A plug-in for Sketchup designed by paper craft fans to allow 3D objects to be 'unfolded' so you can print them - very cool!)
Inkscape (A Free Vector graphics program - you can use anything as long as it opens SVG files, but I love inkscape so I'm using that.)
Download those, load them up, and you are ready to go!

A note to my fellow Mac Users - Inkscape is opencourse and was developed for PC. It doesn't exactly run native on a Mac, it runs via X11 as a sort of emulated porgram. Anyway, it works fine, just remember that since it THINKS it's on a PC, you actually have to use the CONTROL key, not the COMMAND key for shortcuts. Trust me, it's worth it.

Anyway, on to the tutorial! Huzzah!
In this tutorial, I'm making the templates for a Russian WW2 style mech to go with the German WW2 Mech I'm building. I am only doing templates for the hull, not the legs etc.

Now your template is ready to print!

A few additional things not mentioned in the pics:
If you want to move the 'camera' in Sketchup to view things from different angles, here's how to do it:
Zoom in/out: Mouse Scroll wheel.
Move the camera around: Hand tool.
Rotate: Rotate view tool (this one was in the pics)

Anyway, I really recommend having a go at this - it's pretty fast and it's way easier that working out your own angles. Just remember to compensate for the width of your materials!

scooter · July 06, 2012, 08:27:01 PM

Now, what if you want to do something with curves and unequal dimensions, like a new canopy?

puddingwrestler · July 06, 2012, 10:01:58 PM

There are curve tools, but I have not played with them very much at all. Sketchup can be very frustrating for unequal dimensions because it will only select faces and lines, not points. If you want something like that, it's possibly worth going for something like blender.

NARSES2 · July 07, 2012, 07:02:47 AM

Very interesting, thankyou Mr Puddingw'

Steel Penguin · July 07, 2012, 10:08:42 AM

Thankyou Mr PW that is darned interesting.

RussC · July 07, 2012, 11:19:49 AM

Quote from: puddingwrestler on July 06, 2012, 10:01:58 PM
There are curve tools, but I have not played with them very much at all. Sketchup can be very frustrating for unequal dimensions because it will only select faces and lines, not points. If you want something like that, it's possibly worth going for something like blender.

Remember that there is the ability to merge objects, so to build a canopy or a really curvy drop tank, lets say- You can do that by making a sphere and cones of tapering dimensions, place them in contact and merge. There will be a bit of fiddling to keep from leaving voids or seams.

There is also a "follow" tool where you can draw a multipoint arc and then trace over it to fill.

Another is build it up out of lots of tapering extruded slices, kind of a brute force method but works.

In the end it all gets smoothed out by adding points.

With most drawing tools there are always at lease 3 or 4 methods, to do something- and taking the time to pick the best one to use in a given project step often takes as much time as saved by the use of that single best one.

scooter · July 07, 2012, 01:00:54 PM

One of these years I'm going to sit down and actually learn Sketchup...

puddingwrestler · July 07, 2012, 05:01:32 PM

It's not hard to learn and comes with some very good built in tutorials - one handy feature is the 'instructor' window, which will explain exactly what a given tool does and how to use it in simple terms, with animated demonstrations. This just sits on the side of the workspace until you get sick of it and close it.