Designing a T-Shirt with SketchUp

Designing a T-Shirt with SketchUp

This post is adapted from an exercise that appeared in the first edition of Architectural Design with SketchUp (Chapter 5) but that I have since removed from the book. I hope you find it useful. For this (clearly non-architectural) example, let's assume you want to preview a T-shirt design that you created in SketchUp using an image of a T-shirt model. This example uses SketchUp's styles and especially the watermarking feature and can be adapted for many other (non-clothing) uses, too. It even works with the web version of the program. So, without further ado, here are the steps you can take to create and preview a T-shirt design in SketchUp: Tutorial Steps Let’s start with a simple SketchUp model—a sphere within a rectangular box. Of course, you may pick whatever design you like. Let’s just assume that we wanted to make a sketchy-looking T-shirt with this design, and that we needed to preview how it will look. The original design idea Open the Styles...
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Patterned Panels from Images and Formulas

Patterned Panels from Images and Formulas

In this video tutorial I show how you can use my Scale By Tools SketchUp extension to create various designs for patterned panels. We start with sine and power equations and then use images to form intricate screen designs. This video follows a presentation that I gave at SketchUp's 3D Basecamp in 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu-8x8Y1dnw I had covered some of these techniques in an earlier video, included below for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmvTROcPETY I hope you are enjoying this extension. Let me know in the comments how you are using it. ...
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Designing 3D-Printable Pendants with SketchUp

Designing 3D-Printable Pendants with SketchUp

In this tutorial I cover several approaches and techniques for creating 3D-printable pendants from SketchUp. This includes designs that need to be hanging in the balance (for pendants, earrings, mobile elements, etc.) as well as those with multiple support points (e.g. for name necklaces). Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W0bKW8guM Links The extensions and websites that I mention in the video are: Shapeways - A 3D printing service that lets you even create objects in precious metals. Face Centroid and Area Properties - My SketchUp extension that you need to find the centroid of faces. Solid Inspector - A SketchUp extension that is used to check for 3D printability. Did you design anything with this approach? Share it below in the comments. ...
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Attractor-Based Scaling with Scale By Tools

Attractor-Based Scaling with Scale By Tools

A new feature of my Scale By (Image/Attractors/Equation) Tools SketchUp extension is the ability to transform (scale/rotate/move) objects by proximity to other objects ("attractors"). Not sure what this means? Check out the tutorial video above that explains the basic functionality. You can learn more about this extension on its page and the reference manual. Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/QRle49KTceY ...
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Making a 3D-Printable Patterned Panel (with Scale By Tools)

Making a 3D-Printable Patterned Panel (with Scale By Tools)

This video tutorial revisits a parametric 3D printable panel that I created a while ago using plain Ruby code. Since the underlying code is now included in my Scale By Tools extension, I used it to re-create the same panel. Watch the video to see how you can very easily create the same design (or whatever else you want) with it. You can then 3D print it, laser cut, CNC cut, or use a waterjet cutter to create this panel out of many materials. Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/UmvTROcPETY 3D Model You can explore the original 3D model using the viewer below. Just click the image to start it. ...
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