Designing a T-Shirt with SketchUp

Designing a T-Shirt with SketchUp

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
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...
Read More
Trimble Creator: Introduction to Parametric SketchUp

Trimble Creator: Introduction to Parametric SketchUp

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
In this video tutorial I show how the newly released Trimble Creator works. This tool/service allows you to create parametric "Live Components" for SketchUp and lets you come up with some cool, parametric designs (or product configurators). You can try all of this for yourself at Trimble Creator's live site: creator.trimble.com. If you want to experiment with my models, search for "alexschreyer" there (using one of the left icons). Also, I am collecting all of my Trimble Creator videos in a YouTube playlist. Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joc6ouRTaTg Links Trimble Creator - Access the web app here Trimble Creator Forum - A place to ask your questions on SketchUp's forums Node Documentation - The main help docs for Creator's nodes Have you tried Trimble's Creator yet? Let me know below in the comments what you think about it....
Read More
Placing Wind Turbines with my Random Tools Extension

Placing Wind Turbines with my Random Tools Extension

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
In this tutorial I use the example of a large wind turbine array to show how useful my Random Tools extension for SketchUp can be in making things look more realistic - by rotating turbine blades in this case. Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHuqTEaOtI0 Tutorial Steps Time needed: 10 minutes. The three main steps to prepare a component for use with SketchUp's Random Tools extension are also illustrated below. For this example it is best to use a component, not a group. As I show in the video, grouping the rotor blades will not allow the extension to properly place its center at the rotation axis. Therefore, start by selecting the rotor blades and the axle and using the "Make Component" tool. In the Make Component tool, we then need to place its axis at the center of rotation. Click the "Set Component Axis" button and then place the axis as shown below. Now you can use the "Randomize Objects" tool from the Random Tools...
Read More
Attractor-Based Scaling with Scale By Tools

Attractor-Based Scaling with Scale By Tools

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
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...
Read More
Making a 3D-Printable Patterned Panel (with Scale By Tools)

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

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
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....
Read More