Printing To-Scale in SketchUp (My 2024 Update)

Printing To-Scale in SketchUp (My 2024 Update)

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
In this tutorial video I describe various ways how you can print scaled, parallel-projection views from SketchUp for Web as well as SketchUp Pro/Desktop (where I will be using the LayOut software). I cover all the relevant aspects and then show how you can use the PDF file format as an intermediate print file format. This video is an update to my older one on this topic. Since that video was posted, SketchUp for Web has been introduced and printing in SketchUp Pro/Desktop has changed. Hence the need for an update. As I describe in Chapter 6 of my book, printing to scale is very useful for a variety of fabrication tasks, including paper-folding or sheet metal fabrication. You can even combine this very well with my Unwrap and Flatten Faces extension. Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPzmSw_tlg ...
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Creating Parallel-Projection Printouts in SketchUp

Creating Parallel-Projection Printouts in SketchUp

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
In this video Tutorial I cover a basic skill for fabrication in SketchUp: parallel-projection printing. This allows you to get flat-shot views out of SketchUp's 3D environment that you can then use for cutouts, laser-cutting, CNC and more. While this can be accomplished easier using SketchUp Pro's LayOut software, it is possible to create these from right inside SketchUp. Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/TQOWJ6HwSf8?list=PLxUo4IvucruefSR-dwEs7pHAjQZgoOhw0 This is a free sample instructional video from the book "Architectural Design with SketchUp: 3D Modeling, Extensions, BIM, Rendering, Making, and Scripting" (2nd Edition). I discuss this topic more in detail in that book's Chapter 6. Want more of these videos? If you own the book, use the password from the inside cover to gain access to all of my remaining videos on Wiley's website: http://www.wiley.com/go/schreyer2e. If you don't yet have your own copy, follow the links in the sidebar to get one. It is a great reference for SketchUp! ...
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Set Up a Turntable Animation Video in SketchUp with Ruby (Snippet)

Set Up a Turntable Animation Video in SketchUp with Ruby (Snippet)

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
https://youtu.be/mnAv54zK1DE?autoplay=1&loop=1 The resulting turntable animation Every once in a while it's very useful to be able to precisely control the view in SketchUp. One of those cases is when you are creating a turntable animation video of an object (like the one shown above). The snippet below allows you to set that up by creating pages with defined view parameters. First, we need to set the eye (view) height. That is best roughly located at the middle of the object, nine feet in my example. Then we are simply creating as many pages as necessary (in SketchUp proper, those are called "Animation Scenes", of course). I decided to go with four orthogonal views that all point at the object (which for this purpose needs to be located at the origin). A zoom_extents command then makes sure everything is consistently in the view, independent of how far the viewer is away from the object. As you can see, there are a bunch of parameters that...
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Export an Image from SketchUp with Ruby (Snippet)

Export an Image from SketchUp with Ruby (Snippet)

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
The resulting image The following is a handy little Ruby tool if you frequently need to export the current view as an image in SketchUp. It basically allows you to pre-set all of the export parameters (including an export location) and keeps all of those consistent. Of course, this is not too hard with SketchUp itself (because it remembers the last used location and image parameters), but this script allows you to keep those parameters consistent even if SketchUp "forgets" them occasionally (i.e. after you work with a file in a different location). I use this script mainly when I need to create consistent images from many files, on which I work over an extended period of time. For that purpose, I have it set up as a menu item. In the example below, the image is exported as a JPG (just change jpg to png if you prefer that file format) at a size of 3000 px (with a 16:9 aspect ratio)....
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