You love wood. You work with wood. You design wooden things. Have you tried designing with Sketchup? Sketchup for woodworking gives you all the functionality and flexibility you need to design like a pro. It’s a popular 3D drawing tool used by people like you to draw faster, more accurately, and more enjoyably. Sketchup for carpenters is supported by masses of brilliant learning resources, including video and tutorials of every imaginable kind. There are several versions to choose from, and your Sketchup woodworking plans will support your design life every step of the way. Read on to find out how to get started with Sketchup, and about woodworking with Sketchup. We’ll even take a look at some very cool free Sketchup woodworking plans. Here’s how to make your world better.
Getting Started with SketchUp for Woodworking
First of all, you’ll need to download SketchUp. The downloading, installing and activating process is quick and simple. There’s just one installer and you set the language during installation. It’s available for Mac and Windows machines. There are paid versions and a free version, originally called Sketchup Free and now called Sketchup Web, a limited but still awesome version that only runs on a web browser. There are some graphic card and hardware requirements but they’re basic enough.
How does the free version compare with the paid ones? The Pro version comes with advanced tools for modelling and design presentations for Sketchup for woodworking professionals. The free version has a great selection of tools too. Both Pro and Web have VR capabilities. And while the free one doesn’t, SketchUp Pro makes 3D models from 2D designs.
The simplest way to present a SketchUp model is by exporting an image of it, which the free version can do at a lower quality than Pro. SketchUp Pro lets you make amazing walk through animations, and Pro comes with cool – a great, intuitive way of presenting your 3D model. Another advantage of SketchUp Pro is its superb sandbox tools for modelling terrain and making realistic environments.
If you’re a professional wanting to learn Sketchup for carpenters, the Pro version might be your best bet. If you’re a beginner to 3D modelling, the free version, Web, is perfect for getting to grips with the programme. Sketchup is recognised as one of the easiest 3D design software packages to learn and use, which is why it’s so popular with amateur and professional woodworkers.
Learn About Woodworking with Sketchup
You’ll love the sheer abundance of varied learning resources to help those interested in woodworking with Sketchup. The Sketchup course for woodworkers, for example, teaches you how to resolve the joinery before you get started, understand exactly how much wood you’ll need, build an accurate cut list before making a single cut, and make and print detailed plans.
There’s also a huge collection of Sketchup for woodworking video tutorials to tap into, including Sketchup Basics for Woodworkers – Follow Along video. It covers which version you need, starting the programme, getting oriented, making a simple board, making components, dados, rabbets, side panels, shelves and drawers. It looks at fixing problems, using the 3D warehouse, adding support strips and more, all easy to understand and follow along with. Last but not least there’s a wealth of learning resources provided directly from Sketchup.com, including a book – The new Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp.
Using Sketchup as Woodworking Design Software
It’s easy to choose your preferred ‘Woodworking Style’ in Sketchup. The screen is nice and simple, a plain design with three axes. They’re colour-coded to make it even easier to use and see your three dimensions. So how do you create a basic board? You pick the Sketchup rectangle tool. You can see the rectangle dimensions in the bottom right hand corner, which is where you can edit them. It’s super-simple to select the units you want to use, and the push-pull tool is brilliant, the tool you use to give your rectangle some thickness therefore turn it into a board. And components are an important concept in Sketchup. When you turn an element into a component you can use it as a distinct entity – very cool!
All this means it’s simple and quick to create a dado, basically a slot or trench in a board. It’s just as easy to create a rabbet or recess in the edge of your board. Both are used widely in joinery. It’s just as quick to make the essential basics and more, including side panels and drawers, joints and cabinets, you name it. Right from the start, you can see how Sketchup for carpenters makes a difference to creativity, workflow, accuracy, productivity and presentation.
Next, let’s explore the free Sketchup woodworking plans you can use to make your woodworking life even easier and more enjoyable.
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Free Sketchup Woodworking Plans
There’s more. You can also dive into a whole load of free Sketchup for woodworking Plans online. They’re created to make your woodwork design life even simpler, saving you time and effort as well as giving you insight into the way people like you use Sketchup to create your own woodworking plans. If you want to make a beautiful stand for an aquarium, there’s a free plan for that. Maybe a large workbench? No worries, it’s already there for you in plan form.
To give you an idea of the sheer scope of the free Sketchup woodworking plans available, let’s just take a look at those beginning with ‘B’. There are free plans for Barbeque Carts and BBQ Pits, Bars, Baskets and Bat Houses, Bathroom Vanities and Cabinets, Bed Headboards and Bedroom Dresser Cabinets. You can grab free plans for Bedroom Nightstand Tables, Beds, and Bedroom Furniture. Maybe you want to build Beehives or benches, Birdfeeders or Birdhouses. How about Boats, Bookcases and Bookshelves, even wooden bowls? Boxes, Buffets, Barns, Bunk beds, Bulletin boards and every kind of building. And all that is just the tip of the iceberg. Exciting or what?
Sketchup Woodworking Resources
Woodworkers also have access to many excellent online Sketchup learning resources for woodworkers. The ‘Building Blocks of SketchUp’ course is an excellent way to learn the basics of 3D Modelling with SketchUp, including 260 pages of illustrated text, and 50 embedded video lessons. Perfect whether you’re a teacher, hobbyist or woodworking beginner, it’s a great way to plan your next project.
Then there’s the new ‘Woodworker’s Guide to SketchUp’, another cool digital publication in enhanced PDF format with loads of clear imagery and exciting embedded video content, plus expanded streamlined techniques and fresh content about building models from photos using Solid Tools in SketchUp Pro plus plug-ins.
How about ‘SketchUp For Kitchen Design, another enhanced PDF format resource with 49 video lessons embedded inside 195 pages of text. This one’s designed to teach the basics of 3D modelling as you work your way through a typical kitchen project, an interesting and inspiring way to learn. You make a room model, build models of cabinets, counters and appliances, and learn exactly how to use the resources in the SketchUp 3D Warehouse. Plus rendering a complete model, generating images and standard drawings, and using LayOut with SketchUp Pro.
All this Sketchup for carpenters magic is supported by loads of furniture designs from the Sketchup 3D warehouse. These Sketchup Extensions and Plugins expand the software’s capabilities to amazing places and there are loads tailored to woodworking, including an Open Cut List extension to generate accurate Cut lists and Cutting Diagrams for Woodworkers. CutMap is a full-featured SketchUp extension for woodworkers and builders, used to make in-model cutting diagrams or cutlists from SketchUp models. You’ll love the GKWare Stairmaker extension, perfect for making a variety of curved and spiral stairs quickly and accurately. And K2WS_Tools lets you detail furniture joints perfectly in 3D models.
Are you ready to dive into Sketchup for woodworking? Good move. It’ll change your woodworking life for the better.
