I was talking with a friend about methods for working out the sizes of drawers for a dresser. We talked about simple arithmetic and geometric progressions, the Golden Rectangle and Fibonacci's series. He mentioned one I'd not heard of by the name of the Hambridge Progression. This is a very simple way to create a pleasing layout for drawer heights. It's also easy to apply it in SketchUp

Here's a basic dresser design. It's sort of a massing study to get the exterior shape.

For illustration purposes I'm working out the drawer proportions next to the model. I just set out a few guidelines for this. I started with a square which has sides equal to the width of the case. Its top edge is aligned with the bottom of the case.

Then, with the Line tool, I drew a diagonal line on the square. I selected the diagonal and then got the Rotate tool. I hit Ctrl to invoke the copy command and rotated the copy up to vertical.

With the Line tool I drew a horizontal ine from the top of the rotated copy of the diagonal. One more line, drawn down the right edge, completed the recatangle for the first drawer.

I drew another diagonal from the same lower left corner this time to the new top right corner. That line was Copy/Rotated to vertical and then lines were drawn to complete the rectangle for the next drawer.

This was repeated until I go to the top of the case. Well, near the top. Then I adjusted the position of the top edge of these "drawer fronts" up to align with the top of the case and used Push/Pull to adjust the bottom of the case.

I used Offset to create the reveal around the drawer fronts. I used 1/2" for the reveal and then moved the horizontal lines to create a 1/2" space between drawers as well.

After moving the drawer layout onto the case, I divided the top drawer in two. Then I used Push/Pull, Offset and Move to add a bit of simple detail around the edges of the drawer fronts.

This is a very quick model and its long way from construction drawings but it certainly gets the idea of the design across.  I think the drawer layout is nice in this tall case and hopefully it will get the approval of the client.

This method could be used for laying out dovetails. You could make a basic template, save it as a component and bring that into future models. A quick rescaling using the Tape Measure tool would size if for the project. You could pick out just the number of drawers you want for the project. You don't have to use all five.

Of course similar templates could also be made using other progression methods. Perhaps they'd be filed in a drawer spacing folder or something for ready access.

Dave