Now that you've got your piece of furniture modeled in SketchUp, how do you extract/ show information and drawings needed in the shop? For this you need to know about SketchUp "Scenes" which allow you to define, capture, and save multiple views and details that, when printed, provide a comprehensive document for use in the shop.
Let's take the Tage Frid Workbench as an example of how Scenes work to produce the shop drawing package.
Below is the Overall assembled view of the Workbench as displayed on my computer. I've cropped the screen picture so you can see the horizontal set of multiple tabs just under the Toolbar. These tabs are labeled Overall, Exploded, Base Assembly, Base Exploded, Feet, Foot Top Template, Foot Side Template, Posts, Post Template, etc. In this model there are 58 of these tabs or Scenes. When you click on the tab, SketchUp displays the selected detail or view that was saved for that Scene.
For example, here is the display when you click on Base Exploded:
And here is the screen display on the "Posts" Scene……
So there are 58 of these individual pages, tabs, or Scenes in my SketchUp file for the Workbench showing each piece or component (there are 46 unique components in this workbench). Occasionally a component requires more than one Scene to show sufficient detail for shop construction - e.g., a front and rear view. Each of these Scenes, after printing, becomes a page in my shop documentation package.
I usually bind up the pages in a shop drawing package - see picture below of various examples.
Typically, my first scene in the package is an Overall Assembled view. The very next Scene is an Exploded view. This is easily created by copying the entire assembled model and moving it down the Red Axis say 10-20 feet. With the Move Tool, I simply detach and rearrange these components for a readable explosion. Then I create a Scene called Exploded and save that view. Now I've got a tab for Overall Assembled, and one for Exploded. Now I copy each component in turn, moving them down the red green or blue axis, and produce the detail dimensioned drawings or Scenes for each one.
Note that since you've created your model using Components, you can copy these components and know that changing one instance automatically updates all additional components, no matter how many times they've been copied and spread among multiple pages or Scenes.
Since these Scenes are spread out in the SketchUp file, I take up quite a 3D space - for this workbench, it is about 200 ft x 200ft x 200ft. If you click on Zoom Extents, SketchUp displays the entire space used and it looks like this......
Each of those blobs in the screen is a specific scene showing a component or assembly with dimensions.
In addition to showing detailed dimensioned drawings, I usually create a Cutting Diagram that helps me estimate the needed lumber quantity, and also assists in providing a strategy for cutting the lumber planks. This Cutting Diagram is just another Scene.
In another area of the design file, I copy over the total assembled model. Next to this copied model, I place the lumber planks in sizes that are expected to be available. Then I move each component over to the plank, rotate and configure it to lay down on the plank. I continue to do this movement, arrangement, and laydown for each component in the model. When the model is gone, I know I've moved every component over to a plank of lumber.
I have attached a simple SketchUp model for a Magazine Module. You may recognize this piece from one of my previous entries. This will illustrate how I use some of these features.
Scenes are powerful - try them out to produce a comprehensive and effective construction document.
Tim
http://killenwood.com
