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SketchUp

What is SketchUp?
SketchUp is a free three-dimensional modeling software application available from Google by clicking here. It enables you to plan and visualize projects on your computer, not as static drawings, but as models you can take apart and put back together, and view from any angle. Not sure how pieces in a magazine project connect? With SketchUp on your computer you can zoom in to look at the joint, disassemble it, measure the parts and even look at it with X-ray vision.

Here is a photo of one of our projects. Here is the same project as it looks in SketchUp

 
 

Even if you want to build something exactly the way we did, this is a great tool for understanding how a project goes together. With SketchUp, you can orbit around and get a look from underneath.
 

You can pull out drawers, open doors, take subassemblies and joints apart or create your own exploded view.
 
You can zoom in as close as you like and look at things from the inside.



Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine Projects
In addition to making projects easier to understand, SketchUp allows you to start with a design you saw in the magazine and quickly modify it to suit your needs. Like that bookcase, but want to make it narrower or taller? You can start with one of our models and make it shrink or make it grow. Need a smaller version of that cool workbench, download our model, size it to your space and you have a working plan that you can print, and accurate sizes of the parts to make your cutlist.


Our Collection and 3D Warehouse
Google has a website for sharing SketchUp models called 3D warehouse. The image above is actually a link to the model on 3D Warehouse. Click on the image and your browser will take you to the model where you can download it. Our collection is on  3D warehouse, and it is also available here on popularwoodworking.com. The images on the right are links to categories in our collection.

You can also find models of just about anything at 3D Warehouse. Planning a new shop? Models of many woodworking machines and benches are online for you to import and add to a floor plan of your shop. Rearrange things on your computer screen, and walk through your virtual shop to see how your plan works for you.

Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine SketchUp Community
There is a discussion group on Google about our collection. Here you can ask questions about the projects, about using SketchUp and share your models with other readers and the rest of the world. In addition to sharing the models that we use in preparing projects for publication, we also want to include models made by our readers. Here is what we would like to see from you:

Models of previously published projects.
We’ve been using SketchUp for the last couple of years as the starting point for projects you see in our pages, and we plan to put the models online with the publication of each new issue. We don’t have models of older projects in this format, but we get numerous requests for them. Here is where you the reader can help everyone out, and in return get rewarded in the process.

Make a model in SketchUp based on the published drawings for any project ever published in the pages of Popular Woodworking or Woodworking Magazine that is not included in our collection . Large furniture projects are great, but so are small projects, jigs and tricks. Make the model as precise as you can, and make sure that each part of the model is a component or group. It's best if the names of the components match the names of the parts in the original cutlist.

When you’re finished, send it to us as an attachment at popwood@fwmedia.com with SketchUp in the subject line. We’ll look it over, and if it is an acceptable model, we will add it to our collection listing you as the author of the model. In return, you get the following:

If we use your model in the collection, you will receive a one-year back issue CD. You can earn one CD for each model, up to a total of 8. If you plan on submitting 8 models, let us know, and we will send you a 2000-2007 back issue collection on DVD.

We’d also like to see your own projects-something you’ve made, or something you’d like to make. If we add it to our collection, you’ll get the loot mentioned above, and if we decide to publish it as a project in the magazine, we will pay you our normal author royalties in real money.

Learning SketchUp
SketchUp is an intuitive program with a short learning curve. The tutorials with the program are helpful, and here is a list of online resources. We also recommend the book “SketchUp for Dummies” by Aidan Chopa. You can purchase a copy here. The new book by senior editor Robert W. Lang “Drafting & Design for Woodworkers” contains a tutorial on SketchUp especially for woodworkers, and can be purchased here. You can also post questions to the discussion group, or submit a question by e-mail. We’ll take the frequently asked questions, along with the good answers, and make them a permanent part of this page.

Our Most Popular Models
We already have more than 125 models in our collection, and it is growing every week. Check back often to see what has been added. The sidebar to the right contains links to projects in the collection that are organized in categories. Click on the image of the category that interests you, and a page will open with images of all the available projects in that category. Those images are links to the actual models. Click on an image of the project you want, and a new page will open where you can download the model learn more about it, and buy a back issue containing the original magazine article.

SketchUp Categories

Click the Image for Shaker Furniture Projects

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Click the Image for Arts & Crafts
Furniture Projects

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Click the Image for Workbench Projects

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Click the Image for "I Can Do That" Projects

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Click the Image for Other Furniture Projects

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Click the Image for Shop Projects

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Click the Image for Outdoor Furniture Projects

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