Sketch-up tutorial

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Every now and again the question of a tutorial or specific questions of "how do I get this bit correct?" come up.

The idea of this thread is that those of us who use Sketch-up can add hints and tips, with little diagrams/captures showing how to achieve a certain look/layout/building etc.

Who knows perhaps even those of us who have been using Sketch-up for a while will pick up some ideas or easier methods from one another.

I don't know if this will take off but certainly I'll try to add to it.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

This first one goes along with the advice given to ptclaus98 and his track Here
From the single line drawing which settles from the think line into the "set" thinner line, select the Off-set tool and click inside the layout. (image 1)

From there off set half the width internally and then half the width externally to create a centre line with the outer and inner edges of the track (image 2)

Or make a single offset at the ful width of the circuit (image 3)

[ptclaus98]

Thanks, mate.

[Tathrim]

This is the advice given with response to Chiefy's post here

I draw a basic recatnagle in Plan view, than draw by clicking and drawing straight lines with the line tool (pencil icon), and curves with the arc tool (semicircular arc). To help draw consecutive and flowing shapes, Google has been your friend. when you go to draw the next line using either tool, there will be green nodes.

If using the arc tool, this node will provide a light-blue smooth transisiton between the arc and the preceding item. If using the line tool, the node signifies that if you drag in a preset direction (indicated by a line that has turned a nice shade of pink), the angle is the perfect angle given how the straight operates.

Another nice way to draw a circuit is to use the line tool over and over again to complete the shape. After cong so, click the arc tool, select a point, then drag accross to the following side until the line turns pink once it has, drag the mouse in the direction of the sharp corner until until the pink arc is achieved before deleting the extended tangents to the arc.

One last thing, Avoid the freehand wherever possible. it's a mare to deal with it, and is only really useful on smalle scale models.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Tathrim

[Chiefy]

Good tips, Tathrim, but using the straight line and arc tools, providing me with a "circuit" shape though it does, does not seem to allow me to offset the complete shape to give me my track. All of the lines and curves are joined by these nodes you referred to, but I cannot offset them all at once (instead the offset tool just offsets the rectangle I originally drew, which you also referred to earlier). Indeed, I cannot offset even straight lines individually (but it does seem to be possible with the curves on their own).

Does this make any sense?

I can offset an individual curve shape, whether part of the overall track design or not.
I cannot offset individual straights that are part of the track.
I cannot offset the completed track.

:-S Confusing stuff.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

When you create your circuit shape, using the nodes, go around and carefully delete off any extra bits from corners or straights. Once you've done that , it might be necessary to go over and re-draw a straight, or delete a straight and then draw it back in again. this should then "set" the outline from the thick dark drawing lines to the thinner lines of a fixed shape.

Once it sets to the thinner line, post 2 here should help you with the off setting.

Hope that makes sense and helps.

[LuiggiSpeed]

Thanks to Sketchup, I designed my Tsunami-survival craft!!

[tiddys2k]

This may sound a bit stupid but I can draw the track well but I can't seem to draw the pit lane afterwards, any tips?

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Welcome to the My tracks section tiddys2k

Pitlanes can be tricky

It pretty much depends on how much detail your going to incorporate as to how much of the following applies....

I use the off set tool to set the important widths away form the straight (Tip Highlight the first and last corners as well, as sometimes Sketchup won't let you just off-set one line...and you don't need to off-set the whole circuit, just the bits you need).

What to off-set...
Maybe some grass (Barcelona)/extra width (Magny Cours) before the pitwall.
The width of the pitwall itself.
The Team area on the pitwall
The width of the main pitlane
The coloured safety area (not on every circuit)
The width of the working area "pit boxes"

Check out some real word circuits for their particular layouts and take the bits that work best for your designs.

I'm sure others do it differently

[ScotsBrutesFan]

A few comments....

I've updated my Sketch up version I was using in order to access Tathrim's design which he is kindly allowing me to do an edit/enhancement.

I was using version 6.

Now with Version 7, I can see why things I take for granted are causing some difficulty.
Version 7 to me feels less accurate, and a bit fuzzy. It is without doubt much harder to find any errors and fix them. Also layering issues aren't as apparent.

Where in Version 6 you draw a shape in dark lines, that when complete "sets" to lighter lines.
Version 7 is all lighter lines and as such doesn't show up bits that haven't lined up properly or extra bits beyond an arc/corner not if a line has accidentally cut an arc that you hadn't intended. In V6 the lines stayed dark until corrected.

So apologies if any of the above makes no sense, it related to V6. Any new comments will be on using V7

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Further to the comments above, having now had time to do my additions to Tathrim's circuit.

I feel that the designers in an attempt to make Sketch-up a bit more user friendly have gone too far.
Instead of being an excellent little design tool that required a bit of patience (OK a lot to begin with), in order to master it. Have come up with something that on the face of it looks the same but is in my opinion is a lot less distinct.

For example the now measuring distances to a 3rd decimal place appears to be much more accurate, yet it doesn't give the feel of accuracy. As I said previously it feels rather fuzzy and inaccurate.

Another area that I feel causes more problems than it solves is the auto joining of any crossing lines. In a complex design which most tracks are, where we use different colours and textures to convey different materials, these self joining lines cause layering issues. I personally do nearly all of the design from the vertical camera view, which is fine, but when texturing in now, if I've missed cleaning up an overlap line of a line that has joined that I didn't notice (from when using the off-set tool) as soon as I tilt the design the colours and textures go crazy between the layers.
With Version 6 any new lines were heavier and had to be made to join. With that, any missed lines were still in the heavier set and easy to identify and resolve the issues.

Anyone else any comments to make on either the change from Version 6 to 7 or any help required on something specific on a design?

[92scotland]

I have been making a new track recently and have been trying to do some hills in it like xlr8r has done on his track Duck Pond:



So what I was wondering is how do I create these gradients like these with no lines etc. It makes it look a lot better and I was getting stuck on how it was done. Thanks

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I haven't tried gradient on version 7 as yet. Not a lot of time at the moment due to work commitments. I'll experiment over the next few days when hopefully I'll have a couple of hours to spare.

[Quintin03]

Removing lines is easy: just use the erasor and hold Ctrl while deleting a line it will then effectively be there while not showing itself as a thick black line.

[92scotland]

Originally Posted by Quintin03

Removing lines is easy: just use the erasor and hold Ctrl while deleting a line it will then effectively be there while not showing itself as a thick black line.

Thanks! Never knew it was as easy as that! Thanks

[xlr8r]

To make lines invisible like I do on hills and walls, I hide the lines. This can be done by right clicking the line and then selecting hide. Sometimes this ends up being time consuming but I think it adds a lot visually to the sketch.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by xlr8r

To make lines invisible like I do on hills and walls, I hide the lines. This can be done by right clicking the line and then selecting hide. Sometimes this ends up being time consuming but I think it adds a lot visually to the sketch.

That's a new one to me. It would have cleaned up a lot of my designs where I tried to include landscaping.

[LuiggiSpeed]

guys you're so good I can't find anything to add up !!

I can only say by experience that whenever something doesn't make sense or you can't have the line yow want or the texture you want, it may be because there might be a small residue of an earlier object you have erased, or an opening in the loop that is barely visible, I like to zoom in a lot and examine bit by bit, sometimes I have to rotate around in order to find out where the funky bit is.

There are times when I cant paint stuff, and what I do is divide the whole thing into segments and isolate the problematic area, often times erasing a particular section and re-doing it solves the problem.

[Purist]

How do I scale/dimension the track so that the length listed with I select a given segment is in units of the correct magnitude? That is, how do I scale/dimension the thing so it isn't telling me my track is 120ft long in total?

Also, is there a way to input how long you want to say the track is as a whole, or how long you want a specific segment to be so that the track is scaled off of that?

[LuiggiSpeed]

Originally Posted by Purist

How do I scale/dimension the track so that the length listed with I select a given segment is in units of the correct magnitude? That is, how do I scale/dimension the thing so it isn't telling me my track is 120ft long in total?

Also, is there a way to input how long you want to say the track is as a whole, or how long you want a specific segment to be so that the track is scaled off of that?

I have not been able to "scale up" a track once it's complicated enough or have layers, it scales all funky but make sure when you start over you have a properly sized canvas by selecting tools/scale or typing "s" and grabbing a corner of your selected canvas, I always start out in a square, so that I can scale out before I get in much trouble.

As to the second topic, you can tell the track length if you measure the width, ( i.e. "12 meters") then select the asphalt portion and get the properties "area" then you divide area/width and there's your length down to the millimeter. Make sure you don't include pit lane or any other stuff so that it gives you the correct figure.

Luiggi

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Purist

How do I scale/dimension the track so that the length listed with I select a given segment is in units of the correct magnitude? That is, how do I scale/dimension the thing so it isn't telling me my track is 120ft long in total?

Also, is there a way to input how long you want to say the track is as a whole, or how long you want a specific segment to be so that the track is scaled off of that?

Not quite sure I follow exactly what your asking, but the easiest way to draw it for me is to do so at full size rather than scale up.
On opening a new window, switch to top view and then "zoom out".
Then draw a rectangle you'll see it's size on the bottom right of the screen.
From that you'll know that you'll be able to fit a 2500ft (762m) straight or which ever size comfortably into that rectangle, the rest of the circuit follows on from their.
As mentioned previously you can either use the measure tool around the circuit from that point, easy for the straights, for the curves the default is 12 segments per curve so measure a middle segment and multiply. and then offset equally either side of that centre-line
Or as Luiggispeed suggests offset to your desired track width and use the area tool to calculate the length.

[duke_toaster]

What I do is start off by zooming out a lot, and drawing the track centreline in 1:1 scale. I then use offset to make it actual width, and then use undo if there are any issues about corners being too tight.

[Purist]

Since I was only getting started, and just have the center line, I think scaling up should work in this case. I definitely don't want to redo all the corner geometry if I don't have to. However, I will keep this all in mind for all further designs in Sketch-Up. Thank you.

[Purist]

Scaling on the track center line has been successful. Now I have a lap of 4.007 miles, instead of 119', 9" 9/16.

If the inside of the figure formed by the circuit outline is NOT filling in automatically, does that always mean that there is a misalignment between some of the line segments used to form the figure? I know I used a lot of curve segments to make up some the individual turns, but if any of them aren't lining up with each other, or the straight lines, I can't tell on the figure I've drawn up. And since it's not filling in the shape of the track, I can't use the offset on the whole thing.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

That is one of the issues that I have with the latest version of sketch up, because it automatically cuts any dissecting lines, it's really difficult to find, misalignments and newly created shapes from lines that you hadn't noticed crossed.

One way the off-set tool can still be used is by highlighting one section using the arrow, hold down the shift key and go around clicking on each section in turn increasing the length of the highlight. If nothing else you end up with the whole shape off-set-able if that's a word. But I've sometimes found the misalignments and extra crossovers/cut lines whilst doing that, that's causing the problem.