Archive for the ‘SketchUp’ Category

Chester, NH Covered Bridge

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

A few snaps of recent shop drawings for the Timber Framers Guild (TFG) covered bridge project in Chester, NH. Design and Engineering by Fire Tower Engineered Timber, production drawings, modeling, and detailing by Mike Beganyi. Project sponsored and organized by the TFG.

I brought the engineering team’s 3d solids model into SketchUp, cleaned up the geometry, and working from notes and sketches modeled the joinery and steel connections. Using LayOut I created the 2d shop drawings, adding text, notes, and dimensions. Depending on schedule, I hope to make the drive over to see the final days of assembly and installation.

SketchUp @ Heartwood 2011

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

I’ll be teaching two SketchUp sessions this year at the Heartwood School.

SketchUp for Timberframers (and designers) is scheduled for June 2-4.
Advanced SketchUp for Complex Timber Roofs is scheduled for September 6-7.

My trips to the Berkshires have become a cherished yearly event – returning to the roots of my timber frame education – while spending time with old friends, making new ones, and sharing and teaching about the craft I love.

Construction Details

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

New project taken from start to finish in SketchUp and LayOut. Construction details were a pleasure to model and annotate – and I’ve gotten comments that this has been an easy (and simple) set of drawings to work with and understand. I had the pleasure of working with the esteemed Fire Tower Engineered Timber on this project.

Heartwood 2010

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Another great SketchUp session at the Heartwood School. Add in a single speed mountain bike ride, catching up with an old friend who took the course, dinner with my hosts, and a group outing to the Dream Away… just a perfect way to spend a few days in the Berkshires.

SketchUp + Layout

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

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Taking a project from concept to presentation using SketchUp and LayOut. After some stumbles, some test plots and some thought about work flow – I have to say I’m happy with the results. These float somewhere between traditional CAD drawings and hand work – and I love being able to add some color and 3D elements to otherwise lifeless building section details. I published these to a PDF set of drawings and tuned the textures, line weights, and fonts to work as color or black and white prints. Full size is 24×36 – and these are JPGs from PDFs.

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TFG Eastern Conference

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Virtual joinery, shop drawings, and the core of using SketchUp for timber frame design.

Virtual joinery, shop drawings, and the core of using SketchUp for timber frame design.

I’ll be teaching a SketchUp preconference workshop at the Timber Framer’s Guild Eastern Conference. I’m stepping in for Clark Bremer who had some last minute plan changes and will not be able to make the trip. The course is filling fast – sign up with the TFG – I hope to see you in Saratoga!

Embedding SketchUp

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

This is a test post using the SketchUp Web Exporter. Pretty simple way to embed ’3d’ SketchUp into a website… and there’s more in the works with a simple hack to replace the images generated by the script with images saved as scenes. Currently it seems to run a bit cleaner in IE and Google Chrome. FireFox gets ‘stuck’ and it sometimes lurches between images…

SketchUp for Timber Framers and Designers

Monday, May 11th, 2009
SketchUp for Timber Framers and Designers 2008 class photo.

SketchUp for Timber Framers and Designers 2008 class photo.

There are still a few seats remaining for the SketchUp for Timber Framers and Designers at Heartwood May 25-27, 2009. Contact Will (will (at) heartwoodschool (dot) com for more details, or visit the Heartwood website.

Traditional joinery and shop drawings...

Traditional joinery and shop drawings...

...and tricks and tips for modeling compound joinery.

...and tricks and tips for modeling compound joinery.

A Small Office

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

A project on the boards for a small office located in Brecksville, Ohio. The building is sited in a flood plain and overlooks a wonderful creek – so we will be creative with the landscaping and what will appear to be a massive native stone foundation. I’m working out a timbered deck for the creek side of the building, and we are discussing solar on the south roof. The building will feature a timber frame core and loft with a series of work rooms under timber trusses. We’re planning a SIP roof and conventionally framed walls with cellulose insultation. Lots of stone and wood on the exterior and a collection of built in furniture and work stations throughout.

I’m working through the bulk of the project in SketchUp in an attempt to integrate as much of the drawing and detailing as I can into the live 3d model of the frame and shell.

Dynamic Timber Components

Monday, March 9th, 2009

I made a quick YouTube screen capture of some dynamic timber components I’ve been working on. SketchUp Pro V7 adds new functionality to create parametric components – in this case timbers and joinery that can change size from an option menu as opposed to editing the geometry. Displayed in the video are: dynamic gable shell creator, dynamic posts and timbers, a dynamic rafter, and examples of dynamic joinery. I’ve detailed two small frames using a combination of the dynamic components and Clark Bremer’s TF Rubies. The components need a bit of work – but in all they are a great first step to creating a parametric based timber modeling package.