Hello everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself to the community and apologize in advance for any ignorant or redundant questions that may have already been asked. I took a class on 3D printing recently and hope to further my knowledge of the field. I am now starting with Sketchup and am having trouble using the basic commands. If anyone can point me toward a good video or answer some of my basic questions I would be much obliged. First of all, I am trying to switch my view from feet to inches. (Like I said forgive my ignorance) Second, I am trying to find out what algorithms are available if any. Is there a better program to use? What is the most popular free program available? What would you start with? Thank You, Larry PS: I am sure this is the first of many questions. Thanks in advance.
Larry, Can't help you with the sketchup stuff myself. But I know it's been used for some impressive stuff Some other freeware is 123D, Scuptris, Blender, and pickup NetFabb basic and meshlab while your at it, as they will help you see any issues with your model, and hopefully help you fix them. Also moving your introduction to the introduction section
Click Help - Welcome to Sketchup. There are many tutorials here. To change the units click on Choose Template. You can leave this screen ticked to show on startup
Thanks Larry for your questions because I have the same ones, and Thanks Michael for your advice. Every bit helps. Happy creating, Marni
Hi, Welcome to the Shapeways community! I do a lot of stuff in Sketchup - there's plenty of help out there, and I recommend you register with <a href="https://sketchucation.com" target="_blank"></a>. Once you do that you'll gain access to many free plugins that enhance the basic (free) version of Sketchup. In particular, look for Solid Tools, a great plugin for identifying errors in models that would otherwise be rejected by the Shapeways uploader. As Youknowwho4eva mentioned there are a variety of free modelling tools each with their own learning curves - I find it best to go to youtube or just google for examples of what each application is capable of. Good luck!
Hey There, You can change your measurement in Window -> Model info ->(popup) Units. ) you can save this as a default template so it opens always with these settings (and style options) by File->Save as template. I'm not sure what you mean by algorithms. if you can explain what you want/need i'm happy to help you if i can.