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  • 8/13/2019 About Sketch Up

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    I Can Get Rid of That Guy Standing in The Corner

    All of us had at least one teacher in junior high who liked to point out the negative consequences of making an assumption.

    For me it was Mr. Sawyer, 8th grade math and footall coach, in his dark suit, white socks and red tie, and ! imagine him in the

    retired teachers home, feeling satisfaction every now and then when one of his former students rememers this lesson. "hen

    ! started to learn Sketch#p, ! made a unch of assumptions that made the learning curve steeper than it needed to e. $f that

    unch, one of the iggest ones was that ecause Sketch#p was free, it wouldn%t e very fle&ile.

    "henever ! teach or give a demonstration of Sketch#p, someone will

    ask '"here did you get those e&tra tools() '*ow come your cursor has

    those colored lines() or '*ow did you get rid of that guy in the corner()

    +hey%ve done what ! did, jumped in and started using Sketch#p, then

    assumed yes Mr. Sawyer, ! know- that there wasn%t any way to change

    the default settings. $ne of the guys who taught me aout AutoA/

    once said 'most of what ! know comes from playing around with the

    different uttons and seeing what happens.) So if you%re new to

    Sketch#p, or feeling frustrated, here are some things to look at and

    play with.

    $n a 0, go to the Window menuand select Preferenceson a Mac

    it%s on the Sketch#p menu-. +he picture aove shows an ama1ing

    discovery ! made2 Display crosshairsadds a red, green and lue line

    to the cursor making it easy as pie to stay on a&is when you draw or

    move. +he other items in the list on the left are all worth e&ploring, especially the last item, Template. Scroll on down until you

    find Product Design and Woodworking-Inches.

    Also under the Window menuis odel Info. !f dimensions e&pressed in feet and inches annoy you as much as they annoy

    me, here is where you can put things right. !f your display is ehaving

    adly, or if you want to add those ja11y slash marks that architects use

    for dimensions, you can do that here. 3ou can also dump e&traneous

    junk from your model, and fi& your prolems well, prolems with your

    model anyway-.

    $ne more window to click on is Instructor, again from the "indow

    menu. As you learn the tools, the !nstructor window will remind you

    what each one does, and how the different functions of each tool work.

    3ou should also keep your eye on the lower left corner of the screen.

    "henever you hover the cursor over the tool, a line of te&t tells you the

    tools function. lick on a tool, and the ne&t move, and availale options

    are displayed there as te&t.

    !n addition to the "indow menu, the !iew enuis also worth

    investigating. +he first item, Tool"arswill open the door to the

    Sketch#p version of the 4ee 5alley catalog. heck out the different toolars, and use the !nstructor window to find out what

    they do. !f you%re using a ac, this is a little different, select Customi#e Tool"arsto add tools to your workspace. +he 5iew

    Menu also gives you control over the ways that faces and edges are displayed.

    So don%t assume that you are limited in what you can do, or how you can do it in Sketch#p. And don%t listen to anyone who

    tells you otherwise. +hey are likely speaking from their own assumption, and we all know what happens when you assume . . .

    3ou can tailor the program to the way you want to work. And you don%t need to e afraid to play around and push uttons tofind out what they do. $ne of my favorite things aout Sketch#p is that you can%t really reak anything, and materials are

    asolutely free. +hose are magic words to anyone who likes to e&periment.

    Those Colored $ines and Dots ean Something

    4earning how to use software that%s new to you is like adapting to the way things are in a foreign country. +he language is

    different, the customs are different, and ehavior that is perfectly acceptale at home can get you in troule without you

    reali1ing it. 4earning Sketch#p is like that, ut more so. !t%s more like getting used to the way things are on another planet6in

    addition to terms and procedures that aren%t familiar, the laws of physics aren%t quite the same, and it%s possile actually quite

    easy- to ecome lost in space. 3ou think you%ve drawn a nice little o&,

    you orit around to look at it and reali1e that it is all twisted and

    distorted.

    7ecause we%re making / stuff on a 9/ computer screen, we need

    some help to keep from getting lost in space. !n real life we know when

    we%re going up or down, right or left or forward or ack, ut in

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    Sketch#p it can e hard to tell. +he program provides cues, ut they are easy to miss. A lot of people, myself included don%t

    recogni1e these when they start using the program.

    "hen we draw, or move something in Sketch#p, colored lines appear when the motion is parallel to one of the a&is directions.

    Staying on a&is is critical in Sketch#p, and our real world senses can work against this. :ventually our hand and eye

    coordination adapts, and we follow the cues without thinking aout them, ut when we first start out, we need to rememer to

    look for these colored inferences.

    !n addition to the line inferences, the ends and mid points of lines light

    up when your cursor is over them, and if you%re moving slowly a little

    te&t tag appears . !f you click the mouse to end a command when

    those colored dots are visile, things snap to the point. 3ou need to

    move slowly and carefully to let the inferences appear, and learn to

    trust the inferences rather than your own judgement. 3our eye may tell

    you that things are lined up ut that isn%t always the case.

    $ne area where point inferences ecome e&tremely important is when

    you move something. !n Sketch#p, you have to let go of an oject with

    the same point you used to pick it up. Most often you want the corner

    of this lined up with the corner of that. !f you gra it y a random point,

    it will move ut you won%t e ale to put it down where you want to.

    $ne of the parado&es of learning how to use Sketch#p is that if you want to get fast, you need to slow down. 4ook for the

    inferences, make sure you%re going in the direction you intended to, and e precise. !t won%t take long for those things to

    ecome second nature, ut you can%t shortcut the process of getting your eyes, hands and rain used to a different world.

    %a&igate With the ouse

    At Sketch#p 7ase amp ! was in a group of people who teach

    Sketch#p, and someone suggested that saying the program is

    'intuitive and easy to learn) may not e such good advice. !t can e a

    real struggle at first, and one of my pet theories is that this is ecause

    you have to learn two sets of skills at the same time. 3ou want to

    make stuff, ut you need to e ale to get around the modeling space

    to do do that. 4earning to navigate is often the igger hurdle. ! spend

    a lot of time in my classes saying '1oom in so you can see whatyou%re doing) and 'orit around so you can see what you%re doing). !f

    you don%t get the hang of getting around, you won%t e ale to work

    accurately or efficiently. !t takes practice, ut you should e careful

    aout what you practice.

    $ne of the things ! encourage eginners to do, especially if navigating

    is awkward is to spend some time poking around someone else%s

    model. $riting and 1ooming in an empty model won%t teach you much. !t is also important to recogni1e that the ovious way

    to do something in Sketch#p isn%t always the est way. +he tools on the toolar are easy to figure out, the pencil draws a line,

    the eraser gets rid of a line and those magnifying glasses, the little white hand and the lue spinny thing will get you around.

    7ut the key to getting around isn%t on the toolar or on a menu, it%s

    uilt into the scroll wheel of the mouse. 0lace the cursor over an

    oject in the model and roll that wheel ack and forth to 1oom in and

    out. 0lacing the cursor is important, ecause the program uses that

    point as the center of the 1oom. !f your 1oom command suddenly

    quits working, check the cursor location. !f it%s is empty space,

    Sketch#p won%t really know what you want it to do. 0ut the cursor

    over something and roll the wheel to get in quickly.

    0ush down on the scroll wheel and move the mouse around to orit.

    $rit makes it seem like you%re spinning the entire model around, ut

    what is really happening is that you are moving a camera around. !

    caught on to those two features rather quickly, ut ! found it frustrating

    ecause most of the time when ! orited, ! also needed to pan. After

    an emarrassing amount of time, ! finally caught a glimpse of the

    command line in the lower left corner of the screen while oriting.

    After '/rag to $rit) it says 'Shift;0an). *mmmm. *old down the shift

    key while in the orit command and 0an ecomes active. !t%s right there where and when you need it, and it%s ama1ing what

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    this one trick will do to speed things up.

    !n real life, we don%t have to think aout how we look at things, we just move closer, step ack, or turn to a different angle.

    !magine how slow and awkward you would e in the shop if you tried to cut a fine detail at arms length ecause you couldn%t

    rememer how to get a closer look, or if you had to do something ackwards ecause you couldn%t rememer how to turn

    around. +he same thing goes on in Sketch#p, and when you can get around without thinking aout how to do it, your modeling

    skills will make a great leap forward.+he ad news is it takes some practice. +he good news is it doesn%t take that much

    practice.

    +here are a couple of other fine points aout navigating. !f you right click while in a navigation command, a menu pops up with

    other options. At the ottom of the list is '

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    9 clicks will open a component of group for editing

    /oule6clicking on a group or a component is different than doule6clicking on loose geometry. +hose two clicks open the

    group or component for editing. +he image at right show a component in this condition. +he component is surrounded y a

    dashed line and the rest of the model is dimmed out. $nce again, this is a valuale time6saver when you have some

    e&perience. Many eginners however, don%t reali1e what is going on and end up changing a component as well as all the

    other components with the same name- when all they wanted to do was move it or make a copy of it.

    $ne of the est ways ! know to get these things to sink in is to move as slowly and delierately as you can when you are first

    learning Sketch#p. 4earn the proper sequence of things, and e sure you%re doing what you intend to do, and efore you know

    it you%ll e modeling at a rapid pace. +he way way to ecome fast is to slow down.

    'ust Type The %um"er

    ! think this post is more aout me and the way my rain works than it is aout learning to use Sketch#p. =ow that !%ve ecome

    somewhat adept at modelling, ! really admire the simple and elegant way this program works. 7ut it wasn%t that way at the

    eginning, there were several elements of the program that took me a long time to catch on to, and one of them was entering

    dimensions. !t turns out that this is so simple, ! flew right y it and couldn%t get it to work ecause ! was e&pecting more

    complication.

    !%ve een told that ! could complicate a peanut utter and jelly sandwich, and !%ll admit that sometimes this is true. 7ut ! have

    also een influenced y itter e&perience using software that was written y guys like me, programs with convoluted methods

    to do the simplest tasks. +he good folks who made Sketch#p did a wonderful jo at keeping things simple. And simple is good

    when there is a lot of work to do. !f you%re like me, sometimes it takes a lot of work to understand simple.

    /own in the lower right corner of the modeling window of Sketch#p is a small window laelled 'Measurements). /epending onwhat you%re doing, the lael may say '4ength), '/imensions) or '/istance) and when you%re drawing, moving or e&truding

    something, the numers displayed in the window tell you how far you%re going. 3ou might think as ! did- and then try

    repeatedly as ! did- to wiggle the mouse and then click when you see the numer you want. +hat will work, ut you will spend

    most of your time ouncing ack and forth etween just a little over and just a little under what you want. Frustrated with that, !

    read the directions reluctantly- and found something to the effect of 'type the dimension in the measurements window). +aking

    that literally, ! desperately tried to click the cursor in the little window efore typing. +hat doesn%t work. =o matter how many

    times you try, or how loud you cuss.

    *ere is what does work@

    Start the command, click on a starting point and let go of the mouse

    utton. Move the cursor in the direction you want to go and when you

    see the colored inference that lets you know you%re moving in an a&is

    direction, let go of the mouse. =ow, type the numer and hit the :nterkey. 3ou don%t type the numer inthe Measurements window, you type

    the numer and it appears inthe Measurements window."hen you

    catch on, this is as quick and easy as it gets.

    "hen you type, the distances will e in the units that you choose in the

    Model !nfo window. !f you%re working in inches, you can enter fractions

    as decimals, or two numers separated y a forward slash, ?B for

    e&ample is the same a .9C. !f it%s a mi&ed numer, hit the space ar

    after the whole numer. Sketch#p will read improper fractions and if

    you forget the space the program will read ?D as one6thousand6

    three hundred and thirteen si&teenths, and not thirteen and thirteen

    si&teenths. !f you want to switch etween units in midstream you can

    do that y typing a dimension indicator after a numer. !f you%re making

    cainets for e&ample, and using :uropean hardware, you can copy holes 9mm apart just y typing.

    "hen you%re moving or copying, or e&truding with 0ush?0ull the distance you type is the distance the oject moves. !f a o& is

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    four inches high, and you want to make it eight inches high, you start the 0ush?0ull command and type the numer B. Sorry,

    ut sometimes you do need to add and sutract. Another cool way typing dimensions works is with the rectangle tool. +ype

    two numers separated y a comma and hit :nter. 3ou can also pick up a

    point inference from something e&isting and use that for one of the

    numers. !f the inference is for the first numer, type ',E) or if it%s the other

    way around type 'E,) and hit :nter.

    +he ig lesson for me when ! picked up on this was that if something is a

    complicated struggle to accomplish in Sketch#p, the chances are very good that !%m struggling with complications !%ve thrown

    in. 4ook for the simplest way to do any task, this is supposed to e fun, and it really is easy.

    Components (re Crucial

    Select geometry and right-click to make a component

    My ailities in Sketch#p took a great leap forward when ! gave up on drawing and egan modelling, and ! was ale to take that

    step when ! got a grip on using components rather than dealing with edges and faces. Most of what held me ack was my

    training and practice in designing in two dimensions.

    +here was a it of snootiness ! needed to overcome. "hen ! worked in the architectural millwork industry, ! used to make fun

    of what ! called 'the tree house guys.) '+he tree house guys) were people who didn%t really understand two dimensional plans,

    those who needed to see pieces of wood going together efore they could make decisions.+his approach works well if you

    have deep pockets or call yourself an artist you can call it 'composing) or 'letting the wood speak)- ut if you have any interest

    at all in working efficiently, the etter you plan, the etter the results.

    Loose geometry sticks and stretches

    "hen you create ojects in Sketch#p, they look like hunks of wood, ut they have some qualities that real6life ojects don%t. All

    the lines and faces that make up ojects in Sketch#p stick to each other, and when you move one thing, something else will

    stretch. +his is actually a useful feature2 it lets us make a oard longer, change a utt joint to a miter joint, and create tapered

    parts quickly.

    7ut if you want to see what one part looks like when stacked on another part, it%s as if every piece of wood in your shop was

    coated with cra1y glue. $nce you stick two pieces together, you can%t do anything else, and you can%t go ack to what you had.! have seen people make incredily comple& models that are all sticky and stretchy, and ! admire their patience. 7ut models

    like that are nearly impossile to change or gather useful information from.

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    Edit a component to change it (and others with the same name) without affecting other parts of the model

    +he solution is to group things together into a component as soon as you possily can. !n my way of doing things, as soon as it

    looks like a stick, it ecomes a component. !t%s easy to do, select a unch of geometry, either y drawing a o& with the

    selection arrow, or y triple6clicking on a face. "hen all that stuff is highlighted, right6click and select 'Make omponent) from

    the menu. +his cures the stickiness and stretchiness, and makes the oject ehave like a hunk of wood.

    !f you want to alter the component, doule6click on it or right6click and select ':dit omponent) from the menu-. :verything

    else in the model dims, the component is surrounded y a o& to let you know it is 'open) and the lines and faces in there are

    ready to e changed. "hen you%re done, click out in empty space to close the component.

    #sing components gives you the est of oth worlds, you can take the tree house approach and see what things look like

    when you arrange them together. 3ou don%t need the aility to draw, design or visuali1e efore you egin. 3ou can stick this

    here, put that there and see what you end up with. "hen you like what you see, all the information you need to uild is right

    there waiting for you to pull it out.

    /on%t /raw if 3ou an opy opy is 0art of the Move ommand

    !t%s easy to miss the ovious when you%re learning something new, and that was my e&perience

    when learning Sketch#p. $nce again, my AutoA/ e&perience was more a hindrance than a help.

    ! knew the value of copying things instead of drawing them, ut in AutoA/ Copyis a distinct

    command from Move. !t%s too emarrassing to fess up to how long it took me to recogni1e what the

    tag at the left says. !n Sketch#p, the tool is called Move/Copyand you engage the Copyfunction

    y starting Move, then tapping the +G4 key option on a Mac-. "hen you do that, a plus sign

    appears ne&t to the cursor also easy to miss- to let you know you%ll e making a copy.

    When you copy you ne!er ha!e to draw anything a second time"

    My goal when planning a project in Sketch#p is to get it over with as soon as possile, so ! can get out to the shop and uild itfor real. ! tell my students to pretend that every click of the mouse or tap of the keyoard takes a nickel away from the tool

    udget. For woodworkers, this is powerful motivation.

    !t%s ovious that a comple& oject like a raised panel door takes time to model, and copying and changing what you have will

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    speed things up. "hat isn%t so ovious is that the same mind set applies even to a single line. !n woodworking, making one

    line parallel to another is a common task, and there are several ways to do it. 3ou can put in a guide line click, slide, type,

    click- then use the pencil to draw in the line click, slide, type, click-. $r you can copy the line you have, with half as many

    actions. Adopting that one method instantly makes you twice as fast, and you%re on your way to the shop with money in your

    pocket.

    The Power of Reusing Details

    #raw the selection box from left to right

    /esigning on the computer can e far more efficient than drawing with pencil and paper. +he advantage isn%t so much in

    making the original drawing, that takes some time no matter how you do it. +he game changer is that you speed up

    dramatically when you want to make changes, or when you reuse something you%ve already drawn. Gaised panel, cope6and6

    stick doors or panels are a good e&ample of this.

    !n the shop, one of the most time consuming elements is setting up the router or shaper cutters for the joints. !t takes time to

    get it just right, and it is a common sight in production shops to see separate machines that are set up and left that way, each

    dedicated to one step of the process. !n Sketch#p, the same efficiency is possile for free. 3ou can draw one door, and as

    long as the molding and panel profiles stay the same, you never have to draw a door again. Make the door parts components,

    and the assemled door a component, then modify unique copies at any si1e you want. +he secret is to stretch the parts. !t%s

    easy, ut you need to understand how to use the stickiness and stretchiness of ojects to your advantage, and how to select

    the right stuff.

    Select a point to begin the mo!e that will be con!enient when you end the mo!e"

    A door rail has a molded profile and a groove on its edge, and a negative cut of the edge profile on each end. "e can make it

    longer y stretchingHall the geometry on the end stays the same and everything connected to the end stretches. ! open the rail

    component for editing, and use a left to right selection o& to gra only the cope cut on the end. lick on the picture to make it

    larger and you can see the selected geometry highlighted in lue.

    All you need to do is move the selected parts. "ith the component open for editing, the faces and edges connected to the

    selection stretch. 7efore eginning the move, look for a point that will e useful when you want to let the ojects go to end the

    move. +he point you click at the eginning is the same point used at the end. !f the rails are instances of the same component,

    oth will stretch when you edit one. "hen the rails are the new si1e, the same procedure works to stretch the panel.

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    $ wider !ersion of the original door %uickly made by copying and stretching

    "here this really proves eneficial is when the time comes to uild, and you need to know the si1es of all the individual parts.

    !f you had a large cainet jo, like a kitchen, and you were drafting it on paper or in AutoA/, you would have to sit down witha calculator and work through an equation for each door. !f the door is E and the stiles are 3, then the rails and the panel

    are . . .

    +he great thing aout doing this in Sketch#p is you can change the si1es of the doors to fit, and when you%re done, it is a

    simple matter to have Sketch#p tell you what si1e the parts are. !n my classes, we always talk aout what level of detail to add

    to a model. /o you really need to include all the joints for all the parts( +hat seems like a lot of work, ut what if you only need

    to model a detail one time to have an asset that you can use over and over and over again( +hat changes everything.

    0aste in 0lace is My 7est Friend

    My primary goal when modeling a project in Sketch#p is to get away from the computer as soon as ! possily can. $ne of the

    main reasons Sketch#p is the ultimate design?planning tool for woodworkers is that it is incredily fast. 7ut it takes a while to

    get fast. 3ou need to know the asic principles of how stuff works, and you need to practice.

    $ne of the keys to efficiency is to not draw anything unless you

    asolutely have to. !f the geometry e&ists somewhere, copying it is etter. +he prolem is if you use components, the comple&

    geometry you need, as in this dovetailed drawer side is locked up in the component. *ow can we get it out of that component

    and into the drawer front component which is still a rectangular lock(

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    +he first step is to put the drawer side into position on the end of the drawer front. +his will e a half lind dovetail, so ! used

    the points that will e on the inside corner of the finished drawer to egin and end the move.

    "hen the parts are in position, ! doule6click on the drawer side component to open it for editing. +hen ! select what ! want to

    copy, in this case the inside faces aove and elow the groove for the drawer ottom and copy them to the clipoard using the

    :dit menu.

    A single click in empty space closes the drawer side, ! right click and pick '*ide) from the menu, and a doule6click on the

    drawer front component opens it for editing. "hen it is open surrounded y dashed lines and the rest of the model dimmed- !

    go ack to the :dit menu and select '0aste in 0lace).

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    0aste in 0lace) puts the copied geometry ack where it was. +hat%s the

    reason for lining up the two parts to egin with. 3ou can see how the oundary of the drawer front component has een

    e&panded to include the faces copied from the side. A few swipes with the :raser tool gets rid of the e&tra stuff ! don%t want. !n

    real life you wouldn%t throw away a comple& part to get a few pieces of it, ut in Sketch#p it%s a great technique.

    +he faces come in with the ack sides showing, so ! select them, right

    click and pick 'Geverse Faces) from the menu. After they are reversed ! use 0ush?0ull to sink in the dovetail sockets. =eatness

    counts. +he only line ! have to draw is one to define the end of the groove efore e&truding the groove to the other end of the

    drawer front.

    +hat leaves a single, although complicated face on one end of the drawer

    front. !nstead of repeating the process that estalished the first face, ! just copy it from one end to the other, reverse that face

    and sink the sockets with 0ush?0ull.

    7ecoming efficient in Sketch#p isn%t aout drawing things as fast as you can, it%s aout using tricks like this. !n the '0ro)

    5ersion of Sketch#p, the solid modeling tools make this process even simpler, ut if you%re using the free version, this is my

    favorite method for getting geometry out of one component and into another.

    omponents an 7e Gedefined

    Sketch#p is a powerful tool for designing furniture and other woodworking projects. !n the design phase, you can quickly make

    ojects, copy and compare variations, and see how things will look in three dimensions. 7ut that%s only half the attle. 7etween

    design and uilding is another phase, detailing all the parts so you can head to the shop with information aout the e&act si1e

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    and location of all the parts and all the joints. Sketch#p also shines here, ecause you can add details with a few techniques

    that don%t take much time. $ne of my favorite techniques is redefining components. *ere%s an e&ample@

    "hen ! design a project, my main interest is in the overall proportions

    and the appearance, so ! model the parts in place without sweating

    over the details. ! started with one leg, made it a component, then

    copied and positioned the other three. As ! made the copies, ! used

    'Flip Along) to orient them properly. +he legs taper on the two inside

    faces. "hen the legs are in place, ! draw the aprons y snapping on

    e&isting points on the legs, making the aprons into components, then

    moving them ack from the edges. "hen !%m happy with how the

    structure looks, ! add the details. +o give myself room to work and to

    avoid losing the position of the aprons on the legs- ! make copies of

    the apron components out in empty space, open each copy for editing

    and add the tenons.

    +he tenons will appear on the other apron components, ecause they

    share the same definition names, 'long apron) and 'short apron). !n

    real life ! wouldn%t throw away two perfectly good pieces of wood, ut

    in Sketch#p editing a copy, then deleting the copy is a great

    technique for adding detail. +urning on the E6ray face style shows the

    tenons, and it lookslike all the joinery is in place. 7ut the mortises

    aren%t really in the legs. "hen ! get to the shop, ! will need to know

    e&actly where the mortises are, ut ! don%t want to spend all day or

    even more than a minute or two- drawing mortises. +he tenons

    contain all the geometry for the mortises, and they are in the right

    place, ut that geometry is locked in the apron components.

    +he principle

    for moving

    geometry is asically the same, ! make a copy out in empty space

    where ! have room to work without interfering with the rest of the

    model. +his time ! copied the leg and oth aprons. ! picked the parts

    closest to the model origin, and when the copies are in position, !

    right6clicked and selected 'e&plode) from the menu. +hat returns all

    the its and pieces to loose geometry, what ! do to the copy off to the

    side won%t affect the components in the rest of the model. ! had to do

    that to get the tenon geometry out of the apron components. =ow !

    can erase everything e&cept the tenons from the copied aprons, and

    that geometry ecomes the mortises in the legs.

    !t may seem

    that !%ve painted myself into a corner. ! have all the geometry for the

    mortises in position in my copy of the leg, ut this copy isn%t a

    component any more. $viously ! can make this a new component,

    and ! could then move my new leg component into position after

    erasing the old leg components. +hat works, ut it%s kind of tedious,and there is the danger of not getting everything perfectly lined up.

    "hat%s not so ovious is an option ! have when ! make this copied

    unch of edges and faces into a new component. "hen ! do this in

    class, !%m always tempted to say '*ey Gocky, watch me pull a rait

    out of my hat).

    What would happen if I gave the new component exactly the same

    name as the

    old

    component?

    +he first time

    ! tried this, ! was a it afraid of ripping a hole in the space6time

    continuum, ut all that happened was this o& popped up, asking meif ! knew what ! was aout to do. !f you select 'no) it takes you ack to

    the 'reate omponent) dialog. !f you select '3es) wonderful things

    happen. All of the other components in the model, that have the

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    original name automagically change. All of the legs now have mortises, all in the right spots, and it takes longer to e&plain how

    to do it than it takes to do it.

    +here%s always a question when making a model of 'how much detail). !t%s really nice to have the detail, if it doesn%t take too

    much time to add it. +his method makes that decision an easy one.