3 great tools for SketchUp
Dave Richards is doing a lot of teaching these days. In this blog, he shares some tools his students have found extremely valuable.
May 20, 2020
These days I’ve been doing a lot more online SketchUp instruction. I suppose more folks have time to devote to it. Anyway, several of my students have had use for some tools I find extremely valuable. I thought I’d share them with you, too. A couple of them are fairly new versions of ones that have been around for awhile. They are by Fredo6, the author of a number of amazing extensions for SketchUp.
The first is called FredoCorner. This is a revised version of his old Round Corner and has several useful additions. Another one of his, which was released in the last week of April or so, is called FredoSpline. It is a reworked version of his Bezier Spline tool set and again he’s added a number of features. In my video, I show just a little of what these tools can do. By the way, if you are installing these extensions, make sure you also install the latest version of LibFredo6. This is a set of required support files that are common to most of his extensions. LibFredo6 also adds some tools for checking his extensions for updates and setting up toolbar preferences.
The third tool is by another prolific extension author who goes by the name of Eneroth3. It is called Eneroth Auto Weld. While this one is priced at $10, it could pay for itself in short order depending on the type of modeling you do. I find it indispensable for my work.
The video gives a brief look at these tools and I hope you can add them into your workflow.
Keep well, everyone.
Comments
Dave,
Thanks for showing the features of these new extensions.
Can you provide some examples of why one would want to keep both the Round Corner and the FredoCorner extensions?
Same question with the Bezierspline and FredoSpline. Do you see a need to keep both ?
Also, after you run the Eneroth Auto Weld extension, will that make adding wood texture easier than if the component was not welded ?
Mortimer
Occasionally you will run into situations where FredoCorner will fail and RoundCorner won't or the other way around. It depends on the geometry. This morning I was trying to put a radius on three edges of a block. FredoCorner handled the first rounding fine but it didn't like the second rounding for some reason. I tried RoundCorner instead and it did the rounding the way I wanted it. The author indicated that it has to do with the way SketchUp handles geometry and the way the extensions handle the settings that are made. Keeping both isn't really a big problem.
I've kept both BezierSpline and FredoSpline but that's mostly because I've been using BezierSpline since it was introduced and I don't have to think as much about using it. At some point I will likely put Bezier Spline away to free up some real estate in the toolbar area.
Eneroth Auto Weld won't have an impact on texture application since it is operating on the edges, not the faces. As I mentioned in the video, Auto Weld is great for keeping edges of profiles welded after running Follow Me. That's handy when you want to use the same profile again for another Follow Me routine.
Auto Weld is also useful when you have a long multi-segment path for Follow Me. You can weld the edges of the path together so you can select them with one click.
There are other benefits of using it. For example if you use Follow Me to create a turned thing like a column or table leg, the edges at the end will be recognized as a circle so you can inference off the center of it easily.
-Dave
Dave,
Thanks for clarifying. I'll give Auto Weld a try.
I tried FredoCorner and found two more interesting features. The first one allows inverting the edge profile (rounded or beveled edge). I used it to create several quick raised panel profiles. The second feature is a single end offset of the border. Hover over the end of the green border line until it turns purple, click, then enter the end offset. Great for making a tapered chamfer.
Mortimer
Dave,
Are the classes you are teaching available for anyone to attend / enroll? Happy to pay whatever fee may be involved. For whatever reason my brain seems to click when you are the instructor / person helping out. I have watched a ton of videos on youtube from various people, but I have learned more from your posts on the SU Forum and here,and it is not even close.
For that, I cant thank you enough, please keep at it, and hopefully I will be able to enroll in some of your other trainings.
Cheers,
G
GFactor, thank you! I'll take making your brain click as a great compliment.
I do one-on-one SketchUp and LayOut training online. You can send me an e-mail by clicking on my name at the end of the blog post and we can talk about connecting.
Best,
Dave
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