Sketchup-Ur-Space

"Modeling Table and Stool Legs with Rake and Splay in SketchUp s ”

Subhra Bera: Editor

David Richards has been designing different wooden furniture since a very long time and from the beginning he loves SketchUp, this time he used RakeSlay tool to design legs.

About SketchUp:

SketchUp or Google SketchUp is mainly a 3D modeling computer program that is used for a broad range of drawing applications used by architects, interior designer, landscape architects, civil and mechanical engineers, film and video game designers also. SketchUp can be getting as a freeware version named SketchUp Make and a paid version with many more extra benefits called SketchUp Pro. SketchUp is software from Trimble Company and there is an online library of free model congregations and 3D Warehouse to which users can add other models; besides that, the program has drawing layout functionality with variable ‘styles’, supports third-party ‘plug-in’ programs hosted on the Extension Warehouse to supply other abilities and enables placement of its models in Google Earth.

As SketchUp users are most of architects, designers, builders, makers and engineers etc. who works hard to give a nice shape to our physical world, they need great tools to do the work. SketchUp is in mission to bring their best to produce some great tools for drawing as drawing is the key thing of the SketchUp users. They draw to search ideas, to identify the things and to show other people their work that they do with love and love to build; SketchUp understands it truly and trying to improve their software day by day.

This article is about a recent work of David Richards which he has shared a tutorial video describing the making of a table with the Rake and Splay tool in SketchUp.

About David Richards:

He is a Biomedical Equipment Technician and provides anesthesia and Respiratory equipment for the largest medical facility in southeast Minnesota. Beside that he works in his garage woodworking shop where he has made various wooden items, he is a regular SketchUp user who uses it for designing projects, working out joinery details and solving the order of operations in time. He has made a various range of SketchUp models like tiny parts for medical equipment, large architectural and other construction projects. Most of his models are furniture and other woodworking related things, besides being a SketchUp users and woodworker; he helps other woodworkers around the world to use the program through his blogs in ‘Fine Woodworking’ which has become very popular among the woodworkers.

Legs of a table are set at an angle other than vertical is very common thing of stools, chairs and some tables; it can be easily understood through an example like Christian Becksvoort’s Sturdy Stool which is also a kind of typical Windosr Chair. Garrett Hack also has done some nice small tables with legs that have fully narrow raked and splayed legs like his Fir and Cherry Side Table. So generally making the right modeling legs in SketchUp needs the right technique of drawing though there are various easy ways to do the work and one of them is using the extension called ‘Rake and Splay’. This extension is used by Richards while drawing the plans for Becksvoort’s stool and Hack’s small side tables and recently he used it to create the SketchUp model for the table based on made in Poland during the early 1950’s.

Rake and Splay tool vo.3:

This tool calculates angles and draws helper geometry for complex angels like chair legs and mixture miter joints and the path is Tools > rake and Splay. After clicking on a model location where the helper geometry will be created, a dialog box will come where users can enter the rake angle, splay angle, size of the planes and segments for the follow-me circle. Then a dialog box will appear where the users have to click Ok option and after clicking on this many layers with names starting “R & S” will be added to the model. The tool also creates Group to place new geometry; it will draw Construction Lines with key axes of the leg or joint, will draw Faces in the rake plane, splay plane, miter plane, follow-me circle plane and sighting plane. These axes and faces will help the users to visualize the geometry of the model’s leg/joint and to draw the parts; when a Group is drawn, clicking it with the Tool active will display a dialog with calculated angle values for axis tilt, slighting axis, rake miter angle, splay miter angle and bevel angle.

He has uploaded a tutorial video that shows the way of using this hand tool for drawing the legs of the tools in a correct way, after drawing the legs in the right place he also showed the way of cutting

Follow: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJnra100HwE

Modeling Table and Stool Legs with Rake and Splay in SketchUp s

Source:www.finewoodworking.com/2018/07/18/sketchup-modeling-table-stool-legs-rake-splay