Google SketchUp 8 For Dummies

Before I read this book, I thought I knew a lot about Googe SketchUp 8 but afterwards, I realized how little I really did know. Sure, I had progressed beyond the novice stage some time back but this book filled in all those little gaps in my knowledge base, eliminated all those bad practices that I had developed over time and generally made me so much more productive. For example, I was using LAYERS in the same manner that I was used to in earlier 2D packages. Author Aidan Chopra gently but firmly pointed out the errors of my ways and that LAYERS in SU8 (which is a 3D drawing package) is used in a different way and that I should be placing more importance on GROUPS and COMPONENTS. Aidan makes the point that his book is not for the complete novice, explaining that he does not cover all the menu items and icons within the SU8 package. But, and this I think is important, he does presume that you are perhaps new to 3D modeling. To this end, he steps the reader through the early chapters at a gentle pace, culminating in Chapter 4, which is entitled "BUILDING BUILDINGS". From here on, the going gets a little tougher but nothing to be frighten about. Indeed, I was fascinated with the chapter entitled - "BEYOND BUILDINGS", which taught me how to draw organic forms with the SCALE TOOL; something that had eluded me up to that point. I found it a well rounded book, with the balance just right between the written word and illustrative diagrams. After the first read, it can easily be used as a reference book, with chapters dedicated to particular subject matter. An excellent product and highly recommended! No more am I an DUMMY!!

I have found the Google Sketchup 8 For Dummies book to be a good guide for getting into Sketchup. It is comprehensive and detailed enough to get you up to speed fairly quickly. After reading and practicing with only the first five chapters, I was able to design a new bathroom vanity, including raised panel doors and a drop in basin. I was also able to design a remodeled master bathroom with tiled shower and soaking tub. It has certainly met my needs. However, like any piece of software with substantial capabilities, you have to spend time with Sketchup so that the essential drawing techniques become second nature.

You can download Google SketchUp for free. Once you have it one your PC or Mac the question is how are you going to use it? Lynda.com has a video course that gets you oriented. Aidan Chopra on the other hand systematically walks you through the many uses and tools of SketchUp and SketchUp Pro. While he suggests that you might want to read mostly those chapters that particularly interest you, it is just as good as a A-Z textbook. Sitting at the computer and going through the exercises is the best way to familiarize you with the enormous potential of this application. There are helpful references to websites and plug-ins. Designers and Architects are probably the primary users of SketchUp, but anybody interested in the third dimension can benefit greatly from this application and Aidan's guidebook. SketchUp your own house and be amazed at what you learn in the process!

I'm an old country architect and so glad I've lived long 'nuff to see, have and use Google SketchUp 8 Pro. Brother Chopra (SketchUp Evangelist) 'splains everything in his book: "Google SketchUp 8 for Dummies"... bonus: he is funny! I'm an old designer of passive solar houses. SketchUp's "shadows" capability is worth the Pro price. If'n you youngin's out there wanna see how aggravatin' it was to build a cardboard model of a house, then take it out into the sunlight, tilt the whole shebang until the sundial indicated: "March 21st..." then find a copy of Ed Mazria's 1979 "The Passive Solar Energy Book" and see what it took to demonstrate a design to a client. After you showed the customer the drawings and photographs, (once you got prints back from the drugstore)... they'd hate something and literally, back to the drawing board, build a new cardboard model... wait for a sunny day... sheesh! Get a copy of Google SketchUp 8 Pro, Brother Chopra's "Google SketchUp 8 for Dummies" and you can bask in the sunshine, anytime.

The book is filled with just the kind of information I was seeking about SketchUp. I would highly recommend the printed book version. Unfortunately, the Kindle Fire version is a major disappointment and not worth the money. I bought the Kindle version to use for guidance while using SketchUp on my computer. The book is very graphics intensive because it illustrates graphic procedures. Try as I might going over and over Kindle instructions, I was unable to get any kind of useful enlargements of the book's illustrations. Long before they are large enough to try to read, they are so blurred, rasterized, and out of focus that they are illegible. Kindle did its customers and the author a major disservice by failing to convert the printed illustrations to vector graphics which could be usefully enlarged. Other problems: - No useful table of contents - it doesn't readjust page numbers to fit Kindle's floating pages. - No index. Move to the 'End' looking for an index, and Kindle thinks you're finished and wipes out your position and bookmarks. - If Kindle has solutions to any of these shortcomings, they should stop hiding them.

I ordered this book to give me the knowledge needed to use SketchUp to create basic 3D models of components to be converted (using other software) to gcode to run my CNC milling machine. It did just that. After skimming through the first few chapters I was able to create the basic 3D models that I needed to create. I skimmed through the other chapters as well and picked up some good tips for my designs and any future ones that I make as well. It is well written and easy to skim through (don't need to waste time reading every word) and I think will be a good reference for when I get stuck in the future. I highly recommend it.

This book does an excellent job of explaining Sketchup 8, it's tools and many of the techniques used to obtain desired results. I was able to take a client's idea for an invention from his verbal desciption to a 3D model in a couple of weeks with what I learned from this book. Now if I could find a similar book explaining how to use Sketchup's most popular 3rd party 3D rendering and animation solutions like Podium, Blender and Poser, I'd be able to take my sketchup models to the next level. Any suggestions?

This is a well illustrated book with a companion website. The author goes into great detail about how to do things in Sketch and then demonstrates it by using the examples on the website. I've tried to use Sketchup for several years and each time I started, I got frustrated and took a nap. Mr. Chopra though kept things interesting without getting too far into the weeds. One other thing, "Dummies" books can for the most part, be too cutesy for my taste, but Mr. Chopra keeps that down to a minimum. After I read the first five or so chapters, I started to experiment more and more with Sketchup and so put the reading cover to cover aside and use the book as a reference now.

New to this program, the book has more than enough info to get started.

This is a great book for novices and more infrequent users of sketchup (who may need reminding of the program now and again) There are a wealth of videos online, by the author, to back-up the teaching in print in a more hands on way, which in my eyes gives you a complete belt and braces approach to learning the program. If you read about a particular method and don't quite understand, you can go online, what it happen and then use sketchup yourself there and then to do it. Sure, just having a pile of vids to watch would be a good way to learn, but having the book means you can read and learn when not at your computer. I like to read this at night, using little post-it flags to mark sections to watch the next day online or try on sketchup itself. This book has been invaluable to me for teaching all manner of basics and routines.

good

j'adore sketchup et ce guide a été d'une grande utilité pour entrer dans le programme et en plus c'est hyper drole

E' realmente un ottimo libro. Ho scelto la versione in inglese per "tenermi in esercizio" e non ho incontrato difficoltà alcuna. E' semplice, ma non banale e riduttivo. Sul web sono inoltre disponibili utilissimi tutorial video dell'autore. Consigliatissimo!