The Wood Whisperer is sponsored by Powermatic and Titebond
Ever since Sketchup came out with their free web app
and stopped supporting their free desktop app,
people have been getting pretty nervous about it
and kind of panicking
because the web version is quite different
if you're used to the desktop version
and it's been a little bit tricky to use,
tricky to get your files there
but things have improved over time.
In fact we just came out with a course
on Sketchup that shows you how to use the free version
and it is pretty fully functional
but you do need an Internet connection to access it
and that can be a problem for some people.
Totally understand that.
But I wanted to show you guys
how you could still use this free version
to do a few different things.
One is to take a file
because we still use Sketchup here
at the WoodWhisperer in the guild.
You could take the file,
no matter what version of Sketchup it was made in,
and you can import that into the free web app.
Then not only can you then navigate the file
but you can also export that file
if let's say you're using an older version
of Sketchup on your desktop.
You can still download, at least right now,
Sketchup Make 2017
if you want a desktop version.
I don't know how long they're gonna keep supporting that
but it is available today.
So if you need to take a 2020 profile
and export that for 2017,
you can do that using the free web app.
So this video is actually a screen cast
by my buddy Brian Benham.
He does all of our plans in the Guild
and on the free site.
Very talented woodworker in his own right,
but also knows his way around Sketchup.
And he has a course in the Guild.
If you're really interested in this stuff,
it's "Introduction to Sketchup".
It focuses on the free version,
which is a little bit different
if you're not used to it,
so you could check that out.
But these couple of tips I think
will really help you if you're still a Sketchup user
and you want to be able to navigate all the files
and not pay anything for it.
[Brian] I'm Brian Benham and I'm here to talk to you
about opening your guild files
in the Sketchup free web app.
So, I'm on the Guild site
and this works for any of the files we provide
on the free site as well,
I'm gonna go down here to the Executive Desk
to use this as our example project
I'm going to go to the plans tab
and then just click the most recent Sketchup file
and it's downloading to my downloads folder
and this is most likely how your computer's set up as well.
So I'm gonna open a clean web browser.
I'm going to go to sketchup.com/app
and to sign into the free app.
You either need a Trimble account,
or sign in with your Gmail account.
Right now that I'm signed in,
I'm gonna go to Open, then My Computer
and navigate to my downloads folder
and just select my Sketchup file and open it.
And even though these Sketchup files
are made in the Sketchup Pro version,
you can still open them
in the Sketchup free web app
and they are still completely editable.
All right, let's talk about scenes.
So if you've used Sketchup before,
like a older version like Sketchup Make 2017,
you're probably used to having your scenes
across the top,
so there is a little bit of a difference
it's in a different spot.
If you look at this movie icon here,
that will bring up your scenes
and all your scenes are along the side.
So you can still navigate to all your different scenes.
Let's talk about making changes.
So even though this file was created in Sketchup Pro,
you can still make changes in the Sketchup free,
so if you wanted to make this tenon longer,
let's say a half inch longer,
you can P to push pull,
pull it out, ".5", enter
and now you've edited it.
Now it's a half inch longer.
And if you wanted to take this change
back out to the shop,
let's say you wanted to put some dimensions on it,
we'll go over here to the tape measure
grab our dimensions tool,
put a dimension on there
so we'd know when we get out into the shop
that is an inch and a half.
Right let's print it out.
Right, now to take that change out to the shop,
you want to go up to the menu bar here.
Go to export.
Export as a PNG.
And then click down here on the right hand side.
Export as PNG
Alright, "large images may take a bit longer to export",
That's fine.
So now if we go to our downloads folder,
we can open that up,
and there is our scene
with our inch and a half change
that we can print out.
You just click print
and then it'll print it out
and you can take it out to the shop
and get to work building.
Let's jump back into the Sketchup web app
so I can show you a few other things.
Now, you can also save this file to your Sketchup account.
So you can click save,
and go into your Sketchup folder
and enter a name.
So this is the Executive Desk.
Click save.
So now that file is saved
in your Sketchup account up in the cloud.
So you could take your laptop
out to your shop,
open that file up
and get to work building it.
Alright so now let's close out of this,
go to home.
So now there is our Executive Desk file,
so if we go out to the shop with our laptop
you can re-open this back up out there.
I should mention you do need an Internet connection
out in your shop.
Alright, here at the WoodWhisperer,
since we make all of our files
using the latest version of Sketchup Pro,
if you're running an older desktop version,
you will not be able to open
the latest profile on your older version.
However, the web app has you covered.
So let's talk about how we're going to do that.
So if we go back up here to our menu bar,
and go down to download,
it gives you a list of options
of what you can download to.
As of this recording,
you can download all the way down to 2017.
Who knows what they have in store
in the future,
if they're going to, uh,
each year they're going to allow you
to download all the way down that far,
but you still have that option available
as of this recording.
So if you wanted to download it to Make 2017,
you can click OK,
and it asks you save as file
and it is downloading a 2017 Make file
for you to open in your older Sketchup version.
All right,
I hope this is helped you open
and navigate your WoodWhisperer Sketchup files
using the free Sketchup web app.
If you wanna know more about
"how to use Sketchup as a 3-D modeling tool",
please check out my "Intro to Sketchup"
class at that Woodwhisperer Guild.
It is geared towards wood workers.
We cut right to the chase on
how to use the basic tools
to get you drawing your furniture designs.