Anyone use sketch up to lay out turnings?

[Rob Price]

I ordered my lathe package from woodcraft today (yea!) after a year of researching and saving. I've been reading books and watching videos and I've found a local guy who will give me some hands on training (no woodcraft or Rockler stores here for a class). One thing I haven't seen is any info on using sketch up. I've been using it for years for my flat work planning out cuts and joints and assembly. A fellow creeker here pointed me over to the fine ww blog which was a treasure of info for sketchup- but all flatwork. I'm guessing there's a way to plan out round pieces as well, I'm wondering if any of you guys knew of some resources or guides on using sketchup to layout legs and stuff. One of my first turned projects (after lessons and experiments) will be some legs for an end table. I'm sure a lot of you seasoned pros can layout stuff in your head, and I realize a lot of turning is fluid and not rigid, but for a novice I want to 'see' my legs before I turn them.

EDIT: nevermind. I found the main home page for the sketch up blog I thought there were just a few tutorials, I didn't realize there were hundreds. Sorry. Carry on.

[Rob Price]

Figured it out.
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[Patrick Ely]

What blog are you using? I have been using sketch up to work up some house plans its a cool program! I would be curious to check out some WW plans.
Cheers

[David Gilbert]

There is so much SketchUp information on the internet! Here are a few: http://sketchucation.com/, http://sketchupforwoodworkers.com/, http://www.finewoodworking.com/blog/design-click-build (you need to be a FW on-line member to access this blog), http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/22170/sketchup-and-the-lathe and lots more. There are several warehouses (Google, Popular Woodworking, etc.) that have lots of designs too.

I've used SketchUp a lot but only recently tried to apply it to my turning vortex. I am mostly a bowl guy so I haven't played with spindle plans. The problem that I have with SketchUp and my bowls is that making a bowl is much more fluid than flatboarding work. Below is an example of an effort to model a series of bowls where I varied the foot from very large to none.

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There are also lots of videos that demonstrate how to do different things in SketchUp. I found that you can learn a lot by watching these because there is a lot of the technique and method that they show along while they set up the demo.

Cheers,
David