I have to share this info. Lots of us are learning or want to learn how to use SketchUp. It's easy and it's not. Without help you can find yourself languishing through hours of frustration. Yes, there are lots of tutorials available and I have sat through many videos trying to learn from them. Now, my wife wants to learn SketchUp and though I can help get her started I am mostly self taught with lots of bad habits. I use SU for all my design work and certainly for creating my presentations to clients. Problem is, I can go several months without any need for design time and so I am never really fluent in SU. I am not the guy to be teaching my wife .
BUT - and here is the real purpose of this post - I said to her - you know there's a guy on the Creek who is a SU pro. He's a contributor to Sketchucation and I'm pretty sure he has a book out or something. He's always offering help on the Creek and doing drawings too. Dave Richards - look him up on line. And so she did and found this - http://www.tauntonstore.com/fw-googl...s-fwg0001.html
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Holy Smokes - this is the best!. I have bought some other DVDs and like I said, watched a lot of videos, but with this Dave is making SU accessible to any woodworker inclined to learn. My wife bought the DVD rather than downloading the video so she could easily transfer it from one computer to the next at home and work. FYI - A few weeks later both versions are selling for less than she paid. A great bargain!
You can keep the video open while you are doing your drawing side by side with Dave but - and this is a great feature - what we like best - and yes I am watching and listening to it too - is that Dave includes a full transcript. You can have the transcript open (or print a copy) after you listen and while you are drawing in case you need to refresh your memory. More to the point is that you can know exactly what you will be learning with each chapter so that - unlike with so many on line tutorials - you don't need to sit through 5 or 10 minutes of a lesson to know what you will learn. Sometimes you get to the end and realize that you were looking at the wrong lesson.
Even though I have been SketchUpping for 5 years or so I find that if my wife is listening to a Dave lesson I am drawn in too - no pun intended . I like the sound of his voice but I also am curious to see if I use the same steps to create a model as he does or if he will remind me of or show me a short cut that I have overlooked.
We highly recommend this SketchUp guide by Dave for anyone wanting clear and thorough instruction in a very user friendly package. It will still take your own effort and practice to get the best use of the program but Dave will certainly set you on the right course.
Thank you Dave Richards. I am not a paid spokesman for DR or Taunton Press - just a happy user of a great product.