Final Project: Making part 1

It was time to start making my design in SketchUp. 

My sketch up was in inches, so the first step was to convert it to cm. I clicked on 'Model info' and then 'length units'. I converted it from inches to centimetres and also changed then snap interval to 1.0000cm. I made the snapping angle 45 degrees and the precision 0.0 as this was perfect for my design. I had my setting all set up and it was time to start designing my table. 

As I noticed in my initial experiments, I had to design the vertical planar surface first to avoid any overlapping with the horizontal planar surface. I used the 'Rectangle' tool and created a rectangle in the dimensions of 100cm x 75 cm. This was the beginning of building the basic skeleton of my design. 

In my measurements, I wanted the border of my frame to be 3cm thick. Therefore, I designed a smaller rectangle inside the first one, with a 3cm border. These measurements were 97cm x 72cm. 

The table will be hung up on the wall, which means that the back of the design will not be closed in order to conserve material. Therefore, I deleted the surface area of the smaller rectangle.

The next step was to extrude my surface to start forming the table. I used the 'push/pull' tool and extruded the shape until the width was 40cm.

It was time to add the two dividers which separate the covered shelves from the uncovered ones. I measured 25cm from both sides and added my dividers using the 'rectangle' tool. The measurements of the dividers were 75 cm x 40 cm x 3cm. I used the 'push/pull' tool to extrude my surface. 

The next step was to add my horizontal dividers. I used the method shown in the right divider to indicate where each divider would be placed. I used the 'line' tool to sketch out lines to act as guides for where my shelves would be placed accurately. In the last blog, in my measurements, I did not consider the width of the shelves and border. Therefore, instead of 25cm distance between them, they had 21cm. I used the 'rectangle' tool to form them using my guide lines.

I used the 'push/pull' tool to extrude the shelves.

After finishing most of the vertical planar surface, it was time to focus on the horizontal. The horizontal was quite simple as it only had the surface of the desk. I used the 'rectangle' tool to form a rectangle connected to my main body of measurements 50cm x 75cm. I used the 'push/pull' tool to extrude the surface until it has a width of 3cm,

Overall, I am happy with the progress of my table and it is turning out exactly as I wanted it to be. However, this took way longer than expected in order to get good symmetry of everything. One of the reasons that this took so long was that the measurements in the last blog were very inaccurate. This will also be evident in the next blog post. Next time, I should spend more time measuring in order to ensure that the making process with be smooth. 

In the next blog post, I will continue making this and I will start adding the details and the components of my table as I now have the basic structure completed.