Virtual Shop
So, I was exploring Sketchup’s 3D warehouse — a library of models that you can download for your personal use — and found a nice little collection of woodworking tools posted there.
Though none of the models represented the exact tools I have, they are close enough that I can do a rough layout of my garage/shop. (A recent move leaves me with a blank slate for a shop. I’ve yet to get organized, but I’ve made a little progress since this entry.)
The nice thing about doing a shop layout in Sketchup is that it is much easier to visualize the results than it was with the little gridded paper and the xeroxed tool icons.
The bad thing is that nobody has bothered to model “clutter.” So anything I create is going to be a pristine ideal. This doesn’t show the lawn/gardening equipment — mower, hoses, rakes, shovels, ad infinitum — that I am housing in the garage until I can build a garden shed (which is in line behind a billion other projects). Nor does it show the in-progress projects that usurp the space for the tools. Nor the “get-rid-of” pile from the move.
Of course, this is a rough layout. Since I’m in 1 stall of the garage, I’ll be putting together a storage system that will house all of my benchtop tools and allow me to switch them out on the mobile base you see in the center. I will model the worksurfaces and storage that I want to put in so I can start transforming it from a garage into a shop. As you can see, I’ve already transformed my wife’s car into a red convertible to help sell the idea.
Categories: Our Shops and Shop Projects | Tags: layout, shop, shop design, Sketchup
2 Comments
2 Responses to “Virtual Shop”
November 23, 2009 at 1:55 pm, by It gets worse before it gets better | After Hours with the WOOD Gang
[...] my virtual shop took one step closer to reality, this weekend. Step 1 was the lumber rack. Step 2 is to build [...]
March 11, 2010 at 1:09 pm, by Aebvtivs
I trie dthis, but there was more clutter than tooling, and I lost interest – the garage, ahem, worskhop has a slop outside made of many planes – difficult to get to match reality, but I WILL return to it sometime soon (oh, for the lack of projects…)