DIY

WORKSHOP

SKETCHUP WORKBENCH

Design your own work area with Google’s free drawing application. By John Edgar Park

Google SketchUp is my favorite design tool, and if all goes according to plan, it’ll soon be yours, too. Even though I use higher-end 3D software all day at work, SketchUp still blows me away; it enables fast, fun, and accurate 3D sketching unlike any other program (it’s free too!).

Illustrations by John Edgar Park

Makers will find SketchUp useful for all sorts of things, from furniture design to workshop layout, from project enclosures to robotic exoskeletons. It’s good for this kind of stuff because you can rough out your designs quickly, using real-world dimensions.

I decided to use SketchUp to design a much-needed workbench. The first phase was to create the conceptual model, which is a rough 3D sketch of the form. The second phase was design engineering, where I figured out the real-world materials list and construction plan for the project.

TOOLS

PC or Mac of somewhat recent vintage Google SketchUp software (free download)

» Rectangle tool
» Move tool
» Rotate tool
» Push/Pull tool
» Dimension tool

Make: 123