Sketchup how to make a pressfit design



1. Open sketchup in a millimeters template.



2. Draw a rectangle of 50 x 50 mm.

Select the rectangle tool from the toolbar to draw. You can give precise dimension by used starting to type, and hit enter to confirm.



3. Measure how thick the wood is that you are going to laser cut.

Don't assume that a standard sized plate is a exact size.



4. Push your rectangle to 4 mm tick.

Keep in mind that sketchup won't work in smaller sizes than a mm. So designing your plate 4.13 mm tick will not be possible.

But before laser cutting you need to offset your design anyway, so you can correct this problem later on.



5. Group this object by tripple clicking on the object, and go to Edit > Make Group.



6. Inside the group, draw a line from midpoint at the side of the object.

Zoom in by scrolling with your mouse. Double click on the object to edit the group.

Select the pencil from the toolbar. Hover your mouse in the middle until you see the midpoint light up.

Click once. Move your mouse to draw the line and let it snap to the other edge ob the object. Click to finish.



7. (still inside group) Continue till you have 3 line's on each side of the object.



8. Pull out 2 rectangles of 4 mm on each side.



9. Exit the group by click once next to the object.



10. Duplicate the grouped object. Select the object and [Ctrl] + [C] to copy and then [Ctrl] + [V] to paste. Click with mouse to confirm location of the duplicated object.



11. Rotate the duplicated grouped object 90 degrees. Select the rotation tool in the toolbar. Click on a corner of the object. Click again to confirm rotation angle.

Then move your mouse upward till it matches the blue axes. Click again to finish.



12. Put the piece in place.

Select the moving tool from the toolbar. Grap the endpoint by clicking once.

Move your mouse till it snaps to the endpoint of the second object. Click to confirm location.



13. Finish the box shape.

Continue to copy and paste in new plates. Rotate the the right way and move it to snap into the right place.



14. Box is done, but...

Let's edit it to make a open box. First delete the top. And double click on the bottom plate to edit that group.



15. Draw a line.

When done it look like nothing happened. But you can go outside the group. Select the plate that is in the way of the view.

And in the menu go into edit > hide. Select edit > unhide > all to get all the hidden object's back in the view.



16. (Still inside the group) Push the face 4 mm out so it matches the others.

If you move your mouse it will snap the corner of the other plate.



17. (Still inside the group) continue to finish the rest of this plate.

When done, you can exit the group by clicking next to the design.



18. Make the top of the box nice and flat.

Double click to enter a group. Select the push tool from the tool bar. Hover over the the shape until the plain you want to change, highlight's.

Then push until it snap's to fit the right height.



19. (inside group) Clean up the leftover lines with the eraser tool.



'''30. Voila! All done.'''

You could now export your file into a program like V-carve Pro or head back to inkscape to prepare (offsetting lines) for laser cutting.




 * Download: plugin for export from sketchup to inkscape
 * YouTube: How to Export SVG faces from SketchUp to Inkscap
 * Tutorial inkscape: How to make a offset design