The Steel Guitar Forum

Anybody using Sketchup? It's Google's 3D modeling software, available free from Google's website. I made this model of a pedal steel as a way to teach myself the program. If you were viewing the model in SketchUp, you would be able to rotate it 360 degrees, zoom in, pan, etc. It's very easy and intuitive. I mean, I just got this program yesterday, and I was able to do this:



Here's the model from another angle:



It took me a few hours to create it, because I had to make every single part; tuners, pickups, keyheads, etc., but because so many parts are duplicated, it's not all that bad. It's not supposed to be any particular brand of guitar, it has Carter fretboards because it was easier to photograph my guitar fretboard and paste it in than to try to model it in Sketchup.

This model can be used in a number of ways, such as this architechtural rendering below:




Pretty cool for free software! If anyone is using this program, and wants to use my D-10 model, let me know, and I'll email it to you.

Jerry -
Looks interesting . . .
I'm downloding the software at the moment and would like to take you up on the Steel Guitar drawing.
I 'pm'ed you with my email address.
Thanks,
Russ

Jerry -
Just got your drawing in the email
and opened it with SketchUp -
That's a terrific steel model you
made.
Thanks a lot,
~Russ

That program will not work with Vista. If you have Vista do not waste your time downloading it.

Jerry,
That looks like you know a little something bout stuff like that.Jus pullin yo leg...good job.

BF

Jerry, I've messed around with Sketchup and I know what you've done there was no easy feat.
That really looks nice.

Thanks for the kind words. It's not really as difficult as you might think. I'm not a stranger to computer graphics, but I've never spent time with a 3D CAD / CAM program. The basic concepts are pretty easy to understand. Something like a Pedal steel is fairly straightforward to model, since it's mostly rectangular and round shapes.

Making something like a basic Grover tuning gear, for example, is just three intersecting cylindrical shapes, plus an extruded half-circle. Duplicate as many times as needed, flip for opposite side. You only have to make each part once.

I got fired up about this program after seeing some studio designs made with it on one of the recording forums I visit. Even the free version offers so many interesting possibilites for wasting time... er, uh, making interesting stuff.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I have already tweaked that D-10 model a number of times since I posted those photos. Every time I look at it, I see something that's not right, like the pedal spacing, keyhead, or something else, so I have to go back and fix it. If a person had the time and inclination, you could make all the undercarriage parts too, but I'm not quite that obsessive.

Jerry, I would very much appreciate your emailing me your drawing.

I did a steel for my business card in MSWord that turned out very good, but is not 3D.

Thanks in advance,
Bill Ferguson
bferguson9@aol.com

Bill, I would appreciate a copy as well, thanks in advance. Allen Howington (forum member)

Bill and Allen,right click on the pic and then click on save as.You can save it in my pictures or where ever you choose.It will then be on your hard drive. Just a suggestion..PJ

Joe, that only saves the picture. We want the original so we can play with it in Sketch Up.
I have it now, thanks to Jerry.

Allen, I will email you my MSWord steel

Bill