HexaFrame MK1 Sketchup File

[KK]

 2x4 HexaFrame Shelter by KK - 3D Warehouse - http://bit.ly/T743bR

Model has now been uploaded.

Download Trimble Sketchup to view and dissect:
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html

O is "Orbit" (Rotate)
H is "Hand" (Pan)
Space always gets your mouse pointer back (de-selects...sorta)
Mouse wheel zooms in and out.
T is "Tape Measure" tool. Use this to get exact measurements of parts.
Right click menu has useful stuff like hide/unhide etc.
Extensive use of hide/unhide brings you lots of joy when measuring.

Model uses Components and Groups properly.
All parts are nested into many logical assemblies.
They are *real life* size. No bizarre scaling or lazy stuff/corner cutting.
You can build the real, actual building from this model.
No fastener detail is provided. There are too many variations/preferences.
I have all this information but will not give building support unless you "contract" ;)
Deck and frame is modular and could be bolted to enable takedown transportation.
I designed the HexaFrame to do just that.

Once you sit at Sketchup for about 100 hours you'll be able to dig into the model and really *use* it.
Get going...and good luck. Powerful programs require powerful effort to understand.

I'll be adding small details to the model. Always stuff to fix/make smarter.
Will upload new dated model versions.
Always download the latest version.

Enjoy!

KK

[Chita Jing]

On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 10:47 AM, KK <koffeek...@gmail.com> wrote:

 
Once you sit at Sketchup for about 100 hours you'll be able to dig into the model and really *use* it.
Get going...and good luck. Powerful programs require powerful effort to understand.

        REALLY powerful programs require far less sit/study/decipher time --

         A really powerful program operates like this:  http://www.ashlar.com/

     There's a very good reason why a program with such a low market share has a wildly inordinate number of international prize winners who use it. I don't think Ashlar has ever gone much beyond 2-5% of the market in any country- but they routinely score 25% or more market share if you list the software used by people doing the most exciting projects on Earth. (Check out Burt Rutan, for instance, whose airplane designs have made him quite a name in aero design and engineering.) When you consider that Ashlar is competing with such dominating competitors as AutoCAD, their achievement is even more astonishing. 

[Disclaimer: I have no vested interest at all in Ashlar at any level.]

 

[KK]

Sketchup is free. Worldwide.
Download Sketchup...and my model...get to work. 5 minutes from NOW.

What Ashlar product are you talking about?

http://www.ashlar.com/shop/

They are very expensive to purchase a permanent license.
Rutan can afford to use Ashlar.
Monthly rental? No way.
Nice try.

Bzzzt. NEXT

[Chita Jing]

   Well now, the topic (which you introduced) was the idea that one had to spend a hundred hours sit-down time with Sketchup because powerful software demands that kind of time. ANY Ashlar product is an argument in favor of not accepting that idea as gospel. The 1998 version of Drafting Assistant would compete favorably with many attributes of the "free" - limited - Sketchup currently available. If you buy full Sketchup, the price is $495 plus whatever training costs in time and money. AutoCAD has often been called the Full Employment Program for Trainers. It has a more expensive accessories package than Project Runway ever dreamed about.

   Speaking of expense, it wouldn't hurt to read some of the details about Ashlar pricing. If you aren't developing for the military-industrial complex or to peddle some sort of commerce, or if you're fully retired or [insert other exceptions], prices become remarkably flexible. Ashlar is a high-touch outfit and they have quite a following amongst elite designers worldwide. They don't really have to compete for that last penny from a poor but talented starving artist. There really is no better choice for the types of people who turn into Burt Rutan (who wasn't always rich and famous). Ashlar would probably get quite a kick out of helping form the next Burt Rutan.

   The "free" version of Sketchup isn't really free, is it? A hundred hours of sit-down time counts as zero? Maybe that doesn't apply to everybody. Some folks work at more than one job and a hundred hours of sit-down time takes away from other income-earning. Especially students, who often are eating a lot of ramen to make ends meet, but these days, time/money can affect decisions in a lot of demographic segments.

   I already had Sketchup. I understood the drawing without downloading anything - it's simple framing. The underlying assumptions caught my eye, not the drawing itself.

[KK]

Sketchup.
Free.
Worldwide.
Awesome.

Truth is self-evident.

[Jeff Labonte]

I agree with Chita,

100 hours of my time is very well worth much much more than nothing. At the discounted rate of $10 per hour it costs $1000 of my time. Oh, wait! I forgot electricity, rent, insurance, etc.

Sorry, but this is nothing but a cute concept of no real value to me. When I look at a drawing that supposedly has set dimensions I expect to see those dimensions. Not have to spend in excess of $1000 or 100 hours of my time.

 My evaluation of this design is that now it is worth less to me than what I can do with a physical scale model. Therefore, it is useless, bordering on spam to sell me a product I don't want or need.

J

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[KK]

*cue Twilight Zone music*

[Cody from Washington DC]

Ummm I'm not sure about you all, but i learned the basics of sketch up in an afternoon.  the tutorials are very simple and easy.  "Mastering" any program is a life work, not just 100 hours.  I've played many games for hours and hours and haven't "mastered" any of them.

It is not something you probably want to design working drawing for building a house, I use ArchiCAD for that, which is another object oriented drafting program.  But for quick easy "SKETCHES...." hence the name sketch up, this works aewsome.

Look at the styles, you can create very nice looking rendering for clients and animate them!

If you get the Sketch up pro, which is 400 dollars, and way less if you are a student, then you have a lot more options on output, etc.

[The Distinguished ...]

Pardon.

Works on a free OS? No. Hidden costs are still costs.

Granted, it is easy to upload to Google Earth from there, but ...

So I'm not just a nay-sayer here is some hopefully helpful insights.
BlenderCAD is what I've been experimenting with lately (cross-platform,
free, and does some _really_ nice exteriors/animations, and, of course,
ties in with Blender)

Of the products I've (had to) use over time ...

ARES Commander very much like AutoCAD

ARCAD 3D ... photorealistic rendering in 3-D.

BRL-CAD ... milspec design

CADOO.o ... CAD in OpenOffice (LibreOffice) nowhere near as functional
as I would like, but ... cool! CAD as part of a standard set of office
functionality tools!

elcad (can't find it anymore) scripted design

emacs+svg ... well ... not really cad, but I've done it, and it
(basically) works.

freeCAD ... really good starter program, for learning good CAD habits.
( http://askoh.com/freecad/ ) which is different from:
FreeCAD which is a much slicker and compute-heavy, but still
multi-platform
( http://free-cad.sf.net/ )

K-3D ... more of a modeler than a CAD system, but ... still interesting.

LeoCAD ... LEGOs! *grin*

LibreCAD (2D only) extensively cross-platform, being in QT.

PythonCAD ... still in it's infancy. A project worth developing, I
think ... but not for me to do.

In a limited way, I've used EAGLE for PCB board design (electronics CAD)

And I've heard some good things about CADEMIA and OCTREE so that's
probably my next area of experimentation.

OpenSCAD is currently being raved about by my 3-D printing friends, so
that might also be an interesting way to go. 3-D printing of hexayurt
models might be quite interesting ...

If you really want to sink time into learning a system, probably VARKON
is a much better choice than Sketchup.

Also, in my toolbox is AutoTrace, one of the best ways of taking a
bitmap picture, and making it a vector graphics image, for those 3D
printers, SVG editing in emacs, laser cutters, cnc mills, etc. and Z88
Aurora, which is used for stresses, node-forces, and displacement
calculations. Not trivial to use.

I hope this helps, more than it detracts.
Percy

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[KK]

On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:29:57 AM UTC-6, Cody from Washington DC wrote:

Ummm I'm not sure about you all, but i learned the basics of sketch up in an afternoon.  the tutorials are very simple and easy. 

Yes, I agree totally with your post. Sketchup is very easy to figure out. Will take the mythical "100 hours" to be able to *really* get "fluent".
That's what I was getting at.
Same time scale as all these other CAD etc. packages (some will take much longer!)
I'm certain that the figure with hold up in real life. Geeks just don't keep track of things like this, but they *do* spend that much time.
I'm sure their "significant others" will heartily agree with me.

But anyway...these other packages don't have the rich community library of free pre-made parts that Sketchup does:

http://www.sketchup.com/product/3dwh.html

This enables quicker finished concepts than VARKON eh?
Need a lawnmower wheel? Download one in minutes.
Steel framing stud?...Simpson framing tie straps? Got them in great detail.
Nuts, bolts, piping, trees, rocks, furniture you name it. For free.

Why are *all* the existing models of Hexayurts done with Sketchup and not Autocad etc.?
Because it was quickly comprehended by the novice and a perfect fit. That counts.
I predict that Hexayurt models will continue to be shared between many with Sketchup *only*.
Any other software package would just limit adoption.
Upload some crude .DXF models somewhere and see what happens.

I'm glad the dark ages are over. And I welcome open collaboration with Sketchup users now and into the future.
It's a stellar tool for getting work done between regular people.

This is what should be praised.

Is it about being on the side of the open source angels...or getting shelter to the masses?
We need to work *with* the masses...not deliver the products from up on high.
Confusion and fragmentation is part of the open source world.
In the case of urgent shelter situations, who needs that?


Here's a guy that is completely closed source and prob. used Autocad. His T-Shel2 is a complete winner:
http://www.ubershelter.org/about.html

His design blows away the Hexayurt for a few reasons...not to mention it's a fully engineer stamped and thought out structure.

But, it's closed source/for profit. So no Sketchup files for everybody (not just geeks) to modify and improve on.
Too bad. I think he won the race with his no brainer design for the refugee masses though.
His eventual impact? Small. Because he limited himself.

At least Lorin tried a little with his solar cooker design:

Solar Fire's beautiful concentrators: An open source secret | News | Engineering for Change - http://bit.ly/M3g688
This reviewer put up Lorin's slightly flawed Sketchup file at the bottom of that article.
At least the design is *out there*. I was able to take it and remix my own version:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/52187564/ASTRA-Solar-Fire-Phaeton-HexMirrors.jpg

This is how it SHOULD be done.

So yeah, everybody use what ya want...then waste time figuring out how to collaborate (*if* you ever collaborate that is).
I'll be out there pushing things forward...step by step:

http://www.instructables.com/id/HexaFrame-2x4-Shelter-1/

Sounds harsh? Ehh. It's a harsher world out there.
I can't wait for you to join me! Lots of work to be done.

[Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)]

How much does Ubetshelter cost per unit?

And, yes you'd be bonkers to use SketchUp for production engineering, but for visualization of possible buildings, it is great.

SketchUp gave me a free $500 licence around 2003. The drawings I did got me the $500 dropshipped hexacomb cardboard from Pactive and the tape from 3M.

SketchUp will always have a.special place in my heart.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040805133122/http://mindismoving.org/hexayurt/

You can see those original drawings at this link.

So, yeah, it's path dependence. We were with SketchUp at the beginning, and we are there still.

Vinay

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[KK]

On Oct 5, 1:08 pm, "Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)"

<hexay...@gmail.com> wrote:
> How much does Ubetshelter cost per unit?

Unknown. I emailed the creator directly and no response. His phone
number is in the .PDF brochures.
Was not on my front burner. I'll step up the bugging and see.

> So, yeah, it's path dependence. We were with SketchUp at the beginning, and
> we are there still.
>
> Vinay

Nothing to be ashamed of. It's a great program.
What else could even begin to take it's place? And why would you want
to change?
Easy worldwide design/collaboration in everybody's hands?
Priceless.

Best thing Google has funded...and they didn't even know it.

PS - Here is a great .PDF ebook on Sketchup for Woodworking (but
applies to everything in Sketch):
SketchUp Guide for Woodworkers by Tim Killen - Woodworking -
Techniques - eBook - Taunton Store - http://bit.ly/QQzl1T

"About the Author
Tim Killen is author of the popular SketchUp blog Design.Click.Build.
on FineWoodworking.com. He is a retired Bechtel Corporation executive
who worked in engineering and IT management. Killen grew up among
woodworking machinery in Centerville, Ohio, where both his father and
grandfather had woodshops. He specializes in 18th century reproduction
furniture. Killen has been using SketchUp for several years and builds
all his furniture on the computer first, before setting foot in the
shop. He also teaches SketchUp at local colleges."

It's a super clear guide to using Sketchup. Much better looking/detail
than your average computer book.
The author is an actual hands on craftsman.

[Chris Jeffries]

Sorry that I'm so late to this conversation, but it seems like you got a scolding for sharing this and I just wanted to say thanks. I don't even know what it looks like or does or anything but I really appreciate that you took the time to share it in the hopes that someone else might find it useful.

Naysayers be damned.

Best,

-Chris

On Sunday, September 2, 2012 1:47:49 PM UTC-4, KK wrote: