Is learning 3D Design Software as Hard as It Appears?

[robert3985]

A few years ago, I decided I wanted to design N-scale telegraph pole arms that were designed from prototype arms along the Union Pacific's 70 mile double-track mainline between Ogden UT and Evanston WY, since this is what my layout is...from 1947 thru 1956.

After traveling along the old Lincoln Highway that borders the mainline closely from Echo to a couple of miles west of Wahsatch, I was able to easily find broken poles, wooden cross-arms, metal braces and various other pieces of hardware lying alongside the track in the weeds to get photographs and take accurate measurements.

Since I already had Sketchup loaded on my computer, with which I had verrrry lightly experimented with a few years earlier, and having a model train buddy who had used it to design project for the city he workd for, I decided I would use it to design my telegraph cross arms. 

I would consider my starting knowledge of Sketchup to be essentially zero, other than knowing I could draw a cross-section and extrude it to the proper length.

Having a cold Saturday with nothing to do as a day to get started on my little telegraph pole cross arm project, I started around 0930 by drawing the main cross arms in 1:1 scale (knowing that to get them to N-scale, all I needed to do was reduce them to 1:160), and referred constantly to various blogs and instructions I found online as I proceeded to each step.

After several refills on my diet Pepsi and taking a break for lunch and dinner, I completed the drawing mostly to my satisfaction after about 9 hours of actual work.  I was able to create a 3D model that I'm about 95% happy with.  Another couple of hours of work, and I'll be 100% happy.

The only CAD program that I'm well-versed in is Cadrail, and frankly I don't think my familiarity with it contributed to learning how to use Sketchup.

Since I didn't have a 3D printer at the time, nor could Shapeways print in translucent green, I did not continue onward with my Sketchup Crossarm model.  However, now that I have a 3D printer which definitely does print in both clear and translucent green, I'll be continuing onward with this project in the next few weeks.

Having heard that learning Sketchup was difficult, I was surprised at how easy it was to get this project to near completion in about a day of computer work...starting from zero.

I have other, different projects to print in the planning, and I don't see why Sketchup won't work for them, some of them involving what I would consider fairly complex curved surfaces. 

Photo (1) - Sketchup 3D model of N-scale telegraph pole cross arms:


Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Erik aka Ngineer]

I used Autocad for my work. As my career advanced, the CAD work became less and less, and I had to "manage" and listen to people, write reports and plan budgets and all that stuff. I decided to do some 3D modelling.
Like others have said here: it's not easy, it helps a lot if you have a goal. And start with a simple goal. My goal was to make some simple loads for the trains I had laying around in the attic since my son wanted to play with them.
Start with a simple goal and see where it takes you. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work at first. It takes a completely different approach than 2D drawing or scratch building. With scratch buiding you look at objects and see how you can make something out of them. In 3D design you look at objects and see how they're built up. The main body is likely built up from a box or cylinder, then you add something or cut off something. The next step is making a shape and extruding it.
For example: take a rectangular block, and add a low wedge on top. You have the beginnings of a transformer. Play with the dimensions to see what looks right. Add a thin box on the front and you have a door. A small box on top of that box, it looks like a door handle. etc etc