I was fortunate to have made my decision to pursue aviation as a career early in life. I attended Southern Illinois University, and graduated with a degree in aviation management with a minor in flight. I was also fortunate to have found a very demanding, “old school,” mentor that taught me to be an aviator, not just a pilot–A true master of the ‘craft.’ He was a passionate instructor that also instilled the joy of teaching in me.

Just like carpentry, it’s only after your education/apprenticeship ends (when you think you already know everything) that the REAL learning begins. I spent the next several years as an instructor building hours, and then several thousand flight hours working as a pilot for a commuter airline. It took a while, but I was finally able to land a job that had the potential to eventually pay the bills.

It’s not uncommon nowadays for me to fly with people who have become pilots as a second career. It’s a tough road, but the view out the window is always spectacular!

Good luck,

Todd

As one who frequently looks up, what was your path to piloting?

Barry

Thanks, and please don’t give up! Creating and using components plays a big part in making SketchUp useful and efficient. I’m actually working on an article devoted specifically to making and using components, and component libraries!

I’m curious about the distortion you mentioned when moving into 3-D. My first thought is that your “Camera” setting is set to “Parallel Projection.” That setting is normally used for printing 2-D drawings to scale and it can make perspective views look awkward. Click on the Camera menu, and make sure “Perspective” is selected (see attached jpeg). If that’s not the problem, feel free to post a screenshot, or your skp file here. I would be more than happy to help you get to the bottom of it!

Todd

Mike

Thanks, I’m glad you liked the article!

SketchUp works great for decks. It is a great design and problem solving tool for just about anything. That being said, it is not going to do all the work for you like a dedicated deck design program would. The good news is you can save components you have drawn once and use them to assemble future deck drawings. Google also has an ever-expanding “3-D warehouse” of free components you can download into your drawings.

There is a neat feature called “photo-match” that will allow you to incorporate your drawing into a photo of the job site. And, if you decide to buy a pro license, you can use your drawings in LayOut to put together scale drawings for plan submission.

Todd

[img]http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/deck[photomatch]-2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Deck[LayOut]-2.jpg[/img]