Sketchup Topics Covered
Crash course in Sketchup
How to Use Sketchup
Great Sketchup Cheat-Sheet
What is Sketchup?
Sketchup began in 2000 as a “3d for everyone” tool. In the last ten years it has been bought by Google and transformed into one of the most well known and user friendly modeling tools in the design industry. The following list is a great tool if you’re a beginner to print out and leave beside your computer as you embark on your first model. Included is a list of basic commands that will have you drawing in no time. Good luck!
This will be a “Get to know your keyboard commands” tutorial, because I firmly believe in using the keyboard rather than the mouse if at all possible. You will notice a toolbar at the top of the screen and if you mouse over the icons, a box will appear and tell you what the command does. If you are more comfortable using the mouse, familiarize yourself with the names of the icons at the top of the page.
First things first:
Use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out of your model. Press and hold the scroll wheel while moving the cursor around the screen to pan around and see different areas of the model.
Now:
“L”
Type the letter “L” after opening a new document. Click and release anywhere on the screen. You have begun drawing a line. You will notice a box in the lower right corner of the Sketchup window that says “Length” and has an empty readout that changes as you move your mouse around the screen. If you want to draw a line with a specific dimension, say 10 feet, type “10′” or “120″. There is no need to click on the empty box to type these dimensions. Simply click to begin your line, use the cursor to point the line in the direction you wish to draw, and type the desired length. After entering 10′ or 120, press enter. Voila! Line drawn.
Handy Tip: Perhaps you noticed as you aimed the line in the direction you wanted it, that the line has a tendency to jump to the red, blue or green axes on your screen. These are the X, Y and Z planes, and it’s typical to use them as a guide for drawing orthogonal objects.
Next:
“R”
Type the letter “R”. Click and release anywhere on the screen, where you’d like the beginning of your rectangle to be. Similar to drawing a line, pull the rectangle in the direction you’d like it to be drawn. You’ll see a rectangle outline, and you’ll notice in the lower right box on the screen that you have a set of X and Y values. If you want to draw a wall for example that is 6″ thick and 24″ long, type “6,24″ or “24,6″, depending on where you want the short and long side of the rectangle to be. Press enter after typing in your desired size, and there is your rectangle.
Now pay attention. Here is the most important thing you will learn in Sketchup. Try drawing two overlapping rectangles. Now click inside either of the rectangles. You’ll notice that instead of two separate rectangles with two separate faces (blue shaded areas), the two are treated like one object, and their face is divided based on the bounding lines of the rectangle.
Draw another rectangle that doesn’t touch either of the first two. Now double click in the shaded area created by the rectangle. The shaded area will become highlighted with tiny blue dots, and each of the four edges of the shape will be highlighted in a thick blue line. This means all the components of the shape are selected. Right click and select the “Make Group” command. These five pieces (face and four edges) are now one bundled package.
Draw another rectangle overlapping this new “grouped” rectangle. Double click on the shaded area created by the new rectangle. Notice that the new rectangle is independent of the grouped rectangle. The faces no longer cut into or interfere with each other even though the objects are touching. Group this second rectangle. Now, a single click anywhere on either rectangle will select the object (face and four edges).
“M”
Type the letter “M”. Click one of the grouped rectangles. It will become highlighted. Move your mouse pointer to any part of the rectangle’s edge. You will notice the purple dot “snaps” to the corners of the object. Go ahead and click and release on any of the corners. You are now holding the rectangle and can move it anywhere in the X, Y or Z plane. Try moving it near the corner of the other grouped rectangle. You will notice that Sketchup thinks you might want to match the rectangle perfectly with the other rectangle’s corner when you come close with the cursor. It will snap to any nearby object. Simply click on the corner or edge of the object you’d like to move it to. Additionally, if you want to move the object a certain distance in any direction, click and release the object after typing “M” for the move command, and type the distance (for example 50, for 50 inches) letting the cursor determine the direction in which the object is to be moved. Press enter and the object will move that distance.
“C”
Type the letter “C”. Click and release the cursor to place the center of your circle where you’d like it. Similar to the rectangle command, you can specify the size of the circle by clicking or by typing the radius desired.
“Q”
Select an object that needs to be rotated. Type the letter “Q”. Snap your cursor to the pivot point you wish the object to rotate on. Click and release. Move your cursor anywhere else (along one of the axes that the cursor snaps to is easiest) and click and release. Now you’ll notice that when you move the cursor around the screen, the object rotates on the pivot point specified. Click where you’d like to rotate the object to, or simply type an angle while the command is active (you’ll see the digits appear in the lower right box) and press enter.
“P”
After you’ve drawn a shape using “R”, “C”, or the “L” tool, make it into a group by selecting its face and edge components and rick clicking the mouse. Select “Make Group” as I instructed earlier. Now in order to edit that object you need to first make it active. Double click anywhere on the grouped object. You’ll notice that the screen zeroes in on that object, outlining it with a dashed 3D box. Now type “P” and click the face of the object. Move your cursor to push the object up or down. This is how to draw 3D shapes in Sketchup. Again, you can click and release the mouse button and move the cursor all over the screen to make the object the desired size, or after clicking and releasing the face of the object, move the cursor in the direction you want to pull the object and then type in your desired height. You’ll see the numbers appear in that lower right corner box. Press enter.
In order to back-out of the group that is being edited, click anywhere on the screen outside of the dashed box. The object will lose its dashed highlighted 3D box and you will be free to access other shapes on the screen for editing.
This is a basic guide to allow you to start drawing, grouping and extruding (“P” push tool) objects. Continue to the Sketchup Intermediate guide.
Move on to the Sketchup Intermediate Guide for tips and a quick cheat-sheet.
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