Google SketchUp 101 Suzann Nordstrom -Sketch-up is in 3-D, Key concepts, The big idea (draw shapes and pull into 3-D objects!) Navigating “First select the Large tool set under View>toolbars>Large tool set� -Select tool You can select by clicking on them. One click will select the surface or the edges; double click will select the surface and the edges. Triple clicking will select all other connected geometry. You can also drag to select multiple objects. Dragging towards the left selects anything the window crosses. Dragging to the right selects only objects completely in the window. If you hold the shift key down you can select multiple objects one at a time or delete the selection one at a time.
-Orbit tool to look above, below or anywhere (press and hold the wheel to orbit) -Zoom tool (move wheel forward and back to zoom) -Pan- side to side and up and down (press and hold the wheel to orbit and hold shift key to pan)
Edges and Surfaces, very important to understand Everything you create in Sketch-up is either an edge or a surface
-Edges can exist on their own (there must be binding edges to create a surface) Rule 1 Draw a closed loop of edges to create a surface (You can heal a surface by completing the last edge using the pencil tool.) Rule 2 Your loop of edges must also be coplanar (must all be on the same plane) SketchUp snaps to the Red, Green and Blue axis The lines will turn color as they snap to each axis. - Inferring The ability to ask sketchup to align something with an existing line. Hover over the point you want to line up with then move back to your original line. SketchUp will show you a dotted line. Now you can draw the line. Inference points from or to a point we see a green dot indicating that it is an end point. The middle of a point is a cayenne point. Any other edge is shown with a red point. Where two edges cross is shown by a black dot. Always draw from existing edges, or (never draw edges across another edge.)
-surfaces cannot exist on their own
Modify Tools “First select the Large tool set under View>toolbars>Large tool set” -Paint Bucket tool will open a browser. Simply click on a material and click on the surfaces you want to put it on. You can also select multiple surfaces by holding the shift key down as you select each surface, click the surface again to deselect. Select will give you libraries, but you can select edit to change the color opacity and other settings. Click on the house icon and you will see all of the materials currently in use. The alt key will allow you to sample existing material to match.
-Eraser tool- Only affects edges, not surfaces, but if you erase a edge that creates a full surface, the surface will automatically disappear. Click on individual surfaces to erase them or hold your mouse clicks down to erase multiple edges. You can also hide or soften edges by holding the shift key. If you hold the control key, it will create a seamless soft edge.
-Rectangle tool Click once to start and once to end. You can create a rectangle on all planes. Do not allow rectangles to cross over other edges. You will see a faint diagonal line when you have achieved a perfect square, or a golden section. To be accurate with the rectangle begin drawing the rectangle at any given point, type in the dimensions (L,W) and enter.
-Line tool Click to start, click again as you change direction, and press the Esc. To to stop using any tool. As you draw the line, it will turn the color of the axis in which it is about to snap to (inferring.) To be accurate with the line, begin drawing the at any given point, type in the dimensions and enter. You can divide the line my right clicking>divide>slide you mouse along the edge to choose how many divisions. Click you mouse to accept.
-Circle/Polygon tool Click once for the center, pull and select again for the radius. You can type in an exact radius and press enter. You can type a number, followed by an s to create a polygon with a number of sides, and then enter. By default, the circle tool has 24 sides. If you want information on an existing shape>right click> click entity info>you can then change in the dialog box. The shapes will snap to a specific orientation by holding the shift key.
-Arc tool A three step process. Choose the two endpoints and pull out from the center to create the radius. To be accurate, begin pulling the radius, type in the dimensions and enter. Sketch up will also let you know by snapping or changing to a magenta color when you have a half circle and when you have chosen the point which is tangent to the other point. By default the arc has twelve sides, but if you want to change that (like in a bay window) you can type in the number of sides (3s) to do so. Much like the circle tool.
-Freehand tool Create freeform line. Again, be careful not to cross over other lines. This tool is not accurate. Good for site plan terrain. -Move tool can move endpoints, edges, surfaces, selected entities and grouped objects. First select an object or objects and then go to the move tool. You must select an object or multiple objects. It is best to start moving something by selecting it’s back lower corner so it does not sink into another object. Also use your inference directions. Move along an axis direction. This tool will also act as an Autofold and array as well
-Copy and Array (The item must be a component first) Start moving the object with the move tool and then press the control key. You can be accurate by typing a distance and then pressing the enter key. You also can press 10x for ten total copies after you have copied one. Press enter to accept. (To make an array, copy the object once, then type the number followed by an x or/ and press enter.) You can also copy using the rotate tool rather than the move tool to create a circular direction.
-Push pull tool is what SketchUp is all about. Will work on any flat shape, the tool will always pull and push in a perpendicular direction. You can pull and push to an exact dimension both imperial and metric by, start and action and type in a value for it and press enter. You can do this anytime with any tool. You can also infer with the pull push tool as well. If you push completely to the other side it will cut through as long as the planes are parallel.
-Rotate tool The icon will orient itself to and plane you are hovering over. Click once to set the rotation center, then you move your mouse away to set rotation base. This is the controlling arm you will use to rotate your object. You can reference other geometry as needed to be accurate. Click to finish the rotation. You can lock by holding the shift key so it will not attach to another plane.
-Follow me tool The follow mw tool needs two things, A shape and a path to follow the shape along. It will create geometry perpendicular to the path. Regardless of your original shape location, it will align itself and begin at the start of the path. You can create a shape and then select the surface and it will automatically create the entire path.
-Scale tool Used to resize objects. Grabbing a corner keeps from distorting the proportion. To scale accurately, is based on a percentage of the original object. Look at the scale box in the lower right hand corner. 2 is 200% or twice the size of the original. .5 is 50% or half its size. To scale from the center of an object, hold the ctrl key while scaling. To mirror an object, scale it in one direction, squashing the object until it reverses direction until the VCB value reads -1.
-Offset tool Click on any objects surface to offset in out. It will auto select. Offset works only on one flat surface at a time. The edges must be all connected and on the same plane. You can also click on a surface, type the exact value you need and press enter to be more accurate. You can also infer. If you double click on other surfaces you can offset the same amount on the following offset items.
-Tape Measure You can measure edges and distances. Create construction geometry/dashed guidelines click on the first point, type in the value and press enter. Construction lines can be erased with the eraser or go to edit, delete guides. Resize individual groups or the entire model by measuring it and then overriding the number.
-Dimensioning Click two points or click on an edge, pull away and click to finish. You can also dimension a radius of an arc or diameter of a circle. They are linked to the model. To control how dimensions are displayed, open the model info dialog box from the window menu, go to dimensions. You can change units under the units tab.
-Protractor tool Measures angles and in similar to the tape measure tool because it will create construction lines. Click first on the origin to fix the tool then pull up to the point you want to measure, you can see the values in the value control box. Click to finish to create a construction line. You can also create an exact value. Great to create roof slopes. Type 8:12 enter to get that exact slope.
-Text tool click in a blank area, type and click again to finish, this will not be connected to the object. You can use the move tool to move it around. For annotation, click on the object, move it away. Leader text will tell you something specific about a part of the object. You can change the text at any time. Right click on the text, go to entity info. If you move surfaces around the annotations will follow. Also if you go to window Menu>Model info>Text you can modify the text. Font option will allow you to change text. 3-d text tool- it is real geometry and is great for titles.
-Axes tool You will need to reorient a drawing you bring in from CAD because it will not align with the axis and you need to be able to trace over the image. Click once to place the axis, as you pull away you see the red axis following your curser, click again to place the red axis, then pull away again to place the blue and the green axis. Make sure blue is pointing upward
-Position Camera/Look around tool Position camera chooses your location and keeps eye height above 5’-6�you can also click from a person to an object it is looking at. You can also go to the camera menu>field of view>Bring your curser up and down to see the field of view change. The look around tool Looks all around your drawing from one position. -Walk tool From a constant eye height , upward to walk forward and downward to walk backwards. When you click and drag, you move through the model. Move side to side as well. T also has collision detection; it will take you up ramps and stairs. It will prevent you from walking through walls. Great for interiors. Hold the shift key down to raise or lower your eyelevel. Hold the control key to run. Hold aly\t key to walk through walls
Group Geometry or make a component 1. Group Geometry: Select all of the geometry you want to include, go to edit, make a group. Now the geometry will all behave as one. Later if we make copies, we can then manipulate the copies separately.
2. Make a component: Select all of the geometry you want to include and hit the component icon in the upper right hand corner of your tool box. Later if we make copies, we can then manipulate the copies together as one. You can only move rotate or scale after creating this component; you cannot push pull or manipulate the geometry. If you want to edit the component, you must right click, choose edit component. Make changes and then right click and close the component afterwards. In the window menu, you can find a component library where you will find all of your components. People can be found under components and you can access the google 3D warehouse though the components
Viewing your geometry as x-ray, wireframe, hidden line, shaded or monochromatic 1. View: Go to view>face style and choose x-ray, wireframe, hidden line, shaded or monochromatic. 2. Shadows: View> shadows, but realize that it slows it down, so turn it off on a regular basis.
Create scenes and movies 1 Scenes: You can use Scenes to save camera views, as well as several additional properties. For example, open a new model, change the view-move the camera by orbiting, panning, and zooming-and then click "Window" > "Scenes." Click the "+" button to add a new scene. Change the view by orbiting a little bit. Click the "Scene 1" scene (the "Scene 1" tab at the top). The view is returned to the position and zoom level determined by "Scene 1." You can update the properties that are saved on a scene. You can also add new Scenes, and then update each scene with different properties. As you move from one scene to the next, the view changes smoothly from the one set for the first scene to the one set for the second scene, and the different properties you saved for each scene are also enabled. You can use this to add a nice animation quality to the display of your model. To add a new Scene, right-click the "Scene 1" scene, and then click "Add." view). a. b. c. d. e. f.
The view (camera position, zoom, and field of
Shadow settings. Whether entities are hidden or displayed. Section planes. Drawing axes. Style Display Settings (display styles and edge effects). Layers.
Scenes only store properties, not geometry. There's only one instance of the geometry in a model, and all Scenes are simply views of that geometry. If you have a scene selected and draw some new geometry, you'll see the new geometry on every scene. The only things you can change from scene to scene are the properties that are stored. The easiest way to control scene properties is via the Scenes dialog box (open the "Window" menu, and then click "Scenes").When you add a new scene, it inherits all of the saved properties of the current scene. But if you're on existing scene and make change to any of the scene properties, you must update the scene in order to save the changes. You can also update other Scenes at the same time to save the same property changes to those Scenes as well. An important note: Components don't have Scenes. If you create a model with Scenes and share it in the 3D Warehouse, and then you download that model directly into a Sketch Up model, it comes in as a component. To be able to see and access Scenes, you must open the model in a new instance of Sketch Up, so it opens as a full model rather than as a component in a model: 2.
Creating an animation (AVI) file: You can place an AVI file in Windows Movie Maker. First, Create several scenes> Once you are happy with your scenes go to View>animation>play Then go to File>export>Animation.