SketchUp basics

Every architect and interior designer needs to know how to use

SketchUp! The following is a primer:

1. The following changes have been made by us to the SketchUp default template
drawing (info for release 6.4.112, July, 2008); it is a drawing file called Triton.skp
and is saved in the T: drive under the folder “Sketchup.” When you start a new
drawing in SketchUp, it will look for the Triton.skp file and load it first. Believe me, it
is an improvement from the out-of-the box default template. If you are not working
from a Triton computer and want to set your default the same as ours, follow these
steps:
a. Delete the guy standing at 0,0,0 in the picture that comes up. To do this,
click on him with eraser tool.
b. Under the “Window” pull-down menu, under the “Preferences” then under the
“Extensions” line, check Utilities Tools and Sandbox Tools.
c. Under the “Window” pull-down menu, under the “Preferences” then under the
“Template” line, browse for the template file you want to start with when you
start a new drawing (“T:\Sketchup\Triton.skp”).
d. Install the following “browsers” from the “Window” pull-down menu:
i. Materials
ii. Components
iii. Styles
iv. Layers
e. Open the “Styles” browser by clicking on its bar at the top and select “Default
Styles” then the leftmost on the second row down (tool-tipped as “04 Shaded
with Textures.”
f. Under the “Window” pull-down menu, select Model Info.
i. Select “Dimensions.” Pick “Slash” for endpoints; pick the radio
button “Align to Dimension Line and then pick “Above” in the drop-
down box to the right of it.
ii. Select “Location” and pick Chicago, IL
iii. Select “Text” and under “Leader Lines” pick End Point “Open
Arrow” and “View Based;”
iv. Select “Units” and check “Force Display of 0””; Change “Enable
Angle Snapping” to 45 degrees.
v. Under the “Window” pull-down menu, select Shadows. Change to
today’s date; check “Display shadows” check box
g. Load the following toolbars from the “View” pull-down menu:
i. Getting Started
ii. Large Tool Set
iii. Face Style
iv. Google
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v. Layers
vi. Sections
vii. Shadows
viii. Standard
ix. Views
x. Walk Through
xi. Sandbox
xii. Large Buttons
h. Turn “Parallel Projection” on from the “Camera” pull-down menu (that will
turn “perspective” off).
i. Open the “Layers” browser and create the following layers: wall, roof,
ground, trees, text and dimensions, to start so these can be turned off and
on. You can always create more layers later.

2. Draw line: use the pencil tool; draw in X (green) or Y (red) or Z (blue) direction; if
you want to make exactly 20’-6” long, pick the start point, then point the cursor in
the direction you want to the end point to be located then type in 20’6 on the
keyboard . Note that the native units of SketchUp are inches, just like AutoCAD, in
other words, if you type a distance of 100 and do not put the foot symbol after it (‘)
it will be interpreted by SketchUp as 100 inches.

At any time while you are drawing an entity, for example, a line or rectangle, you can
type the dimensions in the "VCB" box and the entity will be drawn to those dimensions.
For example:

• If you want to draw a line that is 9 feet 6 inches long, start to draw the line in the
direction you want, then type: 9' 6" (you don't need to click in the "VCB" box in
order to type in it, just start typing), and then press Enter.
• If you want to draw a rectangle that is 6 feet 6 inches wide by 4 feet 6 inches
deep, begin to draw the rectangle, type: 6' 6", 4' 6" (again, you don't need to type
in the "VCB" box), and then press Enter.

3. As you draw lines when a start or end point of the line aligns with another point,
SketchUp will signal graphically by drawing a red, green or blue line from point to
point – like the illustration below:
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4. To get SketchUp models from the SketchUp “Warehouse,” go to the Internet, then
go to http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse ; when you have selected a file to
download, choose “Save to SketchUp” and save to your network drive and folder.

5. To import a SketchUp file into your current drawing file, go to File pull-down, then
“Import” then select a SketchUp file, navigate to where you saved the file and
select it; place it in the open SketchUp drawing file.

6. To move, scale or rotate an object, first select it using the select tool

      
 
Then pick the “Move” or “Rotate” or “Scale” tool:

 
 
7. To unselect an object, hit the Esc key on the keyboard.

8. To lengthen a line, click on the Move tool, click on the end of the line you want to
lengthen (there will be a green grip appear) and move it to a new location.
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9. Saving: pick the Save icon or select File and then Save. The first time you save
you will be prompted for a name for the file as well as a location in which to save it.

10. To draw roads:

a. Start with a large rectangle, which will be the ground plane
b. Draw lines on it 25’ apart.
c. Connect the corners
d. Draw an arc at each intersection
e. Erase the excess
f. Make closed at ends to turn into a plane
g. Extrude 3’ vertically down. (I know this is too large of a curb height, but we
want to make a visible depth to the road).

11. How to make a gable roof:

a. Draw a rectangle
b. Extrude it vertically
c. Draw a line down midpoint of one top edge to the other
d. Use the Move command to drag that line vertically (along the blue axis)

12. How to make a hip roof

a. Draw a rectangle
b. Extrude it vertically
c. Draw a line down midpoint of one top edge to the other

d. Draw a square from one corner to the line

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e. Draw the diagonal of the square (45 degrees)

f. Draw the other diagonal (45 degrees)

g. Erase the square

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h. Repeat on the other side

i. Grab the top ridge with the Move tool and move up (along the Blue axis)
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j. Bob’s your Uncle

13. Creating Multiple Copies (Linear Arrays)

a. The Move Tool can be used to create arrays, or a series of copies of
geometry. To create multiple copies of one or more entities:
b. Select the Select Tool. The cursor will change to an arrow.
c. Select the entities to be copied.
d. Select the Move Tool.
e. Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard. This action informs SketchUp
that you want to duplicate the selected entities.
f. Click on the selected entities to copy.
g. Move your mouse to copy the entities. A copy of the selected entities will
follow as you move your mouse.
h. Click at the destination point to finish your copy operation. The copied
entities are now selected and the original entities are deselected.
i. Type a multiplier value to create additional multiple copies. For example,
typing in 2x (or *2) will create one additional copy (or 2 copies total, the one
you manually copied plus one you automatically copied using this step)
instead of just one.
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14. FollowMe Tool

a. Draw a rectangle 30’ in the X direction and 40’ in the Y direction.

b. Pull it up 6’

c. Draw a line 6” up and 12” to right to form the first riser and tread.
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d. Copy these two lines by selecting them first, then select the move command,
and pick the first point as the bottom of the riser, the press and hold the
control key down and pick the right end of the horizontal line, then type x11.
This will array the steps 11 times.

e. Note that the top portion of the cube can now be pushed and pulled
separately from the bottom. That is required to use the FollowMe tool.
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f. Select the FollowMe tool.

g. Place the cursor over the top part of the cube above the steps and click with
left button.
h. Place the cursor and follow it along the top edge of the cube – you will see
the edge line turn red.
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i. Follow all along the left and far edge:

j. This is the result:

k. You could follow it all the way around if you had enough width to do stairs all
around.
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l. Pretty cool – this takes some practice. So go ahead, practice!

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15. Toolbar:
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Shading and view commands:

Question: Why is my model being clipped and sliced as I rotate or zoom in?

This is a known glitch in the software called Camera Clipping Plane. First, don't worry;
although it can be distracting, this doesn't cause any actual damage to your model.

There are several situations in which you might encounter this:

• One is when the field of view (FOV) is set very wide. You can adjust the FOV between 1
and 120 degrees (the default is 35 degrees in Google SketchUp and 30 degrees in
SketchUp Pro). It's easy to unintentionally change the FOV by pressing the Shift key
while you are zooming in or out using the Zoom tool.
• Another situation that can cause clipping is when the Perspective camera mode is
turned off. In that case, click the "Zoom Extents" button (it looks like a magnifying glass
with four red arrows pointing outward). The camera zooms out to display the entire
model, and the clipping is eliminated.
• Another situation is when the scale of your model is very small or very large. In this
case, you can change the scale of your model.
• This can also happen if your model is very far away from the origin point (the point
where the red, green, and blue axes intersect). In that case, you can move your model
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closer to the origin point. To do this: select all of the geometry in your model, use the
Move tool to grab a corner point of the selected geometry that is on the ground plane,
start to move the selected geometry, and then type "[0,0,0]" (including the square
brackets) in the "Value Control Box" (which is in the lower-right corner of the SketchUp
window). This causes the selected point to be moved to the origin point.

I have found that the easiest way to fix it is to simply Zoom Extents
(Camera, Zoom-Extents, or Ctrl-Shift-E)

Question: How do I Change the scale of an entire model?

If you have drawn a model composed of many entities, for example, an entire house
made of many edges, faces, and other entities, and then want to change the scale of
the entire model, there's an easy way to do this:

1. Pick an individual entity that you can use as a reference, for example, an edge
that is about six feet long, but that you know you want to be exactly nine feet
long.
2. Select the Tape Measure tool and measure that edge from beginning to end. You
should see 6' displayed in the "VCB."
3. Type the length you want the edge to be, 9', and then press Enter.
4. A message asks, "Do you want to resize the model?" Click "Yes" to resize the
entire model.