1

Using SketchUp

Mike Bailey
[email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
International License

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What is SketchUp?

SketchUp is a program which lets you sketch in 3D. It is excellent for

creating buildings, houses, and even mechanical designs.
And, it’s easy to do. As their tagline says, SketchUp is ”3D for Everyone”.
And, it can be downloaded for free!

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Getting SketchUp for Free

Go to:
http://www.sketchup.com

Follow the links to the free download

(see the next page).
There is also a SketchUp Pro which
costs money.

SketchUp comes in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and Mac OS X versions.

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Getting SketchUp for Free

1. Click here

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Getting SketchUp for Free

2. Then click here

This one
costs money

This one
is free

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Getting SketchUp for Free

3. Select the operating system

(Windows or Mac)
4. Then click here

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SketchUp Student Learning Objectives

1. Learn that the computer can be used to enhance creativity. It’s not just
for nerds and gamers!
2. Learn that the computer can be used to design and plan.
3. Learn the basics of 3D interaction. This will have further application in
fields ranging from engineering CAD to art and animation.

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Getting Started

Double-click the SketchUp icon

or click:
Start →All Programs → SketchUp 8 →SketchUp

The start screen should look something like this:

This person is 5’ 9”
tall – this sets the
scale for what you are
about to create

Right now, click File→Save As – and hit Save often while you are editing
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Getting Started Toolbar

The icons across the top are really important:

Draw a Make
component Get
line current
Draw a Tape Push/ view
Place Share
circle measure pull Rotate Orbit Zoom model model

Select Draw a Erase Move/ Offset Pan Zoom Toggle Get

something box something Copy extents terrain models
Draw an Paint
arc bucket

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Large Toolset Toolbar
Select View→Toolbars→Large Tool Set
Select something Make component
Paint bucket Erase something

Draw a box Draw a line

Draw a circle Draw an arc

Draw a polygon Draw freehand

Move/Copy Push/pull
Rotate Follow me

Scale Offset

Tape measure Add dimensions

Protractor Add text

Reset the Axes Add 3D text

Orbit Pan
Zoom Zoom extents

Previous view Next view

Position camera Look around

Computer Graphics Walk Section plane

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The Views Toolbar

Select View→Toolbars→Views

3D Top Front Right Back Left

This is a very handy toolbar to have active

because it lets you change to a specific view of
your scene with one mouse click!

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SketchUp “Inferences”

One of SketchUp’s key strengths is that it doesn’t require you to enter

every little piece of information as many 3D computer programs do.
Instead, it tries to infer what you really mean by how you do things.
Oftentimes it uses colors to tell you what it is inferring.

• Green dots = Endpoints

• Red dots = On an edge
• Cyan dots = Midpoints of edges
• Blue dots = On a surface

• Red line = X axis

• Blue line = Y axis
• Green line = Z axis

• Magenta line = something is parallel or

perpendicular to an edge

• Hold SHIFT to capture and lock an

inference

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Axis Coordinate System

Y
This is the 3D coordinate
system that SketchUp uses.
This is called This is referred to as a Right-
The Origin Handed Coordinate System

X
• Red line = X axis
• Blue line = Y axis
Computer Graphics
• Green line = Z axis mjb – January 6, 2013
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Drawing a 2D Box

This is called Click on the Draw-a-

The Origin Box icon, then click on
the origin, and while
holding down the
mouse, drag in this
direction

We are going to build a

house, so make this square
You’ll end up with an appropriate size, given
something like this: that the person is almost
6 feet tall. Hint: also look
at the box in the lower-
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Notice the Bottom of the Screen

This is the
Measurement Toolbar, or
MTB

It is used to show you the

dimensions, size, angle, etc. that
you are currently setting

It can also be used to set exact values – just type

into it while you are sizing with the mouse. But, if
inputting length, be sure to use units: ’ for feet
and ” for inches.
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Extruding it into a 3D Box

Click on the Push/pull

icon, then click on the
box you just created,
and while holding
down the mouse, drag
in this direction

We are going to build a

house, so make this height
an appropriate size, given
that the person is almost
You’ll end up with 6 feet tall. . Hint: also
something like this: look at the VCB box in the
lower-right corner.

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Deleting an Object

1. Select the Select icon

2. Select the object to delete by dragging
a box around it with the cursor
3. Hit the Delete key (not Backspace)

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Adding more detail to an existing face

Click on the Draw-a-circle icon, then

click on one face of the 3D solid you
just created, and while holding down
the mouse, drag in some direction

Click on the Push/pull

icon, then click on the
circle you just created,
and while holding
down the mouse, drag
in this direction

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An outie or an innie :-)

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The difference between pushing a hole and cutting a hole

If you push the circle in, If you erase the circle by

you get a tunnel with clicking on the circle, then
walls and a back face hitting Delete (not
Backspace), you get a
window cut in the wall.

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Want to see it from a different view?

Click on the Orbit or Pan icon, then click

in the scene, and while holding down the
mouse, drag in some direction

You can also Orbit by pushing down

on the middle button on the mouse.
On many mice, the middle button is
also the scroll wheel.
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Want to zoom in?

The Zoom extents icon will

zoom in as much as possible
without making any of your
object disappear off the
screen

The Zoom icon will allow you

to zoom as much or as little
as you want

You can also Zoom in and out with

the scroll wheel on the mouse

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Controlling the SketchUp Camera with a 3D Input Device

The systems in the Oregon State

University Computer Graphics
Education Lab (CGEL) are each
equipped with a 3D input device
called a Space Navigator (from a
company called 3DConnexion).
They come with a SketchUp plug-in
that allows them to be used to move
the camera all around.

Try it! Gently push and twist the black

rubber handle and see what happens.
Do it slowly and gently.

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Let’s give it a roof

Click the Draw-a-Line icon to

draw a line across the top of the
solid. But, you want the line to
go midpoint-to-midpoint, which is
a good place to raise the roof line
from.

So, before clicking to draw the

line, slide the pencil back and
forth until the cyan dot appears,
indicating that you’ve found this
edge’s midpoint,.

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Let’s give it a roof

Now click on the Move/copy

icon, then click on the line
you just drew, and drag
upwards

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Want to bevel the edge of the roof?

1. Draw a line here

2. Move the point at the tip
of the roof

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Want to make it look more interesting?

Click Window→Materials

1. Click on a category
2. Click on a specific color or
pattern
3. Click on the surface(s)
you want to apply it to.

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Pure colors are considered Materials too

Click Window→Materials

1. Select Colors
2. Treat the color just like
you did the material

Scroll up and down to

get more colors

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Dimensions

Click Tools→Dimensions

1. Click on an edge
2. Drag where you want the
dimension to be drawn

Dimensions are useful if

you are giving your design
to someone so that they
can build it

1. Click on the
circumference of a circle
2. Drag where you want the
dimension to be drawn

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Adding Windows

Click Windows→Components

Click Large Thumbnails

Click Architecture
Click Windows

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Adding Windows

Drag a window type onto a wall of

the house

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Adding Landscape Components

Click Window→Components

Click Landscape

Click DC Landscape

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Adding Landscape Components

Click Dynamic Pine Tree

Drag it into the scene where you

want it

To release it, click on the black

Select Arrow icon and then click
in some empty spot in the scene

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Moving and Copying

1. Select the Select icon

2. Select the object to move
3. Click the Move icon
4. Move the object
5. Holding down the Control
key will result in a Copy
instead of a Move

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Scaling

1. Select the Select icon

2. Select the object to scale
3. Select Tools→Scale or click
the Scale icon in the Large
Toolset toolbar
4. Grab a grip point and scale
the object

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Styles
Click Window→Styles

Select Default Styles

Click on the style you want

Earth Modeling – adds

grass and sky

Shaded with textures

(this one is good)

Wireframe X-ray
The X-ray style is good to use
if you want to see and place
Simple Style -- objects inside a structure
this one is good

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Try Some of the Assorted Styles – They’re Fun!

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Tell SketchUp Where in the World you Are

Click Window→Model Info→Location

Wow! SketchUp
even knows about
Corvallis!

This sets your

latitude

You care about setting your latitude because SketchUp also lets you . . .

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Setting Shadows in SketchUp

Click Window→Shadows

Set time of day and day of year

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Projections

Click Camera→Perspective
Click Camera→Parallel Projection
“Vanishing Point”
In perspective, things get smaller
as they get farther away, which
is more realistic. In parallel, they
don’t. But parallel helps you see
if front and back faces line up.

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Exporting an Image File

Click File→Export →2D Graphic

Your image can be exported in

one of 4 formats:
1. BMP
Web browsers all
2. JPEG know about this
format
3. TIF
4. PNG

You would do this, for example, to email

someone an image of your scene, to import it
into a document, or to put it on your website
You can also export the 3D scene, but in
the free version, only to Google Earth
format. For more 3D formats, you need
the Pro version.
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Other Cool Things you can

do with SketchUp

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Changing the Person’s Clothing

The person in the default

scene is a SketchUp
“Component”, that is, he is a
group of geometry collected
together. To change his
clothing, you need to first
break, or “Explode”, the
collection apart.

Even easier, right-click on

the person and select
Explode from the pop-up
menu.

After that, you can click on Window→Materials and re-color

or re-pattern the clothing

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Creating Groups

Sometimes you would like to collect several pieces of geometry

together and be able to treat them as a single unit. This is
called a SketchUp Group.

Create a SketchUp Group by first clicking on the Select icon.

Then, click on the first object you want in the Group. It will turn
blue.

Then, hold down the Shift key and click on all other objects you
want in the group. They will also turn blue. If you select the
wrong item, just click it again to un-select it.

You can select many things at once by creating a rectangle

around all of them with the Select cursor.

When you are done, right-click and select Make Group from
the pop-up menu.

To ungroup the objects, right click on them and select Explode

from the pop-up menu.

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Hiding Geometry

Sometimes it would be nice to

temporarily eliminate some
geometry so that you could see
inside something. This is referred
to as Hiding.

To hide one or more pieces of

geometry, select all of them as if
you were about to create a group.

Then, right-click and select Hide

from the pop-up menu. The
selected objects look like they are
gone, but they aren’t. They’re just
hidden.

This is useful for putting things into

an object (such as furniture) or for
editing the object (as is needed
here).

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Un-Hiding Geometry

There are two ways to bring back hidden

geometry.

The first is to select

Edit→Unhide→All, like this:

The second is to select

View→Hidden Geometry. This will
make hidden geometry show up like this:
From there, you can right-click on it and
select Unhide from the pop-up menu.

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Eliminating Geometry

Sometimes extruding geometry results

in it existing places it shouldn’t.

To eliminate any geometry, take the

Eraser tool and click on the edges of
the geometry you want to eliminate.

As soon as an edge of a surface has

been eliminated, the surface will
disappear too.

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Move Tricks

You can turn the Move into a Copy by

holding down the Control key.

You can force the Move/Copy to move along one of the

3 axes (red, green, or blue) by holding down one of the
arrow keys as follows:

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Adding 3D Text

1. Click on Tools→3D Text

2. Type the text into the dialog box
3. Make any text settings you want
4. Place the text by clicking on an object

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Rotating an Object

1. Select the entire object

2. Click on the Rotate Tool
3. Click the Protractor onto the object
4. Rotate the Protractor with the mouse
to align it with something (e.g., a key
point) -- click when ready.
5. Rotate the object. Click when done.

Once you’ve started

rotating, you can
also type in an exact
angle into the
Measurement
Toolbar (MTB)

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A Rotation Trick
We want to rotate this group by 180º (i.e., we want to flip it
over). To do this, we want the rotation protractor to be vertical.

But we can’t get this, because the inference engine

can only find a horizontal surface to latch onto

So we move over to another object

that has vertical walls, or we make a
dummy box, and get the inference
engine to latch the protractor onto a
vertical surface, and hold down the
Shift Key to lock it

We then proceed to use the

protractor on the original object.

Now rotate that object 180º, and then

delete the dummy box
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An Interesting Use for Rotation -- Building a Real Model from Paper!

Start with a model. “Boxy” models with

flat faces work best.

For each face:

1. Select the face and its edges by double-
clicking on the face
2. Right-click the mouse to bring up the
menu and select Make Group

By doing this for each face, you are

separating each face and its edges
from the rest of the model so they
can be rotated independently.

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An Interesting Use for Rotation -- Building a Real Model from Paper!

Now, for each face, select it (and

other unfolded faces attached to it)
and use the Rotate function to
“unfold” it with respect to the face next
to it, or with respect to the ground

At times, you might have to select

multiple faces (hold down the Shift
key and click on each one), so that
they can Rotate together.

This is sometimes easier in a

Parallel view (Camera→Parallel
Projection )
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An Interesting Use for Rotation -- Building a Real Model from Paper!

Print the unfolded scene from the

bottom view (you might have to select
all faces and rotate them over
together), and then fold them up into a
real object.

These tabs were added to make the object

easier to glue together.
This was a pretty sloppy job, but you get
the point…
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Rotating a Face

Strange as it may seem, you can also

rotate just a face. Follow the same
procedure, but select only the face.

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Scaling an Object

1. Select an object
2. Select Tools→Scale
3. Move the grips with the mouse
4. Hold down the Control key if you
want scaling about the object’s
center

Moving a side grip

will stretch the
object in that
direction. Moving a
diagonal grip will
scale the object
equally in all
directions (“uniform
scaling”)
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You can also scale just a face

1. Select a face
2. Select Tools→Scale
3. Move the grips with the mouse
4. Hold down the Control key if you
want scaling about the object’s
center

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Sectioning an Object

1. Select an object
2. Select Tools→Section Plane
3. Select the section plane
4. Use the Move Tool to slide it into
the object

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Drawing an Arc

1. Click on the Arc Tool

2. Select two points for the chord
3. Select a third point that shows
SketchUp where to “bulge” the arc

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Arcs are Often used to Round Corners

1. Click on both edges

surrounding a corner. The
line will turn purple when you
are the same distance from
the corner.
2. When you place the third
point, the inference engine
will also tell you when the arc
is tangent to (aligned with)
the edges.

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Want to create Crown Molding?

Draw an arc in the corner

Click Tools→Follow Me

Click on the arc area

Move the cursor along the

perimeter – don’t click again
until you are done with the
full path

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Another use for Follow Me – make a Sphere

1. Create a circle
2. Copy the circle using the Move Tool with the
Control key held down
3. Rotate the top circle 90º
4. Select the bottom circle, select Tools→Follow
Me, and select the top circle
5. Erase the bottom circle and Delete it

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Offsetting a Surface

1. Click on the Offset Tool

2. Select the surface to offset on
3. Move the mouse to show how
much to offset – click when ready
4. This only creates offset edges –
you need to use the Push-Pull Tool
to do something with it.

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Combining Several Techniques:
Making a Swimming Pool

Start by creating a rectangle on the floor

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 Use the Arc Tool and the Erase Tool 65
to Create 4 Arcs to Round the Corners

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 Use the Push/Pull Tool to Lift it into 3D 66

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 Use the Offset Tool to Create an Inner Edge 67

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 Use the Push/Pull Tool to Push the Middle Down 68

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to Copy the Floor of the Pool and Raise it Up

This will become the water surface

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 Select Window→Materials→Tile to Apply a Surface to Your Pool 70
If you hold down the Control Key when adding the tile
pattern, it will apply it to all surfaces, not just one. This
saves you a lot of time.

This isn’t right – the top surface of the water is

currently tile instead. We’ll fix this next.

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 Select Window→Materials→Water and click on the top surface to 71
change it to water

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 Make the Water Surface Translucent 72

In the Materials→Water dialog box, click on the Edit tab.

Then lower the Opacity until the water surface looks properly translucent.

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 Adding Fog 73

This brings up the Fog dialog box

Click Window→Fog
Click here to turn the fog feature on

This slider adjusts how far in

front of your eye the fog starts.
Items closer to you than this
will not be fogged at all.
This slider adjusts how far in
front of your eye the fog
completely hides your scene.
Items farther away than this
will not be visible at all.

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Adding a Vertical Chimney to a Sloped Roof

1. Draw a line along the roof using

the pencil tool. SketchUp’s
inference engine will try to force it
to be parallel to an axis. Let it do
that.

2. Select the line you just drew. Use

the Move/Copy icon with the
Control Key held down to lift it up
in the air. (The Control key will
force it to do a Copy.) Wiggle it a
little bit until you get the phrase
“On Blue Axis” to appear. This
indicates that you are lifting it
straight up.

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Adding a Vertical Chimney to a Sloped Roof

3. Draw lines using the pencil tool

from the ends of this new line to
the face of the roof. SketchUp will
tell you when you are there. Be
sure the line is a color (red in this
case) to indicate that you are
parallel to an axis.

4. Using the pencil tool, connect up

all the points to form edges. You
should have 9 lines in all. (Don’t
forget to look at the back of the
chimney.) SketchUp will turn the
edges into faces as you complete
them. There should be 4 faces in
all.

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Adding a Vertical Chimney to a Sloped Roof

5. Use the Push/Pull tool to lift the

top surface.

6. Use the Offset tool to make an

inner surface on that top surface.

7. Use the Push/Pull tool to push that

inner surface down.

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Adding a Vertical Chimney to a Sloped Roof

8. Add whatever Window→Material

decoration you want

9. Get rid of the excess chimney under

the roof by hiding an end face and
erasing those edges. (See previous
sections.)

10. Unhide the end face when you are

done

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Subtracting one Surface from Another

1. Create two objects

2. Use the Move Tool to overlap them
3. Select both objects
4. Select Edit→Intersect→Intersect
with Model
5. Erase the surfaces and lines you don’t
need

Note the difference

in edges

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Creating a Flying Animation
To create an animation:
1. Create a view of the scene
2. Select View→Animation→Add Scene
3. Create a different view
4. Select View→Animation→Add Scene
5. . . .

As you add scenes, SketchUp will list

To play the full animation: them. You can click on any of them to
1. Select View→Animation→Play get back to that view.
2. Pause or stop the scene with these buttons

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Animation Settings

Set how long each scene transition lasts

How long to wait before starting the animation

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Exporting Your Animation

To save an animation to a file:

1. Select File→Export→Animation
2. Save as an AVI file

To play the animation file:

Double-click on your AVI file

To import your animation into PowerPoint:

1. Select Insert→Movies and Sounds→Movie from File
2. Double-click on the image when editing the slide
3. Click on the image in Slide Show mode

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Making SketchUp Work

with Google Earth

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What if you want to show your creation . . .

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. . . where it really belongs on the Earth?

The tacky proposed

“Dimple Hill Beacon”

Corvallis, Oregon, USA

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Steps

1. Launch Google Earth

2. Navigate to where you want your model to go

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Navigating

Type in a city name or street

address here

Rotate the scene CW and CCW (the right

mouse button also does this, plus zooming)

Pan the scene (the left mouse button also

does this)

Zoom the scene (the mouse scroll wheel

also does this)

Plus, the middle mouse button will rotate

the scene to change from a top-down view
to a 3D view

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Flying to “Corvallis, OR” and Getting a 3D View

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Next Step: Navigate to a Top-down View of Where you
want to put Your Structure

Dimple Hill, OR

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Over in SketchUp, click on the Get Current View Icon

This brings a grayscale

version of the Google
Earth scene into SketchUp

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SketchUp Menu Icons Related to Google Earth

Get Get
current models Get current view – copy the Google Earth
view
Place scene into SketchUp
model

Toggle terrain – change the terrain in

SketchUp from flat to 3D and back again

Place model – send your model back to

Google Earth to see how it looks

Get models – Get 3D models that others

have created
Toggle Share
terrain model
Share models -- Publish the model so that
others who use Google Earth can get them
too (you need a Google account to do this)

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Use SketchUp to Draw a New Model, or File→Import an Existing One

Then, use Place model

to ship it back to
Google Earth

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Placing the Model

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In Google Earth, select File→Save →Save image to write an image file
of this scene, suitable for displaying on a web page or a poster

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In Google Earth, you can also turn on the 3D Buildings layer to see
what other buildings people have published – this is really fun

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If you want to be seriously awed,
Fly To Washington, DC or New York City
and turn the 3D Buildings on

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Marking GIS Areas with

SketchUp and Google Earth

Outlining the meadow

area of Dimple Hill

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In Google Earth, Navigate to Where you Want to Be

Dimple Hill, Oregon

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Fire Up SketchUp, and Import the Google Earth Image

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Get a Top-Down View
(You might have to hit Zoom Extents to Center the View)

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Using the Line Tool, Click Multiple Times to Draw a Connected Series
of Lines Around the Dimple Hill Meadow Area

The outline will be a little

hard to see because the
lines are black and the
background is gray. Oh well.

Be sure the last point you

click matches the point you
started with. SketchUp will
help you do this by popping
up the Endpoint inference.
Click there . . .

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Use the Line Tool, Click Multiple Times to Draw a Line Around the
Dimple Hill Meadow Area

. . . to form a polygon.

You can tell that a polygon

has been formed because it
will color the inside, like this.

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Use the Push-Pull Tool to Lift the Polygon into 3D

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Turn the Google Earth Terrain into 3D, Sweep over the Entire 3D Box with the
Selection Tool, then use the Move Tool to Push the Building Down into the Terrain

You might have to hold the Down

Arrow key to force the
movement to be along the
vertical (blue) axis only.

You also might need to Push-Pull

the top of the box higher.

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Select Window → Material → Colors and Pick a Nice Color for the Box.
Holding down the Control Key, click the Paint Brush on the Box

You hold down the Control Key

when you click the paint bucket
on your box so that it will color
all the faces connected to the
one face that you click.

Otherwise, you will need to click

the paint bucket on each face
individually. Yuch.

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While We’re at it, Click on the Edit Tab and Adjust the Opacity of the Colored Box

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If you want to make the Box Look “Softer”(like it is made from Jello),
Right-Click on the Box and Select Soften/Smooth Edges, then Adjust These Two
Controls

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Now, Send your Box Back to Google Earth

If Google Earth has changed

your height exaggeration, go to:

Tools → Options

and change the Elevation

Exaggeration back to 1.0

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Good SketchUp Web Links
These Notes
http://cs.oregonstate.edu/~mjb/sketchup

General SketchUp Site

http://sketchup.google.com

Download SketchUp Models

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse

Tips and Tricks

http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/search/label/Tips%20and%20Tricks

Step-by-Step SketchUp Examples

http://www.3dvinci.net/teacherguide

SketchUp Blogs
http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com

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More Good SketchUp Web Links

Video Tutorials
http://sites.google.com/site/3dbasecamp2008

Developing Plug-ins (Advanced!)

http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp-Plugins-Dev/web/index.html
http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp-Plugins-Dev

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Reference Books

Bonnie Roskes, SketchUp 7 Hands On. Bonnie Roskes, Google SketchUp Cookbook.

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Other Examples
Hassan Sinky

OSU’s Reser Stadium

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Other Examples – the OSU 3D Campus Map Project
Kris Hemenway
Chris Wasco
Oliver Forral
Kelley Engineering Center

Kearney Hall

Clock
Tower Weniger Hall

Women’s Center

Milne Hall

Kidder Hall

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Computer Graphics mjb – January 6, 2013