SketchUp Basics: Line, Rectangle, Push/Pull

Line • Auto detect (the default) enables both methods,

depending on how you use your mouse.
This tool creates lines, or edges in SketchUp terminology.
Edges typically surround a face, but can also be 4. We want to enable both methods, so make sure Auto
free-standing. A face is created when edges (or other detect is chosen. Also, be sure Continue line
objects such as arcs, circles, or polygons) lie in the same drawing is checked, in order to automatically start a
plane and form a closed boundary. new line after completing a line. (If this is not
checked, you’ll create lines one at a time.)
1. Open a new file in SketchUp. If you are not in Top
view, choose Camera / Standard Views / Top, or
click this icon on the Views toolbar:

You are looking down at the red-green plane, and the

blue axis (vertical) is pointing toward you. “Top” 5. Close the Preferences.
should be indicated at the top left.
6. To see how to control edge color, open the Styles
window. On the PC, this window is part of the default
tray; if you don’t see it choose Window / Default
Tray / Styles. On the Mac, choose Window / Styles.
Open the Edit tab and the Edge settings; edge color
is set at the bottom. By default, the color is black.
2. If you don’t see the red and green drawing axes,
choose View / Axes. (This is a toggle function - it can
also turn the axes off.)
3. To control the way lines are drawn, open the
Preferences window (Window / Preferences, Mac:
SketchUp / Preferences). Open the Drawing page.

Three settings here affect how lines are created:

• Click-drag-release uses a mouse drag to create lines
(not the most efficient way to work).
• Click-move-click will define a line by two points
clicked separately.

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7. Click Line, or choose Draw / Lines / Line. Or press 12. The next endpoint is to be located directly above the
the L shortcut key. midpoint of the first line. Hover over this point; the
midpoint is indicated by a cyan dot. Do not click yet.

8. Click to place the first point anywhere (but not on the

origin), release the mouse button, then move the 13. Move the cursor up in the green direction from this
cursor to the right. The On Red Axis inference tells point, and click to place the next point.
you that the line will be parallel to the red axis.

9. Look in the lower right corner, where the Length

field tells you how long your line is, in the model’s 14. Move the cursor until you see the Perpendicular to
default units. Edge inference. The preview line, and the line to
which it is parallel, are magenta. (The perpendicular
constraint is always available relative to the last line
10. Click to place the second point. you drew, but you can also make lines parallel to any
other existing line in your model.) Click to place the
next point, trying to maintain the general proportions
TIP: You could also click the first point, keep the mouse button
shown below.
pressed, drag to the second point, and release the mouse
button. Though it’s almost always better practice in SketchUp to
use a click-release-click movement, this sometimes provides
more flexibility.

11. Because Continue line drawing is the current

drawing setting, you immediately start a new line.
Place the next point in the green direction, straight up
from the last point.
NOTE: You can change the default magenta constraint color, as
well as other UI colors, in the Preferences.

15. Make the next line perpendicular from the last line,
stopping when the red direction constraint appears
like this:

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16. Draw the next line in the green direction. 21. Similarly, press Shift when the next line is
perpendicular to the previous one . . .

17. You can make new lines parallel or perpendicular to

any existing line, not just the most recent line. Hover 22. . . . and constrain it to the start point.
over any point (except an endpoint) along the edge
shown . . .

23. Add one more line to complete the face.

18. . . . and move the cursor until you see the Parallel to
Edge inference (be sure not to activate any other
inferences). Do not click yet.

When a closed loop of edges is created, and a face

filled in, the Line tool does not continue with another
segment. (But if you ever want to create an open
shape, you could tap the Esc key to end the Line
19. Now we’ll use a double inference. With the Parallel tool.)
inference still showing, press and hold the Shift key.
This ensures that no matter where you move the
NOTE: Default face colors are set in the Face settings page of
cursor, the line will always have this parallel the Styles window. Faces in SketchUp have separate colors for
orientation. When you press Shift, the magenta front and back. You can reverse a face’s front and back by
inference line turns bold, indicating that this right-clicking and choosing Reverse. And if you prefer to paint a
constraint is locked. face another color, you can use the Paint Bucket tool.
20. With Shift pressed, hover over the corner point
shown to see the double inference Constrained on 24. Like all drawing tools, Line can be used just as easily
Line from Point. Click this point. in 3D. Click Orbit and drag the mouse up and to the
right, to spin the model around.

(If you have a three-button wheel mouse, which you

should get if you don’t have one, simply hold the
middle button / scroll wheel and drag the mouse - no
need to activate Orbit.)

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25. Orbit to the view shown below. 29. Add this line to complete the face.

26. Activate Line if needed (if you orbited with your 30. We’ll use a parallel constraint again. Draw a line
mouse, you automatically return to Line when straight up from the point shown.
you’re finished orbiting). Draw a line straight down
from the point shown, in the blue (vertical) direction.

31. Hover over any point (not an endpoint) on the edge

27. To finish the rectangular vertical face, hover over the shown . . .
this corner point . . .

28. . . . and move the mouse down (in blue) and click
when the double constraint appears. 32. . . . and hover over the endpoint shown.

NOTE: Why do you need to hover over points to get inferences

from them? SketchUp keeps in its memory buffer only the last
few objects you created. If you need to reference an object
created more than a few steps ago, you need to hover over a
point to “remind” SketchUp that it’s there.

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33. Then move the cursor until both the parallel and step. There are faces on either side of this edge, so
“From Point” inferences appear. this edge is “regular,” or thin. All other edges are
outside edges, so they are the bolder, profile edges.

NOTE: There is usually more than one to get something done in 37. The vertical dividing edge has broken the horizontal
SketchUp. Another way to get the same line would be to get only edges above and below into two separate segments.
the parallel constraint (not hovering over the endpoint), press To see this, hover over either endpoint of the vertical
and hold Shift to lock the parallel constraint, then click the line - what used to be a midpoint is now considered
endpoint. an endpoint.

34. Complete the face.

38. This line also divided the original face into two faces.
To verify this, activate Select (Tools / Select), or
35. Lines can also be used to divide faces. Draw a press the Spacebar.
vertical line connecting these midpoints:

39. Click either face to see it highlighted.

36. This is a good place to show the difference between

edges and profile edges. If all of your edges are thin,
that means profile edges are not displayed, but you
can turn them on by choosing View / Edge Styles /
Profiles. With profile edges displayed, all edges in
the model so far are bold except the vertical
midpoint-to-midpoint edge drawn in the previous

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40. We will now see how to “heal” a face. Click the 44. If you erase a line that is a boundary for more than
Eraser (Tools / Eraser, shortcut = E). one face, all affected faces will be deleted. Erase the
common edge shown below . . .

41. Erase one of the top edges. Because it no longer has

a closed boundary, the face disappears. And the
vertical edge that used to be thin is now an outside,
profile edge.

45. . . . and both faces sharing this edge disappear

42. Recreate the face by simply replacing the line.

46. Redraw the line (or Undo) to recreate both faces.

43. Erase the dividing line, and the two faces are healed
- joined into one face.

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47. Open the Styles window again to the Edge settings.
Set the edge display to By Axis.
Rectangle and Rotated
Rectangle
To draw a rectangular face, you don’t need to use Line to
draw four separate lines (though that would certainly
work); Rectangle does it in one step. And if you want to
draw a rectangle whose edges are not parallel to the model
axes, the Rotated Rectangle tool offers more flexibility
in placing and orienting a rectangle.
1. Start a new file, make sure you’re in Top view, and
click Rectangle. (Or choose Draw / Shapes /
Rectangle, or press R.)

All edges parallel to one of the axes take on the axis

color. Non-parallel edges remain black.
TIP: Individual icons for all Shapes tools - Rectangle, Rotated
Rectangle, Circle, and Polygon, can be found on the Large
Tool Set toolbar.

2. Draw a rectangle by clicking two opposite points.

(Don’t drag the mouse between corners.) The
preview color is blue because the rectangle is
perpendicular to the blue axis.

There are a few people out there who prefer to work

with By Axis on, but most find it distracting. By Axis
can be useful for checking your work, or for
checking another model that you’ve received or
imported - you can easily tell which edges are
parallel, or make sure certain edges are going in the NOTE: You can use the arrow keys to lock a rectangle to a
right directions. particular direction. Tap the Up arrow to lock blue, Left to lock
green, Right to lock red. Tapping the Down arrow while hovering
For the purposes of this book, black edges will be the
on a face will lock the rectangle to be parallel to that face. This
default. So if you prefer black, or another color, go works for all of SketchUp’s shape-drawing tools.
back to the Styles window, set the edge color back to
All Same, and choose the edge color.

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3. Orbit so that you can draw a vertical wall. With 7. A rotated rectangle is created with three clicks. Click
Rectangle still active, click Point 1 below, and hover Points 1 and 2 below, and you’ll see the distance
(don’t click) over Point 2. between these points listed both in the popup near
your cursor, and in the Measurement field (which
reads Length) at the lower right corner.

4. Move the cursor directly above Point 2 above (in the

blue direction). The preview is green this time. Click
to complete the vertical rectangle.

8. To complete the rectangle, click Point 3. Now you

see more information about the rectangle: length,
width, and angle.

Rectangle is a simple tool: two clicks are all you

need. But you sometimes don’t have the control you
need over a rectangle’s orientation and direction.
Which is why SketchUp also provides the more
robust Rotated Rectangle tool.
5. To see Rectangle’s limitations, try using it to create
the sloped wall that will close the shape. If you click
Point 1, hover over Point 2, and click Point 3, you’ll When the rectangle is created, it completes the closed
get this instead: shape.

6. Undo (Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z) this incorrect face if you

created it, and switch to Rotated Rectangle.

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9. We’ll now make another shape whose corner is 12. It’s easy to get out of the current orientation; all you
directly to the right (red direction) of the shape you have to do is move the cursor around, hovering over
just finished. Keep Rotated Rectangle active, and corners of other edges. When the protractor is black,
hover over this corner. it is not oriented in any of the three major planes.

10. Move the cursor in the red direction, and click to start
the next rectangle. 13. To lock the orientation of the first edge to the
red-green plane, move the cursor so that the
protractor is blue again. Then tap the Alt key (PC) or
Cmd (Mac). (You don’t have to keep this key
pressed, just tap it once.) Now the popup lets you
know that the plane is locked.

11. The protractor color is blue because it’s lying on the

“ground” - the red-green plane, perpendicular to the
blue axis. At this point you have total flexibility in
how the first edge of this rectangle will be oriented: if
you move the cursor around you should see 14. Say you want to make the first edge 23 degrees from
“unlocked plane.” the horizontal (red) direction. The Measurement
field lists two values: Angle first, then Length. You
could enter both of these, but say you know only the
angle, and not the length. The format for this is to
leave blank the value you don’t know. So type “23,”
(the length value, to the right of the comma, is blank).
These characters appear in the Angle, Length field.
Press Enter.

NOTE: When entering values, you never have to click inside the
Measurement field (which reads Angle, Length above). Just
type what you need and press Enter. Clicking in this field will
actually end whatever you are doing.

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 The preview for this edge is now bold because it’s 17. To make a cutout in this skewed rectangle, switch
locked, and the 23-degree line becomes the zero back to the Rectangle tool. When no other objects
angle line - the rectangle’s baseline. are referenced, Rectangle can only make rectangles
along axis directions. But you can create rectangles
with other orientations when you have other points
you can click. Create a corner rectangle like this:

15. Click a second point somewhere along the bold

preview line, to complete the first edge. For the third
click, it’s easy to leave the ground plane, like what
would happen if you clicked the point indicated by
the arrow below (don’t actually click).
18. Then erase the extra edges.

16. Instead, for the third point, click so that the rectangle 19. For the next face, go back to Rotated Rectangle.
stays in the ground plane. If you have trouble Click Point 1 below, and hover over Point 2.
orienting the rectangle to the ground plane, click a
corner on the neighboring shape which lies on the
ground. Then press and hold Shift to lock this
orientation.

20. Move the cursor directly above Point 2 (blue

direction, of course) and click, so that the rectangle
will end directly above Point 2.

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21. To complete the sloped rectangle, click this point: 25. It’s not so easy to pull up and hit the right spot for the
top of this rectangle - there is no easy point to click.
So pull up the rectangle higher than it needs to be,
then press and hold the Shift key to lock in the
vertical orientation.

22. To fill in the vertical rectangles needed to complete

this shape, you can probably see how to do it with the
Rotated Rectangle tool. But Rectangle can do it as
well - switch back to this tool. Click Point 1, then
hover over Point 2.

26. With Shift pressed, you can either click anywhere on

the sloped rectangle . . .

23. Move your cursor directly up until you hit the edge of
the rectangle above.

27. . . . or anywhere on the side edge shown below. Either

way, SketchUp will tell you what your constraints
are, and either click will produce the same result.

24. For the next rectangle do the same: Click Point 1,

then hover over Point 2.

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 Here are the two vertical rectangles created so far: Square and Golden Section
While using Rectangle and Rotated Rectangle, it’s easy
to create two of the most commonly-used rectangles:
squares and golden sections.
First the square. Simply activate Rectangle and start
drawing. SketchUp lets you know when the cursor is in a
position to create a square. If you click when you see the
popup, you’ll create a square.

28. Fill in the next rectangle by clicking these two

corners:

Golden sections work the same way.

For those unfamiliar with the golden section, it is a ratio

used since the earliest days of architectural design. The
29. Then add one Line to complete all of the vertical
top shape is a square, so AB = BC. The ratio of AB to BD
faces.
equals AD to AB; this ratio is 1.618.

As you can see, it can be created automatically. But if

30. To clean up, use Eraser to remove all extra edges.
you’re curious, here’s how to create it manually:
1. Use Rectangle to create a square. Then use Line to
connect one of the corners to one of the midpoints.

2. Activate Select (shortcut: Spacebar) and select the

diagonal line.

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3. Activate Rotate. 7. Add these two lines to complete the rectangle.

4. Place the protractor at this end of the diagonal line:

8. Erase all interior lines to heal the rectangle.

9. To measure the length of the longer edge, right-click
on it and choose Entity Info.
5. This line will be copied, so tap (don’t hold) the Ctrl
(PC) or Option (Mac). Your cursor should now have
a “plus” sign attached to it. To set the angle baseline,
click the other endpoint of the diagonal line.

The length of the edge is listed in the Entity Info

window. On the PC, this window is part of the default
6. Create the rotated copy by rotating the line straight tray, located by default along the right side of the
down, in the green direction. SketchUp window. Mac users: this window can be
open anywhere on your screen.

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10. Leave the Entity Info window open and select one of 3. Click Push/Pull (or choose Tools / Push/Pull, or
the shorter edges to measure its length. press P).

4. To use this tool, you could click on the face, leave the
mouse button pressed, and drag the face up or down.
But dragging the mouse in SketchUp is a bad habit; a
much better way is click-move-click: first click the
face, release the button and move the mouse, then
click a point above or below the face to set the height.
Either way you do it, the faces update dynamically
while you move the mouse.
The ratio of the long edge to short edge should be
1.61803. This value is “phi” - a crucial number in
architecture, art, and nature - including the human
body. If you divide this value into 1.0, you get
0.61803.

Push/Pull
While not exactly a 2D drawing tool, Push/Pull is so
crucial to working in SketchUp that it’s important to cover
it before moving on to other tools. NOTE: For the Push/Pull cursor, the tip of the red arrow is
Push/Pull is what makes SketchUp so unique and easy to where you select or highlight.
use. Simply put, it takes a face and makes a 3D set of
faces. In CAD terms, it’s basically a prismatic extrusion Push/Pull pushes or pulls a face in a direction
tool. perpendicular to the face. It therefore creates a
prismatic form - the start and end faces are the same
TIP: Once you get familiar with the Push/Pull tool, it’s size.
worthwhile to try out an extension that enables you to push or 5. Use Rectangle to draw a rectangle starting from the
pull multiple faces, specify directions or angles, and work on
curved faces. See “SketchUcation Extensions Example: Joint
bottom edge of the front face. (When you use a 2D
Push Pull” on page 376. drawing tool on a face, the object automatically
aligns to that face.)
1. Start in top view, and use Line to make a trapezoid
approximately like this:

2. Orbit to an isometric view.

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6. We want another rectangle on this face that has the 10. Now push the top of the trapezoid down. You can
same height. With Rectangle still active, hover over only go as far as the top of the small boxes.
the corner point shown and move the cursor to the
right to place the first corner point.

11. Use another Push/Pull to continue pushing this face

past the boxes. You can use inferences while using
7. Click along the bottom edge to complete this Push/Pull - stop at the midpoint of the edge shown
rectangle. (or any similar edge).

12. We will now draw two rectangles on the top of the

8. Use Push/Pull to pull out one of the rectangles. trapezoid. Activate Rectangle again, and click to
place the first corner in the green direction from the
corner shown.

9. Double-click on the other rectangle - this pulls it out

by the same distance you just used.

13. Before clicking the other corner of the rectangle,

hover over this point . . .

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14. . . . and place the second corner point. To push the other rectangle in by the same distance,
you could double-click it. But this can only be done
when you want to use the distance of the last
Push/Pull. If you used Push/Pull somewhere else,
then came back to the second rectangle, the distance
you want would no longer be stored.
18. To get the same Push/Pull distance, click the
unpushed rectangle, then move the cursor to the one
already pushed. When the On Face constraint
appears, click to use this distance.

15. The second rectangle will use inferences from two

existing lines. Hover over the two points shown, and
click on their intersection.

The Push/Pull operations have created four vertical

faces around each pushed rectangle. You could use
Push/Pull on any of these faces to resize the cutout,
enabling you to quickly and easily adjust your
16. Then hover over the two points indicated to get designs.
inference lines for the second corner point of the 19. You can also use Push/Pull to create voids. Push the
rectangle. rectangles all the way through the trapezoidal form -
ending the operation at the bottom face.

17. Use Push/Pull to push in one of the rectangles,

stopping halfway along the height of the trapezoid.

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 23. Draw a line to divide the top face of the box.
TIP: An easy way to push a face all the way through is to first
click the face you want to push through, then click anywhere on
any edge of the bottom face. This prevents you from pushing too
far or not far enough, and is very useful in cases where you
cannot see all the way to the bottom of the hole.

24. Now pull up the inner portion of this face and erase
the extra lines. You’ve made a little balcony.
20. Now pull up the top trapezoidal face. Because of the
boxes in front, there are lines above the box corners,
dividing the front into five separate faces.

Push/Pull with Modifier Keys

21. Erase two of the lines, healing the face above one of
the boxes. When you use certain modifier keys while using
Push/Pull, you can control how adjacent faces act. To
demonstrate this, we’ll work on the back face of the
trapezoidal model.
1. Orbit to the back and pull out the face shown. This
leaves the neighboring faces in place, and adds new
vertical faces between existing faces and the
pulled-out face.

22. Push in the vertical face above the other box.

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2. Undo this operation (Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z). This time, 5. Then pull out the face shown.
tap (don’t hold) the Alt / Cmd key, then pull out the
back again. The pulled face remains the same size,
but the neighboring faces move with it.

6. Undo, then pull out the same face using the Alt /
Cmd key. Quite a difference!
NOTE: You could get the same results using the Move tool, but
Push/Pull ensures that you are always moving perpendicular to
the face.

3. Undo and try again, this time tap (don’t hold) the
Ctrl / Option key to add the “plus” sign to the cursor.
The difference this time is that dividing lines are
created along faces that would otherwise be healed,
such as the top face.

7. Finally, use the Ctrl / Option key to pull up the top of

the trapezoid. Without this modifier, there would be
no extra horizontal edges on the vertical faces. This
is useful, for example, when you want to create a top
for a box, or create separate floors for a high-rise
building.

4. For another demonstration of modifier keys, Undo

again, and pull out the side of the trapezoid (with no
modifier keys).

TIP: Using Push/Pull with the Ctrl / Option key is handy for
setting different materials. As an example, the model shown
below on the left has a different material on its top face. Using
Push/Pull with no extra keys just moves the top face higher,

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producing the object shown below in the center. But using the 4. Use Rectangle to draw a rectangle on this face:
Ctrl / Option key produces the object on the right.

5. Use Push/Pull to push this rectangle a bit inward

(don’t cut all the way through).

Push/Pull with Pre-Pick

You can use Push/Pull on a pre-selected face. This is
similar to the way other tools, including Move and
Rotate, work with pre-selected objects.
This simple exercise will show how this works.
1. Make sure the “pre-pick” ability of Push/Pull is 6. Draw another rectangle on this face:
enabled (not checked), by opening the Preferences
to the Drawing page.

The second rectangle will be pushed in the same

distance as the first one. Of course, you could use
Push/Pull with a double-click to achieve this result,
but that only works when you’re repeating the last
2. Use Line to draw a footprint like this, in the
Push/Pull distance. What if you already used
red-green plane.
Push/Pull somewhere else, with a different distance?
7. Activate the Select tool (Spacebar) and select the
second rectangle.

3. Use Push/Pull to pull it up.

8. With the rectangle still selected, activate Push/Pull.

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9. The next two clicks set the push distance. For the first
point, click anywhere along the front of the first
rectangle.

10. Then click anywhere along the back of the first

rectangle. The second rectangle gets pushed in the
same distance.

TIP: The term “pre-pick” may be a bit misleading, implying that

you can select more than one face in advance. But no, you can
still only push or pull one face at a time. Unless you use an
extension that gets around this limitation; such as “Joint Push
Pull” from SketchUcation.

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