3. Objectives
01 Identify the basics of SketchUp screen.
02 Identify the different tools in SketchUp learn
how to use them.
03 Familiarize the shortcut keys in SketchUp.
04 Create 3D models using the basic tools.
SketchUp Basics
4. SketchUp Screen
When you launch SketchUp, your screen looks like this.
Drawing and Editing Tools
Value Control Box
Drawing Axes
Status/ Prompts
5. SketchUp Screen
Drawing and Editing Tools: These tools create geometry (Line, Arc, Rectangle, etc.), construction objects
(Measure and Protractor), and enable object manipulation (Move, Rotate, Push/Pull, etc.) They are all
described in this chapter.
Drawing Axes: When you open a file, the model contains a set of red, green, and blue axes (you can see the
blue axis once you orbit the model out of the red-green plane).
These are equivalent to the X, Y, Z axes used in traditional CAD software. You can turn off their display by
selecting View / Axes, and the Axes tool can be used to relocate and reorient the axes.
Status / Prompts: This area serves two purposes. When you hover the cursor over a tool, a description of
the tool appears here. When you are using a tool, this area displays the relevant prompt such as “Select
start point” or “Enter value.
6. The Basics
Value Control Box (VCB): This box is used either to enter values or to display numerical information. If you
are using a tool that can take numerical input (usually optional), such as line length or number of copies,
all you have to do it type the number and press Enter, and the value appears in the VCB. If you are using a
tool such as Measure or Protractor, the length or angle being measures appears in the VCB.
Stacking Windows: These are windows you might want to keep open as you work. They can be made to
stick to one another, and you can keep them minimized while you work.
7. Viewing Tools
While creating objects, you need to know how to change your view and adjust what appears on the screen.
You can familiarize yourself with these tools before starting to draw, or play with them after you’ve created
some geometry.
• Standard Views ( Camera)
• Orbit
• Pan
• Zoom
• Zoom Extents
8. Viewing Tools
• Standard Views ( Camera)
SketchUp has five standard orthographic views (Top, Front, Left, Right, Back) and one Isometric
view. When an orthographic view is activated, its description appears in the top left corner of the
display.
NOTE: If you are working in Perspective mode, the
isometric view will not be a true isometric
projection,although it may appear pretty close.
9. Viewing Tools
• Orbit
Also known as dynamic rotation, this tool simulates holding an object and turning it
around. To rotate your view, activate Orbit and hold and drag the mouse. Pressing Shift while
orbiting will pan the view. If you have a three-button mouse, you can hold the middle mouse
button while moving the mouse to rotate the view from within any other tool
10. Viewing Tools
• Pan (Camera/ Pan)
Shifts the center of the model (up, down, left, right), while maintaining the model’s
orientation. To pan the view, activate Pan and hold and drag the mouse. If you have a three-
button mouse, you can pan by pressing Shift while orbiting (dragging the mouse with the middle
button pressed).
11. Viewing Tools
• Zoom
In this tool, drag the mouse up to zoom in, down to zoom out. If you have a wheel mouse,
you can scroll the wheel up or down to zoom. In this case, zooming is relative to the location of
the cursor. To change the camera lens (field of view), press Shift while zooming. This is handy
for adjusting the perspective of your image. You can also enter an exact value, such as 45 deg
(for field of view) or 35 mm (for focal length). While in zoom, you can double-click on a point in
the model to make it the new viewing center. This is equivalent to a one-click Pan.
12. Viewing Tools
• Zoom
In this tool, drag the mouse up to zoom in, down to zoom out. If you have a wheel mouse,
you can scroll the wheel up or down to zoom. In this case, zooming is relative to the location of
the cursor. To change the camera lens (field of view), press Shift while zooming. This is handy
for adjusting the perspective of your image. You can also enter an exact value, such as 45 deg
(for field of view) or 35 mm (for focal length). While in zoom, you can double-click on a point in
the model to make it the new viewing center. This is equivalent to a one-click Pan.
13. Viewing Tools
• Zoom Extents
Click this tool to fit the entire model onto the screen, while centering it as well.
14. Shortcut Keys
• Shortcut Keys
Also known as “hotkeys” or “accelerator keys,” keyboard shortcuts can be set up for quick
access to tools you use often.
A few shortcuts are provided for you (such as Ctrl/Cmd+Z for Undo), but the rest need to be
added.
15. Drawing Tools
Before you can create any forms in SketchUp, you need to first know how to draw a few things
using 2D tools. The six basic drawing tools are Line, Rectangle, Polygon, Arc, Circle, and
Freehand. While each of these creates a 2D object, you can use them in any 3D plane.
16. Drawing Tools- Line
• Line
This tool creates lines that typically become edges. When lines (or other objects such as arcs,
circles, or polygons) lie in the same plane and form a closed boundary, a face is automatically
created.
17. Drawing Tools-Line
• To control the way lines are drawn, open the Preferences window (SketchUp / Preferences).
Open the Drawing page.
Three setting here affect line creation:
• Click-drag-release uses a mouse
drag to create lines.
• Click-move-click will define a line by
two points.
• Auto detect enables both methods,
depending on how you use your mouse.
18. Drawing Tools-Line
• To control the way lines are drawn, open the Preferences window (SketchUp / Preferences).
Open the Drawing page.
Three setting here affect line creation:
• Click-drag-release uses a mouse
drag to create lines.
• Click-move-click will define a line by
two points.
• Auto detect enables both methods,
depending on how you use your mouse.
19. Drawing Tools-Rectangle
RECTANGLE
• If you need to draw a rectangular face, you don’t need to use Line to draw four separate lines;
Rectangle does it in one step.
20. Drawing Tools- Circle & Polygon
CIRCLE
• These two tools are grouped together because they are basically the same. Both create
multi-segmented polygons; a higher number of segments is a better approximation to a
circle. The difference basically lies in the appearance of the faces that result when you use
Push/Pull.
21. Drawing Tools- Push
PUSH
• While not exactly a 2D drawing tool, Push/Pull it is so crucial to working in SketchUp that it’s
important to cover it before moving on to other tools. Push/Pull is what makes SketchUp so
unique and easy to use. Simply put, it takes a face and makes a 3D assembly of faces. In CAD
terms, it’s basically an extrude tool but much more flexible and intuitive.
22. Drawing Tools- Arc
ARC
• Similar to Circle and Polygon, Arc creates multi-segmented representations of arcs. You can
draw arcs in any face, or in any of the three main planes.
24. Manipulation Tools
These are tools you can used once you have some geometry in your model. Among other things,
this section includes tools for measuring, erasing, copying, moving, rotating, scaling, and making
construction lines.
25. Manipulation Tools- Select
SELECT
• You need to understand this tool before getting into the other manipulation tools, because, in
many cases, objects need to be selected before you can apply another tool to them. Selecting
is very straightforward, but this exercise may show you some features you didn’t know about
28. Manipulation Tools- Select
Taking Off Quantities Using Select and Entity Info
• The Entity Info window enables you to easily calculate
numbers of objects, total lengths of edges, and total area of
faces. Right Click > Entity Info
32. Manipulation Tools- Measure
MEASURE
• This tool has three purposes: to measure distances, to scale an entire model, and to create construction
lines.
33. Manipulation Tools- Measure
MEASURE
NOTE: If your model has components, they will not be scaled in
this operation. Components have set dimensions which would be
lost if they were scaled. This is useful in cases when you want to
scale a model around a component. For example, you could
insert a door component and scale aface to accommodate it.
34. Manipulation Tools- Measure
MEASURE
• Measure can also create construction lines offset to
edges and other construction lines. Click the
construction line you just drew and move the cursor to
one side to see the offset line. Place it so that it
intersects the midpoint of the edge shown.
37. Manipulation Tools- Protractor
PROTRACTOR
• The protractor appears. Hover over the midpoint shown. If you move slightly to the right and left, you
can align the protractor to either adjacent face. The color of the protractor tells you how the protractor
is aligned (the protractor is green when aligned in the red-blue plane, etc.
38. Manipulation Tools- Move and Copy
MOVE
• The Move tool can be used in two ways - to move objects to a different location, or to make one or
more copies. Move can also be used to resize curves and curved faces.
• You can modify your model by moving edges, faces, points or combination of selected objects.
41. Manipulation Tools- Move and Copy
COPY
• When you use the Ctrl/Option key within a Move operation, you create a copy.
42. Manipulation Tools- Rotate & Copy
ROTATE
• This tool can be used in two ways - to rotate objects to a
different position, and to make rotated copies. You can
align the rotation axis to a one of the standard planes or
to an existing face, or you can define your own rotation
axis.
43. Manipulation Tools- Rotate & Copy
ROTATE- COPY
• As with the Move tool, you can
use Rotate to make rotated
copies by using the Ctrl/Option
key.
47. Manipulation Tools- Scale
SCALE
• Use Scale to resize or stretch selected faces, relative to other geometry. You can also use
Scale to mirror objects, in effect, turning them inside-out.
48. Manipulation Tools- Offset
OFFSET
• This tool takes all the edges of a selected face, or a series of connected edges in the same
plane, and offsets them.
49. Manipulation Tools- Offset
OFFSET
• This tool takes all the edges of a selected face, or a series of connected edges in the same
plane, and offsets them.
50. Annotation Tools- Text
SketchUp provides two ways to add descriptions to your model: text and dimensions.
TEXT
• Text can be placed in your model in two ways: attached to geometry or “floating” in space.
51. Annotation Tools- Dimension
SketchUp provides two ways to add descriptions to your
model: text and dimensions.
DIMENSION
• You can add dimensions to your model to show exact
measurements.
52. Annotation Tools- Dimension
CREATING DIMENSION
• The dimension is listed in whatever units are currently set (shown here in Architectural).
Open Model Info to the Units page and select Decimal dimensions in Millimeters. Use a
Precision of 0.0, so that the dimension will have one decimal point. Deselect Display units
format, so that the “mm” will not be displayed on every dimension.
54. Annotation Tools- Dimension
CREATING DIMENSION
• If the “R” prefix does not appear with the radius dimension, you can attach it. Open Model
Info to the Dimension page, and check Show radius/diam prefix.
55. Annotation Tools- Dimension
DIMENSION DISPLAY & PROPERTIES
• Some display options and dimension properties were covered in the previous section, but
this section will cover the rest. We will continue with the same model.
• By default, so far the dimensions have been aligned so that you can always view them
facing you, no matter the orientation of the model. To change this, open the Dimension page
and check Align to Dimension Line, and set alignment to Centered.
57. Assessment
Identify the following.
1. This tool has two basic purposes: to create angled construction lines and to measure angles.
2. It is also known as dynamic rotation.
3. These tools create geometry.
4. This box is used either to enter values or to display numerical information.
5. These are tools you can used once you have some geometry in your model