SketchUp Basics: Part 2

Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)

• Intro/TOC
• More About Faces (Surfaces) and Lines
  • SketchUp Preferences
  • Drafting Techniques
  • Right-Clicking
• Intro to …
  • Layers
  • Entity Info
• Painting and Texture Modifications
  • Creating Textures and Using Images
• Components and Groups

0:00 – 5:55: Intro/TOC

SketchUp Resources (4:10):

5:56 – 34:04: More About Faces (Surfaces) and Lines

Note: We used the Mac version of SketchUp for this presentation.

 

SketchUp Preferences (6:28)

Here, you can create templates and shortcuts, and configure other settings to customize your SketchUp interface.

 

Drafting Techniques (6:55)

Importing entities from AutoCAD (example: importing a base file) (7:00)

 

Enabling Profiles (8:20)

You can enable the Profiles setting from either the Edge Style pull-down submenu within the View menu, or from the Styles window, available from the Window menu.

 

Other options to have enabled from the Windows menu: Entity Info, Materials, Components, Layers (10:20)

 

Example of a model with Profiles enabled (12:27)

The Profiles option makes lines darker and helps you determine which faces need to be filled in, or closed.

 

To close a face, you can usually just draw over the lines as necessary. If you see a “rubber band” line when drawing, it’s an indication that the face is still not closed.

 

Groups and Components in SketchUp (13:40)

 

Layers in SketchUp (14:25)

In SketchUp, layers are only used to manage geometry visibility.

 

Double-clicking inside a Component (14:40)

Once you double-click inside a Component, you can select and edit any of the individual lines that make it up.

 

Identifying a face that hasn’t yet been completed / filled in (16:20)

 

Identifying a face on top of a face (17:15)

 

Editing “front” and “back” colors for faces from the Styles window (17:45)

Many people who are just starting with SketchUp will change these colors to highly contrasting colors so they can easily tell them apart.

 

Why do these colors matter? (18:43)

For one, the “front” and “back” colors affect how the Push-Pull tool works by helping you know where to double-click.

 

Reversing a face (20:20)

 

Painting faces in SketchUp with textures (21:00)

 

Using the Monochrome setting to determine the “back” and “front” sides of a face (21:40)

 

Right-Clicking (23:00)

Right-clicking to orient multiple faces in the same direction (23:00)

 

Right-clicking to divide a line into segments (25:00)

 

Moving a copy of a line to create a section cut (28:00)

 

Moving one section using the Move tool (28:40)

 

Offsetting a face, an edge, or an arc (31:30)

 

Zoom to a selection by right-clicking (33:00)

34:05 – 37:59: Intro to …

Layers (34:05)

Remember: SketchUp layers are only used for geometry visibility.

 

You should keep all your raw geometry on Layer 0.

 

Creating a Component (35:15)

Always give your Components unique names.

 

Entity Info (37:00)

Selecting a layer with the Entity Info feature (37:00)

38:00 – 59:49: Painting and Texture Modifications

Creating Textures and Using Images (38:00)

Importing an image (38:00)

 

Exploding the image to turn it into a texture on a face (40:10)

 

Rotating the face (41:00)

 

Sizing the face (41:35)

 

Right-clicking to reposition anchor points on the edges of the face (42:50)

 

Using the Push-Pull tool to pull faces outward or inward (43:55)

 

Making objects 3D using the Push-Pull tool (45:45)

 

Using the Projected Texture option to project an image on a face (47:00)

 

You can easily find a number of usable textures by googling “seamless texture.” Keep in mind that the size of the image you use will affect the SketchUp file. Find one that’s relatively small but high-quality enough to provide the look you want.

 

Creating another texture (49:50)

It’s a good idea to clean up images you plan to use as textures – especially around the edges º so you can repeat them in a SketchUp model and they look seamless.

 

We recommend using square images when creating textures.

 

Cropping the texture image (51:00)

 

Applying a filter (51:35)

 

Using the Clone tool to create more uniformity and blending (52:25)

 

Copying a texture, flipping it horizontally and vertically, lowering its opacity, and merging the layers (54:00)

 

Saving texture images (55:45)

 

Applying texture to faces on a 3D object and scaling the textures (56:10)

 

Adding shadows (59:05)

59:50 – end: Deeper Look Into Components and Groups

Groups come in handy when you are not replicating the same object over and over.

 

Turning off specific layers (59:50)

 

Grouping similar objects onto a single layer (such as a tree or shrub layer) (1:01:15)