SketchUp For Dummies. Mark Harrison

Everyone’s a little bit of a nerd sometimes, and paragraphs that bear this icon indulge that nerdiness. You can skip them without fear of missing anything important.

When you see this icon, pay special attention. It occurs rarely, but when it does, something you do could harm your work. Don’t worry; we cover Undo early in this book.

      

When a specific tool name is mentioned in the text, its toolbar icon often is displayed, like the one shown here.

      Tool names are displayed with an uppercase first letter. In many cases, that same letter can be used as a single tap on the keyboard to launch the tool, such as Erase, Rectangle, and Orbit. Some tool names do not have a shortcut key that matches their first letters. For these tools, we display the keyboard shortcut immediately following the tool name in parentheses, such as Rotate (Q), Offset (F), and Select (spacebar, also known as the Final Frontier Cocktail Lounge).

      SketchUp is available in versions for Windows, Macintosh, and the web. When something works differently among the versions, we describe the Windows flavor first, followed by parentheses indicating the difference — for example, Ctrl key (Mac: Option).

Beyond the Book

      As you begin this book, consider that expanding your knowledge will always be part of your experience with 3D modeling. Even with years of experience, we find that we learn something new — or have to figure something out — almost every time we work on a SketchUp project.

      You can use this book as a guide to getting to know SketchUp and also as a reference to revisit when you need to figure something out. You can find the Cheat Sheet and other information related to this book (such as errata) by visiting https://www.dummies.com and typing SketchUp For Dummies in the search box. But there are even more great references at your fingertips:

       SketchUp Quick Reference Card: SketchUp offers a one-page quick reference card that’s handy for jogging your memory about tool functions and shortcuts. Find it at www.sketchup.com/quick-reference-cards/sketchup-2020/en.

       SketchUp Campus (https://learn.sketchup.com): Alongside this book, you’ll need a way to practice 3D modeling. SketchUp Campus offers effective video tutorials that complement the learning methods in this book. Using this book and SketchUp Campus together would be an ace maneuver.

       SketchUp Forums (https://forums.sketchup.com): Inevitably, you’re going to have a question about SketchUp, and this this book is not equipped with a smart speaker. The best place to ask a SketchUp question is the SketchUp Forums.

       SketchUp on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/sketchupvideo): It turns out that the Internet is brimming with SketchUp knowledge. If you prefer a steady drip instead of a fire hose, we suggest subscribing to SketchUp’s YouTube channel. You’ll find short, helpful videos about common workflows, and you’ll also get wind of nuggets of wisdom contributed from the SketchUp community.

Where to Go from Here

      This book is intended to be a reference. If you keep reading from this page on, right to the end of the index, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how to use SketchUp to make 3D models — but you don’t have to use this book that way.

      We recommend that you start with Chapters 1 and 2, just to get your bearings. But you could skip right to Chapter 2 if you want to jump right in. If you have a little bit of SketchUp experience, we recommend hitting Chapters 10 through 12 to make fantastic images and documents from SketchUp models. Or jump all the way to Chapter 15 to discover our top ten quick wins — techniques that accelerate your modeling — after you have the basics down.

Part 1

      Getting Started with SketchUp

IN THIS PART …

      Set yourself up for success in SketchUp by discovering the simple key habits that make it easier to think in 3D.

      Create a simple model, apply color to the faces, turn on your model’s shadow, and find out ways to share your work.

      Draw edges and faces; create accurate models; and discover the best ways to select, move, copy, rotate, and measure a model’s geometry.

Chapter 1

      The SketchUp Setup

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      

Choosing a SketchUp version

      

Getting to know the SketchUp interface

      

Touring SketchUp

      

Getting ready to work in SketchUp

      SketchUp is known for its simplicity, and it’s common for people to jump right in and start modeling. Even if you already have a running (with scissors) start, we think you’ll find it useful to go all the way back to the beginning so we can explain how to get set up for success in SketchUp.

      To us, a good setup means building habits that decrease the overall mental effort required to operate SketchUp. That’s right: The way to get better and faster in SketchUp is to think less about SketchUp.

      In the first part of this chapter, we run through the basic setup routine. Stick with us, because after we show you how to launch SketchUp, we jump right into the most important skills that most people never pick up. Finally, we get you oriented in SketchUp, both practically and on a meta level.

Picking a Version of SketchUp

2020 is SketchUp’s 20th birthday, so there have been quite a few versions of it in the past. Today, multiple versions of SketchUp 3D modeling are available. Table 1-1 shows three basic flavors of SketchUp.

TABLE 1-1 SketchUp Versions

Version	Description	Best For
SketchUp Pro