Gain an understanding of the basics of SketchUp, a 3D modeling program, in this article. Learn how to navigate the program, learn the functions of various tools, and practice basic modeling tasks such as drawing, painting, and rotating objects.
Key Insights
- This article provides a thorough introduction to using SketchUp, a 3D modeling program. It covers how to navigate the software, use different tools, and execute basic modeling tasks.
- It guides the reader through creating a simple model, starting with drawing a rectangle, using the push-pull tool to turn it into a box, and then coloring it using the paint bucket tool. It also explains how to use the zoom, orbit, pan, and selection tools for efficient navigation and editing.
- More advanced tasks covered include using the move and rotate tools, as well as how to select and deselect objects for precise editing. The article also explains how to use keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation and commands.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
In this video we'll be playing around in SketchUp. You do not need to save this file, as it is just to help you get familiar with some basic modeling and navigation techniques in SketchUp. So let's get started.
The first thing we will do is go up to our Large Tool Set, select the Eraser Tool at the top, click that, and we're going to click on the man to erase him. Next, select the Rectangle Tool. It is right here.
Click that and come to the middle of the page at the origin and click this and drag the rectangle around. As you can see in the bottom-right corner, as we move this rectangle the dimensions are changing. If you type in a number it'll automatically make that dimension.
If I type in eight feet, that'll be eight feet in one dimension. If I type in eight feet, eight feet and then click the Enter key on the keyboard, it'll automatically make an eight-foot by eight-foot rectangle. Next, select the Push/Pull Tool.
It's right here. Click that and hover over your rectangle you just drew. As you can see, there's a light blue with dots.
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That means that plane is currently able to be selected. If you click anywhere along this plane and move your mouse upwards, you can start to see that as we start dragging this mouse a 3D box begins to form. And if you look at our lower-right corner where it says Distance, you can see how tall this box is becoming.
If I type in eight feet and click Enter, it'll make an eight-foot-tall box. Now in the Getting Started toolbar at the top or the Large Tool Set to the left, find the Orbit button. That is right here.
Select this button. The Orbit Tool allows you to move your camera around your 3D object to see different angles. If you click anywhere on the screen with the left mouse button and drag your mouse, you can rotate around the geometry that you have made.
Next, if you select the Hand Tool, which is next to the Orbit Tool, this is the Pan Tool. If you click this and do that same motion—click with the left mouse button and drag across the screen—this will pan your object across the screen without rotating it.
Using a combination of Orbit and Pan tools allows us to navigate our model efficiently. Next, the Zoom Tool below the Orbit Tool, this little magnifying lens, if you click that, this allows us to zoom in and out of our model by clicking with the left mouse button and dragging. Next to the Zoom Tool is the Zoom Window Tool.
This tool allows us to click and drag a window, and it will zoom into that specific area. If I click and drag and then release, it'll zoom me into this space. The next button that I want to look at is this Zoom Extents.
This is the magnifying lens with the three red arrows. If I click this, this will zoom out our 3D box and our object to fill the entire screen. Next to the Zoom Extents button is the Zoom Previous.
This button will return to the previous view. If you're using a mouse with a middle scroll wheel, scrolling the wheel towards the screen will zoom into your objects, and scrolling away from the screen zooms you away from your objects. Clicking and holding down the middle mouse button and dragging your mouse will activate the Orbit Tool.
Holding down Shift while still holding that middle mouse button will activate the Pan Tool. Releasing Shift will return to Orbit. Clicking Shift activates Pan.
Keep practicing with this methodology, as this will be really useful in best practices of how we navigate around our model. Next, if we go to the Large Tool Set and select the Paint Bucket Tool at the top, we will see the Materials dialog box open. SketchUp comes with many pre-loaded materials that are free to use in any project.
For now, select the dropdown menu and select the Color tab. Our current active material is shown right here and is currently the Default Material. If we were to click on a new color, say for example this color B04, this will now become our active material.
By clicking on a face, we can paint that face any specific color. I will choose that face and click to paint that face orange. Feel free to experiment with the many materials SketchUp has to offer and paint your box.
We can choose to go through here and choose different patterns or various textures such as stone or wood to paint our box. Use the Orbit and Pan tools to see different sides of your box. I will paint mine.
I will use the Zoom Previous to return to the starting view. I'll click that twice to get back to where I was at the beginning and then I will use the Undo and Redo tools in your standard toolbar up here or use CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y to undo and redo. I will undo all the painting I just did.
In the Select Tool, which is up here, click this. We can select single objects at a time by clicking on them. We can also deselect any object by clicking in empty space.
Clicking and holding your mouse button and dragging to the right creates a selection window. You will see that the selection window has a solid line, and it'll only grab objects that are completely inside the selection window. I will click outside to deselect that.
Clicking and dragging to the left creates a crossing window, which has a dashed line. The crossing window will grab any objects that it touches, as it grabbed all this. It just didn't grab these two lines because it didn't touch them.
I will click out. For more precise selecting, we can use the Shift button to add and subtract objects from our selection. While holding the Shift button, you see this plus and minus next to our cursor, meaning you can deselect and select with that same tool.
Using the CTRL key, only a plus will be next to our cursor, and you will only be able to select and add. You will not be able to subtract. Using CTRL and Shift together—holding both those keys—you can see now there is a minus symbol next to the cursor.
This will only allow us to remove selections. If we double click on a surface or an edge, this will select all the surfaces or edges that are connected to that object. Triple-clicking on an object that is not grouped will select all the connected edges and surfaces in that object.
Let's triple-click on our box to select it. Next, let's go to the Move Tool. That tool is right here.
Click that. Clicking on a point on the screen and another point will move that object, regardless of whether the move point is connected to the object that we are moving. You can also click the object and move it around as well.
I'll move it back to the origin point. The Rotate Tool works in a similar fashion. The Rotate Tool is located here.
I'll click this. For this command to work, we will need three clicks: first the center point of the rotation,
I will click here. Then the reference angle of where we are rotating around. I'll click right here. And finally, the destination angle.
As you can see in the bottom-right corner, the Measurements tool says Angle. I'll make that 30. I rotated the box 30 degrees around the origin.
Feel free to play around with the Move and Rotate commands and see what happens when you move individual edges or faces or rotate edges and faces. I will see you in the next video.
