Google SketchUp 1 About Shapes

Creating Shapes Buildings

Components 3D Warehouse

Shapes Most buildings you create in SketchUp will be a shape you draw and extrude. Before you start creating anything however, it is important to know a few basic terms and rules in SketchUp.

Edges These can be categorized as outlines. An edge can be created with any of the following tools: -Line tool

-Freehand tool

-Arc tool

Note about the Arc tool: Google SketchUp CANNOT currently create Bezier curves. However, they can be imported from any other 3D software that supports them or specific curves can be imported through the built-in 3D Warehouse.

Faces These are the fills for all shapes. In almost all cases, faces must be completely surrounded by edges. Almost no faces can be drawn curved or deformed.* Faces must exist on a single plane. All faces are created automatically when a set of edges on the same plane is closed. All faces have two sides: an inside face (blue/gray) and an outside face (white). The following tools help create faces -Rectangle

-Circle

-Polygon

-Offset

NOTE: Pushing or pulling a circle or arch will create what seems to be a curved face. Upon close inspection or a triple-click, you will realize the curved face is actually made of several regular faces. This is the only case in which you should see faces with no edges.

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Creating shapes Creating an outline on a floor plan is the easiest way to start creating structures. However, you have several options in addition to creating outlines. In some cases, you will also find that an outline will be limited or even too detailed for your work. We’ll review several methods of creating different shapes that will be used in creating larger more complicated structures.

Custom rectangles and squares

1. Open a new file 2. Select the Rectangle tool 3. With the Rectangle tool active, click once on the drawing area to start drawing a

rectangle. 4. Without clicking again, notice the field at the bottom right of the window (Value Control

Box or VCB) is labeled “Dimensions” and changes to reflect the current size of the rectangle you are drawing.

5. You can type numbers separated by a comma to specify the width and length of your rectangle. If you are using feet and inches in your document, you can type in fractions (i.e.: 30’ 7 1/16”, 15’ 8 3/8”).

6. A square would still need two numbers (i.e.: 20’, 20’). 7. Press Return/Enter to apply the size you typed in. 8. Select the Push/Pull tool and click once on the face of your rectangle. 9. The VCB now reads “Distance”, type in a value to set the height of your rectangle. 10. Press Return/Enter to apply the height to your shape.

Custom cylinders

1. Select the Circle tool. 2. Before clicking or drawing with the Circle tool, notice the VCB says “Sides”. A higher

number will produce a smoother circle, while a lower number a rougher circle. The default is 24 and will probably work fine.

3. Once you click in the drawing area, the VCB changes to “Radius”. The radius starts at the point you clicked.

4. Type in a value and press Return/Enter to apply the size.

Cutting a hole into a rectangle or square

1. Select the Rectangle tool. 2. Draw a smaller rectangle on the face of your first rectangle 3. Use the Push/Pull tool to cut into the rectangle. 4. If you push all the way into the larger rectangle, you will eventually see a “z-fighting”

effect and the tooltip “On Face”. Releasing here will cut completely through the rectangle.

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Cutting a hole through an irregular face

1. Use the Line tool to create a plane parallel to the cylinder you created earlier.

2. Draw a rectangle on the new plane.

3. Push/pull the rectangle through the plane and through the cylinder.

4. Drag-select the plane, pushed rectangle and cylinder.

5. Right-click on the selected objects and select either Intersect with Model or Intersect

Selected. If done properly, lines will be drawn where the rectangle and cylinder meet.

6. Select a face on the pushed rectangle and delete it.

7. Continue selecting faces and deleting them.

7. Do the same on the other side of the cylinder.

8. Delete any extra lines.

If you need to cut out multiple holes, the general rule of thumb for either of these operations is to create the largest hole first.

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Structures

Custom outlines/tracing over floor plans

1. If you are using imported floor plans, it is helpful to assign them to their own layer. Go to

Window > Layers to open the Layer palette.

2. Assign a layer for your shapes/work and leave the floor plans on their own layer. NOTE:

It is possible that you won’t be able to rename “Layer 0”.

3. A top-down view is best for tracing. Camera > Standard Views > Top.

4. Use the Line tool to trace the walls of your floor plan (after making sure to scale your

model appropriately).

5. In order to help line up your walls, it may be necessary to draw lines snapped to the red

or green axes.

a. Up or down on keyboard and Line tool = snap to blue axis

b. Left on keyboard and Line tool = snap to green axis

c. Right on keyboard and Line tool = snap to red axis

6. Once all of your walls are done, use the Push/Pull tool to raise them. It may be

necessary to do this multiple times if you have unconnected sections in your structure.

7. Drag-select the entire structure and right-click on it to select Make Group.

Creating a Rough one story structure

1. Draw/trace the outer edges of a structure with the Line tool, ignoring spaces for doors.

2. Use Push/Pull to pull the structure up.

3. Position the camera underneath the structure.

4. Select the Offset tool and click on the outer edge of the structure.

5. The VCB displays “Distance”. Drag or type in an offset. This offset will be your

structure’s walls.

6. Push/Pull the new offset into the structure to create a room.

7. While still looking up at the structure, use the Rectangle or Line tool to create lines for

the door.

8. Push/Pull the door into the structure.

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Creating a vaulted ceiling

1. Draw and raise a rectangle with the Rectangle and Push/Pull tools

2. Use the Arc tool to draw an arc vertically from a top edge of your rectangle and Push/Pull

the arc to match the length of the rectangle.

3. Use the Offset tool on a rectangle face of the new shape to create an offset of the

rectangle.

4. Trace lines over the left and right edges of the offset so they intersect with the base of the

overall shape.

5. Use the Arc tool to create another arc along the top edge of the rectangle.

6. Select individual lines with the Selection tool and delete excess lines.

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Creating a vaulted ceiling (Continued)

7. Push/Pull the new shape in the face. All the way to the end

8. The face you pushed in will not disappear since you are pushing one face into two.

Delete the individual faces and lines you don’t need.

Tips

-Creating complex shapes will sometimes require extra temporary edges and shapes. These are often used as guides and can eventually be deleted. -Do not confuse inner faces and outer faces and try to keep the outer faces on the outside.

-Learn at least the Pan and Orbit tools. You WILL need to see your model from different angles. Learning this software is a process of trial and error. Do not be surprised if at some point, your outer faces turn out blue. If you ever do end up with a blue outer face, you can reverse it by right-clicking and selecting Reverse Faces. Avoid any z-fighting in your model. The only time you should see z-fighting is when you are push/pulling an outer face into an inner face. If the effect is present anywhere on your project, it must be fixed before textures can be applied.

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Components

About Components Anything you draw in SketchUp can be saved as a special group named a component and reused multiple times. Components are best used to save time. For instance, you can create a pillar once, save it as a component and create multiple copies of it to place throughout your structure. Consider them to be reusable props.

Creating Components

1. Select the objects you wish to group into a component. Its usually best to triple click the

objects to ensure you select every face and edge.

2. Right click and select Make Component. 3. Create a unique name for the component in the dialog box that pops up.

4. Hit OK and the element is now stored.

Using Components

1. Window > Components opens the components palette.

2. All components in the project will appear in this palette. Simply drag them out onto your

project to use them.

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3D Warehouse SketchUp can be a complex program to learn. Some objects and models may be too difficult for a novice to build. For instance, a gothic candelabra might help your project, but it is probably too time consuming to build from scratch. In cases like this, you can use SketchUp’s built in model browser called the 3D Warehouse. Go to File > 3D Warehouse > Get Models to access the 3D Warehouse. It is fully searchable and chances are you will find an object or prop (spheres, people, cars, buildings, etc) you will use.