Table Of ContentSketchUp® For Dummies®
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SketchUp® For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and
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Table of Contents
Cover
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Getting Started with SketchUp
Chapter 1: Meeting SketchUp
Things You Ought to Know Right Away
Comparing SketchUp to Other 3D Modeling Programs
What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Expect SketchUp to Do
Taking the Ten-Minute SketchUp Tour
Chapter 2: Getting a Running Start
Setting Up Your Workspace
Making a Quick Model
Slapping On Some Paint
Giving Your Model Some Style
Switching On the Sun
Sharing Your Masterpiece
Chapter 3: Establishing the Modeling Mindset
All about Edges and Faces
Drawing in 3D on a 2D Screen
Warming Up Your SketchUp Muscles
Part 2: Modeling in SketchUp
Chapter 4: Building Buildings
Drawing Floors and Walls
Staring Down Stairs
Raising the Roof
Chapter 5: Falling in Love with Components
Grouping Things Together
Working with Components
Taking Advantage of Components to Build Better Models
Chapter 6: Going Beyond Buildings
Extruding with Purpose: Follow Me
Modeling with the Scale Tool
Making and Modifying Terrain
Building a Solid Tools Foundation
Chapter 7: Keeping Your Model Organized
Taking Stock of Your Tools
Seeing the Big Picture: The Outliner
Discovering the Ins and Outs of Layers
Putting It All Together
Chapter 8: Modeling with Photos and Other Resources
Painting Faces with Photos
Modeling Directly from a Photo: Introducing Photo-Matching
Modeling on Top of Photo Textures
Adding Geographic Data
Working with Imported CAD files
Chapter 9: 3D Printing with SketchUp Models
Building Up a View of 3D Printing
Building a Model in Layers
Preparing a SketchUp Model for 3D Printing
Exporting Your SketchUp File
Knowing Your 3D Printers
Using Your 3D Printer
Going beyond Basic 3D Printing
Designing Things That Move
Part 3: Viewing Your Model in Different Ways
Chapter 10: Working with Styles and Shadows
Styling Your Model’s Appearance
Working with Shadows
Chapter 11: Presenting Your Model inside SketchUp
Exploring Your Creation on Foot
Taking the Scenic Route
Mastering the Sectional Approach
Part 4: Sharing What You’ve Made
Chapter 12: Paper or Cloud? Printing and Uploading Your Work
Printing Your Work
Working with the 3D Warehouse
Chapter 13: Exporting Images, Animations, and CAD Files
Exporting 2D Images of Your Model
Making Movies with Animation Export
Exporting a CAD File
Chapter 14: Creating Presentations and Documents with LayOut
Building a LayOut Document
Creating Your Own Templates
Putting Together Your Own Scrapbooks
Getting Your Document Out the Door
Part 5: The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten SketchUp Traps and Their Workarounds
SketchUp Won’t Create a Face Where You Want It To
Your Faces Are Two Different Colors
Edges on a Face Won’t Sink In
SketchUp Crashed, and You Lost Your Model
SketchUp Is Sooooo Slooooooooow
You Can’t Get a Good View of the Inside of Your Model
A Face Flashes When You Orbit
You Can’t Move Your Component the Way You Want
Bad Stuff Happens Every Time You Use the Eraser
All Your Edges and Faces Are on Different Layers
Chapter 16: More Than Ten Ways to Learn About SketchUp
Free Online Resources
The Ultimate SketchUp Reading List
Other Tools from the Makers of SketchUp
About the Authors
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
Introduction
Years ago, Aidan was teaching a workshop on advanced SketchUp techniques to a group of
extremely bright middle and high school (or so he thought) students in Hot Springs, Arkansas. As
subject matter went, Aidan wasn’t pulling any punches and breezing through material he wouldn’t
think of introducing to most groups of adults. At one point, a boy raised his hand to ask a question, and
Aidan noticed that the boy looked younger than most of the others. Squinting, Aidan read the logo on
the boy’s T-shirt that said he was in elementary school. “You’re in sixth grade?” Aidan asked, a little
stunned. These kids were motoring, after all. The boy didn’t even look up. He shook his head,
double-clicked something, and mumbled, “Third.” He was eight years old.
SketchUp was invented by a couple 3D industry veterans whose goal was to make it easy for people
to model their ideas in three dimensions. That was it, really — they just wanted to make a piece of
software that anyone could use to build 3D models. That boy from Arkansas indicates they
succeeded.
About This Book
This book is for people who are new to 3D modeling and SketchUp. We don’t assume you know
anything about polygons, vertices, or linear arrays. The nice thing is that the people who make
SketchUp don’t assume you know any of those things, either. That means, I don’t have to spend many
words explaining theoretical concepts, which I think we both can appreciate.
If you happen to know a thing or two about modeling or SketchUp, we think you’ll still find plenty of
useful stuff in this book. Although we write with beginners in mind, you’ll find a lot that isn’t beginner-
level information, so that you can grow your skills after you’re comfortable with the basics.
Most of this book focuses on what you can do with SketchUp, and not what SketchUp does. With
that in mind, this book errs on the side of architecture, because a lot of people want to use SketchUp
to model buildings. However, you can apply the techniques that you learn in this book to modeling
other things, like parts or woodworking.
One more thing: SketchUp is a cross-platform program (it’s available for both Windows and
Macintosh computers), and this book covers both. In most cases, SketchUp works the same in
Microsoft Windows and on a Mac, but where it doesn’t, we point out the differences. Just so you
know, most figures in this book that show the SketchUp user interface show the Windows version.
Foolish Assumptions
We don’t presume you know anything about 3D modeling, much less 3D modeling with SketchUp.
That said, we do assume you’re familiar with a few important concepts:
You’re familiar with the basics of working with your operating system: For example, we
assume you know how to do basic things like saving and opening files. If you’re trying to model
with SketchUp and figure out how to use a computer at the same time, Wiley has some excellent
books that can help you out, such as Windows 10 For Dummies, by Andy Rathbone, or Mac
OS X For Dummies, by Bob LeVitus, just to name two; visit www.dummies.com for other
options.
You have, and know how to work, a mouse with a scroll wheel. SketchUp all but requires
you to have a scroll-wheel mouse — especially when you’re just starting out.
You have at least occasional access to the Internet. You don’t have to be online to use
SketchUp, but you can find great resources on the web. Also, some parts of SketchUp, like the
Components panel, are much more powerful with an Internet connection.
Icons Used in This Book
This icon indicates a piece of information that will probably save you time.
When you’re working in SketchUp, you need to know a lot of things. This icon highlights
important concepts or features you’ll want to remember.
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, but reading them can
give you something to annoy your SketchUp friends with later.
When you see this icon, pay special attention. It occurs rarely, but when it does, something
you do could harm your work.
Beyond the Book
This book has an online presence, where you’ll find lots of useful stuff:
Videos: Aidan recorded a few dozen videos and put them up on YouTube. They’re pretty basic,
but seeing SketchUp in action is often very helpful. You can find these videos, which reflect
some of the steps in this book, at
https://www.youtube.com/user/aidanchopra/playlists.
Links to other cool resources: The web has wonderful SketchUp material — plugins,
components, models, and blogs — and you find direct links to many of them.
Cheat Sheet: You can access this book’s online Cheat Sheet by visiting www.dummies.com
and searching for SketchUp For Dummies.
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. After that, use the table of contents or the index to find what you’re looking for; then
proceed from there.
Part 1
Getting Started with SketchUp
