Aidan Chopra

Article / Updated 07-15-2022

SketchUp offers keyboard shortcuts for the tools you use most often as you create models. To select the tool you want, simply press the letter that's indicated in the following table. Tool Shortcut Key Line L Eraser E Select Spacebar Move M Circle C Arc A Rectangle R Push/Pull P Offset O Rotate Q Scale S Zoom Extents Shift+Z Paint Bucket B

Article / Updated 06-27-2017

Combining section views with scenes to create an animation is both a useful and impressive way to show off your SketchUp model. The basic idea is that you can use scenes to create animations where your section planes move inside your model. Here are a few reasons you may want to use this technique: If you have a building with several levels, you can create an animated presentation that shows a cutaway plan view of each level. Using an animated section plane to “get inside” your model is a much classier transition than simply hiding certain parts of it. When you need to show the relationship between the plan and section views for a project, using an animated section plane helps to explain the concept of different architectural views to 3D beginners. Follow these steps to create a basic section animation: Add a section plane to your model. Add a scene to your model. Add another section plane to your model. You can add another section plane in one of two ways: Use the Section Plane tool to create a brand-new one. This is probably the easiest option, which makes it ideal for beginners. Use the Move tool to copy an existing section plane. Make sure that your new section plane is active; if it is, it cuts through your model. If it’s not active, context-click the section plane and choose Active Cut from the context menu. Add another scene to your model. This new scene remembers which is the active section plane. Click through the scenes you added to view your animation. You see an animated section cut as SketchUp transitions from one scene to the next. If you don’t, make sure that you have scene transitions enabled: Choose Window→ Model Info and then choose the Animation panel in the Model Info dialog box. Make sure the Scene Transitions check box is selected. If you don’t like seeing the section-plane objects (the boxy things with arrows on their corners) in your animation, switch them off by deselecting Section Planes on the View menu. Then you see the section cuts without any ugly rectangles flying around. The hardest thing to remember about using scenes and section planes to make section animations is this: You need a separate section plane for each scene that you create. That is to say, SketchUp animates the transition from one active section plane to another active section plane. If all you do is move the same section plane to another spot and add a scene, this animation technique won’t work.

Article / Updated 06-27-2017

A really great way to use scenes is to pretend you’re walking or flying through your SketchUp model. By setting up your scenes sequentially, you can give a seamless tour without messing around with the navigation tools. This setup is especially handy when you need to walk and talk at the same time. Here are some tips that can help you to simulate a person walking or flying through your model with scenes: Adjust your field of view. For interior animations, make your camera “see” a wider area by setting your field of view to 60 degrees. For exterior views, try a field of view that’s between 30 and 45 degrees. Make sure that your scenes aren’t too far apart. Instead of racing through a room like it’s on fire, don’t be afraid to add more scenes. Your audience will thank you by not throwing up on your conference table. Add scenes at equal distance intervals. Because SketchUp only lets you control the scene transition timing for all your scenes at once, it’s best to make sure that your scenes are set up about the same distance apart. If you don’t, your walk-through animations will be jerky and strange, like Aidan’s dancing. Don’t forget the animation settings in the Model Info dialog box. Set the scene delay to 0 seconds so that your animation doesn’t pause at every scene. For a normal walking speed, set your scene transitions so that you move about 5 feet per second. If your scenes are about 20 feet apart, set your scene transition time to 4 seconds. This gives your audience time to look around and notice things. For flying animations, pick a scene transition time that looks good. Slide around corners. When you set up a walking animation, you have an easy, reliable way to turn corners without seeming too robotic. Basically, the trick is to add a scene just short of where you want to turn — in this case, a few feet ahead of the doorway. The key is to angle your view into the turn slightly. Set up your next scene just past the turn, close to the inside and facing the new view. This technique makes it seem like you’re turning corners naturally.

Article / Updated 06-26-2017

Two tools from the SketchUp Extension Warehouse are essential for 3D printing: CleanUp3 and Solid Inspector2, both created by Thomas Thomassen. CleanUp3 checks and simplifies the geometry of your SketchUp model. It combines multiple faces, eliminates extraneous data, and erases any lines that don’t make a face. Two of the most useful CleanUp3 options are Erase Duplicate Faces and Repair Split Edges, which can be enabled in the CleanUp3 menu. Duplicate faces and split edges are errors that inevitably appear in your model as you work in SketchUp, and they drive 3D printers nuts. Both errors are hard to recognize and repair manually. CleanUp3 is also great at simplifying STL files (3D-printable files) you import into SketchUp. In this image, which shows the triangulated data you get from an imported STL file, the faces have been broken into hundreds of triangles. By removing that triangulation, CleanUp3 makes files downloaded from 3D printing communities (such as Thingiverse) easier to edit in SketchUp. Solid Inspector2 finds and highlights problems that are preventing your model from being a solid shell, and its usefulness can’t be overemphasized. It highlights problem areas and helps you automatically move from one error to next, making repairs much faster. It’s a tool that everyone using SketchUp for 3D printing should have. As you work on your model, get in the habit of running CleanUp3 periodically. Run Solid Inspector2 before you export from SketchUp to 3D print. It will catch any errors that would cause the print to fail.

Article / Updated 06-26-2017

If you’re wondering how to get rid of all the ugly lines that appear when you use SketchUp’s Follow Me, the answer is pretty simple: You can smooth edges, just like you can hide them. The difference between hiding and smoothing is illustrated by the images of the cylinders in the image below: When you hide an edge between two faces, SketchUp treats those faces as though your edge is still there — it just doesn’t show the edge. Materials you’ve applied to each face stay separate, and each face is lit separately by SketchUp’s sun. The latter fact is the reason why simply hiding the edges between faces that are supposed to represent a smooth curve doesn’t make things look smooth — you still end up with a faceted look, as you can see in the second cylinder. When you smooth an edge between two faces, you’re telling SketchUp to treat them as a single face — with a single material and smooth-looking shading. The difference is pretty huge, as you can see in the third cylinder below. You can smooth edges in two ways: Use the Eraser. To smooth edges with the Eraser tool, hold down the Ctrl key (Option on the Mac) while you click or drag over the edges you want to smooth. Use the Soften Edges panel. Located on the Window menu, this panel lets you smooth a bunch of selected edges all at once, according to the angle of their adjacent faces. To get started: Select the edges you want to smooth and then move the slider to the right until you like the way your model looks. To unsmooth edges, follow these steps: Choose View → Hidden Geometry so that the Hidden Geometry menu option is selected. This makes hidden edges visible. Select the edges you want to unsmooth. In the Soften Edges panel, move the slider all the way to the left.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

In a 2D program like Photoshop or Illustrator, the concept of layers makes a lot of sense: You can have content on any number of layers, sort of like a stack of transparencies. You find a distinct order to your layers, so anything on the top layer is visually in front of everything on all the other layers. But hold on a second — SketchUp isn’t a 2D program; it’s a 3D program. So how can it have layers? How can objects in three-dimensional space be layered on top of each other so that things on higher layers appear in front of things on lower ones? In short, they can’t — it’s impossible. Layers in SketchUp are different from layers in most other graphics programs, and that’s confusing for lots of people. SketchUp has a layers system because some of the very first SketchUp users were architects, and many, many architects use AutoCAD drawing software. Because AutoCAD uses layers extensively, layers were incorporated into SketchUp to maximize compatibility between the two products. When you import a layered AutoCAD file into SketchUp, its layers show up as SketchUp layers, which is pretty convenient. So what are SketchUp layers for? Layers control visibility. Use them to gather particular kinds of geometry so that you can easily turn it on (make it visible) and turn it off (make it invisible) when you need to. That said, layers don’t work the same way as groups and components; your edges and faces aren’t isolated from other parts of your model, which can cause major confusion if you’re not careful.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

You can use SketchUp’s modeling tools (with a little help from the Match Photo dialog box) to build a model based on a photograph you have matched. Here are two basic concepts: The process is iterative, not linear. Building a model using a matched photo entails going between drawing edges, orbiting around, drawing more edges, going back to your matched photo scene, and drawing yet more edges. Every photo is different, so the ones you work with will present unique challenges that you’ll (hopefully) have fun figuring out. Don’t forget the photo textures. By far one of the coolest features of photo-matching is the ability to automatically photo-texture your model’s faces by using your photograph as “paint.” It’s a one-button operation, and it’s guaranteed to make you smile. Follow these steps to start building a model with a matched photo: Click the matched photo scene tab to make sure that you’re lined up properly. If you orbit away from the vantage point you set up, you’ll know it; your photograph will disappear. You can easily get back by clicking the scene tab for your matched photo. The tab is labeled with the name of your photo at the top of your modeling window. Starting at the axis origin, trace one of the edges in your photograph with the Line tool. Make sure that you’re drawing in one of the three main directions: red, green, or blue. Keep tracing with the Line tool until you have a rectangular face, watching the color of your edges as you draw. You always want your lines to turn red, green, or blue when you’re starting. Be careful not to orbit while you draw — if you do, repeat Step 1 and keep going. You can zoom and pan all you want, though. Use SketchUp’s modeling tools to continue to trace the photograph in three dimensions. Here are pointers for doing this successfully: Always start an edge at the end of an edge you’ve already drawn. Doing so helps to assure that your results are what you expect. Never draw an edge in midair. Okay — this is the same as the last one, but it bears repeating: When you draw edges based on other edges, you get the best results. Orbit frequently to see what’s going on. You’ll be surprised what you have sometimes — tracing a 2D image in 3D is tricky business. Get in the habit of orbiting around to check on the results and draw certain edges. Click the matched photo scene tab to return to the proper view. Use other tools (such as Push/Pull and Offset) when appropriate. Nothing prevents you from using the full complement of SketchUp’s modeling tools. Pay attention to the colors. With a color photograph as an overlay, seeing what you’re doing can be tricky. Watching to make sure that you’re drawing the edge you intend to draw is critical. Draw angles by connecting the dots. If you need to trace an edge in your photo that doesn’t line up with any of the colored axes (an angled roofline, for example), figure out where the endpoints are by drawing perpendicular edges and connecting them with an angled line. Show or hide your photograph. You can fiddle with the visibility of the picture you’re using — doing so sometimes helps you see what you’re working on. You can find the controls in the Modeling Settings section of the Styles dialog box’s Edit tab. If you have more than one photo of your modeling subject, you can have multiple matched photos in the same SketchUp file. Just get as far as you can with the first photo and then start again with the next by using the geometry you created as an “existing building.” You can edit any texture in your model — including ones produced by photo-matching — by opening them in image-editing software (such as Photoshop) directly from SketchUp. This trick is handy for taking out stuff you might not want in your photos, such as trees, cars, and ex-husbands.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

To make it easier to visualize your spaces, you can decide to offset (using the Offset tool) an exterior wall thickness on your SketchUp model. Here’s how you do it: Using the Offset tool, offset your closed shape by 8 inches to the outside. An offset of 8 inches is a pretty standard thickness for an exterior wall, especially for houses in my neck of the woods. This is how you use the Offset tool: Make sure that nothing is selected by choosing Edit→Select None. Click once inside your shape. Click again outside your shape to make a second, bigger shape. Type 8 and then press Enter. Because the exterior of the house doesn’t actually have any alcoves, use the Line tool to close them off, creating pockets of wall that are thicker than the rest. Use the Eraser tool to get rid of the extra edges. By deleting the extra edges, you have only two faces: one that represents the floor and one that represents the wall. With the Line tool, draw edges that define the thickness of your exterior wall. In the case of this house, this means separating the bulges (which actually represent a fireplace and a mechanical closet) from the part of the wall that goes all the way up to the roof, two stories up. When you’re done, you end up with several faces: one for the floor, one for the exterior wall (whose thickness should be more or less uniform), and a few for the bulges. Select the face that defines the exterior wall. The easiest way to do this is to click once on the face with the Select tool. Make the face you just selected into a group. Making groups lets you separate different parts of your model. Turning your exterior wall into a separate group makes it easier to edit, hide, and move. Groups also simplify the process of adding more levels to your building, if that becomes necessary. To turn the face you selected in Step 5 into a group, choose Edit→Make Group. You see a perimeter of blue lines around your face; that’s the group you just created.

Step by Step / Updated 03-27-2016

When mapping photos onto flat faces, you can choose the easy way or the hard way. Unfortunately, the hard way is the method you end up using the vast majority of the time. Importing images by using the File menu lets you take any image and map it to any flat face in your model. Before you follow these steps, make sure you have at least one face in your model; you map your texture to a face.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Sometimes you need to draw temporary lines while you model in SketchUp. These temporary lines, or guides, are useful for lining up things, making things the right size, and generally adding precision and accuracy to what you’re building. In previous versions of SketchUp, guides were called construction geometry because that’s basically what they are: a special kind of entity that you create when and where you need them. They aren’t part of your model because they’re not edges or faces. This means that you can choose to hide them or delete them — like other annotations, they don’t affect the rest of your geometry. The guides are positioned 12 inches from the wall and 36 inches apart to draw the sides of a doorway. Another guide is used 6 feet, 8 inches from the floor to indicate the top, and then a rectangle, bounded by the guides, which is exactly the right size. When you’re done, erase the guides with the Eraser tool. Creating guides with the Tape Measure tool You can create three kinds of guides, and you use the Tape Measure tool to make them all. Parallel guide lines: Clicking anywhere (except the endpoints or midpoint) along an edge with the Tape Measure tool tells SketchUp that you want to create a guide parallel to that edge. Just move your mouse and you see a parallel, dashed line; click again to place the line wherever you want. Linear guide lines: To create a guide along an edge in your model, click anywhere along the edge except on either of the endpoints, and then click again anywhere else along the edge. Guide points: You may want to place a point somewhere in space; you can do exactly that with guide points. With the Tape Measure tool, click an edge’s endpoint, and then click again somewhere else. A little x appears at the end of a dashed line — that’s your new guide point. Here’s an important point about the Tape Measure tool: It has two modes, and it creates guides in only one of them. Pressing the Ctrl key (Option on a Mac) toggles between the modes. When you see a + next to your cursor, your Tape Measure can make guides; when there’s no +, it can’t. Using guides to make your life easier As you’re working along in this software, you’ll find yourself using guides all the time; they’re an indispensable part of the way modeling in SketchUp works. Here’s what you need to know about using them: Position guides precisely using the Measurements box. Erase guides one at a time. Just click or drag over them with the Eraser tool to delete guides individually. You can also right-click them and choose Erase from the context menu. Erase all your guides at once. Choosing Edit→Delete Guides does just that. Hide guides individually or all at once. Right-click a single guide and choose Hide to hide it, or deselect View→Guides to hide them all. It’s a good idea to hide your guides instead of erasing them, especially while you’re still modeling. Select, move, copy, and rotate guides just like any other entity in your model. Guides aren’t edges, but you can treat them that way a lot of the time.