Book Image

Getting Started with SketchUp Pro

By : David S. Sellers
Book Image

Getting Started with SketchUp Pro

By: David S. Sellers

Overview of this book

Owing to its ability to create models quickly and with high level of dimensional accuracy, SketchUp Pro has become a popular choice for many industries, including architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and video game design. If you are seeking to adopt Trimble's exceptional design software, Getting Started with SketchUp Pro serves as an ideal primer to prepare and equip you for its use. This book will help you lay the foundation of a project from scratch, set up appropriate units, and follow a guided path to structure your 3D models. You’ll explore the workflows used for creating designs from sketches, making CAD drawings (DWG), and even updating your existing 3D models. Finally, you’ll work with extensions and 3D Warehouse to find new workflows and models to add to your skill set. By the end of this SketchUp book, you’ll be able to confidently create and share models of your design through CAD drawings and 3D views, and even take them online through the 3D Warehouse
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1 – User Interface and Beginning Modeling!
7
Part 2 – Views, Animations, and Materials
11
Part 3 – Advanced Modeling and Model Organization
12
Chapter 9: Entity Info, Outliner, and Tags Dynamically Organize Your Models
13
Chapter 10: Model Info and Preferences

Creating Components

Components are so fundamental to the SketchUp Pro workflow that the Make Component tool is one of the Principal tools. The Principal toolbar was first introduced in Chapter 2, but we will cover the Make Component tool in this section. The Make Component tool has two designs, with a new design being introduced in SketchUp Pro 2021. The old Make Component button looked like the SketchUp logo inside a red bounding box. The new Make Component button is three boxes inside of a blue bounding box:

Figure 11.9 – Old Make Component Button up to 2020 (Left), New Make Component Button 2021 onward (Right)

Components can also be made by hitting the G keyboard shortcut or by right-clicking and selecting Make Component.

Creating New Components

Clicking the Make Component button with no selection will begin the Make Component process, and SketchUp will prompt for Component Axes to be placed. We will discuss Component Axes later in this section...