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

SketchUp Versions

SketchUp Pro is a desktop software and is the traditional format for utilizing SketchUp. Recently, SketchUp has released a new way to access SketchUp through a web browser app, known as SketchUp for Web. While the newer version of SketchUp will be more accessible and does not require any installation time, SketchUp Web does not support Extensions or desktop integrations. Because of this, SketchUp Pro is the preferred software for working professionals.

SketchUp for Web has been included in many pricing models outlined on the SketchUp website. This includes SketchUp Go, SketchUp Shop, and SketchUp for Schools. SketchUp Studio has also been introduced, which includes SketchUp Pro and SketchUp for Web as well as a collection of design and analytics tools that go beyond the scope of this book.

A full comparison of the different SketchUp options can be found on the SketchUp website.

You can see the interfaces for SketchUp Pro and SketchUp for Web in the following figures. We will discuss the parts of the SketchUp Pro User Interface later in this chapter.

Figure 1.1: SketchUp Pro User Interface

Figure 1.1: SketchUp Pro User Interface

You can see that SketchUp for Web needs to be run in a web browser and in this case, it is Microsoft Edge:

Figure 1.2: SketchUp for Web User Interface

Figure 1.2: SketchUp for Web User Interface