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

Working with “Sticky Geometry”

In this section, we will talk about “sticky geometry.” What is sticky geometry? Why should we be concerned about it? And, most importantly, what does this have to do with Groups and Components in our SketchUp models? Let’s spend a few sections discussing these questions.

What is Sticky Geometry?

All versions of SketchUp follow the same basic rules that we covered in the last chapter. Those are as follows:

  • All edges are straight lines between two points
  • All faces are bounded (surrounded) by edges
  • All faces are two-dimensional (flat)

There is another rule that we need to add to the list, which has to do with the way geometry interacts when edges and faces intersect:

  • Geometry in SketchUp will interact with the geometry that it touches in either of the following cases:
    • Both geometry objects are in the same group
    • Both geometry objects are in the same component
    • Neither geometry object is in...