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

Model with Groups and Components (Objects)

Groups and Components are known as Objects in SketchUp. We will spend some time discussing these Objects, as you should use them in every single project you work on in SketchUp Pro. Understanding how to create, edit, and work with Groups and Components is an essential skill in SketchUp!

Objects in SketchUp

SketchUp Pro defines Groups and Components as Objects. In fact, they are the only two Objects in the software! So, what is an Object?

SketchUp defines four essential ideas that help to define Objects and their behavior:

  • Objects hold other entities (geometry)
  • Objects can be nested within other objects
  • Objects do not stick to other entities outside their own object
  • Objects can be locked

Source: help.sketchup.com

We will quickly examine each of these defining statements.

It is difficult to define groups and components without using the word “group.” In the simplest terms, SketchUp organizes...