Book Image

Taking SketchUp Pro to the Next Level

By : Aaron Dietzen aka 'The SketchUp Guy'
Book Image

Taking SketchUp Pro to the Next Level

By: Aaron Dietzen aka 'The SketchUp Guy'

Overview of this book

Anyone who’s worked with it will know that SketchUp is the quickest and easiest way to create 3D models. While its approachable interface makes it super easy to learn, this book will show you how the extremely capable SketchUp software can take you far beyond what you may have initially thought possible. Get ready to level up from a basic user to becoming a SketchUp ninja! Each chapter will take you through the capabilities of SketchUp, challenging you to use tools in innovative ways. This includes organizing your model, modifying native commands, customizing your interface, utilizing inferencing, and much more. Additionally, you’ll learn about the extensions that can be added to SketchUp to supplement the tools you have been using, allowing you to make your 3D modeling process quicker, easier, and more powerful. By the end of this SketchUp book, you’ll have an enhanced understanding of how to use the impressive range of tools and be on your way to customizing SketchUp for your one-of-a-kind workflow.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting More Out of Native Tools
7
Part 2: Customizing SketchUp and Making It Your Own
13
Part 3: Extending SketchUp’s Capabilities for Modeling

Using drawing modifiers

Every single native command used to draw something on the screen has at least one modifier connected to it. While some of these are simple modifications such as locking to an axis while defining geometry, some will actually change where or how geometry is created. In this section, we will list out all the drawing commands and give examples of how and when you might use each of the modifier keys.

Inference Locking Uses Keys, Too

Input commands do lean heavily on inferencing for establishing where geometry will be in 3D space and allow the user to lock to inferences using certain keys. Inferencing will be covered in fine detail in the very next chapter, Chapter 4, Taking Inferencing to the Next Level.

In this section, each drawing modifier is listed along with any modifier keys that can be used. The description will focus on how the modifiers change what the command does, and worry less about the command without modifiers (I am assuming that you have...