IMHO many of the issues in postings toady are caused by " our " own making. We have made it much to easy for OP to submit ill define problem/ question ( aka image) and as such an ill defined answer like read manual or link with numerous solutions thus giving them a test. . It seems to me when I joined the forum in ~ 06, 07 question were always supported by problem model?? .
I appreciate this is an old thread, but I felt the need to report my experience.
After the free version sitting on my computer for two years, and struggling to just make a simple object, one Sunday morning I came across the bitesize videos to get started. What a revelation ! I had been using TurboCAD, FastCAD, AutoCAD, Vectorworks with varying degrees of proficiency, and I soon realised my main problem was going into Sketchup with a 2D mind. I became very proficient in it very quickly (even though I say so myself): I constantly get customers asking me what I use, and how to get started, etc. I’ve been working in Pro for 2 years now. I suspect a lot of users use Make even though it is for commercial use, but I honestly felt so guilty about what I could do in it that I bought Pro. I don’t fine Pro significantly better than Make, but cost-wise, absolutely nothing else can touch it.
However - no matter how “easy” I found it, I have (like the OP) tried to explain it to others: demo it, get them started on the free viewer, but although they are reasonably intelligent people in their own ways, they struggle and give up. I explain to them I was exactly the same before I watched the tutorials, but mostly as we get older, we’re less inclined to learn something if we’ve got by without it thus far.
To sum up: it is easy, definitely easier than others, particularly due to the style of the tutorials to get moving. But no matter how easy, you still need the aptitude and interest to get it working.
Sketchup is BY FAR the best value for money piece of software I have ever used. I strongly advise anybody to muck around with it first, then set a few hours aside with two screens (one for video, the other to work alongside). If it doesn’t work for you then you’re missing the above-mentioned traits. If it does. it’ll change your drawing life.
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Maybe so, … but reading this thread: How to learn to use SketchUp (some 6 posts) and downloading the manual (pdf) to me seems a must. Although the manual is about an old version of SketchUp, it’s still covering most of the tools and other stuff and it is easy to read, side by side, when using/practising SketchUp in modeling simple things to begin with. Don’t start modeling something complex.
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as with every non-trivial software… 3D modeling is in general complex by * ahum * design… besides maybe 3D editors as e.g. TnkrC*D.
lol - came across that myself just after posting.
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Ironically, I came across this in my work e-mail this morning … it makes everything look so easy 
As I was watching it, I kept noticing how often groups and components are used when dynamically making changes. It’s a fine point that’s often overlooked by new users. Or maybe under-stressed by documentation and advice.
Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
For some folks, SketchUp is an incredible 3D calculator. For others, it’s magic … sometimes it’s Good Magic, and sometimes it’s Bad Magic.