Sketchup tips list

SketchUp
1

Hello!

I’ve started my own quick tips list, FWIW. I’m still learning about these things (working with components, section plane, smooth/soften with the eraser, follow me, offset, outer shell, finding gaps in models), so if anyone has any tips on those to share, I’d appreciate it.
Regards, leaning.

Sketchup Tips (using Sketchup 2016):

⦁ a) Origin: Select item, then Move Tool, then type [0,0,0] (This moves the item to the origin.)
⦁ b) Coordinates: Use Text (not 3D Text) tool, click on item endpoint, and it will display the endpoint’s XYZ coordinates.
⦁ c) Scale: select the item, then Tools>Scale, and type 10 (for scaling up by a factor of 10). To scale back down, you would select, scale, type 0.1 which will take you back to the original size.
⦁ d) Toolbars: View> Toolbars. Check them all except Drawing, Getting Started, Edit, and Principal. (The Large Toolset and the Warehouse Toolbar takes the place of all these).
⦁ e) Toolbar icons: Change their size via Window>Preferences>Workspace>Use large tool buttons.
⦁ f) Large Toolset: Cannot be moved to the top with all the other toolbars. It also cannot be changed from vertical (up and down) to horizontal (across)
⦁ g) Select Tool: Single click selects the face or edge, double-click a face selects the face and all its bounding edges, or the edge and its connected face. Triple-click selects all the connected entities. For example, if you triple-click a face in a cube, the entire cube is selected.
⦁ h) Click + CTRL: Adds to selection. Click+CTRL+SHIFT: Removes from selection. Click +SHIFT: Selects an unselected entity or deselect a selected entity.
⦁ i) Axis: View>Axis: turns on and off the XYZ axis.
⦁ j) Window>Default Tray>Styles: Edit>Edge. Check Endpoints and set to 10 for big endpoints that are easy to see.
⦁ k) Window>Default Tray>Styles: Edit>Edge. Color>By Axis: gives your model’s edges that are on the XYZ axis the green,red, and blue colors.
⦁ l) Window>Default Tray>Styles: Edit>Face. Change front and back face colors to your preferences.
⦁ m) Window>Default Tray>Styles: Edit>Background. Control the sky and ground backgrounds colors.
⦁ m) Window>Default Tray>Styles: Edit>Modeling. Checking Color by Layer overrides Face Styling colors (see L above.)
⦁ n) Copy: select the object. Then with the Move Tool, click once to start the move. Then, tap the CTRL button. Move it a specified distance (type 10, for example) and press enter.For multiple copies, equally spaced apart, type 10* ENTER to make ten copies spaced apart the same distance as the original copy. Or press /10 to create 10 copies in between the original copy.
⦁ o) Groups: Grouped entities don’t stick to entities outside their own group. To create a group, select all the geometry you want to include in the group. Then, Edit > Make Group (or right-click, then Make Group.) To break up the group, click to select it and then Edit > Group > Explode. To lock a group so it can’t be edited, right-click it and select Lock. After you lock a group, the menu item changes to Unlock, so you can reverse the change. Lock a group to prevent it from being edited accidentally as you work on nearby parts of a model.
⦁ p) Component: (Edit > Make Component, or right-click Make Component): Your component is reusable; component geometry becomes separate from any geometry to which it’s currently connected (similar to groups); anytime you edit your component, you can edit the component instance or the definition; you can make your component stick to a specific plane (by setting its gluing plane) or cut a hole in a face (by setting its cutting plane).
⦁ q) Outliner: (Window> Default Tray> Outliner) enables you to view a model’s groups and components as a hierarchical tree.
⦁ r) Window> 3D Warehouse: get and share 3D models
⦁ s) Window>Extension Warehouse. Get plugins that improve Sketchup functionality

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2

Just a few notes:
a) this moves the item from the point clicked to the origin.

b) this only works on “native” geometry - if you click on a point that is embeded within a group/component then the default callout text is the entity name: you will need to edit the entity to get the coordinates.

c) on the scale tool, if you scale at -1 it will mirror the selection. If you hold [ctrl] while dragging it will scale about the mid-pont of the selection

g-h) the double an triple click thing works with [shift] and [ctrl] to add and remove from the selection.

j) personal preference; under the | styles | edit window I’ve only got “edges” ticked on.

k) This is dependent on the axis you are viewing at the time: if you are in a group/component that has a rotated axis, then the red/green/blue will change.

k [ii] ) If you select “Color by material” then you can get different coloured edges to things by grouping them and filling the group with a colour.

n) [x10][return] will copy ten times. As long as you do not click on another tool or select something else, you can change the distance moved and/or the divisions and multiplications of the object as many times as you want. (doing this will “set” the action) If you subsequently “undo” this, it will undo both the move and the duplication - it’s one action in the undo list.

o p) [ctrl+g] will make group [ctrl+shift+g] will make component. Making a component pops up another window to ask some more info - the selection will default to NOT becoming a component if it’s attached to anything (you need to tic a box on the window mentioned before) You can r-click on a group and make it a component without the popup window (You need to “explode” the component and then “group” the resulting objects to do this in reverse)

q) Components (& groups) can be named from the “entity info” window - this makes them easy to identify from the outliner.

3

Gadget,

Thanks! I’m going to go through yours, and see how to squish them in. (I like a quick, few words list, so I have to get the idea out with as few words as possible. I don’t want to recreate the user’s manual :))
(I’m just going through all the Sketchup videos and other people’s videos (about 3-4 a day), so if I see a new idea, or better words, I jot it down.)

Here’s the next part if you want to look it over.
(BTW, is there something like this on this forum already, something pinned, so I can use/modify that rather than do this from scratch?)
regards,
leaning

• t) Window>Preferences>Extensions>Install Extensions: Install extensions NOT downloaded from Extension Warehouse (i.e., .rbz files downloaded from Sketchucation, etc.)
• u) Model Info > Statistics > Purge Unused: delete model’s unused resources.
• v) Window>Default Tray>Components>Select tab>In-model (house icon): What components are in your model. (those components are file specific) If you want to have components common to all your files, on same tab (Window>Default Tray>Components>Select tab), click Details arrow, then open or create a component collection.
• w) Startup template differences: 1) default unit of measure and 2) starting view (top, side)
• x)Mouse: With most drawing tools, you do a start click, do the action(move, etc.), then do a finish click (Do not hold the mouse button down between clicks.) (Type dimension(s) after action, and then no finish click is required!)
• y) The finish click of one action can be the start click of another action. (Ex, use line tool, start click, draw edge, finish click to end that edge and start second edge, then finish click second edge.)
• z) Mouse: scroll-wheel zooms to wherever the cursor is
• aa) Line tool: Does NOT draw a line; it draws an edge!
• bb) Push/pull: push/pull only faces (select with that tool)
• cc) Move tool: move edges or faces (select with select tool first)
• dd) Offset Tool: Creates edges which are equidistant from the selected face(s) edges. Have to select first!
• ee) Follow me: Pulls a face around continuous edges
ff) Guides: Delete individually using Eraser, or all of them via Edit>Delete Guides
• gg) Push/Pull: Use CTRL+ if your model is having that “hollow” look (one face moves, but it leaves a hole behind it.)