Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Chapter 3. Drawing in Three Dimensions

When you work with SketchUp in three dimensions, it feels less like drawing and more like model building. It’s exciting building an object piece by piece and being able to look at it from different angles. You almost feel like you’re holding the model in your hands. Above all, a 3-D model is a much more powerful communication tool than a 2-D drawing. Whether you’re an architect showing ideas to a client or the owner of a beach house trying to entice renters, SketchUp lets you show a building inside and out. Unlike with many more complicated 3-D programs, with SketchUp you can opt for instant gratification, and pull something together quickly. And when it’s worthwhile, you still can spend more time and create models with elaborate details.

If you followed the steps in Chapter 1, you got a taste for building 3-D models. This chapter expands on the concepts introduced in those exercises. You’ll be formally introduced to the blue axis, and learn some survival skills for navigating 3-D space. You’ll also learn even more about SketchUp’s amazing Push/Pull tool, which you can use to stretch your 2-D shapes into 3-D masterpieces. Also, you already saw how the Move tool changes 2-D shapes (Moving a Face). In this chapter, you’ll see how it works when you add another dimension.

Navigating 3-D Drawings

Navigation is an important skill when you’re working with 3-D graphics. For some folks, it’s a cinch; for others, it doesn’t come naturally. If you’re good ...