Chapter 7
Keeping Your Model Organized
In This Chapter
Taking stock of your model with the Outliner
Avoiding problems by using layers the right way
Looking at how everything works together
Starting with this chapter, I may sound like your mom: “Clean up your room! Don’t leave your toys in the driveway! Put your dishes in the sink!” As everybody knows, living life can be a messy ordeal, and modeling in SketchUp is no exception. As you crank away at whatever it is you’re building, you’ll reach a time when you stop, orbit around, and wonder how your model got to be such a pigsty. It’s inevitable.
Luckily, SketchUp includes a bunch of different ways to keep your geometry — edges and faces — from getting out of control. Because big, unwieldy, disorganized models are a pain to work with — they can slow your computer, or even cause SketchUp to crash. You should definitely get in the habit of “working clean” (as cooking shows like to call it). As I say earlier, I don’t mean to nag; I just want you to be familiar with the techniques experienced SketchUp modelers use to keep their sanity.
In this chapter, I present the two main tools that SketchUp provides for organizing your model. In the ...
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