SketchUp For Dummies

Introduction

Years ago, Aidan was teaching a workshop on advanced SketchUp techniques to a group of extremely bright middle and high school (or so he thought) students in Hot Springs, Arkansas. As subject matter went, Aidan wasn’t pulling any punches and breezing through material he wouldn’t think of introducing to most groups of adults. At one point, a boy raised his hand to ask a question, and Aidan noticed that the boy looked younger than most of the others. Squinting, Aidan read the logo on the boy’s T-shirt that said he was in elementary school. “You’re in sixth grade?” Aidan asked, a little stunned. These kids were motoring, after all. The boy didn’t even look up. He shook his head, double-clicked something, and mumbled, “Third.” He was eight years old.

SketchUp was invented by a couple 3D industry veterans whose goal was to make it easy for people to model their ideas in three dimensions. That was it, really — they just wanted to make a piece of software that anyone could use to build 3D models. That boy from Arkansas indicates they succeeded.

About This Book

This book is for people who are new to 3D modeling and SketchUp. We don’t assume you know anything about polygons, vertices, or linear arrays. The nice thing is that the people who make SketchUp don’t assume you know any of those things, either. That means, I don’t have to spend many words explaining theoretical concepts, which I think we both can appreciate.

If you happen to know a thing or two about modeling ...