Basic SketchUp Tutorial for beginner

2011-12-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

SKETCHUP TOOLS AND SHORTCUTS.

Maybe SketchUp is the most compact and easy to learn 3d modeling software, what is the best thing of SketchUp is that you can get it for free, you just have to download it in here, but actually there is a pro version of this software that you can purchase, and of course you can get more benefit by using it.

For the first time users, you will not have any problem to understand the basic tools of this software , I will show how to use the basic tools and the shortcuts for the fast use of the tools instead click it with your mouse.

You can see the example tools below, for the first time user after install the software, you can set the template with measurement you prefer, for example I am using the meters unit.

When I learned to use 3d modeling software I always think simple, all the shape is almost from basic line, if you connecting lines you can make rectangle, circle , etc. From that shape you can make like cubic , cylinder, etc. the same purpose that you can do it with SketchUp.

You can access the toolbars from tab ‘view’ then ‘toolbars’ you can tick all the toolbars that you want to show .

Principal tools :

Select tool, to select object in your viewport

Paint bucket to give material on object , for example : like giving a stone material on a wall

Erase tool : erase your obect, like line, face, etc

rectangle tool : make a rectangle shape

Line Tools : from this tools you can make alot of shape by conecting lines

Circle tool :: same as rectangle you can make a circle shape

arc tool : you can make an arc line

polygon tool : you can make a a polygon

Freehand tools : you can make lines whatever you want

Move or copy tool : by using the select tool you can use this tool to move object and by pressing CTRL key on keyboard at the same time you can copy the object.

Push/ pull Tool : by select a face you can pull it or push it for example if you want to make a hole

Rotate Tool : to rotate object

Follow me tool : you can extrude a face and follow a path, for example you want to make pipes system

scale tool : you can resize your object

Offset tool : you can offset the line with some distance

Tape measure tool : to create guide lines and guide points

Dimension tool : to show dimensions in your object

Protactor tool : Use the Protractor tool to measure angles and create angled guide lines

Text tools : To give a text on your object

That is the most tools that we will mostly use, for zooming you can just scroll your middle button mouse, and to rotate view you can just press it, for pan you can use the pan tool on the white hand button on the toolbars
For the sketchup shortcuts

Line	L
Eraser	E
Select	Spacebar
Move	M
Circle	C
Arc	A
Rectangle	R
Push/Pull	P
Offset	F
Rotate	Q
Scale	S
Zoom Extents	Shift+Z
Paint Bucket	B

of course you can change the shortcuts , go to window tab | preferences | Shortcuts , and change or assign new shortcuts.

Save As problem in Autocad

2011-07-01T01:39:00.001-07:00

Have you ever experienced autocad problem like in this picture, it showed list type of files instead a dialog box where you can save your drawing, apparently the only solution i did back then was unistalled it and re-installed, and then i got the same problem again until i find another solution which is so simple i just wrote FILEDIA and set the value to 1, i dont know what is that supposed to mean but voila it works.

Another Architect Blog

Basic SketchUp Tutorial for beginner

Save As problem in Autocad