Sketchup Free - Work Online from Anywhere
You will see many tutorials out there that look different from what we have at school. Most of the functions work equally well, but the menu system is different. The great news is the keyboard shortcuts are the same and speed things up a LOT. You MUST learn them - they are on your Useful Desktop Background.
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This tutorial from the official Sketchup channel helps introduce you to getting around in this new environment. You may see the side menu being used for things that there are shortcuts for - remember that you will be required to use the keyboard shortcuts instead.
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Managing Sketchup Files
Sketchup for Schools will save your work to your Google Drive account. You can create new folders right here in Sketchup or go to Google drive and make a new one there. Let's put all of our Sketchup work in a new folder we'll call:
230104 Sketchup Project Folder
We will also download versions of our Sketchup models and need a place to put them. We will be working with other 3D programs as well and save all of these project files to a OneDrive folder we will create later. For now, we'll get started with a simple Cube design that you can call "Cubes". That means a proper file name (entered after you click on the name "Untitled" in the upper left hand corner) would be:
230104 Cubes YourName
230104 Sketchup Project Folder
We will also download versions of our Sketchup models and need a place to put them. We will be working with other 3D programs as well and save all of these project files to a OneDrive folder we will create later. For now, we'll get started with a simple Cube design that you can call "Cubes". That means a proper file name (entered after you click on the name "Untitled" in the upper left hand corner) would be:
230104 Cubes YourName
Practicing Perfect Cubes
We will learn how to enter exact values while drawing and extruding (push/pulling) some squares in Sketchup before we start on our Simple House. You MUST be able to design with precision for Sketchup to truly be useful, and the Simple House we will be constructing has a few measurements that must be exact in order to receive full credit on the project, even if it looks the same.
Follow this video, made with Sketchup Pro, to create 4 cubes of exactly the right size. Although the Sketchup for Schools menu looks different, everything in this tutorial can be made in the same way, especially if you use the keyboard shortcuts you have to learn.
Simple House Project
Now that you can navigate in 3D space, switch tools quickly with keyboard shortcuts and enter exact measurements for different elements, we'll build a small house. When a value is specified, you must use that value. If not, then you have some flexibility, like how high the peak of the roof on your house is. As long as it looks reasonable it should be good. Don't worry about expressing yourself creatively at the beginning of this project - there will be plenty of options when we paint the house that will make yours look different from everyone else.
We will skip the first minute of this video since we are managing our files differently this year. Do your best to orient your view the same as what you see in the tutorial - it can help a lot! The measurements here are:
First rectangle: 12',30' (12 feet by 30 feet) Second one: 20',10' (20 feet by 10 feet) Push/Pull: 10' (pull up 10 feet from the ground |
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