Search for Tools and Commands

Not sure how to do something in SketchUp? Can't remember where the button for a tool or option is? SketchUp for Web's Search tool is here to help! With our on-demand Search you can look up and activate any of SketchUp's tools or commands with just a few keystrokes.

You can click to activate Search () at the top of the Main Toolbar or use one of two keyboard shortcuts; Shift + / (?, on most QWERTY keyboards) orShift + S.


Find and Activate Commands

When searching, SketchUp brings up possible results as you type. When you see what you're looking for, click on the option you want to activate. You can also use the arrow keys to highlight one of the available options. Hitting Enter or Return on your keyboard activates the highlighted result. . If your search result is a display command (like X-ray mode, Hide Rest of Model, View Hidden Geometry, View Shadows), you can activate these commands from search without switching from your current tool choice.

Concept Searching

SketchUp for Web has a lot of tools, some you may not even know exist. A good way to find and activate tools or commands, find tools that are relevant to your 3D modeling, or even find a tool you don't know the name of, is concept searching.


Concept searching means you can type in what you think a tool is called or the function of a tool and SketchUp will serve up the results we think are most related to your query. Here's a few examples:

  • If you are not sure how to 'raise' or 'lower' something, searching for those terms will suggest the Move tool.
  • If you know there's a way to isolate a group or component while editing but don't remember what it's called, a search for 'isolate' gives you "Hide rest of model" or "Hide similar components."
  • You want to rearrange a few components but not sure what tool to use. Searching for "arrange" suggests Rotate or Move.

This concept matching is subjective. We develop concepts based on common questions from beginners, parallel functionality in software you might use with SketchUp, and a bit of team flair.

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