To create a 3D model in SketchUp, you're constantly switching among the drawing tools, views, components, and organizational tools. In this article, you find several examples that illustrate ways you can use these tools together to model a specific shape or object.The examples illustrate a few of the different applications for creating 3D models in SketchUp: woodworking, modeling parts or abstract objects, and creating buildings. The examples are loosely ordered from the simple to the complex.
Many models start with basic shapes. In SketchUp, the shape tools help you draw rectangles, circles, and polygons. You find these tools on the Getting Started toolbar, the Drawing toolbar, and the Large Tool Set toolbar.Drawing a rectangle or squareIn SketchUp, you can draw rectangles pretty much anywhere:
Tip: Inserted SketchUp files can now contain Dashed Lines, to learn more about managing those new line types with inserted files, see Working with SketchUp Dashes in Imported ModelsRectangles are simple shapes, but for those of you who like pizzaz in your rectangles, LayOut has four rectangle tools. Each tool does a little something different with the rectangles lines or corners, as shown in the following figure:
The LayOut interface contains the tools and features you need to create 2D documents and presentations from your 3D models. LayOut and SketchUp are made to work together. Many tools and features in LayOut work a lot like they do in SketchUp.Each part of the LayOut interface provides a different set of options to help you with your documents.