Drawing Lines, Shapes, and 3D Objects
No matter how simple or complex your model, every model in SketchUp is really just edges and faces. The drawing tools enable you to create those edges and faces.
If you’re a beginner to drawing in SketchUp, start simple:
- Learn how drawing lines and shapes in 3D is different from drawing in 2D. Make sure you understand a few drawing basics and concepts, like how to align lines and shapes to the correct drawing axis. (Hint: The SketchUp inference engine can help.)
- Explore the shape tools and handy selection techniques.
- Discover all the ways you can push/pull your geometry into 3D.
- Draw outside the box with arcs.
If you’re eager to draw detail and complex 3D models, these Help Center articles can help you expand your drawing skills:
- To make curved faces look more polished, check out how to soften round edges so they look smooth.
- To move beyond basic shapes, you need to know how to divide and split faces, move entities, copy entities, erase lines and faces, flip and rotate entities, scale entities, and extrude shapes along a path with the Follow Me tool.
- You can also model complex shapes with the Solid Tools, which enable you to modify 3D shapes by choosing how one shape adds to or subtracts from a second shape.
- Give your model a polished look with text, a custom background, or fog.
If you need to draw precisely, discover how to offset a line and measure angles and distances.
If examples help you understand how to apply and combine drawing techniques, check out the articles on creating specific shapes, such as a cone or sphere, and objects, such as a chair or building footprint.
Before you know it, you’ll be modeling your house, that custom dining room table you’ve been wanting to make, or the modern storefront that you envision (where others see only a dilapidated parking lot).
