Introducing Undo
We have another suggestion for bringing Zen into your SketchUp practice: Accept that messing up is part of 3D modeling. Also, we assume that you’ll be figuring out how to think spatially in SketchUp while you’re figuring out how to use the program. Stumbling a bit is part of the experience for both beginners and advanced modelers. Here are a few ways that you can gracefully reverse and try again:
Use the Escape key. In between click-release and click-to-finish, Escape is essentially a way to interrupt anything you are currently doing in SketchUp and try again. It’s simple and predictable.
Undo. There’s a reason that Undo makes our baker’s dozen of shortcuts worth remembering. Often, you won’t know until click-to-finish that the outcome isn’t what you wanted. Just remember the Undo shortcut Ctrl+Z (Mac: ⌘ +Z), and you can back out of the last 99 things you did in SketchUp.
Use the spacebar: The spacebar is the keyboard shortcut for the Select tool, so switching to it between click-release and click-to-finish interrupts your modeling just like Escape, except that it switches tools. Spacebar is an easier key to feel out on your keyboard, though, so you may find it easier to reach and remember while modeling.
Zoom Extents (Shift+Z): Especially while you’re figuring out how to use your mouse for orbiting, panning, and zooming, you will occasionally get lost in SketchUp. If you find yourself stuck in a wall or stuck in limbo far away from the origin, use Zoom Extents (Shift+Z), and your camera will zoom your view out to reveal everything in your model.
Taking the 10-Minute SketchUp Tour
Now we think you’re ready to take the 10-minute SketchUp tour: a rundown of the layout, tools, and utilities you’ll interact with in this book. Throughout this section, please refer to Figure 1-1 if you use a desktop version or Figure 1-2 if you use SketchUp for Web.
Modeling window: See the big area in the middle of your computer screen? That’s your modeling window. You build your model here, and your modeling window always shows a 3D view of your model, even if you’re looking at it from the top or side. Key features of the modeling window are the model axes: three green, red, and blue lines that help define the directional space of your model.
Menu bar (Desktop only): If you’ve used a computer in the past 30 years, the menu bar is nothing new. Each menu contains a long list of options, commands, tools, settings, and other goodies that pertain to just about everything you do in SketchUp. We generally refrain from pointing you to the menu bar to find things, because that requires that you remember the name of a tool, the menu it lives on, and where on the menu it is. Nevertheless, we expect you’ll be using the menu bar throughout the book.
Menu (web only): In SketchUp for Web, you will be using the menu a lot less to find tools but just as much to open files, save copies using Save As, and change settings.
Search (web only): A recent addition to the SketchUp interface is this quick way to find and activate tools and look up shortcuts. If you’re using the web version (it’s not available in SketchUp Pro yet), you’ll find this really handy when you start learning tools and utility settings that you don’t use that often or have a hard time remembering.
Toolbar: Click a toolbar button to activate a tool or command. You’ll start to use tool icons naturally while using SketchUp. In desktop versions, you can customize your toolbar setup to show tools you use most often, or to not show those tools whose shortcuts you’ve remembered. In the web version, similar tools are nested together in the toolbar. So when you click the Rectangle tool icon, you’ll switch to the Rectangle tool but also see the other shape-drawing tools available to you. Similarly, the Tape Measure tool contains other tools for measuring and labeling things.
Large toolset (desktop only): The large toolset contains most of the tool icons for the commands we use in the book. The large toolset is not pictured in Figure 1-1 because we think it’s better to turn off the Large Toolset and attempt to use core commands by shortcuts. But if you prefer a visual reference for tool icons, you may prefer leaving the Large Toolset on to have all the tools handy all the time. You can can control its visibility by choosing View ⇒ Toolbars (Mac: View ⇒ Tool Palettes).
Status bar: Consider this your SketchUp dashboard. The status bar provides helpful information about the tool you are currently using. It’s important to check the status bar for reminders about modifier keys: keystrokes that you use in combination with certain tools to perform additional functions. Soon enough, you’ll know how to copy by using the Move tool with a modifier key. You’ll definitely forget this key, and when you do, the place to look is the status bar. The status bar also relays step-by-step instructions for the tool’s operation, but you may be better off using the Instructor (see the nearby sidebar “Meet the Instructor”).
Utility panels (desktop only): Before long you’ll start to interact with utilities — things like colors and display settings — that are generally organized on the right side of your SketchUp window. In desktop versions, you control which utility settings are visible via the Window menu. In more recent PC versions of SketchUp Pro, you can manage the default tray of utilities: Choose Window ⇒ Manage Trays, and use the Manage Trays dialog box to reconfigure what you do (or don’t) see here. On a Mac, utilities look like dialogs except that they’re neatly collapsible, and you can stack them aside in tidy trays when you are not using them.
Utility panels (web only): In the web version, all utility panels — for stuff like saving model views or libraries of model textures — are organized on the right side of the screen, accessible by their icons. Opening a utility panel slides open a larger interface where you can access one or multiple panels. Use the X next to a panel name to close it, or use the arrow icon at the top right of the panel to hide the utilities you are currently using.
Measurements box: You use this box all the time as you model, but you’ll never need to touch it. Depending on what you’re doing, this box displays information about what you’re modeling or enables you to specify a precise length, angle, or other measurement while modeling. Chapters 2 and 3 help you understand all that this little unassuming box can do.
Context (shortcut) menus: Whenever you have something selected in SketchUp, you can right-click your selection to reveal a shortcut menu of commands and options. These are always relevant to whatever you right-clicked, so the contents of each menu are different. If you decided to proceed without a mouse, you can still right-click a trackpad, usually by using two separated fingers.
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR
We’d be flattered if you chose to scan this book’s index whenever you need a refresher on how a SketchUp tool works, but you may be better off opening the Instructor panel. The Instructor (see the figure) does only one thing: It shows you how to use whatever tool happens to be activated. We recommend closing the Instructor when you don’t need it. (There will be less visual noise on your screen.) You can open it any time by clicking its right-pointing arrow in the default tray or, on a Mac, choosing Window ⇒ Instructor. In the web version, the Instructor is the graduate icon, which is third from the top on the right side.
The SketchUp Frame of Mind
Now