About SketchUp Guide

SketchUp Guide is an independent guide to SketchUp for people who model rooms, objects and floor plans and then need drawings or views someone else can use. I'm Oliver Grant, and I write it around one question: once the first shape looks right, will the model still be pleasant to work with when the design changes? Another opening, a repeated object or a different view should be an ordinary edit, not a reason to rebuild.

What the guides cover

• Getting started: the default one-letter tool keys sorted by job, the keys held inside a tool on Windows and Mac, your own shortcuts in Preferences and a sheet to print.
• Free versions & plans: how Free, Go, Pro and Studio differ by the file you need to deliver, and what the plans cost, including billing, refunds and stopping the next charge.
• Modeling: a sphere swept with Follow Me, with segment counts, smoothing, failed sweeps and a half profile for a hemisphere or bowl.
• Extensions & rendering: V-Ray for SketchUp, from the license that fits your plan and computer to a first render saved as a file.
• Design projects: an interior modeled at real size, with walls, openings and furniture kept apart, saved elevations, a render for a design decision and a LayOut viewport.
• Drawings, LayOut & export: a floor plan from units and walls to a section-cut scene, and LayOut sheets with viewport scale, dimensions and export.
• Install & licenses: Windows and Mac requirements, graphics drivers and older Intel Macs, and resetting a license left on a computer that no longer works.

How I write a SketchUp guide

I start from an ordinary change to make: another opening, a repeated object or a different view. The steps then show what each group, component or tag is doing, so you can see why the model is organized that way, not only how it looks from one camera angle. I'd rather set up a manageable structure while you're still exploring the design than tidy a model after it has become hard to edit.

Trimble's SketchUp documentation is my reference for how a tool or plan behaves. Version and plan details get their own place where a workflow moves into LayOut, because not every plan includes it, and a revised guide keeps those requirements visible.

About Oliver Grant

My role here is SketchUp modeling and presentation: groups, components and tags, inference and accurate drawing, scenes and section cuts, and preparing a model for LayOut. I treat presentation choices as part of the model's structure, including the visibility settings behind a saved view, so a quick model doesn't depend on a convincing camera angle.

The reader I have in mind wants a model that supports several useful views without a different set of improvised fixes for each one. I keep the examples small and spatial and the language plain. The first shape is usually easy; keeping it organized while it changes is the interesting part.

SketchUp Guide is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Trimble Inc. SketchUp is a trademark of Trimble Inc.