888 Sketchup: February 2004

LESSON 4-1 : Drawing Arcs

Drawing Arcs

Drawing arcs is a three-step process in SketchUp—you click at one anchor point, click at another, and then pull the arc (SketchUp will bend it as you pull) into place.

TIP: An Arc Actually Has 12 Sides
Just as circles are made up, by default, of 24 sides in SketchUp (see Lesson 2, “Up and Running with SketchUp”), arcs are made up of 12 segments. If you’re drawing a large arc, those sides, which are really line segments, might be visible. To fix that, you can set the number of sides in an arc. We’ll see how in the task “Setting the Number of Arc Segments,” a bit later.

Let’s take a look at how to create arcs now.

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Click the Arc tool in the toolbar (shown in Figure 4.1).

FIGURE 4.1 The Arc tool and a new arc.

3. Move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw and click the mouse. When you do, you anchor an end point of the arc you’re drawing at that location.

4. Move the mouse to the end point of the new arc you’re drawing and click the mouse. When you do, a line appears from the first anchor point to the current location of the mouse.

5. Slide the mouse along the line between the two end points, and move the mouse to “pull” the line out into an arc. When you do, an arc appears from the first anchor point to the current location of the mouse.

TIP: Inferring Arcs to Planes
Note that as you stretch your arc, SketchUp will infer it to different axes or underlying surfaces (that is, draw it in the plane defined by two axes or an underlying surface). Keep pulling the arc until it
snaps to the plane you want to draw it in, if that becomes an issue.

6. Click the mouse. The arc becomes permanent (unless you erase it, of course). You can see an arc in Figure 4.1.

That’s it—you’ve just drawn an arc.

TIP: Drawing Perfect Half Circles
Want to draw a perfect half circle? Just keep pulling an arc until the ToolTip at the location of the mouse reads Half Circle; then click the mouse.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-2 : Drawing Measured Arcs

Drawing Measured Arcs

Perhaps you want to create an arc a bit more precisely than you can freehand. You can specify the radius of any arc; here’s how:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Click the Arc tool in the toolbar (shown in Figure 4.1).

FIGURE 4.1 The Arc tool and a new arc.

cm to signify centimeters
m to signify meters
' for feet
" for inches.

Thus, for example, 5m means five meters, 5" means five inches, and so on.

7. Press Enter. SketchUp draws the new arc with the radius you’ve requested.

And there you have it—an arc with a specific radius.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-3 : Drawing Arcs Tangent to Corners

Drawing Arcs Tangent to Corners

Consider the shape in Figure 4.2. Suppose that you want to round the acute angle in that figure—how would you do it?

FIGURE 4.2 A shape with an acute angle.

You could draw an arc so that it was tangent to the two sides, as shown in Figure 4.3.

FIGURE 4.3 The same shape with a tangent arc added.

Then you could use the Eraser tool to erase the unneeded acute angle, as shown in Figure 4.4.

That’s it—you’ve rounded the acute angle. Here’s how it works step by step:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and delete the human figure that appears in Engineering–Feet.
2. Draw the surface similar to the one shown in Figure 4.2 with the angle you want to round.
3. Click the Arc tool in the toolbar and move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw. The start point should be on an edge adjacent to the angle you want to round.
4. Click the mouse. When you do, you anchor an end point of the arc you’re drawing at that location.

FIGURE 4.4 The shape now with a rounded arc.

5. Move the mouse to the end point of the new arc you’re drawing and click the mouse. When you do, a line appears from the first anchor point to the current location of the mouse.

6. Slide the mouse along the line between the two end points, and move the mouse to “pull” the line out into an arc. When you’ve pulled the arc such so its sides are exactly tangent to the sides adjacent to the angle you’re rounding, the arc will turn cyan. That’s your clue that you’ve selected the correct arc.

7. Click the mouse. The arc becomes permanent (unless you erase it, of course).

8. Click the Eraser tool in the toolbar. The Eraser tool looks just like, well, an eraser and is a couple tools to the right of the Arc tool. The mouse cursor changes to a small eraser to indicate you’re using the Eraser tool.

9. Click the two line segments inside the shape that formed the acute angle to erase them. This gives you Figure 4.4.

Rounding acute corners like this is a useful skill when you’re using SketchUp.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-4 : Drawing Multiple Tangent Arcs

Drawing Multiple Tangent Arcs

What if you wanted to draw a series of multiple arcs, such as those that appear in Figure 4.5?

FIGURE 4.5 Multiple connected arcs.

The trick is making each new arc tangent to the previous arc so that the series of arcs appears smooth—and SketchUp can help. Here’s how:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and delete the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template by default.

2. Click the Arc tool in the toolbar and move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw.

3. Move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw and click the mouse. When you do, you anchor an end point of the arc you’re drawing at the location.

4. Move the mouse to the end point of the new arc you’re drawing and click the mouse. When you do, a line appears from the first anchor point to the current location of the mouse.

5. Slide the mouse along the line between the two end points, and move the mouse to “pull” the line out into an arc and click the mouse. The arc becomes permanent (unless you erase it, of
course).

6. Click the end point of the arc you want to continue and move the mouse away from the end point. As you do, SketchUp will draw a new arc in blue tangent to the old arc.

7. Move the mouse to the new arc’s end point and click the mouse. The new arc becomes permanent.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for additional arcs. That’s it—now you can draw all kinds of fancy spirals.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-5 : Setting the Number of Arc Segments

Setting the Number of Arc Segments

By default, arcs have twelve sides, but you can change that to any number of sides you want. Here’s how:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Click the Arc tool in the toolbar (shown previously in Figure 4.1).

3. Move the mouse to the start point of the new arc you’re about to draw and click the mouse. When you do, you anchor an end point of the arc you’re drawing at that location.

4. Move the mouse to the end point of the new arc you’re drawing and click the mouse. When you do, a line appears from the first anchor point to the current location of the mouse.

5. Slide the mouse along the line between the two end points, and move the mouse to “pull” the line out into an arc. When you do, an arc appears from the first anchor point to the current location
of the mouse.

6. Type the number of sides you want, followed by “s.” For example, 5s will give you a five-sided arc.

7. Press Enter. The arc changes to have the number of sides you’ve requested.

8. Continue pulling the arc into position.

9. Click the mouse. The arc becomes permanent. Figure 4.6 shows a five-sided arc.

FIGURE 4.6 A five-sided arc.

And now you can draw arcs with as many sides as you want.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-6 : Drawing Freehand

Drawing Freehand

Drawing freehand couldn’t be easier in one sense—you just drag the mouse; but it also couldn’t be harder in another—if you want to draw figures with any accuracy, it’s extraordinarily difficult to do so with the
mouse.

NOTE: You’re Not Actually Drawing Freehand
If you were actually drawing entirely freehand, each location of the mouse would appear as a dot as you moved over it. But because there are only a limited number of mouse events per second, SketchUp draws the mouse locations it gets and then connects the dots with line segments. So if you draw very rapidly, your figures might end up looking more like interconnected lines.

Here’s how to use the freehand tool :

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Select the View, Toolbars, Large Tool Set menu item. This will open the large toolset toolbar.

3. Click the Freehand tool in the large toolbar (as shown in Figure 4.7).

4. Move the mouse to the location you want to start drawing from.

5. Press the mouse button and drag the mouse to draw the figure you want. SketchUp draws the figure following the mouse.

You can see an example in Figure 4.7.

Note that you can’t “fix” a freehand drawing on the pixel level in SketchUp—the only practical thing is to start over.

FIGURE 4.7 Drawing freehand with the Freehand tool.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-7 : Drawing Surfaces Freehand

Drawing Surfaces Freehand

In addition to freehand figures of the kind you see in Figure 4.7, you can also draw complete surfaces in SketchUp. After you complete a surface, SketchUp will color it in automatically.

Essentially, you draw freehand figures as detailed in the previous task with an additional step: Close the figure you’re drawing. When you close the figure, SketchUp can treat it as a completed surface and fills it in. You can see a few surfaces drawn freehand in Figure 4.8.

Note that it’s quite difficult to draw accurate surfaces freehand, and that you usually draw elaborate surfaces as conglomerations of simpler surfaces from the toolbar.

FIGURE 4.8 Drawing surfaces freehand.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-8 : Drawing Text

Drawing Text

You can also draw text in SketchUp, and sometimes that’s crucial, as when you might want to label the parts of an architectural drawing. For example, take a look at Figure 4.9, which shows a cube, and some text, “Cube.”

How did that text get there? Here’s how:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Select the View, Toolbars, Large Tool Set menu item. This will open the large toolset toolbar.

3. Click the Text tool in the large toolbar. The Text tool is the one that displays the letters ABC (as shown in Figure 4.9).

FIGURE 4.9 The Text tool and some text in a drawing.

4. Move the mouse to the location you want to place your text and click the mouse. A box with the prompt Enter Text appears at the location of the mouse for you to enter text in.

5. Enter your text.

6. Click outside the box to make the box’s outline disappear.

It’s important to realize that this text is free-floating; it’s not part of the model you’re drawing. Thus, for example, if you use the Pan tool to move the cube, the text doesn’t follow, as you see in Figure 4.10.

So how do you connect text to a model or surface so that it will move and orbit with that model or surface? Take a look at the next task.

FIGURE 4.10 Text stays in place as you move the model.

TIP : The Proper Use for Screen Text
A good use for the free-floating screen text displayed by the steps in this task is to label an entire drawing. Then the drawing label doesn’t change, no matter how you change the model view.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-9 : Annotating Objects with Text

Annotating Objects with Text

Sometimes, you might want to annotate objects you’re drawing with text, as shown in Figure 4.11, where we’ve drawn a cube and labeled it.

In contrast to the previous task, where we just added text to the drawing, this time we’ve annotated an object in the drawing—the cube. Now when you pan and orbit, the annotation text follows the object, as you can see in Figure 4.12.

FIGURE 4.11 Annotation text for a model.

FIGURE 4.12 Annotation text follows a model.

So how do you annotate an object and connect text with an arrow pointing to an object? Just follow these steps:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Select the View, Toolbars, Large Tool Set menu item. This will open the large toolset toolbar.

3. Click the Text tool in the large toolbar (as shown previously in Figure 4.9).

4. Press the mouse button on the surface or edge you want to annotate.

5. Drag the mouse to the location where you want the text to appear and release the mouse button. A text box appears at the location at which you released the mouse button.

By default, the area of a surface will appear as the text in the text box if you’re annotating a surface, and the length of an edge if you’re annotating an edge.

6. Enter your text.

7. Click outside the box to make the box’s outline disappear.

Now you’re able to annotate objects in your drawings.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-10 : Setting Text Properties

Setting Text Properties

What if you wanted to display your annotation text in a large, italic font, as shown in Figure 4.13?
Just follow these steps to customize your text:

1. Click the Select tool. The mouse cursor will change to an arrow.

2. Right-click the text whose properties you want to change. A context menu appears.

FIGURE 4.13 Annotating in large italic text.

3. Select the Entity Info menu item. SketchUp displays a dialog box labeled Entity Info.

4. Click the Change Font button in the Entity Info dialog box. The Font dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4.14.

FIGURE 4.14 Setting text properties.

5. Select the Font, Font Style, and Size you want for the text in the Font dialog box.

6. Click the OK button to close the Font dialog box.

7. Click the X button at the upper right to close the Entity Info dialog box. SketchUp adjusts the text as you’ve requested.

These steps let you change the font of one selection of text. But what if you have a dozen text items all around the screen?

You can change all the text in your drawing at once if you select Model Info from the Window menu. The dialog box you see in Figure 4.15 appears.

FIGURE 4.15 Setting all text properties.

Select the Text item in the left pane. To set the properties of free-floating screen text, click the Select All Screen Text button, and then click the Font button above it to display the Font dialog box, which will let you set the text properties for all screen text.

To set the text properties of the text used for annotation, click the Select All Leader Text button and then click the Font button above it to display the Font dialog box. You can then set the text properties for all annotation text.

TIP: Setting Arrows for Text
In the Entity Info box, you can also change the text displayed, as well as the style of arrow used to connect the text to the surface or edge.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 4-11 : Drawing 3D Text

Drawing 3D Text

SketchUp also lets you draw 3D text with the 3D text tool. For example, take a look at the 3D text that appears in Figure 4.16.

FIGURE 4.16 Using the 3D text tool.

It’s important to note that 3D text is treated as a shape, unlike 2D text. 3D text becomes part of the model, whereas standard 2D screen text does not. And even while annotated text becomes part of the model, it’s only there to tag parts of the model, not become part of it. The text in Figure 4.16 is part of the model and appears as a structural element in the model.

So, whereas 2D text is used for labeling, 3D text becomes a structural element in the model itself.

TIP: Making 2D Text Part of the Model
Want to make 2D text part of the model? Just use 3D text, setting the text “extrusion” (see step 6) to zero.

Here’s how to draw in 3D:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button and click the human figure that appears in the Engineering–Feet template to select it; press the Del key to delete it.

2. Select the View, Toolbars, Large Tool Set menu item. This opens the large toolset toolbar.

3. Click the 3D Text tool in the large toolbar (shown in Figure 4.16). The dialog box, labeled Place 3D Text, appears, as you see in Figure 4.17.

FIGURE 4.17 Customizing 3D text.

4. Enter the text you want to make 3D in the large text box.

5. Select the Font, Alignment, Text style (Regular or Bold), and whether you want the characters to appear filled in.

6. Enter the height of the characters you want (using ' for feet, " for inches, m for meters, or cm for centimeters) in the Height box and the 3D depth you want to give to the characters in the Extruded box.

7. Click the Place button. The dialog box disappears, and the text appears as a model element that is selected and that moves as the mouse moves.

8. Move the mouse to move the text and then click the mouse to place the text in the model. The text will align to any axis or surface, just as any other model element.

That’s it—you can now add 3D text to models using the 3D Text tool.

Thanks :

Steven Holzner,

SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes