LESSON 9-1 : X-Raying Objects, Creating Guides and Offsets

Getting Started

1. X-ray Surfaces
When you x-ray surfaces, you can see what’s behind them. That’s great when your model gets more involved and objects start obstructing objects and you don’t want to keep rotating around to see behind them.

1. Select X-ray icon, or
2. View > Face Style > X-ray

2. Tape Measure tool
You can create construction guides with the Tape Measure tool. Construction guides are dotted lines that you use for reference when moving or aligning other objects, and they’re great when you’re laying out the parts of your model.

1. Select Tape Measure Tool icon, or
2. Tools > Tape Measure Tool

3. Offset
We’ll also see how to create offsets in this lesson. An offset is a copy of an edge that you can resize just by dragging the mouse, and offsets are very useful when you’re building items like doors and windows to build frames.

1. Select Offset icon, or
2. Tools > Offset

NOTE: Know Your Tools
It’s assumed in these tasks that you have been progressing through each lesson in order and learning about the individual tools used here. In case you need to flip back for review, check out Lesson 3, “Drawing Shapes: Lines, Rectangles, Polygons, and Circles,” for more on the Line, Rectangle, and Circle tools. See Lesson 5, “Going 3D,” for a refresher on the Push/Pull and Move tools.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-2 : X-Raying Objects

X-Raying Objects

You can “see through” objects in SketchUp, which is very powerful in a number of situations; for example, when you have two objects that obscure one another and don’t want to keep rotating the drawing all the time, or when you have two objects that overlap and want to position them correctly with regard to each other.

Turning on X-ray view is easy. We’ll again use the Engineering–Feet template and draw a few cubes; then we’ll X-ray them to show how this works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.
3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to draw another cube.
5. Select the Select tool in the toolbar.
6. Draw a selection box around one of the cubes to select it.
7. Select the Move tool in the toolbar.
8. Move the selected cube behind the other cube. You can see what this looks like in Figure 9.1.

FIGURE 9.1 One cube obscures another.

9. From the View menu, select Face Style. A submenu appears.

10. Select the X-ray item in the submenu. This turns on X-ray viewing and makes all objects “transparent,” as you can see in Figure 9.2.

FIGURE 9.2 Using X-ray view.

Note that you can now see through the obscuring cube to the cube behind it. Very cool.

As you can see, X-ray vision is a great tool to help you manage multiple objects when they start to obscure each other. To turn it off, select the View menu’s Face Style item to open the submenu, and select the X-ray
item again to toggle X-ray vision off.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-3 : Offsetting Edges with the Offset Tool

Offsetting Edges with the Offset Tool

The Offset tool lets you create copies of edges and move them away from the original edge. That’s good when you have a complex surface and want to draw a matching surface that’s smaller or larger. To see this in action, we’ll start in this task with the object you see in Figure 9.3.

FIGURE 9.3 A 3D object.

Using the Offset tool and the Push/Pull tool, we’ll change this object to the one you see in Figure 9.4 with just a couple of clicks.

FIGURE 9.4 Decorating an object using the Offset tool.

Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select Toolbars from the View menu. This opens a submenu.
3. Select the submenu’s Large Tool Set item. This opens the large toolbar.
4. Select the Polygon tool in the Large Tool Set toolbar.
5. Draw a horizontal pentagon. Pentagons are the default polygon drawn by the Polygon tool.
6. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar.
7. Pull the pentagon up into 3D.

Now we’ll use the Offset tool to draw the offsets we need.

8. Select the Offset tool in the Large Tool Set toolbar. The Offset tool is the tool that displays an image of two concentric circle sections with a red arrow connecting them (shown in Figure 9.4).
9. Click a surface of the object. Clicking a surface tells the Offset tool which surface it should draw offsets of.
10. Move the mouse to make an offset appear. The Offset tool draws an offset following the edges of the current surface, as you can see in Figure 9.5.

FIGURE 9.5 An offset on a surface.

11. Size the offset surface by moving the mouse.
12. Release the mouse button. This locks the offset into place.
13. Repeat steps 8–12 for all visible faces of the object. Use the Rotation tool if you need to get a clearer view of a face.
14. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar.
15. Select each offset surface and push it into the object, as shown in Figure 9.4.

As you can see, offsetting surfaces is useful and easy.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-4 : Creating Exact Offsets

Creating Exact Offsets

Because this is SketchUp, you might assume you can create measured offsets of exactly a precise length offset from the surrounding edges—and you’d be right.

Suppose, for example, that you draw a cube and want a surface drawn on one face offset from the surrounding edges by exactly one foot. Can you do it? Yes, you can; just follow these steps:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.

2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.

3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.

4. From the Large Tool Set select the Offset tool (open the Large Tool Set from the View menu if necessary).

5. Click the surface you want to create the offset on. The surface becomes selected when you click it.
6. Enter the size of the offset you want. In this example, we’ll create a one-foot offset. In general, you enter a length and then the units-you can use these units:

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

Thus, for example, 1' means one foot, so type '.

7. Press Enter. The offset appears, as you see in Figure 9.10.

FIGURE 9.10 A measured offset.

That’s the way to measure offsets.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-5 : Selecting Edges to Offset

Selecting Edges to Offset

In the previous task, we offset surfaces with the Offset tool. But sometimes, you don’t want to offset a whole surface—you just want to offset selected edges.

To see what that means, take a look at the door in Figure 9.6.

FIGURE 9.6 A door.

Now suppose that you’d like to draw a frame around the door. Using the Offset tool to offset the door’s surface leads to trouble, however, because the frame the Offset tool is drawing overlaps the lintel (the board at the bottom of a door), as you can see in Figure 9.7.

FIGURE 9.7 An offset overlapping the lintel.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just offset the top three edges of the door, as shown in Figure 9.8?

That way, you could use the Offset tool to draw the door frame without having the frame overlap the door’s lintel.

You can do this if you use the Offset tool with edges, not surfaces. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Line tool in the Getting Started toolbar.
3. Draw the door and lintel as shown in Figure 9.6.
4. Select the Select tool in the toolbar.

FIGURE 9.8 An offset using edges.

5. Hold down the Ctrl key (Option key on the Mac) and click the three upper edges of the door. Holding down the Ctrl (or Option) key means you can make multiple selections just by clicking them with the Select tool.

When you’re done, the top three edges of the door should be selected.

6. From the Large Tool Set select the Offset tool (open the Large Tool Set from the View menu if necessary).

7. Click inside the door.

8. Move the mouse to make an offset appear. The Offset tool draws an offset following the edges of the current surface, as you can see in Figure 9.8.

9. Size the offset surface by moving the mouse.

10. Release the mouse button. This locks the offset into place, as you can see in Figure 9.9.

FIGURE 9.9 A new door frame.

As you can see, offsetting surfaces is easy.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-6 : Repeating Offsets on Other Surfaces

Repeating Offsets on Other Surfaces

You can repeat offsets on different surfaces with the click of the mouse. Here’s how it works; in this example, we’ll repeat offsets on various faces of a cube:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.
2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.
3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.
4. From the Large Tool Set select the Offset tool (open the Large Tool Set from the View menu if necessary).
5. Draw an offset edge on one surface of the cube. You can see an example in Figure 9.11.

FIGURE 9.11 An offset edge.

6. Double-click the mouse on another surface of the cube. Doubleclicking the mouse draws another offset at the same distance you drew the previous one, as you see in Figure 9.12.

FIGURE 9.12 A new offset edge.

NOTE: Offsets Within Offsets
Note that you can create offsets within offsets using the same distance as well—for example, see Figure 9.13, where we’ve clicked inside the first offset rectangle.

Creating offsets that are all the same size is extremely useful when you have, say, multiple panels you want to create in a drawing.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-7 : Measuring Distances with the Tape Measure

Measuring Distances with the Tape Measure

The Tape Measure tool lets you measure distances handily in your model. When you’re drawing plans to scale, that can be indispensable.

FIGURE 9.13 An offset inside an offset.

In this example, we’ll draw a cube and then measure one face. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.

2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.

3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.

4. Select the Tape Measure tool in the Getting Started toolbar (shown in Figure 9.14).

FIGURE 9.14 Using the Tape Measure tool.

5. Click the mouse button on one edge of the cube. This anchors the Tape Measure tool to the location you’ve clicked.

6. Move the mouse to the opposite edge of the cube. You can see this at work in Figure 9.14.

You can see the width of the cube face in two places in Figure 9.14 - in a ToolTip at the location of the Tape Measure tool (which reads 7.473') and in the Value Control Box, or VCB, at the lower right in SketchUp.

TIP: Measurements Are Always Available
Note that the measurement in the ToolTip disappears after a moment, but the measurement is always displayed in the Value Control Box.

That’s the way you can measure distances in SketchUp using the Tape Measure tool and the Value Control Box.

TIP: Canceling the Tape Measure Tool
After you press the mouse button and begin moving the Tape Measure tool around your drawing, it’ll keep measuring distances no matter where you move the mouse. That’s great if you have multiple distances to measure, but eventually you’ll want to turn off the Tape Measure tool. To turn it off, select another tool, or press the Esc key.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-8 : Creating Guides with the Tape Measure Tool

Creating Guides with the Tape Measure Tool

Guides are dotted lines that you can use to align objects. They’re very handy when you are creating a drawing with multiple objects that have to be in a specific relation to the others, such as in perfect rows. All you have to do is to align the edges of the object with the guides you’ve drawn from other objects.

We’ll take a look at how this works by aligning three cubes in a row using guides. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button.

2. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a horizontal rectangle.

3. Select the Push/Pull tool in the toolbar and pull the rectangle up into a cube.

4. Select the Select tool in the toolbar.

5. Draw a selection rectangle around the cube.

6. Select Copy from the Edit menu.

7. Select Paste from the Edit menu.

8. Click the mouse at the location where you want a new cube to appear.

9. Repeat steps 4–8 to create a third cube. Now you have three cubes, as shown in Figure 9.15.

FIGURE 9.15 Three cubes.

10. Select the Tape Measure tool in the Getting Started toolbar.

11. Click the top-front edge of one of the cubes. A guide appears (represented by a dotted line), as shown in Figure 9.16.

FIGURE 9.16 A new guide.

12. Select the Select tool in the toolbar.

13. Draw a selection rectangle around a cube that doesn’t have the guide attached.

14. Select the Move tool in the toolbar.

15. Move the cube into alignment with the guide, as shown in Figure 9.17.

FIGURE 9.17 Aligning a cube.

16. Repeat steps 12–15 to align the third cube, as shown in Figure 9.18.

Now the three cubes are in a row, and you know how to use guides to align objects in SketchUp.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-9 : Drawing Guides at Specific Offsets

Drawing Guides at Specific Offsets

In the previous task, we added a guide to a drawing with three cubes to align those cubes in a row. But what if you also wanted to space those cubes apart at an exact distance?

FIGURE 9.18 Aligning three cubes.

We’ll see how to use guides to do that in this task. If you haven’t already completed the previous task, do so now in preparation for this task.

So how do you draw guides at a specific distance away from an edge? Here’s how you do it, using the three cubes example developed in the previous task:

1. Start with the three cubes aligned in a row from the previous task.

2. Select the Tape Measure tool in the Getting Started toolbar.

3. Click the top-right edge of the middle cube. This anchors the Tape Measure tool.

4. Move the mouse away from the middle cube toward the cube on the right. This pulls a guide out from and parallel to the top-right edge of the middle cube.

You can pull the guide to any distance you want. In this task, we’ll see how to pull it out exactly three feet.

5. Release the mouse button.

6. Enter the offset you want for the guide. In this example, we’ll create a three-foot offset for the guide. In general, you enter a length and then the units. You can use these units:

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

For example, 3' means three feet, so type 3'.

7. Press Enter. The guide snaps to three feet from the middle cube, as you see in Figure 9.19.

FIGURE 9.19 A new guide.

8. Select the Select tool in the toolbar.

9. Draw a selection rectangle around a cube that doesn’t have the guide attached.

10. Select the Move tool in the toolbar.

11. Move the cube into alignment with the new guide, spacing it at three feet from the middle cube.
12. Select the Tape Measure tool in the Getting Started toolbar.
13. Click the top-left edge of the middle cube. This anchors the Tape Measure tool.
14. Move the mouse away from the middle cube toward the cube on the left.
15. Enter the offset you want for the guide. In this example, we’ll create a three-foot offset for the guide, so type 3'.
16. Press Enter.
17. Repeat steps 8–11 to move the left cube into alignment.

Now your cubes are in a row, and evenly spaced, as you see in Figure 9.20.

FIGURE 9.20 Three cubes in a row, evenly spaced.

Now that you’ve got your three cubes in a row and evenly spaced, you don’t need the guides any more. How do you get rid of them? See the next task.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes

LESSON 9-10 : Deleting Guides

Deleting Guides

In the previous two tasks, you created a number of guides that you used to align three cubes. Now that the guides have served their purpose, can you get rid of them?

Yes, you can. Just follow these steps:

1. Start with the three cubes aligned in a row from the previous task.

2. Select the Eraser tool in the Getting Started toolbar.

3. Click and hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse over the guides in the drawing. When you do, the guides are erased, as you see in Figure 9.21.

FIGURE 9.21 Erasing guides.

That’s it—the guides are gone, and your cubes are all in a row.

Thanks :
Steven Holzner,
SamsTeachYourself Google SketchUp 8 in 10 Minutes