LESSON 2-9 : Drawing Edges

Drawing Edges

Let’s get started doing some actual drawing in SketchUp by drawing a few edges using the Line tool. Here’s how it works:

1. Click the Start Using SketchUp button. SketchUp starts with the Engineering –Feet template we selected as the default in previous tasks. Click the human figure that appears in the template to select it, and press the Del key to delete it.

2. Click the Line tool to select it (shown in Figure 2.19).

3. Press the mouse button where you want one end of the line to start. Pressing the mouse button anchors the line you’re about to create.

4. Drag the mouse to the other end of the line. You can see a line being drawn in Figure 2.19.

NOTE: SketchUp Automatically Aligns Your Lines
Note that SketchUp automatically aligns your line with one of the axes (the one you’re dragging parallel to) so it’s easy to draw exactly parallel to an axis. The line is colored to match the axis it’s aligned to (x=red, y=green, z=blue). A ToolTip will appear as you’re dragging the mouse to tell you what axis you’re aligned with (as appears in Figure 2.19).

FIGURE 2.19 Use the mouse and the Line tool to draw.

5. Release the mouse button to complete the line. When you release the mouse button, your new line is drawn and becomes an edge.

Congratulations—you’ve created a new edge.

To make it easy to draw other edges that connect to this edge, SketchUp labels various points on the edge as you let the Line tool roll over the edge, as you can see in Figure 2.20.

TIP: Connecting Edges
When you draw an edge that you want to connect to another edge, you typically let the mouse hover over an end point of the first edge until the end point circle and the ToolTip labeled Endpoint appears. Press the mouse button over the end point and then draw the next edge.

FIGURE 2.20 An edge’s midpoint.

In particular, when you hover the Line tool over the ends of an edge (that is, over the line’s end points), a small circle appears on the end point of the edge with the ToolTip labeled Endpoint. When you move the Line tool so that it’s on the edge (and thus any edge you draw will be connected to the current one), a small red square appears where the mouse cursor is on the line with the ToolTip labeled On Edge. When you hover the Line tool above the midpoint of the edge, a small circle appears on the edge at the location of the mouse pointer with the ToolTip labeled Midpoint (as shown in Figure 2.20).


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