5 Tricks in Google SketchUp You Might Not Know About

this ones a bit short and simple, i was planing a cooler one but it took longer than i thought it would anyway if your a designer you probably already know these, but at the same time you might not

Step 1: Mouse Tricks

the keyboard shortcut for this is space bar and in case you wanted to know shift lets you select more than one object or deselect certain objects, if you drag from the right it makes a dotted box and selects everything that touches the green area, if you drag from the right it only selects things that are fully contained in that area, double clicking selects everything directly connected and triple clicking selects the whole body

Step 2: Paint Bucket

this simple tool has a few hidden secrets, if you paint an object a color and then decide you like another color better it can be annoying to have to go back and repaint all those faces. well turns out if you hold control 3 boxes appear in a row, if you paint with it it will paint all connected surfaces of the same color. if you hold shift 3 separate boxes appear and it will paint all surfaces of the same color in the model

Step 3: Eraser

what is there to know about the eraser, it just erases stuff right? well yes but there are a few tricks to it take the first image, 2 rounded objects together with a few visible lines, not the best for aesthetics if you just erase them you also erase some of the faces, however if you hold shift and then erase the lines disappear but not the faces, that's kinda cool but lets take it a step further

Step 4: Eraser Continued (softening)

lets start with a very boxy object, if we erase the lines while holding control SketchUp gives it a rounded appearance, this can be very useful for working with cylinders too

Step 5: Grouping

this is an alternate to the "make component" tool, first select something you would like to be one separate body then right click on the object and select "make group" then, your done no need to label or mes with the little dialog box from that other tool

Step 6: Follow Me Tool

i put this one in because I've noticed it frustrates people, all you need is a face (profile) and a line (path) hover over the profile and it will turn dotted like when using the "push pull" tool, pull the face and put your cursor on the line, it should turn red and you can follow it to the end, use the eraser to soften the line and your done

Step 7: That's It

well guess i'm done with this one, if you liked it please let me know in the comments and i'll try to make more like it. in the mean time you take care and i guess i"ll keep having fun with this little orb thing