Watch This Before You Get Started with SketchUp (2021 Update)

Hey guys, today I'm going to go over the most important things you need to know to avoid struggling when you're first getting started with SketchUp. I'm sure you already know what a powerful tool SketchUp can be for creating everything from conceptual 3D models, to beautiful renderings, to detailed construction documents. The trouble is, if you don't take the time to learn the key fundamentals I'm about to cover, you're bound to get frustrated and waste a ton of time stumbling over problems that I'm Alex Oliver, Lead Instructor at SketchUp School, the place where professionals go when they're serious about learning SketchUp. And in this video, I'll walk you through seven critical concepts that will get you started down the right path when you're first learning SketchUp. Back in 2017, we published a YouTube video that covered these concepts, and we updated that video with two bonus tips in 2019. Those videos have now been watched more than a million times. And now, we're back with another update of that video for SketchUp 2021. Ready to jump in? Let's get started with number one, start in 2D. When you first open SketchUp, you're likely to choose a template that starts you off in an isometric or 3D view. In fact, most tutorials you'll find online start you off in this very same template. But here's the problem. Starting in 3D is like forcing you to jump into the deep end before you know how to swim. You'll be more likely to get frustrated and quit. And even if you stick with it, you'll just end up with a bunch of bad habits that slow you down over the long run. I recommend a different approach. Pick a template that starts you off in a top-down or 2D view. This starts you off in calmer waters, allowing you to focus on learning the fundamentals and developing good habits that will pay off later. For SketchUp Pro, if you're a Windows user, you'll start by going to your top menu and selecting Window. If you're using SketchUp Pro on a Mac, you'll select SketchUp. From there, open the Preferences window and select Template. Depending on what version of SketchUp you're using, the template will be named differently. It might say Plan View or Construction Documentation. Just make sure that the thumbnail has a white background like this one here and that you choose feet and inches or meters depending on which you use for your projects. If you're a Windows user, you'll click the button at the bottom right to finish. Mac users, you just close the window. Now, your current file's template won't change. But when you start a new file, you'll start in the new template. If you're using the free web-based version of SketchUp, you won't have access to the template you need. But you can get close enough by switching to a top view from the Scenes menu. Then what? You're ready for the next tip. Number two, use the right mouse. But before getting into this tip, I should mention that we've created some notes for you to help you remember everything we cover in this video. You'll find a link to the notes in the cards and in the description. Okay, back to the next tip. When you're new to SketchUp, you might be tempted to see if you can get away with using only your trackpad. That would be a mistake. That's because there's a few critical things you can only do with a three-button scroll wheel mouse. Now, before we get into what those things are, there's something you should know. Not all mice are created equal. You want a mouse that has both left and right buttons plus a center scroll wheel that can be rolled and clicked on. And it doesn't have to be fancy. Often the simplest three-button scroll wheel mouse works best. Seriously guys, if you think you can get by using one of these, just don't. And I know these are pretty, but you're really going to want that third button and a scroll wheel. Like this one. One, two, three, and the scroll wheel. As for how to use the mouse the right way in SketchUp, we'll get into that with our next tip. Number three, draw the right way. When you draw in SketchUp, all the geometry you create consists of three things. Endpoints, edges, and faces. And most of SketchUp's tools are there to help you create, delete, or edit the position of those endpoints, edges, and faces. Easy enough, right? Let's go ahead and put it all together and learn all of the drawing tools in one go. Remember to have your three-button scroll wheel mouse and be in your 2D template. Then pick one of the drawing tools. Before you do anything else, pay attention to this next part. There's a right way and a wrong way to use the mouse. The mistake most people make is that they'll click and hold down on the left mouse button and drag the mouse and then let go of the button. The tools don't function properly this way. Instead, here's what you should do. Click and let go of your left mouse button to start a tool operation, then move the mouse, then click and let go of your left mouse button again to end the tool operation. With nearly every tool in SketchUp, this is the right way to use the mouse. So now that you know how to use the mouse, you can quickly learn how all the drawing tools work. Just pick a drawing tool and practice using the mouse the correct way. Clicking, letting go, clicking again, letting go, and just try out every drawing tool this way. Some need two clicks, some need three. Don't worry if you don't understand what the tools are doing at first. Just free draw over and over again with each tool and pay attention to the geometry the tools help you create. Some are for edges, others create edges and faces, even curves are really just a series of edges. You should practice drawing in this way until you've ingrained using your mouse the right way and you feel pretty confident about what each tool helps you create. Once you've got the hang of the tools, you're ready for the next tip. Number four, understand stickiness. In SketchUp, edges and endpoints stick to other edges and endpoints. This is a good thing. You can overlap shapes and edit them to create new ones. Try it, practice overlapping geometry, then use the eraser tool to delete edges you don't need or get rid of faces by right-clicking on the face and picking the option for erase. In this way, stickiness is helpful for modeling quickly in SketchUp, but down the road, stickiness can also create the absolute most painful problems you'll ever encounter in SketchUp. Luckily, I've got you covered with the next tip. Number five, group almost everything. For things that shouldn't get stuck, you can protect them from other geometry by first turning them into a group. Group geometry can't stick to anything else. This is by far the biggest problem self-taught users run into. They model away without groups and then end up with an uneditable mess. So group early and group often. Your future self will thank you. There's so many people that made this moment possible, but the first person I need to thank is myself. Now, just because you're able to avoid the stickiness trap, it doesn't mean you're out of the woods just yet, because there's an even more frustrating set of problems you're about to face. But you can avoid them with the next tip. Number six, master the move tool. If there was a referee watching people use SketchUp and they whistled them for every infraction, the foul called most often would be misusing the move tool. And we're not just talking about beginners here. SketchUp users of all levels rack up move tool penalties all day, every day. What kind of penalties? You'll see people twist up their geometry when they had wanted to move a whole object, and you'll see them sink objects into other objects. And then you'll see other issues where they're trying to move things in precise ways, whether it be centering something, creating an array of copies, or just fixing one of the other errors. It gets bad news bears pretty fast. So what's the problem with the move tool and how can you avoid it? Let's go back to the fundamentals I discussed earlier. Remember, SketchUp is all about creating, editing, and deleting endpoints, edges, and faces. Now the move tool is only concerned with the editing part, specifically editing the position of those endpoints, edges, and faces. So if you use your mouse correctly, you can click and let go on an endpoint, an edge, or a face. Then move the mouse to edit the position of that piece of geometry, and then click to complete the operation. This is great for moving pieces of geometry to get the shapes you need. Now the biggest mistake you can and will make at this point is using the mouse incorrectly. Remember, don't click and drag. Even if you get the move tool to work this way, this bad habit will bite you down the road when you face more complicated situations. Of course, you can move multiple edges and faces together at the same time. You just need to pre-select them with the select tool, and then the same rules apply with the move tool for editing the position of the selected geometry. And if you want to move a whole object, you can either pre-select all the geometry before using the move tool, or if you've made it into a group, then you can just use the move tool to move the whole group together. Again, practice these things in a simple 2D drawing first until they become second nature. Now moving the right stuff is only half the battle, but what about moving it exactly where you want it to go? For example, what if you want to move one group so that it's touching another, but not overlapping it? It goes back to the fundamentals again. When you click with your mouse to begin the move, SketchUp sees that you're clicking on a very specific coordinate. So when you click the second time to end the move, SketchUp sees that you've clicked on a second specific coordinate, and it says, Ah, okay, gotcha. You want to put exactly where you clicked on point A onto exactly where you clicked at point B. If you click somewhere random to start with, it'll be impossible to move things exactly where you want. But for our example, a great idea would be to click on the edge of the first group, then click on the edge of the second group. That way you know those edges are touching perfectly. This works for matching up corners, or even midpoints for centering. Of course, the Move tool gets much harder to use in 3D space. But if you put in the time and practice to understand these core concepts in a 2D template first, you'll avoid struggling trying to move things later. Speaking of 3D space, let's talk about the best way to go from 2D to 3D. With number seven, navigate like a pro. So far we've discussed starting in a 2D template, but really we've been in 3D space all along. We've just been in a top-down view and have been drawing and editing on one flat plane. And while there's still more you should learn and practice in 2D first, if you're like most of my students, you won't be able to help but navigate in the world of 3D. By navigate, I mean use SketchUp's navigation tools to zoom, pan, and orbit around in 3D space. But here's the problem you're about to face. When you're new to SketchUp, navigating around the model can feel awkward and disorienting. And since our brains don't like when things feel difficult, without even being aware of it, you'll immediately start compensating to avoid the discomfort, which means that you'll create bad habits that slow you down, not only as a beginner, but even as you become more proficient in SketchUp. Most of your time in SketchUp is actually spent navigating to a better view to accomplish the next thing you're trying to do. So being able to navigate well is one of the most important things you can invest time into learning and practicing. So what's the right way to navigate? And how do you avoid picking up bad habits? There's actually an incredibly simple trick that will make navigating around your SketchUp model a breeze. But for that trick to make sense, we first need to cover the basics. While in your 2D template, you can zoom, pan, and orbit your virtual camera in 3D space to get different views of your model. And while there are tools on your toolbar for zoom, pan, and orbit, you should never pick them. That's because you can access those tools directly from your three-button scroll wheel mouse. So you can roll your mouse wheel forward and backward to zoom in and out of your model. Note that it matters where you point the cursor, so you will zoom towards or away from the point that your cursor is hovering over. Now, if you press down on your center mouse wheel like a button, you will see that your cursor turns into the orbit tool. With the mouse wheel button held down, move your mouse around, and you're orbiting your camera around your model. Again, it matters where your cursor is on the screen, as you will orbit around that point. And if you need to pan your camera over to get a better view of the model, while pressing the center mouse wheel to orbit, also press and hold the shift key on your keyboard. Your cursor will turn into a hand, which is the pan tool. Move your mouse to pan your view, then let go of the mouse wheel and shift key when you're done. Okay, so what's the trick to more efficiently navigating around your model? I can explain it to you best by giving you a challenge. Try this. Draw a rectangle. Now try to orbit 360 degrees around the rectangle. Go ahead, pause this video and go try it out. If you're like most people that are new to SketchUp, you'll start off okay, but then you'll run out of room as your cursor gets to the edge of the screen before you've even gotten 20% around the rectangle. And you might even get disoriented while orbiting as your brain tries to figure out another way to get around the rectangle. Now let's try it again, only this time, here's the trick. Make small or incremental orbits. So for our challenge, start with your cursor in the middle of the screen and orbit directly up, just a small amount. Then let go, move your mouse back to the center of the screen and repeat. And repeat again, and again, and repeat as many times as it takes to get 360 degrees around the rectangle. It feels a little clunky at first, but once you have it down, you can gradually begin to speed up the process. And before you know it, you'll be just like the experts who are constantly making hundreds of tiny zooms, tiny orbits, and tiny pans to zero in on what they need to see better. Being able to get where you need to go in the model makes using SketchUp so much easier. And that's it, congratulations. You've made it through all seven concepts. From here, it's definitely possible to learn everything on your own. However, if you want to invest your time wisely and avoid picking up bad habits, then I recommend checking out our video course library. It's filled with $8,700 worth of SketchUp courses, exclusively for professionals, including our Complete Intro to SketchUp course. Head over to our SketchUp School website and try our courses for free. And if you're not ready to take one of our courses right now, make sure to check out the other videos in this playlist, which is full of a bunch of tips and tricks to help you avoid the things that often trip people up when they're first getting started in SketchUp. Until next time, happy sketching. Jim from Craft Services, you've always got a nice warm cup of coffee for me. Carrie in wardrobe to the stunt supervisor.