In this series, we'll take a look at how to import an image so that you can draw on top of it. This is really good if you're trying to draw over a sketch or maybe ah, floor plan that you received as a J peg or PdF, and that way you can draw on top of it, using it as a reference to get started here. Let's go to file import to make sure our format is set up toe all supported image types. And let's make sure we're using it as an image not as a texture or uses new match photo. And the image that we're taking a look at is this floor plan image here, and the tip that you want to do here is no a distance in the image itself. So in this case, the dimensions here. So I know that this dimension here is 21 foot for. You could also try to measure. Let's say, you know, with the width of a doorway is, but it's not gonna be as accurate. It's always better to use the longest distance possible. So we'll click Import. That's a good habit. I always like to start importing from the origin point. So clicking release, I move my cursor to the right. And actually, if I knew the width of the paper and did the scale factor for you could actually type in the dimension here or the with if you know it. But our case, let's just click just to sort of get the image in the model space. When you import as an image, it's similar to importing ah surface, putting a texture on it and then grouping it. So I kind of think of an image in that case in that it's an image that you can't sort of open, and it's sort of grouped or isolated. Ah, I should say it's sort of like locked. Think of it like a locked group. It's great to just kind of trace. On top of if we want to actually draw inside and sort of cut away part of the image we can right click and actually explode the image, that waits and actually surface that we can draw on top of, and then Push/Pull. The only downside to this is it's a projected surface, so the sides sort of pull up, which, actually in our case might actually help us a little bit. So I'm gonna undo that. We have the image imported, and the next thing I want to do is take the tape measure tool and I don't want to draw a guide. So I want to turn off the plus sign on that tool there. In this case, I can press option on a Mac control on a PC, and I'm gonna scroll in as close as I can, and I'm gonna click and release on the top of this distance, Scroll out. And scroll back down and I'm going to simply measure this. So I'm gonna click again SketchUp telling me that my distance is a little over 42 feet, which is incorrect. I want it to be 21 foot signed four, which I'll type into the keyboard and then a press center pressing. Enter SketchUp gonna ask us to resize the model, and it's gonna scale everything based off of that measurement. So there I can click. Yes, it looks like the model disappears. Not that it's gone. It's just that it went lower down onto the screen because of the scale. So we can click the zoom tool here to make sense, to see that better. So now if we take the tape measure again, we can measure this distance and see, we're pretty close to that 21 foot four. And even over here we can measure the 17 feet eight and ever pretty close. So if you're doing a conceptual model where the precision and accuracy isn't important, so you know is that if it's just about modeling up the walls and getting it close, then you could draw all right on top of this. It doesn't matter if you're looking to use this as a base and create more accurate measurements now, the next step they can do is go in and actually create guides at those specific distances. Once it's images here, we can save it, and then we can move on to the next step. For more videos in the series, as well as live and online SketchUp training, visit SketchUp trainer dot com. You can also subscribe to this YouTube channel as well as follow me on Twitter.
