- Hey guys, in this
video I'm gonna show you how to quickly and accurately create a basic floor plan in SketchUp. In fact, I'll share the
same technique we use to open our SketchUp for Interiors course, which has helped
thousands of professionals avoid the confusion that often comes with learning how to
draft a 2D floor plan. I'm Alex Oliver, lead
instructor at SketchUp School, the place where professionals go when they're serious
about learning SketchUp. And today I'll walk you
through how to create a schematic 2D floor plan in
SketchUp in seven easy steps. Keep watching. (ethereal music) In our courses, we've taught
thousands of architects and design professionals the
keys to producing everything from accurate 3D models, to
photo-realistic renderings, to detailed construction documents. But not everyone, or every project, requires this level of
finished presentation. In fact, here's an example of
a question I see all the time, and it's one you might not expect: "Can I build my 2D floor plan in SketchUp "or do I have to use AutoCAD?" Lynn, like many professionals, was looking for a way to
produce a simple but accurate 2D floor plan without
having to use AutoCAD. She knew SketchUp was great
for creating 3D models, but was wary that all the 3D functionality might just get in the
way of easily creating a 2D floor plan, or even make
it impossible altogether. But don't worry, whether your goal is to create a 2D floor plan that you'll turn into a 3D model later, or you just want to
draft a quick floor plan to share with a client, if you follow the seven key steps I'm
about to share with you, you'll find SketchUp to be an amazing tool for conquering this piece
of the design process. And it doesn't require using,
or being familiar with, AutoCAD or any other CAD programs. So what are the seven easy steps to create a simple 2D floor plan in SketchUp? Before we jump in, let
me just quickly warn you: This video isn't meant for beginners that have no prior
experience with SketchUp. You'll definitely want to be familiar with the basic drawing and
editing tools in SketchUp. So if you haven't already,
I recommend you check out our Watch This Before You Get
Started with SketchUp video, and be sure you're comfortable with all of the concepts we cover there. Oh, and one more thing: we're gonna cover a lot
of ground in this video. So I've put together some notes for you to help you remember everything. Stick around to the end of the video and I'll let you know how
you can get a copy of them. Okay, ready to jump into the steps? Let's start with step number
one: start in a 2D template. As you remember from our Watch This Before You Get Started
with SketchUp video, for all projects you work on in SketchUp, I recommend that you use a template that starts you with a
plan view or top-down view. This is even more important when you set out to create a floor plan. As a quick reminder, here's
how you switch your template: 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. 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 pretty close by switching to a top-view from the Views menu. Now that you're in a plan
view, the next step is, number two: draw your floor. For most of your projects,
you'll either be starting from an existing floor plan file or from measurements taken in the field. While we also cover the
workflow for starting from a PDF or CAD file in our SketchUp
for Interiors course, for this video, we'll only
focus on the situation where you're starting
from field measurements. Once you have your measurements, the first step is to draw the floor. To do this, you'll need to use SketchUp's basic drawing tools, typically either the Line
tool or the Rectangle tool. The Line Tool is the most
versatile as you can go dimension by dimension around
the floor to draw it out. The process there is to click and begin drawing in a direction, then type a dimension
and press Enter or Return on your keyboard to finish
drawing a line or edge. Then just continue on
around in that fashion, entering the dimensions one by one until you have the footprint drawn in. The Rectangle tool can be a quicker choice in situations where you
have a more straightforward, rectangular shape to your floor. In that case, you can start
with a bigger rectangle for the overall width
and length of the space, and then use either the
Line tool or Rectangle tool along with the Eraser tool
to either add areas to, or subtract areas from,
the main footprint. Now remember, in SketchUp you
are drawing at a 1:1 scale, meaning that when you
draw a larger rectangle, and it appears small, it is just because your SketchUp camera is zoomed out. If that's the case for you,
simply roll your center mouse wheel forward to
zoom in and get closer. Or if you've entered your dimensions and can't see the entire footprint, roll your center mouse
wheel back to zoom out. When you zoom, the blue axis will appear, but you can just ignore it. And now, you're ready for the next step, number three: draw your exterior walls. All right, once you've drawn your floor you can use the Offset tool
to create your exterior walls. To do that, pick the Offset
tool, click once on the face, move the mouse to begin
offsetting the wall, type in the dimension
for your wall thickness and press Enter or
Return on your keyboard. Next, you'll need to
create doorway openings. Now, there are a few
ways to go about this. But when you're new to SketchUp, I recommend you use the Tape Measure tool to set up guidelines that show you exactly where the openings need to be. To do this, using the Tape Measure tool, click once on the inside
edge of an exterior wall, then move the mouse towards
where the opening will be. Then, type the dimension on your keyboard and press the Enter or
Return key on your keyboard and you'll have your first guideline. For the second guide, repeat the steps, only this time your first click is from the existing
guide and your dimension is for the width of the opening. Now, you can take the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle that snaps
to the intersection points of the guidelines on your walls. And then take the eraser tool and erase away the outside edge. And you repeat these same steps for all of the door openings
around your exterior walls. Note that you shouldn't worry
about the window openings just yet because you'll
handle those later. Now, as you know from our Watch This Before You Get Started
With SketchUp video, hands down one of the most
important things to learn in SketchUp is to group almost everything. If you don't group things at this stage, you may find yourself
with a huge mess later when you want to move
anything or make adjustments, so group now and your future
self will definitely thank you. - Thanks for the tip, man. - I got you. So now that you're at the point where you've drawn your
floor and exterior walls, select everything and
make it into a group. While you're at it, now's a great time to put that group onto its own layer. This will make it easier to isolate the exterior walls as
needed down the road. Okay, once you've got your floor
and exterior walls grouped, you're ready for the next step, number four: draw your interior walls Again, for new SketchUp users, I recommend you use the Tape Measure tool to create guidelines
based on the dimensions from your field measurements. Then use the Rectangle tool
to trace in each wall segment. As you go, you can use the eraser tool to delete any unnecessary edges. And just repeat these
steps again and again to draw in all of the interior walls. If at any point along the way you end up with too many guidelines
getting in the way, you have two options: In some cases, you may only
need to get rid or one or two. To do that, you can just erase
them with the Eraser tool. But in cases where you
don't need the guides you've created anymore,
go to your Edit menu and select the option for Delete Guides. You'll clear all of them out so you can start again from a blank slate. Once you've drawn all
of your interior walls, don't forget our previous
tip and do yourself a huge favor and make them into a group. That way you'll avoid all
the headaches of struggling with an ungrouped plan where
everything is stuck together. Just be careful not to select the floor and exterior walls group; in fact, to make it easier you
can turn off the ;lyer for that group so all you
see are the interior walls. And don't stop there; once
you've made the interior walls into a group, go ahead and
create a layer for them and assign the group to that layer. That reminds me. - Thanks for the tip, man. - I got you. Okay, you're at an important
crossroads with this example. If your plan is to create
a 3D model of this space, then at this point you can
move on and begin building your 3D model on top of
what you've created so far. You can cover the rest of that workflow in our SketchUp for Interiors
course on our website. But in this example, I want to show you what you need to do to finish
a basic floor plan in 2D without having to build the 3D model. To do that, let's move
on to the next step, number five: add your windows and doors. Components in SketchUp
are similar to blocks or symbols in other CAD programs; that is, geometry that's drawn to
represent objects in your design such as windows, doors,
fixtures, and furniture. For the first part of our
example, I'll show you how to create your own
component for a window: Again, you can start with the
Tape Measure tool to set up two guidelines that represent
the width of the window. Using those guides, draw in your window. Now, since we're just setting
up a basic reference plan for this example, and
not worrying about adding all the details you may
want for say a construction document floorplan, I'll just
create a basic window symbol. But you're free to use
SketchUp's drawing tools to add as much detail to
the window as you'd like. Once you've got your window drawn, select it all with the
Select tool, then right click and select the option for Make Component. Then name it something sensible and click to finish making the component. To save time when you have
more than one of something in your plan, such as multiple windows with the same dimensions,
you can make a copy of it. You do that using the Move tool. On a Mac press and let
go of the Option key, on a PC press and let
go of the Control key to turn on the copy function. Then click on the corner of the window and move your cursor to the
corresponding intersection where the copied window belongs and click to complete the move. The best part about copies
of the same component is that if you need to make
a change to one of them, both copies will update together, saving you a bunch of time. Just remember that to make
any changes you must first right click and select the
option for Edit Component. Then when you are done making changes, right click outside the component and select the option for Close Component. But what about the case where you have another window that's not the same size? Of course, you could
create a new component from scratch that's the correct size. And in some cases, that
might be your best bet. But it's also worth pointing out that you can modify your
existing component to fit. Here's how: Start by using the Tape Measure to set up guidelines for the new window. Follow the steps from before to move another copy of the window component. Then, right click on the component and select the option for Make Unique. Then right click on the
component, select the option for Edit Component and
modify the component to fit. Because you made it unique
from the original component, the changes you make to it won't update the other instances of the component. Okay, next up you can use the same process I just described to create the doors: First, draw a rectangle
with the correct width and thickness, then use the
Arc tool to draw the swing. Make it into a component
and use the Move tool to copy it around the model. Sometimes, it will be oriented the wrong way for the opening. In that case, with the Move
tool, hover over the component. You will see that it
actively highlights blue and that there are four red plus signs. Hover over one of the red pluses until the cursor turns into a rotate icon. Then click and let go of your mouse button on that red plus to begin rotating. Now you can move your mouse
and hover over the tick marks on the rotate cursor to
rotate in 15 degree increments until you've rotated the proper amount. Then click and let go of the
mouse to finish the rotation. Other times, the door will
need to be mirrored or flipped. To do that, right click on the component and choose Flip Along,
and then you'll either need to flip along the
component's green axis or the component's red axis depending on the orientation
of the component. If you're not sure which to choose, just try one; if the result isn't right, you can undo back and
try the other option. Now once you have the
door oriented and flipped in the proper direction, you'll
need to move it into place. With the Move tool, click on the corner of your door component
and then move your cursor onto the corresponding
corner of the door opening in the plan and click to finish the move. And when you come to a door
that has a different width, it's probably fastest
to just draw a new one. Okay, once you've created all
of your windows and doors, it's time to add your
furniture and fixtures. But you don't have to
draw everything by hand. There's a faster way to add 2D symbols that we're ready to
cover in our next step, number six: import furniture and fixtures. It's true that you can draw
all of your own 2D components for the things you need to
show in your floor plan. But a great thing about components is that once they've
been drawn by someone, they can easily be shared
and reused again and again. If you're looking for 2D Components that have been shared by others, a good place to start is
SketchUp's 3D Warehouse. To access the 3D Warehouse in SketchUp, go to your top menu and select Window. Then select the option for 3D Warehouse. In the 3D Warehouse search box, type "2D" and the name of the object
you are looking for, and press Enter. You'll get a bunch of results. Some of them won't be
what you're looking for, but there should be plenty
of usable options as well. When you've found a component you like, click on the Download button and agree to download it directly into your model. When it finishes downloading, click anywhere in white
space to set it down. Remember, if the component
isn't oriented properly you can rotate it or flip it. Move it into place with the Move tool, and remember to click on a
precise point of the component and then click on a precise
point in the floor plan to match things up perfectly. In many cases, the component you choose won't quite work as it's been drawn. For example, often you'll
find that a component is the wrong size to fit into your design. When that happens, you
have a couple of options: First, you can always delete the component and go looking for a new
one on the 3D Warehouse. Another option is to scale your component with the Scale tool. Just note that when you need your symbols to be accurate, this
may create distortions; for example, if you scale
a real world product, you might unintentionally
warp key dimensions. Now instead of using the Scale tool, there is a third option:
you can edit the component. That's right. You can edit a component you
download from the 3D Warehouse just like you would if
you had made it yourself. To do this, right click on the component, and pick the option for Edit Component. Then use SketchUp's
drawing and editing tools to make the changes you need. Now, as you build your own components or find quality ones on the Warehouse, one thing I always recommend
is to collect the best ones into a library to use on future projects. To save you some time, we've put together a starter library for
you and put a link to it in the notes along with
directions on how to use it. Whether you find symbols
on the 3D Warehouse or you use the ones we've created for you, remember to organize the
components on layers as you go. This will save you a ton of
time and frustration later if you need to create different views or try out different
schemes with your floorplan. All right, you have all of your 2D symbol components in place. Now you're ready for the last step, number seven: style your
plan for presentation. At this point, you're ready
to take the floor plan in any number of directions. Perhaps you'll want to add some colors or materials to liven it up. Maybe you'll want to take it into LayOut where you can easily add a title block, labels or dimensions. Or maybe you're ready
to start building in 3D. We cover all of those things
in the courses on our website, and while it's too much to
get into for this video, here are a few fundamentals
you should know to get your floor plan ready to present to a client or colleague. First, unless you're
adding color and materials, you're likely to want your floor
plan to be black and white. To make that change, you need
to use the Styles feature. Open your Styles dialog. Mac users will find it
under the Window menu, while PC users will find
it in their Default Tray. Click on the Edit tab. Click on the second box for Face style. Then click the second box for Hidden Line, this will turn everything black and white. While you're in the Styles dialog, you can also click on the
first box for Edge styles and see if things like
Extension, Endpoints or even Jitter are helpful for presenting a more preliminary rough
sketch type of a look. Once you've settled on a Style, you may also want to hide the axes. To do that, go to your top menu, select View and click on
Axes to turn them off. Now that everything is
looking like you want it, be sure to save a scene. First be sure to zoom and
pan to get a good view. Then open your Scenes dialog. Mac users will find it
under the Window menu option while PC users will find
it in their Default Tray. In the Scenes dialog, click the plus icon and name the scene. Now you can get back to that
exact view anytime you need. And of course, your final
step will be to export an image or PDF of your floorplan. To do that, go to File,
Export, 2D Graphic, pick the format type you want,
name it and click export. Know that image files like
JPGs will be rasterized or have a set pixel dimension,
which means the line-work may not be crisp depending on how you plan to size and present the final image. PDFs will be vector files, which will show crisp line work at any size. And that's it! Congratulations! You made it through all seven steps to create your first
floor plan in SketchUp. Did you learn something new in this video? Do me a quick favor and tell us which tip you liked the most in the
comments below right now. Or, just let us know you liked the video by giving it a like. By watching this video,
you've already done your future self a huge favor and gotten yourself started
down the right path. 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 SketchUp
for Interiors course. Head over to our SketchUp School website and try our courses for free. And if you're not ready to
try one our courses right now, make sure to at least review what you learned in this video right away. I've put together some
notes that make it easy to review everything we covered. I've put a link to them in the cards. Oh, and one last thing. If you don't want to miss our next video, make sure to subscribe to our
YouTube channel right now. Just click on the subscribe
button below this video. Until next time, happy sketching. And that's it! Congrat-- Okay. And it's a simplified
floo-- (rolls tongue) Simpliflied floor. Simplifly. (chuckling) we've found my new kryptonite. (chuckling)
