- Hey guys. Today I'm gonna 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 you could have easily avoided. 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. (upbeat music) 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 files
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 track pad. 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 mouse 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
buttons 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 gonna 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 and SketchUp, we'll get into that with our next tip. Number three, draw the right way. When you draw on SketchUp
all the geometry you create consists of three things. End points, edges and faces. And most of the SketchUp tools are there to help you create, delete
or edit the position of those end points, 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
buttons 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 end point stick to other edges and end points. This is a good thing. You could 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. 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 call 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 sync
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 and
points, edges and faces. Now the move tool is only
concerned with the editing part specifically editing the position of those end points, edges and faces. So if you use your mouse correctly you can click and let go on an
end point, 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 wanna 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 wanna it to go? For example, what if
you wanna 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 and the move SketchUp sees that you've clicked on a second specific coordinate and it says, ah, okay, gotcha. You wanna put exactly where
you clicked on point A on to 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 that edge
of the second group, that way you know those
edges are touching perfectly. This works for matching up corners or even mid points 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 it
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 tool bar for zoom, pan and orbit,
you should never pick them. That's because you can
access those tools directly from your three buttons
scroll wheel mouse. So you can roll your mouse wheel forward and backward to zoom in
and out of your model. Not 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 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 wanna
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 and Wardrobe, to
the stunt supervisor.
