9 SketchUP Tips for better 3d modeling workflow

I picked up SketchUP my first year of architecture school back in 2002 and never stopped using it since. It is as powerful as it is simple, and yet I’ve seen too many pick up bad habits who find it hard to utilize SketchUP to its full potential.

So while I work on the continuation of the Making of ‘MS House’ – Part 1, Let me elaborate further and share some more of my SketchUP work-flow. Before I get specific about a few things, I should mention that it is good practice to have the manual comfortably nearby while modeling and I also highly recommend watching the SketchUP video guides. The information I’ll elaborate here will, hopefully, help you model fast and efficient with a great amount of control over the 3d modeling process.

This is a pure text post, so please bear with me.

Shortcuts

Learning to use shortcuts is essential for fast modeling. I hardly ever use the standard toolbars and menus, just those related to plugins that can’t be mapped to a shortcut conveniently. On my SketchUP workspace you will find just the Layers, Shadows and Face style standard toolbars most of the time. With everything mapped to shortcuts you can free up some screen real-estate for the actual model and some other plug-in toolbars.
It would have been really nice if Google could add support for saving the toolbars area scheme, or even just fix the jumping syndrome they tend to have when moving them around.

You can export / import shortcuts through the preferences dialog when moving from one computer to the next and you can re-map them all as you see fit – even assign more then one shortcut per command (for example a left and right keyboard combination)

I recommend mapping these commands

• window / hide dialogs
• edit / delete guides
• view / component edit / hide rest of model
• view / component edit / hide similar components
• view / rendering / edge / by axis
• view / face style / monochrome
• view / face style / x-ray

Guides (Tape Measure & Protractor tools)

Guides are a blessing, use them all the time. Add parallel ones using the Tape Measure tool and angular ones using the Protractor tool. I use them to layout grids, check measurements, to assist with snapping and a lot more. When you find that you have too many of them just clear them all out with one shortcut combination.

3d Modeling control Quintet

If you followed my advice in the Shortcuts section above, you have created five on/off toggles I call Color by Axis, Monochrome, X-Ray, Hide Rest & Hide Similar. These will allow you to quickly check the model while working and keeping it all under control.

Color by Axis

This command will uncover all un-parallel linkwork issues and will allow you to fix them with a visual feedback. I use this command all the time when I insert a CAD drawing into SketchUP just to make sure all is well with the lines. Later on while modeling if you ever stumble upon stubborn non closing faces – turn this option on, it is most likely due to non parallel lines that were introduced to the model.

Monochrome mode

This face style uncovers all flipped normal issues, specifically after textures have been applied to the model. Some SketchUP commands like PushPull and FollowMe tend to create flipped faces that you sometimes can’t see if the model is textured (Many plugins have this issue too).

X-Ray mode

This face style will allow seeing through the geometry and model in a way impossible without it. Instead of rotating or hiding elements just to snap to something you can switch to X-Ray mode even during a command and quickly edit in place while saving a lot of time and allow for model checkup too.

Hide Rest & Hide Similar

This commands are convenience toggles. While X-Ray lets you see through the geometry, these commands actually hide elements away so that you can focus on the one in hand. It is very helpful modeling with a clear workspace and you can always toggle in the rest of the element for quick checkups and for re-orienting.

Geometry separation using – Group / Layer / Scene

SketchUP’s layering system, as opposed to the common in other application, provides visual separation only! Not geometry separation. What this means is that while you hide a layer, all its content can still be interacting with the visual model, snapping to it when intersected causing all kinds of problems.

My rule is that nothing goes into a layer before I grouped it first. This makes sure I get geometrical separation and all the geometry inside the groups remains on default layer 0. So by grouping and assigning to layers you can have two levels of information separation which can be enhanced by using the page or scene system for more then just saving viewpoints.

A scene can be set to just save the layer status, and so you can hide and show different sets of layers for each scene effectively introducing a third separation level, something like parent layers. The ideal would be if Google add a tree like layers hierarchy like the Outliner works – but till then the Group / Layer / Scene system work just fine.

Martin Rinehart just released a new plug called VisMap that handles this trio. I’m in the process of testing it myself currently.

Auto save

SketchUP will fail on you, especially when using more and more scripts, so make sure this feature is on and that the saving period time is set to something that suits your modeling speed. Regardless of the auto save feature, I made it a habit to manually save to a new file after each important modeling step. This way I get version history and fight file corruption (even though this is not common anymore)

Housekeeping

SketchUP model saves all the information inside. Each image, component, material and cad drawing blocks are saved into the model file and stays inside even if you delete it from the workspace. To clean all of these excess elements you don’t need use the purge command in the components, material & layers dialogs.

Templates

Use templates to save style, units, location, layers and components for easy start-up of a new model in a new file. I use a template with a preset of layers using a standard naming so that everyone will be on the same page all the time. I also add components & materials to a template if I keep reusing them for some types of work and so starting from that template I have it all in and very fast to use.

Planning

While SketchUP is a powerful little application, it will not do the thinking for you. As opposed to more advanced 3d modeling application that offers modifier stacks and history panels, in SketchUP you essentially use destructive modeling. Since what you do is what you get, it is best to plan a little before you rush on with the modeling.

Topology

Take care when setting the number of segments for circles & arcs and where you point the first creator line to for example. If it is a round facade with windows, you are modeling, i would suggest counting the number of windows and decide if those are meant to fit inside the segments or span across them. This method of thinking can be applied to each aspect of the model and assist you with further updates later on, besides the fact you allow yourself to create a clean model this way.

Hierarchy

Think and plan ahead the use of components. A clever setup will allow you to perform updates across the entire model with a few mouse clicks – but be careful not to abuse this method, especially when nesting components inside one another. Editing a nested component might alter another parent component that has it inside too. Use the ‘Make Unique’ command to component at hand from the batch.

You can use the Outliner dialog to keep tabs over things though i personally did not integrate it into my workflow, since it involves naming each element descriptively to be useful, and that is rather tedious IMHO.