SketchUp modeling start up guide

1 Starting a new model and setting toolbars

Download, install and open SketchUp Pro 2013.
Start new model from a Template: use either Architecture, or Product Design settings; and
choose either with Millimeters or Inches depending of your locality settings.
From menu Window - Model Info - Units, set the Enable Length snapping on with 1.0mm
accuracy or other accuracy suited for your product modeling.

From View - Toolbars change the Standard to Large Tool Set. Also set visible Measurements,
Solid tools (in Pro version only), Styles and Views. See the toolbar below, and study the tools by
hovering over them to see the large tooltips.

Status bar looks now like this.

1.1 Creating a reference points and edges

Start the line tool

Now you got exact measures.

Otherwise if you start the picking in arbitrary point for example in XY-plane, it is not snapped to
anything, and the subsequent measures may be exact on the given length accuracy, but the starting
point is not accurately on top of any specific point. This may lead that you will see ~ -sign in the
front of measurement.

1.2 Creating a Guide line

Start the Tape Measure Tool and double click some earlier accurately created line.

You can turn on and off the Guides from the View | Guides, but notice that if you hide them, also
newly created guides remain invisible.

2 Creating a shape
2.1 Constraining to some axis and picking dimension from other feature
Start the Line Tool. When drawing a line, pressing the Shift-key will lock the axis of the tool
movement to current direction. Then it is easy to pick a constraint from other shape already in the
model.
In the image below I have created 3 Guide lines in exact positions: 100mm both in X and Y axis, and
20mm in Z-axis.

Start the Rectangle tool

And draw a rectangle starting from 0,0 and ranging to 100, 100. You can give exact measures for
lengths of the rectangle from keyboard too, during the the command.

Start the Push/Pull tool

Pull the face upwards and either pick the height from existing feature, or give exact measure from
the keyboard.

End the command.

2.2 Select tool

Start the Select tool by pressing Space or choosing from the toolbar.

Do an area select over all the faces of the part.

You can select the whole entity from any feature by clicking three times.

2.3 Interrupting a command

You can interrupt any command by pressing Esc, but to switch from current tool to Select Tool, you
need additionally press Space button.

2.4 Making a group

From the pop-up menu (right click on top of the selected faces), make the selected faces a
group. You can explode the group later if you need, or edit features inside the group. Groups can be
nested.

2.4.1 Group benefits

Geometry which is inside a group (or component) is protected by inadvertent geometry edits, and for
example other nearby modeled geometry does not automatically attach to the geometry in a group
as it would otherwise do.

2.4.2 Group versus Component

Copied groups of geometry are each unique entries in the model. Create a component instead of
group, if you want to make a geometry which you can edit later from any instance, and the editing
effect is shown in other instances.

2.5 Checking solidity

From the pop-up menu, select Entity info to check whether the entity is a solid or not. It says in the
info if the group is a Solid, and if it is, the program is able to calculate the volume of the group. See
also later chapter how to fix possible non-solidity issues.

2.6 Checking the orientation of faces

As SketchUp is a polygon modeler, it is possible to orient the faces inside out. Sometimes during
modeling some faces may have been reverted to be inside out accidentally. To orient the whole part
consistently select a face which you know is correctly oriented and use the command Orient faces
from the pop-up menu.

The group is correctly oriented outside in, when the whole group is colored to white. If the group or
some face is inside out, the default color for such features is blue-greyish as shown in the image on
the right below.

2.7 Rotating a group

Select the group. Start the Rotate Tool.

Pick the first point to show the rotation origin point, then a second point for reference. After that
either give the rotation angle from keyboard or pick the new angle.

End result is shown in the image below:

2.8 Moving the group

Select the group. Start the Move Tool.

Pick a reference point, which you want to move to a new location. Pick the new position to end the
command.

During the movement you can give the length of the move from the keyboard.

2.9 Copying the group

Select the group you want to copy. Start the Move tool, but during the move command, press
CTRL to do a copy of the item.

2.10 Setting orientation to model the part for importing to Tekla Structures
For the 3D part to be oriented for importing it to Tekla Structures and using it there as a beam with
Middle, Right, Left, Top, Bottom positioning, you need to place the volume of the group in SketchUp
so that the group lies along positive X-axis (red), and halfway on both Y- (green) and Z-axes (blue).
Any other location and orientation will produce an offset in Tekla Structures, which may be difficult
to fix in later modeling process.
See correctly oriented beam-like part in the images below:

2.11 Making a Union of solids

In SketchUp Pro version you can use the Solid Boolean Set operations to create more complex
shapes which stay as solid. Select those groups you want to for example Union together, and then
from menu Tools - Solid tools - Union or directly from the Solid toolbar.

2.12 Creating a shape which follows curve

Create a shape such as one face. Create a curve which you want the shape to follow.

Select the face. Start the Follow Me Tool.

Hover over the curve you want the shape to follow and you will see the end result interactively.

Notice however that the end of the part changes slightly in orientation, which you may need to fix by
for example modeling over and cutting material away.

2.13 Filleting a corner

To do a fillet to an edge of the part first draw an arc.

Use the Push pull tool to remove the extra material away.

This way it is easy to round some features of the existing mode.

However if you want to have round corners too, you better take a look RoundCorner extension by
fredo6 from SketchUp Extension warehouse. See the video about the tool here .
Additionally take a look of this tutorial video of filleting and chamfering.

3 Save each part to separate models

Finally remember to save the model. If you are modeling parts to be imported to Tekla Structures,
save each separate part to its own model.
If you wrap the model inside a component, you can export specifically that component to own model.
Then it is important to set the origin and position correctly within the component.

4 Advanced
4.1 Solidity issues
Note if you first start the command from the toolbar and then start to select the entities to be
Unioned in the model, the cursor directly tells, whether the entity is a solid or not. In this case you
at least has to make the faces to one group.

Sometimes this is not enough but the entity is missing faces or has some tiny cracks in it so that a
solid cannot be created. For these more difficult cases there are solid checking tools available as
SketchUp Extension Warehouse, such as Solid Inspector (requires one additional library:
TT_Lib2).
Some parts for used example in MEP applications will not be modeled as solids, and these can be
also imported into Tekla Structures. Note however that then volume cannot be calculated nor
entirely reliable clash checking cannot be done for such half-open entities as shown below.

Sometimes SketchUp is not able to show the volume, but the part is still successfully imported as a
solid to Tekla Structures. See for example the torus case in the images below.

4.2 Checking the model size

From Window - Model Info - Statistics it is possible to find out how large your model is in terms of
faces and edges. Click the Show nested components to calculate also groups and components.
When creating models to be used as embeds in constructions, it is enough to model in the accuracy
which is needed to visualize the product where it is used for example in construction installations.
This may be accomplished by quite a few faces, say under one thousand or so. The model for such
usage does not need to be as accurate, as is needed to actual manufacturing of the part, which might
need sub-millimeter accurate faces or other analytical information of curved features, which may
lead to several thousands of faces.

4.3 Modeling lightweight components

If you want to create for instance an accessory part to be used with Tekla Structures as an object
which is only shown where it is and how many such items there are in the model, and this part is
never detailed, instead ordered as a catalog item by product code. If such part has highly repeating
feature, such as grille with numerous holes, it is advisable to model such part using a texture which
mimics the underlying geometry, rather than creating a high polygon count part.
In Tekla Structures you can use Surface Treatment to model various repeating patterns, as shown
below.

Also the direction of surface can be adjusted:

Modeled as a real polygonal object this has more than 1200 faces, compared to 12 it has as a surface
treatment part in Tekla Structures, so 100 times less.

5. Modeling terrain or mesh

Model a terrain or mesh which can be then used as cut tool in Tekla Structures. Set the Sandbox

toolbar visible from the View - Toolbars.

Start by modeling as large box as the mesh will require, in all xy-direction, but also in z direction so
that the mesh height will fit inside the box. Remove the top face of the box.

Create a sandbox mesh on top of the box. Set the mesh grid spacing to fit evenly to the box
dimensions.

Select the mesh, explode it, select all the entities and make them into a group. Inspect the entity to
verify that it is proper solid at this point. Select the group, and start editing it from pop-up menu.
Start the Smoove tool to manipulate the mesh. Set the smoove radius to match the need and edit the
grid.

Below is one finished example, which shows that the entity is still a solid after editing it.

Alternatively if you have contour data of the terrain, the mesh can be created from contours.

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