Hi there, welcome to this video! Let's see quickly and fast how to use
the most advanced tools inside SketchUp 2016, and all you need to know
to create custom shapes.
If you have problems with the accent used in this video, enable our
closed captions clicking on the CC button in the bottom right corner.
In the beginner tutorial in this guide, we have seen all the basic tools
you need to know to design a project, all collected inside the Getting
Started toolbar, on top. If you right-click on it, you can check to open
other toolbars that are usually hidden by default. Let's see the most
useful ones.
Let's suppose to have a simple 3D design on the workspace. If you open
the Styles toolbar, you will be able to edit the way to see and preview
all the objects inside your workspace. For example choose X-ray to
check all solids depth, or choose Back Edges to render depth with simple
dashed lines. You can also change the way to render your solids while
the project is in progress.
If you need to create new solids starting from independent ones that do
overlap, you can use the Solid Tools toolbox. Since these tools work
fine with Solid Groups, make sure to group together all objects that
compose a single shape. To create Solid Groups, select all objects with
the Select tool, right-click and go to Make Group.
To see better how these Solid Tools work, let's render with X-ray view.
Outer Shell is used to mix all selected solids into a unique one, that
saves the same external shape outside.
Intersect extracts the volume that is overlapped between two selected
solid groups.
Union mixes solids like Outer Shell, with the difference that internal
voids are not covered.
Subtract removes from the second selected solid the first selected one
where they get overlapped. At this point, the first selected solid
disappears.
Trim is just like Subtract, with the difference that the first selected
solid is kept.
Split is like Intersect plus Trim: everything is kept inside your
workspace, including the volume overlapped between the two solid groups.
Keep in mind that these tools may not work when the Solid Groups used
are composed by objects that do overlap in the first place. In this case,
apply an Outer Shell first to such Solid Group before using any Solid
Tool.
If you want to obtain the intersect lines without splitting solids, you
can right-click and go to Intersect Faces, With Model.
Another important feature are the Layers, fundamental in complex projects.
Layers are used to group more independent objects altogether, without
linking them as seen for Solid Groups. Indeed, Layers are used to hide
independent objects that, at any occurrence, are not useful.
All Layers are managed through the Layers panel, that lists all existing
layers, recognized by name and color. Use the plus on top to create a
new layer. Decide its name and its color clicking on its square on the
right.
The layer that is checked is called current layer, since all new objects
you will create will be associated to such layer. If you want to check
to which layer an object is associated, simply open the Layers toolbar.
You can use this to change the layer itself later.
Then, if you don't need to show a layer, you can simply uncheck it, and
all objects belonging to it will be hidden, making your workspace easier
to be managed.
If you want to delete a layer, select it from the list and click on the
minus button.
Let's see now the Sandboxes. A Sandbox is a Mesh object, so an object
composed by lots of smaller regular pieces, such as rectangles and
triangles, from which you can start personalizing the shape with the
Lines tool and the Sandbox tools. You can find all Sandbox tools
right-clicking on the top toolbar and checking Sandbox.
There are two main ways to create Sandboxes: starting from regular
objects drawn or starting from scratch from a plane grid.
If you want to start from a plane grid, simply enable the From Scratch
button. This is quite useful whenever you want to create pavements,
floors or grounds. Just click and drag to define the grid area.
If you are not able to draw, it means that you use a Grid Spacing too
high. In this case, before drawing, type the correct spacing from your
keyboard checking Grid Spacing in the bottom right corner. Then just
use Enter to apply.
You can also start creating custom shapes from regular objects. In fact,
regular objects are Sandboxes already, since they are already composed
by several subcomponents, like polygons and rectangles.
At this point, even if you start from a plane grid or a regular object,
to create your custom shape you just need to edit the Sandbox. To move,
scale and rotate, you can use the tools seen for normal objects, listed
on top of the main toolbar.
If you want to build contours or custom faces, just use the Lines tool
on the shape.
If you need advanced 3D tools to edit your shape, you can use the Sandbox
tools. Mind that, if you are starting from a plane grid, you have to
explode it first to edit it in detail. Just select it, right-click and
go to Explode.
There are several different Sandbox tools available. Smoove pulls up
or down a vertex, side or face in order to shape your object. With the
Select tool, select any node, side or face, and then enable the Smoove
tool. In the bottom right corner, you can type the correct radius to use:
the bigger is the radius, the more is the part of the shape that will be
affected, indicated by yellow squares, as much big as how much they are
affected by the tool. Then just pull up or down.
The Stamp tool is used to join a Sandbox with a face that is placed
above or below the Sandbox itself. Just select the 2D face first, type
to define the correct offset, also indicated by a red contour around the
face, press Enter key to apply, and then pull up and down to define the
correct height. Mind that, the higher is the offset, the higher will be
the inclination of all new faces perpendicular to the base of the shape.
The Drape tool is used to project a 2D shape placed above or below
the Sandbox object directly on such Sandbox. In this case, a new 2D
path will be drawn, following the Sandbox base.
The result of all these edit tools applied depends on how the basic
grids are. The more you want to fine the details, the smaller the grids
must be. To increase the number of subcomponents, you can use Add
Detail. You can increase details point by point, or simply select a
whole Mesh part with the Select Tool and then using Add Detail.
Whereas, to change the direction of the subcomponents sides
use Flip Edge...
Whenever you miss faces from a basic contour, just select its sides all
together by holding Shift down, and then clicking on From Contours.
Once your Sandbox is finished, just render it to obtain a smooth and
unique shape. So, start with adding enough details for the object.
Enable the Select tool, and click and drag to select all the Sandbox
subcomponents, right-click and go to Soften/Smooth Edges. You can
regulate this with the Soften Edges panel.
Then, to finish rendering, you can add any fog and shadow. If you go to
View, you can check Fog and Shadows to add them. If you need to adjust
the shadows applied, you can go to the Shadows panel to adjust month and
hour for the Sun, and the range of brightness for lights and dark.
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