groups

Follow Me and Groups: Part 3 - Paste in Place

In Part 1 of this series,  I showed how SketchUp’s Follow Me tool can break objects. In Part 2 of this series, I showed how using groups with Follow Me can prevent this.   In this post, I’ll show an even better way to model with Follow Me, while still keeping everything as a group. […]

SketchUp Seashell: Geometry or 3D Printing Project

I have a colleague named David Thornburg, who is the Director of Education for Polar3D. (If you’re into 3D printing, check out Polar 3D – their printer works by spinning the circular build plate, rather than with lateral movements.) Recently I ran across a 3D printed seashell project that David posted on the Polar3D blog. He wrote […]

Sketchup Groups and Materials Kitchen Render 010011

The previous three parts of this series focused on how to combine layers and scenes to present and view two (or more) design options for the same space. (See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) This last post focuses on a similar scenario – comparing material options for one part of a model. This requires the use […]

Scaling Objects SketchUp

In Part 1 of this series, I showed how to use the Tape Measure tool within groups or components, to resize only specific objects and not the entire model. This post also discusses using Tape Measure with groups and components. But the focus here is internal vs. imported (external) components. Read on to see what the difference is. Internal Components, […]

Optimizing SketchUp performance. RENDERINGS 01

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the optimal hardware for SketchUp performance, and in Part 2 I discussed some user interface options you can set to speed things up. In this post, I’ll discuss the modeling process that will allow you to keep performance at its peak, for any size model. Specifically: Using components and […]

Sketchup Layers Groups Components 01

Layers – they seem simple enough. Place a SketchUp object on a layer, turn off the layer, hide the object. Each object sits on only one layer. What could go wrong? Actually, quite a bit. When you model using groups and components (which all good modelers do), and start placing groups, components, or loose geometry onto different […]