Getting started with SketchUp - Part 4 Video Lecture | Learn Google Sketchup from Scratch - Design

Please be sure you have watched the previous
Getting Started videos,
we’ll build on the concepts learned there.
In this video we will create a hallway table.
We’ll learn about using groups and components
to better separate and organize the various
parts of your model.
We’ll start by drawing the table top, create
a rectangle that is 14 inches wide by 48 inches
long, and Push/Pull it up one inch.
Now zoom into the corner and draw a line from
this midpoint to a point on the lower edge.
Depending on your preference, you can make
this angle deeper or more shallow, and SketchUp
will also give you an indication of an equidistant
angle by turning purple and snapping to that angle.
Finish your line and orbit underneath
the tabletop.
We are going to use the Follow Me tool to
create a chamfer. We could manually follow
the surface around the edges, but there is
a quicker method we can use. Because we want
to chamfer the entire lower surface, we can
pre-select that surface, then pick the Follow
Me tool and click on our angle to finish.
Let’s move the table top up to draw the
legs underneath. With the Select tool, triple-click
one of the surfaces to select all connected
geometry, and move it up in the blue direction
37 inches. Given our top is one inch deep,
that will give us a total table height of
38 inches.
Orbit underneath to start drawing the table
legs. Draw a rectangle, starting from this
corner that we could pull into a leg. However,
before using Push/Pull, let’s say we change
our mind and want the leg to be inset from
the edge instead. If we select and move this
surface however, it begins to warp the table
top. By drawing it on top of other edges,
those edges merged. This is a key behavior
to making SketchUp fast and easy, but it’s
not what we want in this example. This is
one of the primary uses of groups, which will
isolate our geometry preventing the edges
from merging.
To see this in action, undo the rectangle
using Ctrl+Z on a PC, or Command+Z on a
Mac, then triple-click to select the whole
table top. Right or context click on the top
and from the sub-menu, choose: Make Group.
A new bounding box is shown around the whole
top, and it now behaves as a single, unique
entity.
Draw the leg rectangle again. Make it two
inches long, one inch deep from the corner,
but this time it won’t merge with the edges.
So if we wanted to move it around, we could
easily do so.
Create some guides using the Tape Measure
tool, pull a guide one inch away from these
lower edges, then move our leg rectangle to
our guides so it’s inset exactly one inch.
Remember to move the rectangle from the corner
point for accuracy. Now Push/Pull the leg
down 37 inches.
Using the Select tool, triple-click on the
leg to select all of it, then right or context-click
on it to open the context menu and this time
choose, Make Component. A pop up menu will
appear, you can name the component, and your
settings should match these.
We made the table-top a group, and the leg
a component. At first there may not seem to
be a difference, but we’ll see there is
a very important difference. Let’s start
with the similarities though. A group or component
binds the geometry together into a single entity.
You can move, rotate, and scale the
group as a whole, however a tool like Push/Pull
doesn’t seem to work because you aren’t
affecting the actual surfaces, but the whole group together.
To use Push/Pull and other
tools, you need to edit the group.
Use the Select tool and double click on the table
top. The bounding box changes, indicating
we are now editing the group. Still with the
Select tool, click outside of the dotted surrounding
box to close the group.
Practice this a few times with our group and
component. Double click on one to edit it,
click outside to close it and do this several
times. While you are editing a group or component,
you can draw and divide surfaces and edges,
use Push/Pull and other tools. But once you
close the group, anything you draw is outside
of the group, so it’s important to know
when you are editing or working outside of
a group or component.
With that understanding, if you did modify
your group in any way, undo any changes back
to our original table top and leg, and let’s
copy the leg to the back side. First create
a guideline one inch away from the back edge,
then as we learned in the last video, start
moving the leg, then press the Ctrl key or
Option key on a Mac to move a copy instead.
Move the second leg into position using our guidelines.
For comparison, also make a copy of the table
top upward so we can see what the primary
difference is between groups and components.
For the legs, let’s angle the legs inward
as part of the style of our table. Make sure
you are editing the leg component, then select
this lower, outside edge and start moving
it with the Move tool. The copied leg component
is reflecting the same changes, and this is
what makes a component very powerful, any
changes you make to one component are also
made to any of the same components in the
model. Move the edge inward one inch, and
close the component.
For comparison, edit the copy of the table
top and make some changes to it. The original
table top stays the same, because this is
a group, and every group is unique. So there
is our overview of groups and components,
both help us to group geometry together, but
each group is unique, where a component and
any copies of it are instanced so any changes
made to one are made to all. As a general
rule then, if you don’t plan to copy an
object, grouping it is fine, but if you think
there is a chance it will be copied, make
it a component, and use groups and components
throughout your model to keep objects separate and unique.
Now let’s return focus to our table. Navigate
under the table and draw a rectangle between
the legs that is one half inch thick. Your
width may vary based on the angle you created
under the table top, but whatever the width,
pull it down six inches.
Now triple-click with the Select tool and
make this a component. Name it and create the component.
Let’s copy this support piece and the legs
to the opposite side of the table. Zoom out
to get a full view of our table, then hold
the Shift key down and use the Select tool
to select all three parts. Now begin moving
them down the length of the table, and press
the Ctrl key or Option key on a Mac to make
a copy and place them somewhere around the
middle of the table making sure to keep them
lined up along inference directions.
To know where to place them we need to create
a guideline as we’ve done before, one inch
from the far edge, however the direction the
legs are facing is incorrect, we need to flip
or mirror these parts. Make sure all three
parts are selected and choose the Scale tool.
Scale works by clicking to move the control
grips. Any of the corner grips will scale
everything uniformly, however choosing a center
grip will scale it only along that axis.
Watch how this works by trying several of the grips.
Pay special attention to the center grips
which scale along the red, green and blue directions.
If you squash the geometry through
itself, you can mirror the object in that direction.
To get a perfect mirrored version,
watch the Measurements box. The scale tool
works as a percentage, 1 equals 100 percent,
point 5 is 50 percent, or half the scale,
2 would then be 200 percent, or twice the
scale, and if we pull the geometry through
itself it becomes negative, so negative 1
equals negative 100 percent, or a perfect
mirrored version of our geometry.
Undo any scale effects you have created, select
all three parts and scale along this center
grip until you see negative 1, which the tool
will also snap to, and click to finish. Now
move the assembly into place using the corner
of the table and your guidelines for placement.
Next let’s create the front of the table.
Zoom into a corner to draw a rectangle that
is half an inch wide by six inches deep, then
pull it across using the opposite leg as the reference.
Select the entire table front with
a triple click, and make it a component.
Now orbit underneath and copy this to the
back, using inferencing for proper placement.
Let’s add a curve to our table. Orbit to
a good front view and create a guide one inch
up from the table front piece. Now edit the
front component to draw a 2 Point Arc inside it.
Drawing an arc is a simple 3-click process,
click once at the corner to start the arc,
click on the opposite corner where the other
side of the arc will be, then pull up and
use the guideline as a reference for how high
to make the arc. Now you can use Push/Pull on the arc.
Push until it meets the back surface
which will delete it.
Close the component. We won’t create all
the internal elements or drawers that a real
table would have, but let’s finish this
example by creating the drawer fronts so our
table looks complete.
Draw a rectangle on the table front that is
three inches by 15 inches wide, and pull it out an inch.
Zoom in and create a chamfer as we did with
the table top. Draw an angle, then select
the front face as our Follow Me surface, then
choose the Follow Me tool and click on the angle to
complete the Follow Me chamfer.
We better group the geometry at this point,
triple-click to select it all, and if we were
going to center the drawer and have only one,
we could group it, but I’m going to create
two drawers, so let's make it a component
instead.
Now a few guidelines can help with the placement
of the drawer front and the copy, place yours
where you think they look best.
Perhaps as a final touch, edit one of these
drawers and using inferencing to center our
circle tool, create a small drawer pull, then
close the component.
Delete any guides we’ve created. Paint the
table if you like, or add your own details.
The very best thing you can do is just to
practice and play with SketchUp, using these
projects we’ve built together or new projects
of your own.
As with previous videos, there is much more
to learn about using groups and components,
mirroring objects, Follow Me and other powerful
tools in SketchUp, so please continue to explore
more of our videos and training content.