SketchUp 7 - By Tim

             A brief overview of Google SketchUp 7.                                27th August 2009

For those of you that wish to draw on your flat screen computer in 3D instead of 2D, it is worth considering using the SketchUp 7 program which can be down-loaded for free through Google. 
The Help data can be downloaded too but is over 400 pages long.

Basically you learn to draw using symbols on the top toolbar for Edit, Draw rectangle, Draw circle, Draw curve, Erase, Measure, Paint, Apply height, Move, Rotate, Offset, Orbit, Pan, Zoom etc. remembering that you are drawing around three axes, two for plan (green and red line) and one for elevation (blue line).
All objects can be drawn to scale (inches, feet, metres, millimetres) and, with the use of the mouse can be rotated, enlarged or panned to view from different directions.

The demonstration showed you how to draw a simple shed, dimension it and paint it.
It started by ensuring you are drawing in Isometric view and having Metres as your scale, then a rectangle was drawn for your shed size and dimensions added in the measurements box.

Next the height was created with the Push/Pull icon, then the Pencil icon was used to create the roof, followed by creating the arched doorway.
(Don’t forget to clean out all extraneous lines with the Eraser)

It may be necessary to reorient your drawing and this is easily done with the zoom, pan or rotate tools on the top toolbar. Now go to Window>Material>Select Colour and paint your model, not forgetting to rotate it and painting the other side. Completed drawings are best saved and edited in Paint Shop Pro then pasted say into Publisher so that text can be added

There are more complex 3D design software packages available but, after going through the simple tutorials SketchUp may be for you (and it is free from Google).  SketchUp comes with a number of default templates to get you started, be it for woodwork, engineering tools, architecture or the like.  I found it excellent for recording component 3D shapes and sizes of the models made for the Fun4Kids Festival this year.

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