To create a copy, you follow the same steps mentioned earlier, but you have to hold down the Ctrl key (or the Option key on Mac) before you click to set the start point. You can set the distance via keyboard inputs or by clicking again to set the end point for the move.
Click somewhere in the scene to set a reference point and move the cursor in the direction that you want the object to move. To simply move something, select the object (or objects) and then activate the Move tool. You can use it to move an object as well as rotate or copy it or create a linear array. The Move tool (four-way arrow) is a universal tool in SketchUp. Again, you can specify the offset distance via keyboard inputs or reference points. The workflow of this tool is similar to that of the Push/Pull tool, but the edges of the surface will be offset in the plane of the surface, not orthogonal to it. The next modification tool is the Offset tool. To set the endpoint for the extrusion, type the desired height of the object or click somewhere in the scene to set the height via reference. You will see that the polygon will be extruded to a box or prism shape along its surface normal. Click anywhere inside the surface and move the mouse up or down along the surface normal. Surfaces that can be extruded will be shown in a darker shade while the cursor is above them. To use it, select the tool and then move the cursor over an existing surface. The Push/Pull tool is probably the quintessential SketchUp tool. You use these by picking the center of the arc first and then the start and end of the segment. SketchUp 2014 also introduced two new arc tools: Arc and Pie. You can also specify the sides of a circle segment created with the 2 Point Arc tool, but to place it, you pick the start and end points and then indicate the bulge of the arc (numerically or by picking a third point). If you type a number before you place the center point, you set the number of sides (in SketchUp, even a circle is made out of short straight segments, but you usually don't see them). Alternatively, you can specify the radius numerically. You can use the numeric input option to specify an exact width and height after you have placed the first point of the rectangle.įor the Circle and Polygon tools, you first place the center point and specify a second point on the circumference. If you delete the polygon afterwards, the edges will still remain. The Rectangle tool creates a rectangular polygon and the four edges surrounding it. When you create a closed line loop out of coplanar lines, a 3D surface is created between them. Three or more lines can form the boundary of a polygon. A line in SketchUp is also called an edge. The Line tool draws a straight line between two points. Just remember to look at the status bar for a hint. Other possible inputs are the number of elements for an array or the number of sides for a circle or polygon. However, you can add a common unit indicator such as 500mm (for 500 millimeter) or 5'6" (for 5 feet and 6 inches) to enter a dimension regardless of the current template. If you use a template based on inches, it will instead create a 500 inch long element. If you use a template based on millimeters and enter 500, SketchUp will create a line or rectangle of 500 mm length. Although SketchUp uses inches as its internal unit, the default unit size for numeric values is set via the file-specific template. SketchUp is very accommodating in what it allows for input. This is the small text area at the right end of the status bar. Whatever you type will be displayed in the Value Control Box ( VCB). There is no input box that you have to click first. Anytime SketchUp allows you to enter a value such as the dimensions of a rectangle, you can just type the values.