What's your beginners tip?

broomstick

I create a small box so I can quickly reorient the screen cursor onto either of the three default planes - put the cursor on one of the faces of the box, hold down shift to lock the orientation - this works but I'm sure there's a shortcut but I've never discovered what it is.

Happy Sketching,

Brad

Maya style, if I understand what youre doing
The shortcuts are there: ctrl+1, 2, 3 enable front, left, top etc (not in this order I am only making an exmple here)

jeff hammond

@kenny said:

To deselect you can use ctrl-T as well as clicking in white space. I use this a lot to avoid zooming out to get white space to click in.

Kenny

doesn't work on macs.. what i like to do in these circumstances(zoomed in with no white space) is just select something that is visible to then shift/select it... that will deselect everything in the model + it's just plain intuitive for me to work like that..

jeff hammond

i'm not sure where i learned it from but something that really helped me out/sped me up/ridded me of some frustrations was learning about the single/double/triple click selecting...

if someone knows a link, post it up.. otherwise, i'll look around for it a little later..

(i'll edit this post once it's been sorted out)

cliff

My tip has probably already been mentioned in some form before this, but it's still the one major thing I tell people when showing them SU for the first time: Go through and set up all your own hot keys as soon as possible so you can (a) learn all of the tools and what they do, and (b) create a workflow and keyboard system that you can relate to. If the defaults wrk for ya, great, but at least go through every possible hot key and try it out!

GreenToaster

@unknownuser said:

Maya style, if I understand what youre doing
The shortcuts are there: ctrl+1, 2, 3 enable front, left, top etc (not in this order I am only making an exmple here)

I tried CTRL+1, & so forth - this doesn't work on my machine (Windows version).

bulbucila

My tips are 3 actualy:

whenever you are making more instancing of a model make it a component
if you want to modify just one of them make it unique (right click "Make unique")
if you want to reuse one component you make into other projects, click on "window - Components " and click on the plus sign to open another tab with components, you then can drag the components in your project (home icon) onto the components folder (browse)

bulbucila

One more tip:

make components or groups on the early stage of creation, that way it will be easyer to handle (excuse my bad english)

bulbucila

One tip for large models:

if you work with a large model with a lot of geometry, in order to avoid slow motion orbiting, use "Hide rest of model" best is to asign a shortcut key, that way when you edit a component or group the rest of the model will not be shown and will work faster (again pardon my bad english)

jwlyon1

This tip is hard to explain.
When rotating, click+drag along the desired rotation axis.

This lets you select a funky rotation axis with ease, and more importantly, repeatability.

Here's a quick vid, I'm having trouble embedding it. Sorry!
http://www.screencast.com/t/H30ObYtL

Gaieus

Definitely an important one. Unfortunately it hardly gets any "exposure" in the SU Guide; the only place it's marginally mentioned is the "Folding along an axis of rotation" header when it explains autofold here:
http://download.sketchup.com/sketchuphelp/gsu6_win/Content/D-Modification_Tools/ModTool-Rotate.htm

alarm

I always put Components, Materials, Styles, Scenes and Shadow settings at right side! Easy to access

pilou

Take a look at the Duh thread

mogogirl

As I'm still a beginner, take this for what it is worth. The biggest help for me was the Aidan Chopra series of videos on YouTube. I now also have the companion guide.."SketchUp for Dummies". He is very plain spoken and easy to understand and has lots of great tips. Just perfect for a complete newbie to 3D graphics like me!

Hope this helps!

idraft

If you are always having trouble opening your models because you work with different versions eg SU6 & SU7 you can drag and drop your model over the SU shortcut you created on your desktop. This opens SU straight away.

If anyone knows a way to right click and open with the correct SU version in your pull down menu that would be handy too. after all how do you tell if your model has been created in SU 6/7 without exploring properties. They have the same symbol "whatsamecallit"

Physicsguy1

You'll want to become familiar with the functions of all the tools. Things are much easier if you understand what you are doing. You should also group any object you create, so you don't run into problems where two faces have the same edge. Save your works frequently.

TIG

Make shortcuts of frequently used tools/operations... it will make life so much easier.
Get used to using them you will quickly speed up considerably...

Some obvious ones are built-in like...
<Spacebar>=Select
M=ove
L=ine
A=rc
C=ircle
P=ushpull
F=ollowme
S=cale
T=apemeasue [*actually I swap this to T=extTool and D=istanceTool(i.e.tapemeasure) + alt+D=imensions]
R=otate
E=raser
Z=oom
...
However, some extra ones speed things up even more, like... [here's what I use but you should choose your own]
Q = Quick reverse faces - you have to have a face selected for Reverse to show in the Preferences Shortcut filter...
H =Hide - again you have to have a selection for Hide to show in the Preferences Shortcut filter...
shift+H = unHide - again you have to have a selection for Hide to show in the Preferences Shortcut filter...
ctrl+H = Hide rest of model during an edit - toggle
ctrl+alt+H = Hide similar components during an edit - toggle
U = Un-select everything - ctrl+T is also built-in... but I think that just pressing U is quicker...
shift+X = eXplode
alt+S = Smooth
alt+E= Entity-Info
alt+M = Material browser
alt+B = Component Browser
alt+X = Xray mode toggle
alt+G = hidden Geometry toggle
alt+V = show Axes toggle
\ = Delete all Guides
F2 = open Ruby-Console
etc etc

I also swap G to 'Make Group' and make B 'Make Component' [as B=Block in ACAD]; however, if you want to keep G as your 'Make Component' shortcut, try adding shift+G for 'Make Group' - making groups is a vital way of keeping your geometry separated and tidy - shortcut key is very useful...

The well known...
ctrl+Z = Undo
ctrl+X = Cut
ctrl+C = Copy
ctrl+V = Paste
_Can be added to with this...
ctrl+shift+V = Paste in Place - p[art of a quick way to cut something from one group and paste it into another in the same place...

GreenToaster

Draw something that has an amorphic shape - sketch it out by hand, then create it with S/U. This may be more challenging than you think - pick something "easy" to begin with. Human body parts - head, hand, foot - are really very challenging to reproduce with accurate proportions and details.

Start with something simple and fun - it's a great way to learn more about S/U.

Gloryboy

Use the forum like it's your best friend...ask for help when you are in trouble. No sense stumbling in the dark when someone is more than willing to shed some light on your problem.
Gboy

arklandesign

As a month old sketchup user the things that have assisted me most recently, are the following:

When working on a model and making changes always save with the same name but add version 2 or 3 or 13... This way, if you make a mistake you can always go back to a previously saved version.
Locking groups assists in keeping ones sanity, it's only one extra click to do or undo, but can save one a lot of anguish.
Sometimes orbiting with the eraser or the move tool active, is akin to running around with a virtual pair of scissors.

I think the most important rule to remember is always... always.... group... It took me some time to get into the habit, but it makes all the difference. Also, always check components downloaded from 3DWH for extra layers and mistakes and purge them to the default layer, B4 introducing them into ones own model. Don't take it for granted that the model one has downloaded is safe to use... they sometimes simply aren't. Ever since I picked up this tip from Gaeius in this forum, life has been a lot more stress free.

Gaieus

@arklandesign said:

...Sometimes orbiting with the eraser or the move tool active, is akin to running around with a virtual pair of scissors...

Haha. How true. And how much I recognise my girlfriend (who is NOT using "virtual" weapons only)