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Author: Visit Amazon's Chris Grover Page
ISBN : 0596521464
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Google SketchUp simplifies 3-D modelling, is free on the web, and helps you create 3-D models of everything from your garden to a large building.
Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual shows you how to make the most of the program's tools and how to apply them to presentations and online sharing. The book introduces you to 3-D modelling, creating and animating a complicated model building, adding realistic material shading, and placing your model in Google Earth.
Using the Push/Pull Tool If you’ve ever seen those camping tents that spring from flat to fully-formed, you have an idea how SketchUp’s Push/Pull tool works. You start with a flat 2D drawing and you stretch it to whatever length you want. Push/Pull works its magic on any shape that forms a face. In these steps, you use the Push/Pull tool to alter a simple box. 1. Use the Rectangle tool to draw a box, and then click the Iso button or choose Camera-->Standard Views-->Iso. You may even want to use the Orbit tool, to get a good view of three faces of the box, as shown below. 
Each edge on the box has two endpoints and a midpoint. To find the midpoint, move the cursor slowly along the edge. The cursor will snap to the midpoint when it gets close and you see a tool tip that says Midpoint. 2. Select the Rectangle tool and move the cursor over the different faces and points of the box. When the cursor is over a face, a tool tip says “On Face.” When the cursor is over an end point or midpoint, the marker at the tip of the pencil changes color and you see appropriate tool tip messages. In the next step, you use an end point and a midpoint to draw a rectangle on the top surface of the box. 3. With the Rectangle tool, click on the front, right corner and then move to the midpoint on the back of the box, as shown below. After you create the rectangle, your box has an edge down the middle that divides it in half. The top of the box now has two separate faces. 
Start drawing from the front corner and then stretch the rectangle out to the midpoint on the backside. 4. With the Push/Pull tool (P), click the face on the left and move the mouse forward and backward. As you move the mouse, the model changes shape. When you pull up with the Push/Pull tool, you’re “adding geometry” or “adding volume” to your simple box. When you push it down, you’re “subtracting geometry.” 5. Pull the face up and then click the mouse button. This leaves the face pulled up, and creates a new vertical face in the model. 6. With Push/Pull, push the vertical face back. As you push the face as shown below, you subtract volume from the model, making it smaller. 7. Continue to push the face until you reach the back edge of the box and then click. The face snaps to the back edge and then when you click, the face disappears. Your box looks as it did when you started this exercise. 
Pushing a face back shrinks an object, sometimes referred to as “removing geometry” or “reducing its volume.” Pushing this face all the way back until it reaches the opposite face removes it entirely.
About the Author
Christopher Grover lives in Fairfax, California with his wife and two daughters. Chris received degrees in Creative Writing and Film from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He's worked as a technical writer, advertising copywriter and product publicist for more than 25 years. His freelance articles have been published in a variety of magazines from Fine Homebuilding to CD-ROM World. Chris's latest project is launching Bolinas Road Creative, an agency that helps small businesses promote their products and services. He's also the author of Word 2007: The Missing Manual and Word 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual.
Direct download links available for Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual Paperback Free Download
- Series: Missing Manual
- Paperback: 602 pages
- Publisher: Pogue Press; 1 edition (May 29, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0596521464
- ISBN-13: 978-0596521462
- Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 7 x 9.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual Free Download
I've written (just a few) handouts, manuals and books about using software, mainly graphics software. These programs are so full-featured it's easy to overwhelm a novice. When you're new to the subject, never mind the program itself, it's almost impossible not to feel at sea. Which is why we buy books like those in the Missing Manual series.
I hoped for a step-by-step procedure: Double-click the icon, this window appears, click this to have this happen, click that to set a preference, click this tool and do...something.
I began on page 13, Chapter 1, "Building a Bench: Your First SketchUp Model." After a short introduction to the program and the concept of 3D, the next page is "Firing up SketchUp for the First Time." Three different methods for launching the program for both Mac and Windows are given. Then the author talks about the first window that opens. Buried in the 12-line paragraph is a casual mention that if you're creating something (like the project later in this chapter?) you should choose the Woodworking template. Unmentioned (but pretty obvious) is "click OK to continue."
Then there's a tour of the interface and instructions on how to set it up and how to change how you're viewing your creation. Then there's a digression on templates and how to create templates (which I'm a long way from attempting). Then, finally, on page 32 is "Bench: Starting Your First Mode." And it begins with 1. Open a new SketchUp document with File > New. Hello! That's where you left me, some 18 pages ago! But at least here are instructions.
Things got much better down the road. The instructions are step-by-step, and there are frequent sidebars, call-outs and other notes that add more information as you go.
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