Google SketchUp For Dummies

by Chopra, Aidan

• ISBN13: 9780470137444
• ISBN10: 0470137444
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-02
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

Considerably easier to use than other 3D software, Google SketchUp has found a niche in architecture, landscaping, real estate development, furniture building, and other design professions The fun and friendly approach assumes no previous 3D modeling experience and explains the basic concepts involved in 3D modeling Shows readers how to build a 3D model, print it, share it, export it to another professional design package, export it to Google Earth, and create a 3D animated tour Helps readers harness the power of Google SketchUp so that they can populate Google Earth with 3D buildings, monuments, and other sculptures

Author Biography

Aidan Chopra has always had a thing for computers — his parents thoughtfully sent him to Apple camp instead of hockey lessons like every other eight-year-old in Montreal — but he learned to draft and build physical models the old-fashioned way, working for his architect father. These days, Aidan is a Product Evangelist at Google, where he’s been since that company bought SketchUp in the first part of 2006. In the three years since he graduated with a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University, he’s done a lot of writing and lecturing about the way software is used in design. Aidan writes the SketchUpdate, a monthly e-mail newsletter that reaches a half million SketchUp users worldwide. He has taught architecture at the university level and, at Google, works on ways to mediate between power and usability; he believes the best software in the world isn’t worth a darn if nobody can figure out how it works. Aidan is based in Boulder, Colorado, even though he is what many would consider to be the diametric opposite of a world-class endurance athlete.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Getting Started with SketchUp

Meeting Google SketchUp

Establishing the Modeling Mind-set

Getting Off to a Running Start

Modeling in SketchUp

Building Buildings

Keeping Your Model Organized

Going Beyond Buildings

Modeling with Photographs

Viewing Your Model in Different Ways

Changing Your Model's Appearance with Styles

Working with Light and Shadow

Presenting Your Model Inside SketchUp

Sharing What You've Made

Working with Google Earth and the 3D Warehouse

Printing Your Work

Exporting Images and Animations

Exporting to CAD, Illustration, and Other Modeling Software

Creating Presentation Documents with LayOut

The Part of Tens

Ten SketchUp Traps and Their Work-arounds

Ten Plugins, Extensions, and Resources Worth Getting

Ten Ways to Discover Even More

Index

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