Thursday 11-1: first (official) day with Google SketchUp

Greetings children

If you are reading this, its because you have successfully completed the "spreadsheet" section of this course. Now it is time to get going to a new topic: a 3D modeling program called SKETCHUP. Here is how you get started:

A) there should be a shortcut on your taskbar for Sketchup, it looks like a little house; if not, then use the Finder and go to "Applications" then look for a folder called "SketchUp" or "Google SketchUp"

B) Start it up! If you need to, choose the "Feet and Inches" template (this may not be necessary)

C) Once the program starts, you will see three "perspective lines. There will be a toolbar which looks something like this:




D) Starting at the left hand side of the toolbar, you will see a pencil, a square, a circle, and a curved line, or "arc". ALL of these buttons are tools for drawing two dimensional shapes

E) Also, if you click on the word "DRAW" at the top of the screen, you will see a command called "FREEHAND" ----> that's for drawing squiggly, non-standard lines. Be careful when using this, as you must draw a shape where all the lines are connected together

F) The first thing you must do is to use these buttons to draw at least 37 shapes, trying to make as many different shapes and sizes possible. DO NOT LET THEM OVERLAP

G) When you are done making those flat shapes, you make them three dimensional by clicking on the PUSH/PULL button at the top of the screen, then grabbing one of your shapes and pulling it up. The button looks like a box with a red arrow aiming straight up out of it.

H) Make all of your shapes three dimensional, then SAVE your file with your name on it.

I) Make sure you upload this file to the blue folder you have on Box.com

J) when you go to upload your first SketchUp file, it may look like there are two of them. If there are, just upload them both, INSIDE your shared folder on Box.com. That oughtta do it

Cheers,
Mr. L