8 tips for creating dimensions in LayOut

Matt DonleyLayout Tutorials, News

LayOut’s Dimension tool allows you to easily add dimensions to your model. Here are eight tips to help you become even more efficient at adding dimensions to your LayOut documents.

LayOut Dimension Tool Basics

In its simplest form, the Dimension tool is used to measure the distance between two points on a page by doing the following:

  1. Activate the Linear Dimension tool.
  2. Click on the first point you’d like to measure.
  3. Click on the second point you’d like to measure.
  4. Drag your mouse out to where you want to place the dimension line, and click to set position.

That is the basic way to insert a dimension in LayOut, but there are some other things you should be aware of. Style, leaders, and alignment are all important if you want to create accurate and clear dimensions. LayOut also has some built in shortcuts to increase your speed while inserting dimensions.

Quick Document Creation in LayOut

Matt DonleyLayout Tutorials, News

While I’m a big advocate for taking the time to set up scenes in SketchUp ahead of time for the viewports you’d like to create in LayOut, there are actually many tools built right into LayOut that let you insert and orient viewports on the fly. In this article, we’ll go over how to create a basic LayOut document without any preparation in SketchUp.

If you’ve got a lot of section cuts in your model that you’d like to create viewports of in LayOut, then you really need to take the time to save scenes in SketchUp ahead of time to assign to viewports in LayOut.

But what if you’re looking to create a few simple perspectives of your model in LayOut to get it out the door quickly? There are many tools built into LayOut that allow you to insert any SketchUp model and control the perspective and style without any preparations ahead of time.

Inserting a model into LayOut

In this tutorial, I’m going to use a model I found on Formfonts. Formfonts is a premium model library full of high quality models that are professionally made to reduce file size while maintaining a high visual standard. If you’re in need of professional models to add detail to your own models, I highly recommend you check out their membership. Click here.

You could go straight to LayOut with your model, but it’s worth noting a few things to save you from frustration down the road:

  • If you have a lot of guides (from the Tape Measure tool) you’ll probably want to delete them so they don’t end up in your viewports. Go to Edit -> Delete Guides to delete all guides in your model. (If you’re editing a group/component while you do this, it will only delete the guides in that group/component.)
  • If you DO have section cuts in your model that you don’t want showing up in your viewports, you need to make sure you have a custom style created that hides section cuts or section planes.
  • If there are certain objects in your model that you don’t want displayed in any viewports, you must hide them. Either assign them to a hidden layer (Go to Window -> Entity Info -> Select the layer you want to assign it to. Then go to Window -> Layers, and uncheck that layer visibility.) Or, hide the objects by right clicking them and selecting Hide. (You can unhide them from the Outliner Window)

FormFonts Premium SketchUp Model Downloads

Matt DonleyExtensions, Tips & Tricks, Tools

If you’re a professional SketchUp user, access to pre-made models is critical for efficient modeling. Don’t waste time modeling objects that are secondary to the design you’re working on. Finding high quality, low polygon models can be challenging, unless you’re using FormFonts. If you use SketchUp professionally, you know that the more time you spend working on a model, the …

Design Considerations for 3D printing

Matt Donley3D Printing, Fabrication, News, Tips & Tricks

When creating a model for 3D printing, there are several things you must keep in mind in order to be able to print successfully, especially when using a desktop printer. This article highlights some of the things to look out for. As in any type of manufacturing, there are certain limitations to the materials and manufacturing processes that dictate how …

Soften/Smooth Selection

Matt DonleyNews, Sketchup Tutorials

In SketchUp, you can soften/smooth edges in order to create the illusion of a curved surface. In this article, I’ll show you how to soften/smooth selectively over a large selection of entities. To understand what soften/smooth does to your model, you have to understand one important fact about EVERYTHING in SketchUp. There is no such thing as a curved surface …

7 tips for SketchUp Materials

Matt DonleyNews, Sketchup Tutorials, Tips & Tricks

Materials are what allow you to apply an image to the surfaces in your model. Here are some tricks for working with materials in SketchUp. SketchUp Materials & Textures If you’ve ever used the Paint Bucket tool (B) in SketchUp, you know that it can change the look of your model by applying a color or texture image to faces in your …

10 tricks for the Move Tool In SketchUp

Matt DonleyNews, Sketchup Tutorials, Tips & Tricks

The freedom and flexibility of the various tools in SketchUp are what make it so awesome for modeling. The tools don’t hinder the creative process, and they give you many different ways to manipulate objects. In this article, I’ll go over 10 different ways you can move objects in SketchUp, and why you would use each one. Use Inference points …

SketchUp External References

Matt DonleyNews, Sketchup Tutorials

Did you know that you can split up a SketchUp file into multiple smaller files? They can be referenced and updated in a master SketchUp file, which is useful when working on a project with multiple team members. It’s also helpful for managing a large number of scenes in a project.

XREF in SketchUp?

If you’re familiar with AutoCAD, you might know that you can link multiple drawings together using an XREF. It’s useful when you need to take drawings produced from multiple different sources and integrate them into a master drawing set. SketchUp has a similar capability, and is even more powerful in some respects.

Importing into SketchUp

Importing files into SketchUp works differently than an XREF in AutoCAD. In SketchUp, you’re actually placing a copy of the imported file into your SketchUp model. In AutoCAD, the XREF isn’t copied into your drawing, it’s just linked to it. (You can Bind or insert an XREF into a drawing if you want, however.)

Although you’re placing a copy of the imported file into SketchUp, you have the ability to update it. Let’s say you have a model of a barn and a silo, and you’re having someone else model the silo while you work on the barn. You can import the silo into the main model, and if there are any changes made to the garage at a later point, you just right click the silo and select “Reload”.

Mason Farm Renders

Matt DonleyNews

When I wrote my book, SketchUp to LayOut, I wanted to use meaningful sample files in it that related to real world projects. This article shares the personal story about why I chose the specific house as the sample project.

The House Project

To show how the methods in SketchUp to LayOut can be applied to multiple types of projects, I chose a table woodworking project, a kitchen, and a house. I wasn’t sure what house I wanted to use in my book, until I made a visit to my Mother’s house and she showed me something incredible.
house
I grew up in Bristol, RI, a small, historical New England town. Our claim to fame is our Fourth of July Parade, it’s the oldest in the country as a matter of fact, (and I also happen to march in it each year). I have family traced back to the 1700’s who’ve lived in Bristol, so I personally have a lot of ties to the town.

The house I grew up in was built in 1912 by my great grandfather, and has been passed on to each generation. I had thought about using it as my sample project for the book, but was a bit overwhelmed with the thought of having to measure everything in order to create an accurate model.

Expert Tips From SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2014.

Matt DonleyBooks, Extensions, News, Sketchup Tutorials, Tips & Tricks

Do you feel like you’ve missed out on the SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2014? I’ve just returned from teaching my first live class at Basecamp, and in this article you’ll learn some of the tips I’ve picked up from the best SketchUp gurus in the world.

If you’re a SketchUp geek like me, 3D Basecamp is the place to be. It is held on a bi-annual basis, and you’ll find some of the best SketchUp users in the world at the conference.

During the opening presentation by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager, we learned about the new SketchUp model viewer for the ipad, available here, a new Ruby Debugger plugin, and an extension that can process 3D point cloud data from Trimble 3D scanners.

The conference is made up of a number of presentations and instructional sessions, including some hands-on classes as well. I had the honor of being asked to teach an “Introduction to LayOut” 3-hour class, based on my book, SketchUp to LayOut. It was the first time I had taught live, in person, to a large audience. I was nervous at first, but once I started, everything just fell into place.