The bad news is that every new SketchUp user encounters certain problems, usually in the first couple hours of using the software. You can call these problems growing pains. The good news is that, because these SketchUp problems are common, you can anticipate a lot of the bad stuff you’ll go through. This article offers you SketchUp tips and tricks to help you work around those issues.

As you set off on your modeling adventure, you’re can be prepared with ten SketchUp quick wins — techniques or extended workflows that upgrade the 3D superpowers you’ve been reading about in this book.You’ll find that these SketchUp tips and tricks are pretty quick to pick up. Moreover, many of these techniques are designed to speed the core mechanics of your 3D modeling.

SketchUp’s 3D Warehouseis a huge online collection of 3D models that is searchable and, most important, free for everyone to use. To access the 3D Warehouse, all you need is an Internet connection. If you have a SketchUp model that you want to share with the world, share with just a few people or store on SketchUp’s servers for safekeeping, the 3D Warehouse is where you put it.

Combining section views with scenes to create an animation is both a useful and impressive way to show off your SketchUp model. The basic idea is that you can use scenes to create animations where your section planes move inside your model. Here are a few reasons you may want to use this technique:If you have a building with several levels, you can create an animated presentation that shows a cutaway plan view of each level.

A really great way to use scenes is to pretend you’re walking or flying through your SketchUp model. By setting up your scenes sequentially, you can give a seamless tour without messing around with the navigation tools. This setup is especially handy when you need to walk and talk at the same time.Here are some tips that can help you to simulate a person walking or flying through your model with scenes: Adjust your field of view.

Two tools from the SketchUp Extension Warehouse are essential for 3D printing: CleanUp3 and Solid Inspector2, both created by Thomas Thomassen. CleanUp3 checks and simplifies the geometry of your SketchUp model. It combines multiple faces, eliminates extraneous data, and erases any lines that don’t make a face.

If you’re wondering how to get rid of all the ugly lines that appear when you use SketchUp’s Follow Me, the answer is pretty simple: You can smooth edges, just like you can hide them. The difference between hiding and smoothing is illustrated by the images of the cylinders in the image below: When you hide an edge between two faces, SketchUp treats those faces as though your edge is still there — it just doesn’t show the edge.

Like any 3-D modeling program, SketchUp offers different ways to do common tasks. In this Cheat Sheet, you'll find tips on the best way to use SketchUp tools and to boost your productivity. Keyboard shortcuts also enable you to work quickly and easily in SketchUp, so you'll uncover keyboard shortcuts for common tools.