Datasheet

18
Part I: Getting Started with SketchUp
Taking the Ten-Minute SketchUp Tour
The point of this portion of the chapter is to show you where everything is —
kind of like the way a parent shows a new babysitter around the house before
leaving for a couple hours. Here I don’t explain what anything does, per se. I
just want you to feel like you know where to start looking when you find your-
self hunting around for something.
Just like most programs you already use, SketchUp has five main parts.
Figure 1-2 shows them all, in both the Windows and Mac versions of the pro-
gram. I describe these parts, plus an additional feature, in the following list:
Figure 1-2:
All
SketchUp’s
parts: in
Windows
(left) and on
the Mac.
Menu bar
Dialog box
Modeling window
Getting Started toolbar
Status bar
✓ Modeling window: See the big area in the middle of your computer
screen? That’s your modeling window, and it’s where you spend 99 per-
cent of your time in SketchUp. You build your model there; it’s sort of a
frame into a 3D world inside your computer. What you see in your mod-
eling window is always a 3D view of your model, even if you happen to
be looking at it from the top or side.
✓ Menu bar: For anyone who has used a computer in the last 30 years,
the menu bar is nothing new. Each menu contains a long list of options,
commands, tools, settings, and other goodies that pertain to just about
everything you do in SketchUp.
✓ Toolbars: These contain buttons that you can click to activate tools and
commands; they’re faster than using the menu bar. SketchUp has a few
toolbars, but only one is visible when you launch it the first time: the
Getting Started toolbar.
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