When you start the program you may be asked what units you want to use – choose ‘metric metres’.

This program is fun to use and it's tempting to just jump in a start making, say, a house without any introduction, but it's probably better to do the 6 tutorials that are provided by Google in version 6 (not necessarily available in later versions).

We will thus do the 6 tutorials first (you can use the links further down this page), then I will give you some time to experiment and start designing the house of your dreams. You can add ready-made 'components' such as trees, cars, even your own personal helicopter if you wish. Then I will show you how to make a model of a real building in Brussels, using photographs of the building. We will even project those photographs onto the outer surfaces of the model to make it look super-realistic! Finally we will try making something other than buildings - we will make a chair and a lantern. You should be able to see the lantern video here (this may not work at school):

And here is the Chair video:

Here is the same video remade by me with captions so you don't need the sound (7 minutes, 18MB):

Note that Sketchup can usually only make static models - it can't make animated models unless you modify it by adding the SketchyPhysics plugin, for example (see the link at the top pf this page). That's why we will also have a look at the wonderful Blender program which is now available free.

Here are some hints for working well with Sketchup.

1) Learn how to use the middle mouse button (the mouse wheel is also a button) for adjusting your view of the model - avoid using the toolbar to select these three tools.

2) Learn how to use inferencing to make sure your actions are oriented in the right direction. For example, Sketchup will let you know you are moving in the vertical direction by showing a broken blue line rather than a broken black one.

3) When drawing lines or shapes, don't make them cross over existing lines, otherwise they may not connect (intersect) in the way that we normally want them to.

4) Get into the habit of using keyboard shortcuts to select tools, rather than selecting them with your mouse. Most of the common tools have easy-to-guess keyboard shortcuts - to switch to the rectangle tool, for example, just press 'R'. Some shortcuts that are not so easy to guess are:

You may want to try modelling a real building yourself, based on photos that you yourself have taken. The trick here is to model a building that is not too complex.  The first building I made a model of was the Brussels Town Hall on the Grand’ Place – it took me about twenty hours to make this model (including taking photographs of the building) and you probably won’t want to invest that amount of time in your project. Other hints to a successful project would be to choose a building that stands alone (not joined to others), and has all sides of the building clearly visible, so that you can take pictures easily.