Google SketchUp Cookbook

Chapter 12. Displaying Your Model

You know the basics of changing the way your model is displayed: You routinely change the face display from Shaded to Hidden Line to X-Ray, as well as turn off edges and profiles when appropriate. You may not know that you can control even more display aspects, such as default face colors, backgrounds, watermarks, and edge styles. Showing your model in a variety of styles enables you to tailor your model display to your personal taste. And, if you work for a company, you can establish your own standard styles for presenting designs to clients and colleagues.

In this chapter, you will learn how to change, create, and save your own styles, combine features of various styles to create new styles, produce attractive watermarks, use sketchy edges, and use styles as part of an animation.

12.1. Hiding and Softening Edges

Problem

You want to remove some edges from the model display.

Solution

Use the Eraser tool or the Soften/Smooth Edges window to hide or soften edges.

Discussion

Hiding all edges in your model is easy (deselect Display Edges and Profiles in the Edge page of the Styles window); but what if you want to remove the display of only certain edges in your model? There are two ways to “blank” selected edges: hiding and softening. Hiding edges simply removes them from the display, while softening smoothes the corner where the edge was, resulting in a single face.

Consider a polygon pulled into a cylinder-like shape. To hide its vertical edges, you can use ...