Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Drawing Rectangles and Arcs

If you're like most SketchUp artists, you'll be drawing lots of rectangles. Some may stay rectangles, while you might slice and dice others into more complex shapes. It's easy enough to create a rectangle. You can simply click-move-click to set two points in the drawing area, or you can click to set a corner and then type in specific dimensions. Drawing arcs is a three-click process in SketchUp. You click twice to set the endpoints of a line, and your third click sets the curve of the arc. The Arc tool even snaps to a point to create perfect half circles.

You'll see rectangles and arcs in action as you create Skeeter's shirt and mouth.

1. Choose the Rectangle tool, and then draw a rectangle in the lower portion of the drawing area.

   As you size your rectangle, you may notice that the Rectangle tool snaps to either of two shapes—the square or the golden section—usually known as the golden rectangle.

   Note

   Architect's Glossary: Architects and artists have called the golden rectangle the "divine proportion" for centuries. The proportion is roughly 1:1.618. This proportion is the "golden ratio" symbolized in math by the Greek letter phi. If you remove a square from a golden rectangle, the remainder forms another golden rectangle.

   The Parthenon in Ancient Greece is an early example of the golden section used in architecture. Centuries later, Leonardo da Vinci was another big fan.

2. Adjust the size of the rectangle by typing two numbers separated by a comma, as in 28', 16' ...