Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Surface Orientation and Surface Colors

You may have noticed in your Push/Pull adventures that SketchUp faces have two colors. One side is white (if you want to be technical, it's actually off-white). The other side is blue. But these shades aren't just eye candy. SketchUp uses this color system to designate the inside and the outside of objects.

This section continues from the earlier exercises. If you'd prefer, you can download the SketchUp file surface_orientation.skp from the Missing CD page (www.missingmanuals.com/cds).

To get a better view of this topic, you'll lift the lid off that box with the circle on the front. Then you'll use the Push/Pull tool to see how SketchUp determines the inside and outside colors for models. Sometimes SketchUp's view of your model may not coincide with your plans. In those instances you can use a few tricks to change the surface orientation.

Other times when you use the Push/Pull tool, the surface colors can get a little confused. Follow these steps and you'll see how that happens:

1. Start with a box with a circle drawn on its face.

   Make your own box and circle or use surface_orientation.skp.

2. With the Select tool, right-click the top, and then choose Erase from the pop-up menu.

   After popping the top, you see the outside of the box is white and the inside is blue, as shown in Figure 3-16.

   

   Figure 3-16. SketchUp uses color to designate the inside and outside ...