Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Chapter 13. Importing, Exporting, and Printing

You’ll find many reasons to import files from other programs into SketchUp. For example, you’ve already learned how to use files containing two-dimensional images for textures (Applying an Image to a Model) and photo matching (Importing a Photo for Photo Match). This chapter details the different types of two-dimensional and three-dimensional files that you can import into SketchUp.

Note

This chapter focuses on the techniques for importing files. Other chapters go into much more detail about what to do with the files once they’re in SketchUp.

The flip side of importing is exporting. You can create new files by exporting your 3-D model or 2-D image out of SketchUp, and you’ll have plenty of occasions to do so. You may want to place your model on the map in Google Earth. Or you may want to create a 2-D image to paste into a document or to email to a colleague. And if you have SketchUp Pro, you can even export a model so someone else can open it in AutoCAD or another 3-D design program.

Printing images from SketchUp is basically just another form of exporting. It just happens that the end product is a printed page instead of a computer file. This chapter explains how to print from SketchUp. (For details on using SketchUp Pro’s Layout program, see Workflow for a LayOut Project.)

Importing 3-D Models

Importing 3-D models into SketchUp isn’t all that difficult. The import/export business gets dicey in only a couple of places. For example, when ...