SketchUp for Interior Design

Chapter 1

What Is SketchUp and How Do Interior Designers Use It?

Objective: This chapter discusses what modeling is, what SketchUp is, and how it’s used by interior designers.

Concepts and Functions: SketchUp Make, SketchUp Pro, model, solid/surface/wire/polygonal model, polygon, geometry, vector, raster, BIM, attributes, dynamic component, reports, solid modeling tools

What Is SketchUp?

SketchUp is a polygonal surface modeling program (Figure 1-1). Polygonal means that everything SketchUp creates is made out of polygons (flat shapes bordered by straight lines). Surface means that everything it makes is hollow. Modeling means that it makes models, which are three-dimensional (3D) digital drawings composed of lines and faces (planes). Collectively, those lines and faces are called geometry.

Figure 1-1: All SketchUp models, including circles, are made of polygons and are hollow.

SketchUp is also a vector program, meaning it creates vector files with an skp extension. A vector file is a collection of lines and curves that scale up or down without loss of quality. Examples are pdfs (Adobe documents) and dwgs (AutoCAD documents). This is as opposed to a raster file, which is made with individual pixels and loses resolution quality when enlarged. Examples are jpgs and gifs.

SketchUp is strictly a desktop application, not a Web-based one. It works on both the PC and the Mac. Files ...