Boxes (We've got all sizes!)

We are now going to look at different methods of creating a 3 dimensional box.

For the first method we will use the pencil tool. We will also use the inference lines that SketchUp displays to help us draw a proper rectangular box.

Exercise:

1. Click the 'Pencil' tool and click on a point on your screen.

Important: Inference lines - Now before you click on another point and create a line, move your mouse around. You will notice that as you move your mouse, different colored lines appear. As you move your mouse along a parallel line to any of the 3 axes, a line that is colored the same as the axis is drawn between your first point and the mouse. So when you are parallel to the x-axis you will see a red line, green line when you are parallel to the y-axis and a blue line when you are parallel to the z-axis.

2. We will create a rectangle that is parallel to the 3 axis, so move your mouse till it is either red, green or blue. Move it some distance from the first point and click again to form a line.

3. Now move your mouse along one of the other axes.

4. Move it back along the earlier axis. Notice again as you move along the earlier axis, you will see an inference line drawn as a dashed line starting from the first point. This indicates that you are exactly perpendicular to that point. Stopping your line at that point will create a perfect rectangle or square depending on the length of the first two lines you created.

The animation below shows you how this rectangle is drawn with the help of inference lines.

Notice how the blue line appears while drawing the 3rd line of the rectangle. If we had clicked anywhere on that blue line, that point would be below the other 3 points. Therefore, SketchUp would have been unable to create a surface from the 4 points.

Back to the exercise

• Make sure you have the 'Pencil' tool selected. Now move in the z axis (blue axis) direction. Move the mouse along the blue line and click to create an edge.
• Create other edges using the inference lines above 4 points of the first rectangle.
• Join the top edges by creating edges between them. Click the 'Pencil' tool on one point and then click the 2nd existing point to create an edge between two existing points.

As you create all the lines you will notice the surfaces automatically appear as they are enclosed by 4 edges.

You should now have something like this:

2nd Method

Now we will create the same box, using the 'Rectangle' and the 'Push/Pull' tool.

Exercise:

Click on the 'Rectangle' tool. Click and drag to create the rectangle.

Now click on the 'Push/Pull' tool. Click on the surface (the gray area) and move the mouse up and down to lift or lower the surface.

Play around with the 'Push/Pull' tool. It can be used with any flat surface to give it a 3rd dimension. If you use the tool on existing 3 dimensional surfaces, the 'Push/Pull' tool resizes them.