Tools Tour

This chapter covered several tools from the Large Tool Set (Figure 2-26). Here's a quick review of the tools, their keyboard shortcuts, and some related tips:

• Select (space bar). The cursor changes to an arrow, and you click objects to select them. Shift-click to select more than one object or to deselect an object.

• Eraser (E). The cursor changes to an eraser. Click directly on objects you want to erase. If you're already using another tool, you can always erase an object by right-clicking and choosing Erase from the shortcut menu. You can also select a line and then press Delete.

  

  Figure 2-25. The lines in the two rectangles shown here have both thick profile lines and thin shared edges. It may not be a big deal for 2-D Skeeter, but the difference is major when you create 3-D objects, as you'll see in the next chapter.

• Rectangle (R). The cursor changes to a pencil with a small square. You can create a rectangle by clicking two points, or you can click once and enter dimensions in the Measurements toolbar.

• Line (L). The cursor changes to a pencil. You set the two endpoints for a line by clicking, moving the cursor, and clicking again. You can create lines of a specific length by entering a distance in the Measurements toolbar.

• Circle (C). The cursor changes to a pencil and a circle. Click once to set the center of the circle, and click again to set the radius. You can also set the radius using the Measurements toolbar.

• Arc (A). The cursor changes to a pencil with an arc. Click to set each endpoint for the arc, and then click a third time to set the radius. You can set the radius using the Measurements toolbar.

• Polygon. The cursor changes to a pencil and a polygon. Click to set the center point; click again to set the radius. Enter a number and the letter s to set the number of sides for the polygon. For example, 6s creates a hexagon. You can also set the radius using the Measurements toolbar.

• Freehand. The cursor changes to a pencil. Drag to create freehand lines. Freehand lines move as a single shape as long as they aren't bisected by other lines.

• Move (M). The cursor changes to a cross with four arrowheads. Click an object to pick it up. Move the object to a new position, and click again to set it down. You can preselect one or more objects with the Select tool and then move them together. The only object that you can't preselect is a point.

• Pan (H; think hand). Changes the camera view as if the camera were pivoting on a tripod. With a three-button mouse, hold down the Shift key, and then drag with the middle mouse button.

  

  Figure 2-26. Working in two dimensions, you use several of the tools in the Large Tool Set palette. Icons give you pretty good hints at the purpose of the tool. When in doubt, hold the cursor over the tool, and its name appears along with the keyboard shortcut if there is one.

The Large Tool Set (Figure 2-27) has several handy view tools:

• Orbit (O). Moves the camera view as if it were moving about in 3-D space to view the scene from different angles. On a three-button mouse, you can press the middle button or scroll wheel to use the Orbit tool.

• Zoom (Z). Shows you more or less of a scene, like the zoom lens on a camera. On a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can use the wheel to zoom in and zoom out.

• Zoom Extents (Shift+Z). Great tool if you're lost. Zoom Extents brings every object in your model back into view.

• Zoom Window. Drag to create a marquee in the drawing area, and SketchUp zooms to show the area within the marquee.

• Previous. Use this button to toggle back and forth between the most recent views.

Tip

The Undo key doesn't affect the view. If you want to go back to a recent view, you have to use the View Previous tool.

Figure 2-27. You can choose the view tools from the Large Tool Set, by using keyboard shortcuts, or with the help of a three-button mouse.