# Friday SketchUp Tips



## SketchUp Guru (17 Mar 2006)

I siad I was full of it. The pressure is building and I have to let some of it out. 

Here are seven tips intended to keep your models clean and easy to edit. Some of these are aimed at helping you control file size and prevent bogging down your computer. If anyone wants clarification feel free to ask.

1. Group early and group often. New geometry won't stick to a group and you can edit the group without affecting its surroundings.

2. Use components if you can. Components are a special type of group. If you will have multiples of an entity, i.e. cabinet doors, table legs, columns, case sides, etc., draw one, make it a component, then copy it as needed. Copies can be mirrored if needed. They will still retain their relation to the other components. SU only needs to keep track of the geometry for one instance of a component so this helps keep file size down. Also, when you edit one instance of a component, all other instances get the same editing.

3. Use layers to organize your drawings. Do all your drawing on Layer 0 and then move entities to other layers. For example draw the doors then put them on a door layer, dimensions can be put on a dimension layer and so on. Turn off layers that you don't need to see while you're working. 

Using layers to organize your drawing is also helpful lwhen it comes time to create drawings for the shop. You can print drawings of only the parts you want. For example you might turn off all layers except the legs for a table. Then you can print that as a working drawing.

4. Don't apply textures until the end or at least don't display the textures while you're drawing. Textures load up the video card RAM and can slow down the frame rate making it slow to orbit or zoom in the model.

5. Leave shadows turned off except for display purposes. Shadows also load up the video card RAM and slow down the display.

6. Eliminate faces and line segments that won't show. For example if you aren't going to look at the top end of a table leg, delete the face. Removing unneeded faces and segments will help to reduce file size.

7. Reduce the number of segments for circles and arcs if possible. In the example, below, the chunk of molding on the left has 114 entities (segments and faces) while the one on the right only has 66 entities. The arcs in the left hand piece use the default 12 segments while the arcs on the right only have 6 segments each. Unless you closely at the end of the moldings, you can't tell the difference between the two.


----------



## Nick W (17 Mar 2006)

OOh, Dave, is this going to be a regular column? :wink:


----------



## SketchUp Guru (17 Mar 2006)

Nick, I don't know if it will be a regular column. I'm probably not smart enough to come up with tips every Friday and I'm not all that regular.  If I don't get booed off the stage, maybe I can manage something on a weekly basis.


----------



## Newbie_Neil (17 Mar 2006)

Hi Dave

Another excellent set of tips.

Cheers
Neil


----------



## Jake (17 Mar 2006)

Good stuff Dave - I haven't explored layers yet at all, or even thought of doing so - but will do so now.


----------



## mahking51 (17 Mar 2006)

Dave R
Excellent stuff for a SU newbie; I am finding the program increasingly intuitive as I do more but still a long way to go.
I am copying and pasting this into a OneNote doc as you add more and will make the whole (26part megawork :wink: ) series available as a pdf if people need it, if that is OK by you?
Regards
Martin


----------



## Knot Competent (17 Mar 2006)

Thanks Dave. This sort of thing will give me confidence to explore the boundaries of my knowledge.

I too haven't dared to try different layers yet, but will do now.

Regards, John


----------



## SketchUp Guru (17 Mar 2006)

Thanks all.

Martin, I think it would be great if you want to make a PDF of my ramblings. I hope it doesn't turn into a megawork. Nobody will want to read it then.

John, give those layers a go. Let me know if you have questions.

Dave


----------

