GEOG 497
3D Modeling and Virtual Reality

3.3 SketchUp: Essential Training

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3.3 SketchUp: Essential Training

Introduction

As a Penn State student, you have access to a catalog of free self-paced courses on a huge variety of both technical and non-technical topics. These courses are high-quality video-based courses presented by professionals. One of those topics happens to be SketchUp, which you will be using in this lesson. Instead of recreating the training for you here, you will need to access the SketchUp Essentials training through Lynda.com via Penn State's subscription.

We strongly encourage you to not simply watch the videos but to practice what you learn immediately as you go through the exercises. To foster practicing, there are several tasks to be solved based on what you will learn in the Lynda course. You will not be using the exercise files provided in Lynda. The data, models that you will need to create the deliverables for the tasks can be downloaded here:

Download Lesson 3 Assignment File now!

The Lynda course offers an introduction to SketchUp for both, Windows and Macintosh systems. Our team primarily uses Windows but we will try to answer questions for Mac users, too (if possible). Read through the tips and the tasks and deliverables below before starting the course. They will make more sense after you get into the course and start learning. Once you begin the Lynda course, go through it at your own pace.

Accessing the SketchUp Course

To access the SketchUp click the link below to access the full course on the Penn State Lynda website. If you aren't logged into a Penn State service like LionPATH, email or Canvas, you may need to log in using your Penn State Access Account user id and password (i.e. abc123). Once you arrive at the course, bookmark the page using your preferred browser to make it easier to return quickly. The course takes over 3 hours to complete but is broken into sections to make it easier to choose a resting point.

SketchUp 2020 Essential Training by Tammy Cody

(You have subscription for courses on Linkedin Learning through Penn State)

Some tips before you get started

  • Make your own template and adjust program settings to your liking.
  • As always, save early and often.
  • Group faces.
  • Use components for repeating objects.
  • Model as precisely as possible.
  • Keep the polygon count low.
  • Use proxy components if needed.
  • Don't use textures that are too large.