With SketchUp’s Solid tools, you can create new shapes by combining or cutting one shape with another, making it easy to model an outer shell or joinery.
Once you have finished your sketch, use the cursor to close the net. Check if you have drawn the correct image and take time to rotate and explore the changes between the net and 3D shape. Also experiment with changing the length, height and base of each shape - some 3D objects may look different to each other but are really the same shape! Interface vastly improved over early versions. Great for video games and animation.
The resulting shape for this animation tutorial is not a perfect cube, but it is good enough to demonstrate how to create a 3D rotation animation. Part #2: Animate your shape The basic principle of the animation here is a flipbook, or stop motion effect. Create fluid camera swoops while keeping your animation workflow simple and intuitive. Make it come alive and take your viewers along for the journey with industry-leading, intuitive 3D animation software. With efficient design, tweening, and puppeting tools, it has never been easier to make your animation stand out.
In SketchUp, a solid is any 3D model (component or group) that has a finite closed volume. A SketchUp solid cannot have any leaks (missing faces or faces that do not meet at an edge). The following image contains several solids.
Check out the following table for a quick introduction to the Solid Tools, including what the tool does and whether it’s available in SketchUp Free.
| Tool | Name | What It Does | Included in SketchUp Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outer Shell | Leaves only the outer faces of overlapping solids. | Yes | |
| Union | Combines two or more solids into a single form. | Paid subscriptions only | |
| Subtract | One solid removes part of another and is deleted. | Paid subscriptions only. In SketchUp Free, use Intersect with Model. | |
| Trim | One solid trims another but remains in the model. | Paid subscriptions only | |
| Intersect | Leaves only the intersecting geometry. | Paid subscriptions only | |
| Split | Splits solids along intersecting geometry. | Paid subscriptions only |
To find the Solid Tools, look in the following parts of the SketchUp interface:
- Solids toolbar
- Tools menu (Select Tools > Outer Shell or Select Tools > Solid Tools and select the other tools from a submenu)
- Tool palette (macOS)
- Solids toolbar in the left-hand tray
- Solid Inspector utility in the right-hand panel
In the following video, you see examples of the Solid tools in action. In the following sections of this article, you will find steps and details about using each tool. (Note, however, that you can't place SketchUp models in Google Earth anymore.)
Table of Contents
- Select the Intersect tool ().Tip: Until you hover over a solid group or component, you see an arrow cursor with a circle and a slash (). When your cursor hovers over a solid group or component, the red circle and slash change to a black 1 inside a circle, and you see a Solid Group or Solid Component ScreenTip.
- Select a solid entity that you want to use in the intersection.
- Select one or more additional solids that overlap your initial selection. The resulting intersecting geometry remains. In this example, the intersection of the box and the sphere (Callout 1) creates a point with a rounded base (Callout 2).