Google SketchUp For Dummies

Aidan Chopra has always had a thing for computers - his parents thoughtfully sent him to Apple camp instead of hockey lessons like every other eight-year-old in Montreal - but he learned to draft and build physical models the old-fashioned way, working for his architect father. These days, Aidan is a Product Evangelist at Google, where he's been since that company bought SketchUp in the first part of 2006. In the three years since he graduated with a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University, he's done a lot of writing and lecturing about the way software is used in design. Aidan writes the SketchUpdate, a monthly e-mail newsletter that reaches a half million SketchUp users worldwide. He has taught architecture at the university level and, at Google, works on ways to mediate between power and usability; he believes the best software in the world isn't worth a darn if nobody can figure out how it works. Aidan is based in Boulder, Colorado, even though he is what many would consider to be the diametric opposite of a world-class endurance athlete.

Introduction. Part I: Getting Started with SketchUp. Chapter 1: Meeting Google SketchUp. Chapter 2: Establishing the Modeling Mind-set. Chapter 3: Getting Off to a Running Start. Part II: Modeling in SketchUp. Chapter 4: Building Buildings. Chapter 5: Keeping Your Model Organized. Chapter 6: Going Beyond Buildings. Chapter 7: Modeling with Photographs. Part III: Viewing Your Model in Different Ways. Chapter 8: Changing Your Model's Appearance with Styles. Chapter 9: Working with Light and Shadow. Chapter 10: Presenting Your Model Inside SketchUp. Part IV: Sharing What You've Made. Chapter 11: Working with Google Earth and the 3D Warehouse. Chapter 12: Printing Your Work. Chapter 13: Exporting Images and Animations. Chapter 14: Exporting to CAD, Illustration, and Other Modeling Software. Chapter 15: Creating Presentation Documents with LayOut. Part V: The Part of Tens. Chapter 16: Ten SketchUp Traps and Their Work-arounds. Chapter 17: Ten Plugins, Extensions, and Resources Worth Getting. Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Discover Even More. Index.