Solid Tools - Google SketchUp 8

Learn about Solid Tools in Google SketchUp 8.

With the SketchUp Intersect Faces tool, you can achieve many of the same things that the Solid Tools do. Intersect Faces takes longer because it requires an awful lot of cleanup; however, it’s still useful for two very important reasons: It’s available in both the free and Pro versions of SketchUp, and it works on any face in your model — not just on solids.




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You might find the easiest way to use the Solid Tools is to preselect the solids you want to use and then choose the tool to carry out the operation. The glaring exceptions to this rule are the Subtract and Trim tools; both of these depend heavily on the order in which you pick your solids. Take a peek at the table for more specifics.



Two things you need to know before you start using the Solid Tools:

Open the dedicated toolbar. Choose View→Toolbars→Solid Tools to open the toolbar that contains all six tools. You can also find them on the Tools menu. Keep in mind that five of them — all but the Outer Shell tool — are available only if you have SketchUp Pro 8 or later.

To use the Solid Tools, preselect — or don’t. Pick the tool you want to use either before or after you’ve told SketchUp which solid objects you want to affect. Like most “order of operations” issues (are you listening, Follow Me tool?), this can be confusing for some folks.

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