A complete SketchUp reference built around how the software is actually used: model fast at concept stage, organise the model so it stays workable, present it, then produce scaled drawings through LayOut.

The opening chapters place SketchUp honestly — strong at quick massing and interior or landscape visuals, possible for scaled 2D drawings through LayOut, limited where models must carry data for quantity take-off, and the wrong tool for multi-discipline technical documentation — then cover the editions (Pro, Studio, Go, Free), the file types (.skp, .skb, .rbz, .dwg, .ifc), what ships alongside it (LayOut, 3D Warehouse, Extension Warehouse, Trimble Connect) and the fact that models downloaded from the shared library are often far heavier than they look. Installation, licensing, system requirements on Windows and macOS, and setting display precision follow, including why Enable length snapping causes dimensions to end up a few tenths out.

The interface chapter covers the toolbars, the drawing area with its three axes and scale figure, the default tray, and the Measurements box — the single feature that separates a casual user from a professional, because you perform the action then type the figure. It explains reading the red, green and blue axis colours while drawing, locking an axis with Shift or the arrow keys, and the navigation tools with Shift+Z as the cure for being lost in a model.

Modelling principles get their own chapter because everything later depends on them: SketchUp geometry is edges and faces only, a box is six faces rather than a solid; front faces and back faces, how to spot reversed faces with the monochrome style and fix them with Reverse Faces and Orient Faces; the inference markers and how to borrow a point from distant geometry; and the rule that cannot be skipped — groups and components, why two touching boxes weld together, when to use a group versus a component, and why an ungrouped model becomes unworkable at a few thousand faces with no way back.

The drawing and editing tools chapter tabulates the toolset with its factory shortcuts and covers drawing accurately with Line and Rectangle by pointing then typing a figure, segment counts on circles, Push/Pull, Move, Rotate and Scale, Offset and Follow Me, and cutting solids with Intersect Faces and the Solid Tools.

Materials, tags and organisation covers the Paint Bucket, editing textures and setting material sizes to real scale, how SketchUp tags differ from AutoCAD layers, the Outliner tree of groups and components, gluing components and components that cut openings, Purge Unused before sending a file, and naming conventions for groups, components and tags.

Scenes, styles and section planes covers creating scenes, which properties a scene stores, styles for edges and backgrounds, shadows and sun studies by date and time, fog and two-point perspective for presentation, using section planes for plans and sections, and a standard set of scenes for an architectural model.

Modelling a building from start to finish walks the whole job: setting up before modelling starts, importing a CAD plan as an underlay, building walls from that plan, cutting door and window openings, floors and roofs, stairs and stacking storeys with Move plus Ctrl, and terrain with Sandbox together with how to check the model afterwards.

Extensions and the model warehouse covers what an extension is and how to install one, why SketchUp leans so heavily on extensions, the families of extension by task, the risks that come with them, working with the shared model warehouse, and keeping an in-house component library. Heavy models, optimisation and troubleshooting covers why a file becomes heavy and slow, measuring how heavy a model is, slimming it down, repairing broken geometry, cleaning a CAD drawing before import, the common faults and their fixes, and backing up and recovering a file.

LayOut gets a full chapter: what LayOut is, preparing scenes before taking the model across, inserting the model, setting the drawing scale, Line Scale for controlling printed line weight, dimensioning, title blocks and templates, updating drawings after the model changes, exporting to PDF and DWG, and what to do when LayOut runs slowly. The final chapter covers export and data exchange — the formats SketchUp can read and write, importing CAD without unit errors, exporting to DWG, exporting IFC to BIM software, high-resolution images, animation from a series of scenes, SketchUp licensing and the terms attached to downloaded models, and handing a job over to the client.

Appendices give the shortcut tables for drawing, editing, navigation and display, how to assign your own shortcuts, and a Vietnamese–English glossary of SketchUp and 3D modelling terms covering basic geometry, modelling tools and model organisation, scenes, display and sections, and materials, files and LayOut.

Written bilingual Vietnamese–English side by side, so you can follow in your own language while still matching the exact English names SketchUp prints on screen. Version 1.0, September 2026.