Open SketchUp for Schools
Open the Chrome browser and click the Google waffle menu (the 3 × 3 grid of dots in the top-right corner). Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and select SketchUp for Schools. Choose Start modelling and you are in.
Reading the coloured dots
SketchUp constantly tells you exactly where your cursor is about to snap, using small coloured markers called inference points. Learning to read them is the difference between geometry that joins perfectly and a model full of tiny invisible gaps.
Endpoint
Green dot. Your cursor is locked to the exact end of a line or edge.
Midpoint
Cyan dot. You are snapped to the exact middle of an edge. Great for centring.
On Edge
Red square. You are somewhere along a line, but not at a special point.
On Face
Blue diamond. Your cursor is touching a surface, so anything you draw sits on it.
Snap check: where is the cursor about to join?
Look at the coloured marker on the line, then pick what it means.
Score: 0 / 0
Draw flat, then pull
Almost everything in SketchUp starts as a flat 2D shape that gets pulled into 3D. Three tools do most of the work.
Draw a rectangle on the ground
Press R, click once on the ground plane to start, move the mouse, and click again to finish. Do not drag; SketchUp works on click, move, click.
Pull it into a box
Press P for Push/Pull, click the rectangle's face, move the mouse upward, and click to set the height. Your flat shape is now a solid.
Draw on the side of your box
Orbit around so you can see a side face. With Rectangle or Circle, draw directly on that face; watch for the blue On Face diamond so you know the new shape is attached to the surface.
Push/Pull the new shape
Pull it outward to grow a new solid part, or push it inward to carve a hole. Push all the way to the back face and SketchUp cuts straight through.
Type sizes when precision matters
Never click in the Measurements box; it is already listening. Start a rectangle, then just type 140,70 and press Enter for a rectangle exactly 140 mm by 70 mm. Start a Push/Pull, type 90, press Enter, and the pull is exactly 90 mm. This is how designers model to real-world sizes when a project has to be exact.
Switch to metric first
The default architectural template measures in feet and inches, so a typed 140,70 will not mean what you expect. To fix it:
- Open Model Info from the menu on the right side of the screen.
- Under Length Units, change Format to a metric unit, as in the screenshot.
- Turn Length Snapping off, so your cursor stops jumping in fixed steps and you can draw smoothly.
Why you always draw on a flat plane
Your screen is 2D, but the model is 3D. From a single viewpoint you cannot tell how far away your cursor is; a line that looks connected might actually be hanging in space closer to the camera. Drawing on a surface (and watching for the blue On Face diamond) removes the guesswork. Try it below.
Your task: model the mallet
Put it all together and model a woodworker's mallet. Use the photo to understand the object and the technical drawing to guide your proportions. For this task, drawing by eye is fine; you do not need to type exact measurements. What matters is that the finished model looks like a believable mallet from every angle.
| Part | What to draw | Proportion guide (by eye) |
|---|---|---|
| Head footprint | Rectangle on the ground plane | Roughly twice as long as it is wide |
| Head height | Push/Pull the footprint upward | A little taller than the footprint is wide |
| Handle cross-section | Rectangle centred on a large side face (use the cyan midpoint dots to find centre) | Small; about a quarter of the face it sits on |
| Handle length | Push/Pull the small rectangle outward | Around two head-lengths long |
Build checklist
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Push further
Finished the basic mallet? These three refinements take your model from blocky to workshop-real, and take your result into Extending territory.
Shaped handle Extending
On the widest face of the handle, use the Line tool to draw a waisted profile like the photo, thinner in the middle, flared at the grip. Then Push/Pull the waste areas away.
Chamfered corners Extending
On the end face of the head, draw a short line cutting across each corner from edge to edge (watch for the red On Edge squares). Then Push/Pull each corner triangle all the way through the head to slice it off.
Angled striking faces Extending
Real mallet faces lean slightly so they strike square when swung. On the side of the head, draw a diagonal line from the top edge down toward each striking end, then Push/Pull the thin wedge away.
How your mallet will be assessed
Aim for the highest column you can. Every column builds on the one before it.
Developing
Getting started in 3D- Some evidence of 3D object creation, such as a shape drawn on the ground plane and extruded with Push/Pull
- The model does not yet form a completed mallet; parts may be missing, detached or unfinished
- Proportions may be inconsistent, with parts noticeably too large or small relative to each other
- Some navigation of the model, though geometry errors from unchecked viewpoints may remain
Consolidating
A recognisable mallet- A completed 3D object that clearly resembles a mallet, with a head and a simple straight handle
- Handle drawn on a face of the head and extruded, with geometry correctly joined (no floating parts)
- Sensible, believable proportions judged against the reference images
- Inference points used to attach and centre shapes; the model has been orbited and checked from multiple angles
Extending
Workshop realism- All Consolidating requirements met, with convincing proportions throughout
- A shaped handle modelled with a drawn profile, not a plain rectangular bar
- Chamfered corner edges on the head
- Angled faces on the striking surfaces of the head
- Clean, well-organised geometry that holds up under inspection from every camera angle
Quick reference
Painting with materials
A plain white model tells you nothing about what it is made of. SketchUp's Materials tool paints faces with brick, timber, concrete, grass, glass and more, and it works one face at a time, so you decide exactly what goes where.
Try it: paint the cube
Pick a material swatch, then click the faces of the cube, exactly how it works in SketchUp.
Pick a swatch to load your paint bucket.
One face at a time
Notice how the cube in the screenshot has brick on one face and a different material on top? Materials do not wrap around the whole object automatically. Every face is painted individually, which is exactly what you want for a house: brick walls, tiled roof, timber floor.
Raising a studio apartment
Time to build at real scale. A building is just the mallet workflow scaled up: a flat plan, a closed outline, and Push/Pull. You are modelling a small studio apartment, and here, real-world sizes matter.
First: switch your units to metres
Buildings are measured in metres, not millimetres. Open Model Info from the right-side menu, and under Length Units change the Format to Meter. Keep Length Snapping off. If you have forgotten where this lives, it is exactly the same panel you used back in Section 3.
Side note: two ways to draw, and only one takes measurements
Method A — click and drag: hold the left button down, drag the mouse, let go. Quick, but SketchUp finishes the shape the instant you release, so there is no chance to type a size.
Method B — click, move, click: click and release, move the mouse, then click again. Between the two clicks SketchUp is waiting, and that is your window to type an exact measurement and press Enter.
Use Method B whenever a size matters. That is most of the time in this lesson.
Draw the floor
With the Rectangle tool, click once on the ground plane, drag your mouse in the direction you want the floor to extend, then type 5,7 and press Enter. That is a 5 m × 7 m slab, a realistic footprint for a small studio apartment. Check it against the default person figure; it should look snug but liveable.
Outline the walls
Using the Line tool (and Rectangle where it helps), draw the outline of your walls on top of the floor. Real construction dimensions to work to:
| External walls | ~250 mm thick 0.25 |
| Internal walls | ~100 mm thick 0.1 |
| Door openings | 820 mm wide 0.82, ~2 m tall |
The ~ symbol means "approximately"; real walls vary a little, but these are good working numbers.
Every time you click on the floor face to add a wall line, the mouse cursor must show navy blue, the On Face marker. Blue means you are connecting directly to the surface. Anything else and your point is floating above or below the floor, and the outline will never close into a flat shape you can Push/Pull.
Pull the walls up to 2.4 m
Grab the Push/Pull tool, click the wall face (remember, it is all one shape, so one pull raises every wall at once), then type 2.4 and press Enter. The standard ceiling height in Australian houses is 2.4 m. Can you get your walls to exactly this height?
Measure your rooms with the Tape Measure
Press T for the Tape Measure, click one wall, then click the opposite wall to read the distance between them. Check your spaces: a bathroom under 1.5 m across is getting cramped, and a doorway narrower than 0.82 m is a squeeze.
If your apartment feels strange next to the person figure, measure before you rebuild. Often part of the plan was simply drawn too small, and the tape measure proves it in seconds.
Think: it says 2.4, but does it look right?
You typed 2.4 and the walls are precisely 2.4 high... but next to the person figure they look like a doll's house, or a cathedral. What might the matter be?
Check your units. If Model Info is still set to millimetres, your "2.4" is 2.4 mm, thinner than a coin. If someone set it to feet, 2.4 becomes about 73 cm, waist height. The number is only half the measurement; the unit is the other half. Fix the Format in Model Info, then Push/Pull again.
Handy fact: force a snap with the arrow keys
If a line refuses to snap to an axis while you draw, the keyboard can force it: → locks to the red axis, ← locks to the green axis, and ↑ locks to the blue (vertical) axis. Press the key while drawing and the line holds that direction no matter where your mouse wanders.
Cutting windows you can see through
Here is a secret about SketchUp: nothing is solid. Every "solid" object is really a hollow shell of paper-thin faces, like a cardboard box. Your 2.4 m walls are two skins with air between them, so a window is not one hole; it is a matching pair of holes joined through the gap.
Cut a rectangle in only the outer skin and you have a dent, not a window; look through it and you see the back of the inside wall. A real window needs an identical rectangle in both skins, lined up perfectly. Construction lines make that alignment exact.
Draw the window on the inside wall
With the Rectangle tool, draw your window shape on the inner face of a wall, from inside the apartment. Watch for the blue On Face diamond so it sits on the surface.
Push construction lines through the wall
From each corner of the rectangle, draw a line with the Line tool straight through the wall towards the outside. As you draw, the line must light up red or green, which tells you it is locked parallel to the X or Z axis and travelling dead straight, not drifting at an angle.
A line that stays black is wandering off-axis. If it will not lock, hold → for red, ← for green, or ↑ for blue while drawing to force the direction.
Connect the intersection points on the outer wall
Where those four lines pierce the outer face, they leave intersection points. Join them with the Rectangle or Line tool to create the matching window shape on the outside, a perfect mirror of the first.
Clean up
With the Eraser E, remove the leftover pieces of the construction lines, then delete the inner "window" face. You are left with a solid window pane and a neat window frame in the wall.
Glaze it
Open the Materials panel from Section 8, browse to the Glass and Mirrors category, pick a glass, and click your window pane. Glass materials are partially transparent, so orbit inside your house and look out; you should be able to see through it.
Watch the process
Both videos open on YouTube in a new tab.
Furnish it from the 3D Warehouse
An empty apartment is just geometry. The 3D Warehouse is a giant free library of ready-made models: sofas, beds, toilets, kitchen benches, pot plants, all built by other SketchUp users, and you can drop them straight into your model.
Open the 3D Warehouse
It lives in the same right-side menu as Materials, directly above it (you can see it in the first screenshot back in Section 8). Click the icon and a search panel opens.
Search and import
Search for what you need, such as sofa, double bed, toilet or indoor plant, click a result, and choose to load it into your model. The object attaches to your cursor; move it into position and click once to place it.
Simpler models with fewer polygons keep your file fast. If SketchUp starts to lag, choose less detailed furniture.
Check the scale (usually you won't need to)
Most Warehouse objects are already modelled at real-world size, and because your apartment is built to a realistic scale, they should fit straight in. If something does arrive comically large or small, select it and press S for the Scale tool, then drag only the corner handles; corners resize evenly in every direction, keeping the correct proportions. The handles along the edges stretch one direction only and will distort the object.
Fill your studio
Furnish the whole apartment: living and sleeping furniture, bathroom fixtures, a kitchen, and some plants to make it feel lived-in. Orbit inside at person height and ask: could someone actually live here?
Lesson checklist
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The Class Hotel
There is a reason every studio in this class is being built to exactly the same footprint. Once everyone has finished, all of the rooms get combined into a single model: one long hotel corridor with your room and your classmates' rooms opening off it. That only works if every room is 5 m × 7 m, with the door in the same place on every single one. Your studio must conform to the sizes specified earlier in this sequence.
The door faces the hall
Rooms sit shoulder to shoulder down both sides of the corridor, so the only wall that touches the hallway is a 5 m one. Put your door on either 5 m wall and it will line up with everyone else's.
The 7 m sides are party walls
Those long walls get pressed straight up against your neighbours' rooms. A window there would look directly into somebody else's bedroom, and once the rooms are merged it would just open onto solid geometry.
Openings, not doors
Model the gap and the lintel above it, then stop. Leaving the openings empty means visitors can walk straight through every room without a single door swinging into their face.
| Element | Required size | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Room footprint | 5 m × 7 m | Measure it again with the Tape Measure before you submit |
| Wall height | 2.4 m | Check it against the person figure |
| Doorway width | 0.82 m | On a 5 m wall, not a 7 m one |
| Doorway height | 2 m | Measured from the floor up |
| Lintel above the opening | 0.4 m | Fills the wall from 2 m up to 2.4 m |
| Ceiling | none | Leave the room open at the top |
Why no ceiling?
With the tops left open we can float the camera above the finished hotel and look down into every room at once, and daylight reaches the floor instead of leaving the interiors pitch black. A ceiling would also hide all of your hard work the moment the rooms are joined together.
Then you get to walk through it
Once the hotel is assembled you will be able to navigate the corridor and explore every room in the class, comparing your materials, furniture and layout choices against everyone else's. And if you are really lucky, you might even get a chance to use the Meta Quest 3 headset and explore the space virtually, at full size, from the inside.
Bonus customisation
Every room in the hotel will have the same shell, so this is how visitors know whose room they have walked into. Choose one, or attempt both.
Your name in 3D BONUS
Model your name above your doorway as real 3D geometry. Draw or import the letters flat on the wall, then Push/Pull them out so they stand proud of the surface and catch the light, like a proper hotel room sign.
A framed portrait BONUS
Import a photo of yourself, place it on a rectangle in the living area of your room, and build a thin frame around it with Push/Pull. Hang it at eye height so it reads as a genuine work of art on the wall.
Class Hotel checklist
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Extension: model a real house
Ready for the real thing? Architects trace real floorplans, and so can you. You will find an actual house for sale, import its floorplan, scale it to true size and model it using everything from this lesson.
Find a house with a floorplan
Go to a real estate website such as realestate.com.au or domain.com.au and find a listing that includes a floorplan. Make sure the floorplan shows a scale or at least one room measurement; you will need a known real-world size later to scale the image correctly in SketchUp.
Save your reference images
Save images of the house and its floorplan into a folder within your Digital Technology folder, so everything for this project lives in one place.
Import the floorplan into SketchUp
Drag the floorplan image straight into your SketchUp window and choose the option to import it "As Image". You can then place the image flat on the ground, where it becomes a plane you can draw on top of.
Scale it to real-world size
Use the Tape Measure to check a distance you know, such as the room measurement printed on the plan. It will not match at first, so resize the image and measure, resize, and measure again until the known room reads its true real-world size. Only then is the plan safe to trace.
Skip this and everything you build inherits the wrong scale; your 3D Warehouse furniture will arrive looking like doll's house pieces or monsters.
Trace and build
With the Line tool, trace the walls of the floorplan, then follow the whole process from this learning sequence: pull the walls to 2.4 m, cut the doorways and a couple of the windows until the real-world house has been modelled. Don't worry about painting and furnishing, as you have already shown those skills in your studio apartment / hotel room.
Part A: the SketchUp model
The ultimate goal: a fully furnished studio apartment at correct scale, with materials on the walls, see-through windows, door lintels, no leftover construction lines, and a model that looks neat, tidy and realistic from every angle.
Developing
The structure takes shape- A floor plan drawn and walls extruded with Push/Pull, though the layout may be incomplete
- Scale may be unrealistic; walls, doorways or rooms noticeably too large or small next to the person figure
- Few or no materials applied; windows may be missing or cut through only one skin of the wall
- Leftover construction lines or stray geometry remain in the model
Consolidating
A liveable apartment- A complete studio apartment at realistic scale: 2.4 m walls, sensible wall thicknesses and 0.82 m doorways
- At least one window cut cleanly through both wall skins with glass material applied
- Materials applied to the walls and floor
- Minimal furniture placed from the 3D Warehouse at the correct scale; a full unit of furniture (living, sleeping, bathroom and kitchen) lifts this to a high Consolidating
- Mostly tidy geometry, with only minor stray lines remaining
Extending
Neat, tidy, realistic- All Consolidating requirements met, with the apartment fully furnished including bathroom fixtures and plants
- Door lintels modelled above every doorway, so openings finish at ~2 m
- No remaining construction lines or stray geometry anywhere in the model
- Consistent, well-chosen materials throughout, and windows you can genuinely see through
- The whole model reads as neat, tidy and realistic from every camera angle, inside and out
- Completing the Section 13 extension, a real house traced from a scaled floorplan and fully modelled, lifts this to a high Extending
Part B: house sale brochure
Every build needs a buyer. Using PowerPoint, Canva or another suitable program, create a house sale brochure for your property. Include images of your build, the floorplan (if you have one), and a written description about the house. This component is assessed on the content you include and the amount of formatting you apply.
Developing
A start on the sale- A brochure document has been started in a suitable program
- Contains some content, such as an image of the build or a brief description, but not both
- Little to no formatting applied; mostly default fonts, colours and layout
Consolidating
On the market- Includes images of the build and a written description of the house
- Description covers the key features a buyer would want to know, such as rooms, layout and standout details
- Deliberate formatting applied: headings, arranged images, and chosen fonts or colours
Extending
Ready to sell- Rich content: multiple well-chosen images of the build from inside and out, the floorplan where available, and an engaging real-estate-style description
- Extensive, consistent formatting: a designed layout with aligned images, considered fonts and a cohesive colour scheme
- The finished brochure could pass for a genuine sale listing
Part C: research component
A designer should be able to explain the tools they used. Add an additional page or section to your brochure that answers the questions below about working in 3D. Answer them in your own words, not copied and pasted. The core questions can be answered from what you have done in this sequence, and answering all of them correctly places you at Consolidating. The research questions cannot; they require you to go and find things out, and they are what lifts this component to Extending.
Core questions Consolidating
Short, correct answers. A sentence or two each is plenty.
- What do the red, green and blue axes represent in SketchUp, and why does the software need three of them?
- Why must you draw a flat, closed shape before the Push/Pull tool will do anything?
- What does Push/Pull actually do to a face, in your own words?
- Why does a model need to be built at real-world scale rather than "about right"? Give one thing that goes wrong when it is not.
- What is the 3D Warehouse, and why should you check the scale of anything you import from it?
- Why do designers work in 3D at all, instead of just drawing a building in 2D? Give two advantages.
- Name three jobs or industries that use 3D modelling, and say what each one models.
Research questions Extending
These need investigating beyond the lesson. Cite where you found your information.
- Compare SketchUp with two other 3D programs, such as Blender, Fusion 360, Revit or Maya. What was each one designed for, and which would a practising architect most likely use?
- Explain the difference between polygon (mesh) modelling and parametric (CAD) modelling. Which category does SketchUp fall into, and what is the trade-off?
- What is BIM (Building Information Modelling), and how is it different from simply having a 3D model of a building?
- If you wanted to 3D print your model, what would have to happen to the file first? Name at least two 3D file formats and explain what "watertight geometry" means.
- What is rendering, and how does a rendered image differ from what you see in the SketchUp viewport? Name one rendering engine and describe what it adds.
- Find a real building or product that was designed using 3D software. Who designed it, what software was used, and what did modelling it in 3D let them do that drawings alone would not?
- How is 3D modelling being used in virtual reality, and what has to change about a model before it can run smoothly in a headset such as the Meta Quest 3?
Reference your sources
Any answer built on research needs to say where the information came from. List your sources at the end of the research section using Harvard referencing, the same way you have done previously. Answers that make claims with no source behind them cannot be counted as research.
Developing
First answers- A research page or section exists in the brochure, but is incomplete
- Only some of the core questions attempted, or several answered incorrectly
- Answers are very brief, one-word, or copied and pasted from a website
- No sources listed
Consolidating
Every core question answered- All seven core questions answered correctly and in the student's own words
- Answers written in full sentences and use the correct tool and axis names from the sequence
- A reader who has never opened SketchUp could follow the explanations
- The research section is a clear, labelled part of the brochure rather than loose notes
- Attempting some research questions, even partially, lifts this to a high Consolidating
Extending
Genuine research- All core questions met, plus the research questions answered with real depth
- Clear evidence of going beyond the lesson: named software, file formats, industry terms and real examples that were never taught in class
- Technical vocabulary used accurately, with comparisons and reasoning rather than lists of facts
- Sources listed correctly using Harvard referencing, and drawn from more than one place
- The research section is designed to match the rest of the brochure, not pasted in as a wall of text