How to Copy in SketchUp
Are you wondering how to copy in SketchUp? Or how to copy and paste in SketchUp? Or how to copy scenes in SketchUp? Copying and pasting objects, scenes and components is a fundamental SketchUp skill and capability, and we’re going to show you exactly how to do it in this article. By the end of it you’ll know how to move objects whether you intend to rotate them, copy them or do something else creative with them.
How to Copy and Paste in SketchUp
The first thing to know is that the process of copying and pasting in SketchUp is much the same as it is in many other programs. The standard CTRL+C and CTRL+V keypress combinations work perfectly, which means your learning curve isn’t going to be that steep. And the select tool is an arrow, exactly as you’d expect.
The Select tool specifies the items you want to change using other SketchUp tools and commands. You’ll find it via the Getting Started toolbar, the Large Tool Set toolbar, the Principal toolbar in MS Windows / Tool Palette in macOS, and also via the Tools menu.
How to copy multiple objects in SketchUp? Using the Select tool, select an object you want to copy or select multiple objects. To change a line’s length, for example, you need to select the line. Scaling a box involves selecting the box. You can also select a group of objects to change at the same time, creating a ‘selection set’. To select more than one thing, simply hold down the Shift key and click all the items you want to select.
Choose Edit > Copy from the menu or use a shortcut – either Ctrl+C for Windows or Command+C for a Mac. Next choose Edit > Paste from the menu bar, Ctrl+V for Windows or Command+V for a Mac – and you’ll see the cursor change into a Move tool. The SketchUp components you’ve copied float around as you move the mouse. To place SketchUp objects, simply click where you want them to go.
How to select and copy multiple objects in SketchUp
You’ll probably need to select specific, multiple objects when copying in SketchUp. So how do you do it? It’s simple. You use the Shift key to select multiple objects, and the same key to remove objects from your selection set.
Double clicking faces selects the face you want along with all of the adjoining edges. In the same way, double clicking an edge selects it along with its adjoining faces. When you triple click on a face you select the entire object that it belongs to, which it forms a part of. And when you select an element it changes colour to blue making it easy to keep track of what you’re doing.
How to Copy Scenes in SketchUp
A SketchUp Scene is simply a saved image of your mode associated with a tab. Scenes are what you use to save different views of models and their properties, which you can present to colleagues or clients. It makes more sense than opening a drawing with the view you want, erasing the contents, then pasting in the new model.
Creating a Scene triggers a tab at the top of your drawing area. To view the Scene – the saved view – you click the tab to display it. You can also import and export Scenes to other models using a special plugin costing five US dollars, PageExIm.rb by Rick Wilson.
While you can’t animate Scenes with SketchUp for Web yet, you can export all your video animations as image sets. As you can imagine, animations are a great way to present models from different angles and create useful shadow studies, revealing exactly where the light falls throughout the day.
Before you create an animation you need to make scenes of your model, each with different settings. Once you’re ready to animate, you can either play an animation in SketchUp, export your animation to a video file, or export the image set as a collection of image files to be animated via video software, something you can do via SketchUp Pro. It’s good to know that copies made across a variety of standard image formats can be imported into SketchUp.
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Now you know how to copy in SketchUp, what will you create? Find out more about how to use this exceptional tool via our popular tutorials, and explore the choice between the free and Pro versions of SketchUp here.
