Introduction to the drawing tools in LayOut - SketchUp Tutorial

- [Instructor] Chapter three is all about the use of shapes. I have the various shapes set up on this drawing, and also some of our annotation tools, so that's the text option, the label option, dimensions, and then this thing here, the table tool. Okay, so this is an introduction to how these work. I've created a series of very simple shapes on this sheet just to highlight what we can do with the various options. So the first one is the pencil tool, so we can create straight lines or we can create this open poly line and we can create a closed poly line. We can create this freehand sort of a curve, and then we can create something called the pen style option that we've got with the pencil tool, which allows us to create straight edges and splines, as well. As far as the arcs go, we've got the simple arc tool, which is from a radius arc, and then we've got the two-point arc option, the three-point arc option, and the pie, which is effectively this thing, but it also creates these lines, as well. The rectangle, you've got the basic rectangle shape, then we've got a curved corner rectangle. This is a lozenge, and then we've got the bulged rectangle, which makes barrel-shaped objects. Then circle and ellipse as far as the circle options go, and then we've got this inscribed polygon. As far as text goes, we've got the basic text that we added to this note earlier on, and then we've got a label and we've got a dimension. And finally, we've got this table tool, as well. So that's a very brief overview of the sorts of things that we can create. And now you might be noticing that some of these things look different than other things. And that's all dependent on the style of each of these objects. So when you create something, by default, straight out of the box, it'll create something like this, which is a .5 thick line with a white fill. And whether you have a closed poly line or an open poly line, then it's going to create that fill. You can even see it on these sorts of arcs. So where that core point is along from there to there, then it's filled that in, even though there's no line there. Okay, so that's something that LayOut actually does. So we can control that by using the shape style drop-down, okay? So this shape style tool is by default set up like this, but we can configure it to be something different. So if I selected this one in the middle, and this has got a color fill applied to it, so you can see that, and it's got a stroke of .5 points. But what I could do is turn off the fill, and so it's now got no fill. But when I do that, then it goes back to the default options, so I have to select the object first to show the properties of that object once again, and then I can click on the fill, and that's going to put the fill back. If I turn the stroke off, then that gets rid of the outline. Okay, now one thing you need to bear in mind is you have to have something. You have to have either a fill or a stroke or a pattern. You can't have just an object with none of those settings. We have a similar feature for the text, as well. So if I clicked on this label text, this is controlled by several things. This line and arrow are controlled from this point, and the text is controlled by the text style. So if I wanted that label text there to be maybe bigger, so it's 20 point and regular font or an italic font, and I can control that through here, but the line gets controlled up here. So if I wanted a different start arrow, then I could change that and make it slightly bigger. So make it 10 point, then we've got that sort of thing. So again, I can control that through this style and the text style. You've also got this option, the style dropper. So if I click on that, then I can sample that text and paste that text on, and the arrow options to this, so that's quite a nice little feature that we have here. The final thing to point out at this stage is if I wanted to pre-configure a style for either the line tool, the rectangle tool, or any of the tools we've got here, then I would choose the tool first, and then go and set it here. So maybe I've got a fill with a different color, maybe that green. I've got the stroke, which is going to be 10 point, and instead of a straight line, I've got a dashed line there, okay? So now that's pre-configured for this rectangle tool. If I create the rectangle now, then I'm going to see that it's got those styles pre-applied, okay? And then once again, I can use the style option to change anything I want in here, okay? So with that sort of fill and stroke options then gets copied and pasted onto other objects. Now before we go on to the rest of the chapter to look at some of the things in more detail, it should be pointed out that whilst you can create some interesting shapes and configure them quite nicely, it shouldn't really be a substitute for your go-to CAD package. It's easy to insert DWG files and DXF files into LayOut, so I would always recommend that you stick to your current workflow. With that said, we'll spend the rest of this chapter covering more of the features that are available inside of some of the drawing tools.