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Getting Started with SketchUp : Step 5: Add windows and moulding

This guide will walk you through the basics of using SketchUp. Follow the steps in this guide to build and decorate a Library study room.

Add windows and moulding.

This is pretty similar to making a doorway, but you'll learn another trick.

Step 5

  1. Draw a guideline 4” above the floor, and another 1.5” to the right of the door. Make a rectangle that is 40.5” wide and 20” tall.
  2. Draw another guideline 1.5” above this rectangle, then make a rectangle that is 40.5” wide and 54.5” tall.
  3. Draw yet another guideline 1.5” above this new rectangle, then make a rectangle that is 40.5” wide and 22” tall. Now you have one set of windows!
  1. Draw a guideline 1.5” to the left of the windows.
  2. Using the Selection tool, select all three windows (hold down the shift key). Copy the windows, then paste the new windows in. This will activate the Move tool, and you can place the windows where you want them (at the intersection of your guidelines). Now one of your walls is complete!

  1. Turn your model around using either the Orbit tool or use the Camera > Standard Views menu to face the other side. You should have a blank wall.
  2. This step is pretty much repeating step 2, but the measurements are a little bit different. You’ll use the same process of making guidelines, drawing rectangles, and then making copies of the windows to complete the wall.
    • All the window frames are 1.5” wide and tall. The space between the floor and the bottom windows is 4” tall.
    • The space between the edge of the windows and the edge of the outside of the wall is 6."
    • All the windows on this wall are 40” wide, but the heights of the windows are the same. The bottom windows are 20” tall, the middle windows are 54.5” tall, and the top windows are 22” tall.
NOTE: This step is for informational purposes. You can practice pushing through walls, but make sure that you have walls in your window spaces before moving on to the next step. You will be adding “materials” (colors and textures that mimic real life materials like paint and glass) to your model, and you can only add materials to a face. If you push through a window or door all the way through the wall, it becomes an empty space. This can be useful in some models, but we want to add materials in this case!

Pushing holes through walls is another way to make doors and windows. Instead of building the walls around your window and doors, you build a wall and then cut out a window or door.

  1. On a solid wall, return to X-Ray mode and use the floor plan to help with placing your door or window. Use the Tape Measure tool to create guides.
  2. Draw a rectangle (or it could be a different shape) on the wall for the door or window.
  3. Use the Push/Pull tool to push the rectangle back through the wall
    1. Select the rectangle face.
    2. To make the window an empty space, infer the depth by hovering your mouse over the top edge of the wall.
    3. To leave a face in your window so that you can apply a window material to it later, click and release on the face then type in 5 and hit enter.

You can also add windows to holes in your walls. This will ensure that your windows are visible on both sides of your walls.

  1. Push windows through your walls.
  2. Using the rectangle tool, draw new rectangles over the holes.
  3. Apply a glass material to the new rectangles.

  1. We are going to add a piece of chair rail moulding to both inside walls. You can use the Section Plane tool to cut away an outer wall, making it easier to work inside the room.
    1. Tools > Section Plane. Once the Section Plane is activated, hover it over your model. It will automatically align with an axis, letting you slice into the model either horizontally or vertically.
    2. Click on the face of the model that you want to cut into (in this case, probably a wall). The Section Plane is represented by an orange box, and will probably slice into the middle of the wall. You can move the slice further in or out of the model using the Move tool. Activate the Move tool, then select the Section Plane so that it turns blue. You can push it further into your model, and when you like where it is click and release your mouse to hold it.

  1. Add the moulding
    1. Create guidelines to make a rectangle on both inside walls that is 30” off the ground and 6” high.
    2. Use the Push/Pull tool to extrude the rectangle to 0.75.”
  • Last Updated: Apr 19, 2022 9:54 AM
  • URL: https://guides.lib.utc.edu/sketchup-tutorial
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