1. SketchUp Toy Boat Level of Difficulty Time Approximately 15–20 minutes
Photocopiable/digital resources may only be copied by the purchasing institution on a single site and for their own use © ZigZag Education, 2013 

2. By the end of this tutorial you will be able to…
Link basic shapes
Use the Arc tool
Use the Follow Me tool to produce a rounded edge
Use construction lines/points
Colour/render your finished toy boat

3. Skills to be used in this project…
Basic Skills
New and Higher Skills
Zoom tool
Construction lines and points
Orbit tool
Tape Measure tool
Pan tool
Arc tool
Line tool
Follow Me tool
Rectangle tool
Loading new toolbars
Circle tool
Paint Bucket tool
Eraser tool
Push/Pull tool
Basic skills are those required to do very basic drawings and are detailed as part of this presentation.
New and higher skills may be new to the novice and are the focus for learning in this presentation.

4. 1. Once you have opened SketchUp, go to Window and select Preferences.
2. Select Template and choose Metric Millimeters-3D. We are using this template because we are doing a product design.
Therefore, on some versions of SketchUp you will need to select Product Design & Woodwork, Millimetres.
Note: It is often necessary to start a new file to use the new template.
Go to File then New.

5. 3. Now select the Rectangle tool.
4. Using the mouse, click to start the bottom left-hand corner of the rectangle and then drag to form the whole shape. Click to finish.
5. Presently, the rectangle is of no particular size.
Type ‘50,120’ and press Enter to make its base 50 mm x 120 mm.
The rectangle may look too small to work on now.
6. Zooming in tip:
Your mouse is quite smart!
If you place the cursor over the rectangle and roll the middle wheel it will zoom in (or out) of that particular area. Very handy!

6. Some useful tips…
Note: If you make a mistake at any time during this tutorial you can just go to Edit and choose Undo from the drop-down menu, or press the Alt and Backspace keys.
You can use the Orbit tool to change the angle that you are viewing your design from. You can do the same by pressing the middle wheel of your mouse.
You can also use the Pan tool to grab and move your object around the screen.
Alternatively, you can pan by pressing the Shift key and holding down the mouse's middle wheel.

7. 7. Now select the Line tool. Click on one corner of the shorter edge
7. Now select the Line tool. Click on one corner of the shorter edge. A bright green dot will show you that it is an Endpoint.
8. Then move the cursor along the short edge and look for a bright blue dot. SketchUp tells you where the Midpoint is. Now, slowly pull away from the rectangle and a green dotted line will show you that you are moving along the centre line. Drag a good distance from the rectangle and click to form the front point of the boat.
9. With the Line tool still selected, you now need to click on the other side of the short edge of the rectangle (see the bright green endpoint) to form the prow.
SketchUp will automatically shade the shape in.

8. 10. Use the Eraser tool to remove the internal line of the shape.
11. Now select the Push/Pull tool.
This is for extruding to make shapes three-dimensional.
12. With the Push/Pull tool, click on the shape you have drawn and it will be highlighted with a blue texture.
Move the cursor upwards and it will ‘pull’ the shape into a 3D form. DO NOT PRESS ENTER.
Type ’50’ and press Enter to make a solid 50 mm high.
The shape should now be similar to this.

9. 13. At this point you will need to orientate (revolve) your boat’s hull to view the back end. Remember, you can do this with the Orbit tool or by pressing the middle wheel on the mouse.
14. You are now going to round off the bottom of the ship (known as the hull).
To start this, you are going to put in some construction points using the Tape Measure tool.
15. With the Tape Measure tool selected, click on one corner of the stern at the top edge. Look for the bright green dot to find the endpoint.
16. From there, move the cursor along one of the edges and type ’20’ then press Enter. A black dot will appear as a construction point.
17. Starting in the same place, make another construction point on the adjacent edge (1 and 2 on the left). 1 2

10. 18. Now select the Arc tool.
19. With the Arc tool, draw a line to join the two construction points.
Tip: It is probably worth orientating the hull again so you can see more of the top of the deck of the boat.
20. Move the cursor towards the middle of the line and see how you can bend it in to make an arc.
You could use your own judgement here but I typed ‘5’ and pressed Enter.

11. 21. For the next bit, you will need the Large Tool Set.
If it is not shown on the left-hand side of your screen as a column of icons then you can get it from the main toolbar under View then Toolbars and then select Large Tool Set.
22. Now select the Follow Me tool.

12. 23. With the Follow Me tool selected, click on the triangular piece that you want to remove. It will be highlighted in light blue.
24. Now use the cursor to gently sweep around the outline of the bottom of the hull until you get back to the end square again (look for the red dot as endpoint). You will also see another arc appear.
25. Click on the endpoint (red dot) and the material will be removed to put a rounded edge on the boat’s hull.
Note: If any dotted construction lines are visible, remove them with the Eraser tool.

13. 1 2
26. Use the Tape Measure tool to make some construction points 15 mm in from each corner of the deck (1 and 2).
27. As before, join them with the Arc tool and type ‘5’ as a radius.
28. As before, use the Follow Me tool to select the triangle and gently follow the lines at the back of the boat (known as the stern) until you reach the endpoint.
With the material removed, you now have a boat with a nicely smoothed hull.
NOTE: The whole exercise of rounding edges is made much easier with a ‘Ruby Plugin’. Look at the Help section on the SketchUp toolbar. Or visit:

14. 1 2
29. Use the Tape Measure tool to put two construction lines across the deck, as shown. Look out for the bright green endpoints (lines indicated as 1 and 2). 1 2 4 3
30. Use the Tape Measure tool again to create four construction points 10 mm in from the edges (1, 2, 3 and 4).
These are going to help you to form the cabin block.

15. 31. Use the Rectangle tool to join the construction points.
Make sure that you are exactly on the Guide Points.
32. Use the Push/Pull tool to extrude the cabin block upwards by 30 mm (type ’30’ and press Enter). 25
33. Use the Tape Measure tool to create a series of three construction points, at 25 mm intervals along the top of the cabin block.
Use the same tool to insert three construction lines from the construction points.

16. 34. You are now going to place some funnels on top of the cabin block.
Select the Circle tool.
35. With the cursor, hover along the edge of the cabin block until you find the midpoint (it shows as a bright blue dot).
Move the cursor to pull out a green dotted line, indicating the centre line, until you get to the first construction line.
At that point, a red dot will appear. Click to place a circle.
Start to widen the circle, type ‘5’ and press Enter.
36. Do this again to make two more circles in a row.
SketchUp will try to predict the size of the circles, which can be useful.

17. 37. Use Push/Pull to extrude each circle by 20 mm
37. Use Push/Pull to extrude each circle by 20 mm. This completes the funnels.
Now you are going to make the portholes. 1 2 3
38. Using the construction points you made earlier, draw three construction lines down the wall of the cabin with the Tape Measure tool.
39. Select the Circle tool. Similar to before, find the midpoint on the edge of the wall and create a 5 mm circle at each construction line, making three circles in a row.

18. 40. Use the Push/Pull tool, push in each circle by clicking on them, typing ’30’ then pressing Enter.
41. To give the cabin some shape, use the Tape Measure tool and the Line tool to make a line at the edge of the wall, and then use Push/Pull to remove the material. 15 15

19. 42. Use the Eraser tool to remove the unwanted construction lines.
The boat is now ready for colouring (rendering).
43. To render (colour) the boat, select the Paint Bucket tool. A window will pop up like this.
This is the pallet that you can colour objects from.
44. Click on the colour you want to use and move the cursor over the boat.
45. The cursor will now have changed into a paint bucket. Using this, click on the part of the model you want to colour.
Do not forget to orbit the boat to render the back, top and bottom.

20. Here is my final rendered version of the toy boat
Here is my final rendered version of the toy boat. You can see that, as well as the colours, I chose a wood effect to render the deck.
Extensions:
Try different surface patterns and materials.
Try making different boat shapes and configurations.
Design a completely differently toy, based on the theme of transport.