1. SketchUp Perfume Bottle 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…
Use the Follow Me tool to form a bottle shape
Apply 3D Text to an object
Colour and render an object
Scale and resize models
Make components

3. Skills to be used in this project…
Basic Skills
New and Higher Skills
Zoom tool
Tape Measure tool (for construction points and resizing models)
Orbit tool
Access and use the Large Tool Set
Pan tool
Follow Me tool
Circle tool
Arc tool
Eraser tool
Scaling
Push/Pull tool
3D Text tool
Paint Bucket tool
Making Components
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 Circle tool and draw a circle on the base, starting by clicking on the axis origin point for the circle centre. Look for the yellow dot that shows the origin point.
4. Using the mouse, move the cursor to enlarge the circle. DO NOT PRESS ENTER.
First type ‘300’ and then press Enter. This will give you a circle with a 300 mm radius which will be quite small.
Roll the middle wheel of the mouse to zoom in on the circle.
The mouse is smart and will zoom into the area where you put the cursor.

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. 5. You are now going to create a construction point so you can create the height of the bottle.
Select the Tape Measure tool from the toolbar and click on the Origin point again (see the yellow dot).
Gently move the cursor up the blue axis line (don’t click yet) type ‘1500’ and then press the Enter key.
A black dot (construction point) will appear on the blue axis.

8. 6. Select the Rectangle tool from the toolbar.
Click on the origin point again (yellow dot) to get the rectangle started.
Gently move the cursor to the outside edge of the circle along the red axis. A green dot will appear to let you know that you are on an Endpoint.
Do not click on this endpoint. Instead, gently move the cursor upwards to pull out a rectangular shape.
Keep pulling this rectangle upwards until it is level with the construction line, then click to set it. It will automatically fill in with a grey colour.

9. The rectangle will have gone from this, to this.
You are now going to draw half of the bottle’s shape onto this rectangle and later rotate it using the blue axis as an axis of symmetry.
7. At this point, it is a good idea to orientate the rectangle (Orbit tool) so you can see it practically face on, like this…
8. Select the Arc tool from the toolbar.

10. 2 1
9. With the Arc tool selected, click on the top right-hand corner of the rectangle. Make sure that you start at the green dot Endpoint (1).
10. Then move the line, as shown (2), at approximately 45 degrees and click to set it. Use your own judgement for this.
11. Now you will be able to bend the line to form an arc. Be sure that the arc is On Face. This means that it is being drawn in the same axis as the rectangle.
12. Select the Line tool from the toolbar and draw a short vertical line. Start this at the Endpoint of the arc (green dot).
Use your own judgement for its length (about 80 mm). Again, if it is On Face it will start off as a blue line when drawing.

11. 13. Select the Arc tool again and draw a line from the end of the straight line that you have just drawn (green dot for Endpoint) to the bottom left-hand corner of the rectangle. Again, make sure that it is On Face to be in the right axis.
14. Bend the line in a little way to create an arc. Make sure it is being bent on the red axis.
You may find that the best way to do this is to move the cursor above the arc to the left edge of the rectangle as shown (red dot and On Edge prompt).

12. 15. Use the Eraser tool to delete the unwanted internal and external lines and leave this profiled shape.
16. To form a cap for the bottle later, draw a short horizontal line here, starting with the green Endpoint and finishing On Edge. Make sure that you are drawing the line in the red axis (the line you draw will appear red at first).

13. 17. 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.
18. Now select the Follow Me tool.

14. 19. At this point, it is worth orientating the object so that you can see the starting and finishing point of the rotation.
20. With the Follow Me tool selected, click on the bottle’s profile to highlight it.
21. Next, you need to show the computer the path you want the profile to follow. Put the mouse over the start point of the bottom circle and slowly follow the circle around its circumference, pulling the profile along until it gets back to the starting point.
Click to complete the rotation at the Endpoint.
The bottom of the bottle will now be a solid object and should smooth out automatically.

15. 22. Use the Arc tool again to rotate the cap’s profile, using the top circle as the path to follow.
Your bottle should look similar to this by now, though there may be slight variations.
23. If you orientate the bottle so that you can see the underside, you will see it has no base.

16. 24. To put a base on the bottle, select the Arc tool and draw a line from Endpoint to Endpoint across the diameter of the circle.
25. When bending the middle of the arc, make sure it touches the Endpoint at the top of the circle to make a full half circle.
26. The bottom of the bottle will automatically fill in.

17. 28. On the tool bar select Tool, then Scale.
27. Use the Select (also called Pick) tool to draw a square around the whole bottle to highlight it like this.
30. The bottle is now half the thickness that it was before. Click on the Select tool and click into an empty space to deselect the bottle.
29. This yellow frame with green nodes will appear.
Place your cursor over the closest middle node. It will turn red and by using the left-hand mouse button you will be able to push it inwards to distort it. Do this, enter the number ‘.5’ (point five) and press Enter.

18. 31. It is difficult to put a long word onto a curved surface
31. It is difficult to put a long word onto a curved surface. However, a single letter of the right size should be fine.
Select the 3D Text tool from the Large Tool Set on the left.
You can see that I have chosen a chunky font at size 200 mm, to be extruded by 2 mm. I have just put the letter ‘W’ as a name.
32. Then click on Place.
33. Carefully place the lettering.
Centre it on the bottle at a suitable height. I have used the blue axis to line it up.
34. Click to set it in place, and it should then look like this.
35. Click on the Select tool, then click into a space to deselect the letter.

19. 36. To colour the bottle, you should now select the Paint Bucket tool.
37. A window like this will pop up. I have used the drop-down menus to show the translucent options and the colour options.
38. Click on the pale blue translucent colour to select it.
The cursor will turn into a paint bucket; use this to click on the areas you wish to colour.

20. 39. Rather than colour this cap one segment at a time, use the Select tool to highlight the whole cap and then use the Paint Bucket tool to fill in the colour you want.
40. When you have completed the colouring, use the select tool again to select the whole bottle. Then right-click.
41. From the drop-down menu select Make Component.
42. In the pop-up window, give your bottle a name and then click on Create.
43. Deselect the component box by using the Select tool and clicking into an empty space.

21. 44. The bottle now looks complete, but if you think about the sizes that you have been using you will realise that it has been designed to be 1,500 mm high.
45. To make it a more realistic size, select the Tape Measure tool. 2
46. To start, click on the front of the bottle. Then press the Ctrl key to toggle it to a resize tool. You will see the little + symbol disappear from the tape measure cursor icon.
Then click directly above the neck of the bottle and type 100.
47. A pop-up window will ask if you want to resize the model.
Click on Yes and the model will resize (it will be a lot smaller!). 1

22. 48. Zoom in and the perfume bottle is now finished.
Extensions:
Design your own shape for another perfume bottle. Try different renders and colours.
Design an upmarket aftershave bottle suitable for young men.
Design a sports drink bottle.
See if you can design a bottle that is genuinely hollow. You would need to do this by altering the bottle’s profile before you rotate it using Follow Me.