This SketchUp tutorial teaches you how to build a simple house from start to finish using the platform’s intuitive tools. The tutorial covers the offset and follow me tools, inferencing, and building a 3D simple minimalist house in SketchUp. SketchUp empowers users to create comprehensive house designs by providing intuitive tools for planning, visualizing, and customizing every aspect of the design, from foundation to walls. This guide is perfect for beginner interior design SketchUp users, as it teaches you how to sketch like an architect, learn techniques used to design homes, and use tips from real projects with illustrations.
To draw a 3D house model in SketchUp from a 2D floor plan image, follow these steps:
- Open Google SketchUp.
- Choose a template.
- Paste down a rectangle.
- Use the Push/Pull tool.
- If you need to create a floor plan with SketchUp, follow the steps in a YouTube video tutorial that walks you through the process in seven easy steps. This tutorial is perfect for beginners and offers a step-by-step guide to creating a simple house from scratch.
📹 How to Model a House in SketchUp Free (10 EASY Steps)
In this SketchUp tutorial, we teach you how to build a simple house from start to finish. And when we’re done, you’ll have learned …
📹 GETTING STARTED with SketchUp Free – Lesson 2 – Creating a House Model
In this video, we continue our series on getting started modeling in SketchUp Free. This beginner series is designed to introduce …
Thank you so much for creating this series for the free version of sketchup for all of us who cannot justify the cost of purchasing a CAD program!!!! So far I’ve been able to follow everything you did in the first 2 articles. Keep repeating those keyboard shortcuts! They are super useful and easy to forget for us new users.
You are the best teacher ! Thank you very much for showing me ….(us)… everything “from scratch”. I never used any design programs like this before, so at first I had to practice how to draw a single line and everything seemed so complicated. Then I watched and practiced your articles over and over and understood everything perfectly. I am currently in an interior design school. This free tutorial is absolutely priceless! After learning as much as I can from you I will be brave enough to move forward and get the pro version. I am thankful for the Universe to find you!
This info resolves the problem I was having with “stickiness” in my practice models. I didn’t realize that sticky surfaces was the default in Sketchup and that I needed to “group” items to keep my models usable. In general, this demo was much more helpful and easier to follow than the “official” beginner’s demo/model in Sketchup Campus. (Nothing against those guys – it’s not as if I was paying for it) . Very well done!
Well… after 10 years of downloading Sketchup and deleting it – I finally learned how to model in Sketchup and then move that model as a whole rather than move one part, warping the other joining surfaces and polygons. Thanks a bunch man – this was pretty informative. I also have a whole bunch of keyboard shortcuts too thanks to you and they all make sense. Maybe Trimble have changed things since this article but when I grouped my model I couldn’t activate the R key to create the ceiling. Had to start the whole model all over again and not group – worked this time but the R key doesn’t work as smoothly or obviously as it does in your demo here.
Thanks soo much, Justin! It is huge hope for me to find out website like this exists!:-) If I could only find this some earlier…some people (Like me) just somehow aren’t able to learn and use the program by themselves and it has been just huge mess…thank You soo much for bringing great solutions, help and hope!:-) I am wondering How could You really learn it, what do You work with (In Your profession, studies…)?
I had an issue when attempting the push pull on the roof that I can’t seem to fix despite going back and redoing each of the steps. It seems that it is not recognizing that the roof has a face on both sides (toward the door and one that faces the back of the house) so it will only let me offset on either the front or the back. The other side just shows a hole where the face should be that cant be selected to offset since it isn’t a face. Any tips on what I did wrong? I notice on yours that as you move around the model all of your faces are white. On mine the back of the offset triangle is a light blue
I’m having trouble when I select the rectangle creation tool… I can position the tool in the midpoint of the corner of a door or window as you showed. But then when I try to keep the rectangle creation going and use the orbit tool to rotate the model at the same time I lose the rectangle creation tool. It looks like you can somehow start the rectangle creation then keep it going while you select orbit to move so you can see where to place your rectangle end on the opposite corner. Would help to know how you’re doing this. Thank you!
when creating the door frame 18;30, I noticed that you are using two tools at once, the rectangle tool and the orbiting tool, how do you do that I’ve been trying to make my door frame the way you did but because of the perspective I have to move the building as you did but when i select the orbit tool, the point that i had with the rectangle tool delets, please help, thanks
thank you for making such a simple and informative article!! I have followed multiple other tutorials and have always struggled with push pulling window and door cuts. I have spent countless hours and much time being frustrated never being able to consistently do what I want. Following this article has allowed me to do everything I want in my model with a smile on my face!
Really miss the menu bar, don’t like the menus at the right side. I find the icons had to remember. Time will probably take care of this issue. Just need to learn the meanings of each ion. Steo bt steo in your tutorial is great. Newbie, but find the tutorial easy to follow, etc. Keep up the good work.
I’ve never touched the program until yesterday. I watched your pt 1 and, after perusal just that, I was able to build a model of the slide-in truck camper that I will be building. This article, pt 2, is just as helpful for furtherance. You’re a very skilled tutor that educates and engages. Thank you! I’m going to find something for doing the framing layout also; perhaps in one of your articles?
Love your tutorial but I am having issues around the 14 minute mark with the roof of the house. I created the offest of the roof to make it 4″ bigger than the original roof as you mention. I created the lines for when the push/pull tool is used to bring the roof of the house 1′ forward. The issue is that it pulls the face forward but the backside to the roofing is empty. So if I use the push/pull tool to have the offset roof cover the houseing there will be 1 closed face and one open face. edit: It definitely has something to do with the lines as when I don’t add any lines to the roof that has been offset the faces are correct when extruding but the I am left the roof extruding a complete triangle instead of the roof. edit 2: What I ended up doing is extruding the triangle as is to 1′, adding the vertical lines, then pushing the middle of the bottom of the triangle,where the lines were drawn, back the the face of the house. Would still like to know what my error was but this will do for now.
Lessons 1 and 2 are very helpful- esp. if you’ve had cadd before- I’m returning to work after staying home with my kids and cadd courses are crazy expensive. This is a great alternative-it’s a great refresher class/- the end of lesson 2 when you edited how to better add materials was a little fast and confusing but if you go back through it you can figure out what he did. thank you for this free tutorial !
Merci pour ces vidéos. Faciles, complètes, didactiques, elles permettent d’avancer pas à pas. J’ai acheté une version SketchUp for web renouvelable par an. Ni le programme d’aide, ni les didacticiels pour SketchUp complet ne me conviennent (menu diffèrent). J’utilise la traduction automatique qui suffit (ce n’est pas de la littérature mais c’est très efficace) Hello from the France and congratulations
You sir are a fucking SAINT!!! I’m a photographer/retoucher and know adobe PS and Illustrator extremely well. I thought sketch up would be the same..Nope…even tho I’m a photographer I do work in construction and I’m very handy. I wanted to use a simple program to make some blueprint plans for a reptile enclosure I’m going to build…your articles LITERALLY showed me everything I need to know with BARNEY STYLE instructions (easy instructions). Thank you! Automatic subscription!,,,,
I’ve been following your fantastic tutorial, but applying it to the dimensions of my own home. I’m trying to create the frames like you do around the door and windows, but suddenly the push/pull tool creates a U-channel rather than a solid shape when I do the offset and push/pull the face. Think an open (5 sided) box rather than a fully closed (6 sided) cube. Can you help me figure out what’s happening?
@TheSketupEssentials Your article is good except I can’t get past the push pull eliminating an opening. I am wondering if the function has changed from the time of you making this article till now? When I take the shape backwards that’s all it does, goes backwards. It doesn’t make the widow per say disappear.
3 things. When I drew the roof with the push-pull tool I lost the triangle face on the front of the building. It actually moved to the back of the building. 2nd. The offset tool would not allow me to click on the triangle line. Lastly, what function allows shortcuts using key strokes? I ask because when I hover over the drawing and for example tap the P key the curser doesn’t change. Thanks.
Great great tutorial. Thanks a lot. My challenge is how to rotate the model while executing a command; how did you turn the building, after picking the rectangle command, when you were fixing the rectangle that was to become the window; i.e after creating the window frame, please. I’m stuck there. Please help me out.
Incredibly helpful article. How can we see through the walls so we can see the interior? Im having a hard time doing x-ray in the free version. I also saw a article about applying materials to the surfaces and for exterior walls turning the opacity to 0% but I don’t see that in the free version (not to say it’s not there, Im just new to sketch up). Thank you!
Have watched lesson 1 and 2 so far and they are a great intro to SketchUp free, thank you. I’m trying to copy what your doing on my own page however since I’m in NZ and we work with mm I wish to use my own measurements. In the free version I’m looking at, which does look a little different to yours, I have found the app settings and changed to mm but in the measurement box in the bottom right it continues to show inches. How do I change this?
thank you very much for this article. as a beginner I really find your content very helpful and idk maybe the way you speak or attention to details that somehow helps me focus. however, I’m a bit confused. when I try to make the roof with the push-pull feature, the back of the roof appears hollow. is there any solution? i’m quite lost
Question about the roof. After creating the offset that allows us to pull it outwards (13:30) I can’t push it along the roof in order to do the back side of the house. I notice that after the first pull, it gets rid of the back side of it, so there is nothing to pull on. Kind of complicated, here’s a screenshot. Thank you! gyazo.com/ace4e96f6756887bf63e62327c3af248
I had a hard time with deleting the lineon top of the door when I was tracing the roof…I would click hide and it wasn’t disappearing. Then when I came to make a group, I didn’t understand how it worked. So I accidentally deleted the roof, and then when I tried to make the roof again by push/pull button it was going down and not straight…🤦🏽♀️ What could have happened?
The blue axis, beside the human model, is clearly vertical, correct? Okay, then why, as you select the up arrow and turn your axis indicator at the pencil blue as you prepare to draw your rectangle, does it actually draw in the green and/or red plane? The answer must be simple, but yet I’m not seeing it. Thank you for the hard work and effort too!
I am enjoying the lessons a lot – it makes the program very easy to understand and use! But when I had to create the roof for the house (12 minutes into lesson 2), for some reason I get a sort of “negative” roof – kind of like a hole instead of a filled one, like in your article… could you please help? Thanks a lot in advance! 😀
I am teaching sketch Up as a vocational course at MDC, Blackboard online because of the pandemic, so I am learning how to teach on line. I am having an issue with sketch Up when showing on the blackboard, the students can not see the pointer, so they don’t see where I am pointing items for them. May be you can give me an advice. Thank you
These articles are extremely helpful. I’ve learnt a lot and am able to use SketchUp now for my projects at home. I have a quick question. Is there a article showing how to use intersecting lines to find a point in a plot map. I have a plot plan of my property and would like to locate the well in the map. I’ve measured the distance from two different points in my house to the well and now I’d like to use those distances to find the point in Sketchup. Thanks!
Amazing, I have been following the guide one after each, But i have issues making the roof when making the roof pull after offset don’t know how to explain this without showing with an image and the window after making multiple windows to a building and added material to the building surface the window seem faded
I’m at the end of tutorial #2, having drawn the house. My push pull icon has a red circle with a line through it when anywhere on the house, but it is not there on other objects. Why is it there? How did I get it there? How can I get rid of it? I didn’t find much about this online. Your tutorials are very good.
Im just getting started and wanted to say this is such a big help for me! thanks so much. One query i have is… ive got to making window frames and it seems when i push pull they are hollow? its driving me slightly insane. the roof and all that worked fine but the windows and doors seem to be open on either the inside or outside dependant on where i start. sorry! im a builder who is trying to use technology
Great tutorial! I have been encountering a problem when creating the roof overhangs. I create one for the front of the house, but when I create the overhang for the back of the house, I lose the front overhang. I have followed this tutorial closely but have continually lost the front overhang in several attempts to complete the tutorial. Any idea what I am doing wrong?
great article, makes it simple to use, I have the pro version, and have been using it for a couple days, and no clue, but, now, a lot of things make sense to me. I have been drawing using Chief Architect Home Design Pro for years, and this adds another tool to draw with. Trying to figure out how to see it in plan view now and work w dimensions to make it easy for others to view for estimating purposes..Thanks for the articles! Well done
“What’s up Geis!” 🙂 My step one. Select “human” >> press delete. Step two: look for “tyrannosaurus” image. As far as the rest of Sketchup, I have the worst time aligning the pointer with the axes, corners and surfaces. So many times I had to tear walls down to try again (sort of like 10:20). I really like your lesson articles. I learn much more than from the articles from the makers of Sketchup.
Just getting started with this, but I’m using a Mac without a three-button or scroll-wheel mouse. I finally, after searching for about 2 hours, found how to rotate and pan with a single-button Mac mouse. Hold down the control and command keys while holding down the mouse (or mouse pad) button. Problem solved.
Great tutorial!! Thank you so much. if I’m using the free version is there a reason I don’t see materials when I apply them to a surface? For example, I’m trying to apply a siding to a wall but instead of seeing the siding it just turns it a different shade of gray. Also, can you no longer import components from the download store? I’ve downloaded a couple of windows I like but it won’t let me drop them into my model.