Modeling 10 Types of Geometric Shapes in SketchUp - The SketchUp Essentials #46

In today’s Sketchup basics tutorial, we’re going to go through how to create 10 different kinds of geometric shapes quickly and easily!
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1. Cube – a cube is fairly easy and can be drawn with a combination of the rectangle tool and the push pull tool
2. Square pyramid – a square pyramid is best drawn using a rectangle and the line tool
3. Hexagonal Pyramid – best drawn using a 6 sided circle, the line tool, and the rotate tool
4. Octahedron – best drawn with the rectangle tool and the line tool
5. Hexagonal Prism – draw a 6 sided circle, then push/pull
6. Sphere – create a sphere by drawing 2 circles, then using the follow me tool to extrude
7. Ellipsoid/egg – draw a sphere, then use the scale tool to adjust
8. Cone – draw a circle and a face, then use the follow me tool to extrude in a circle
9. Diamond – draw a hexagon. Use the offset tool to draw a smaller hexagon. Use the move tool to move that up. Then draw a line down, fill in a face, and rotate.
10. Icosahedron – draw 3 golden section rectangles. Rotate them so their center points all intersect, then draw triangles from point to point.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you thought!

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[gregg]

Thank you for your informative Sketchup videos. As a hobby woodworker I decided I needed to document some of my creations to keep a record and to refine my designs. I have just started learning Sketchup from scratch and your videos have been very eye-opening and inspiring. Your explanations are great though when I go and attempt things in Sketchup I know I need to spend some time and more practice to learn the ins and outs. I will keep re-watching some of your clips until I get quicker at modeling. Keep the clips coming.

[Banstargue]

Thank you. I learned alot in this video. When I found this video, I was searching for how to merge multiple 3D shapes in Sketchup, and you kind of showed that with 2D shapes.

[ivanbernal]

I like how do you explain in the tutorials. So far you are one of the guys who doesn't complicate things around. Thanks for share your knowledge. since I'm old and new to 3D softwares, I find your videos a lot helpful.

[JeffreyBrantEyeMD]

Excellent, as are all your videos on Sketchup. Your tutorials have helped me learn the program more than any other resource I've tried. Thanks!

[cheeto]

It was a little basic for me, but I watched it anyways to see if I would learn something new. And I did. I did not know about SketchUp snapping to the Golden Ratio, that's very interesting.

I like how you teach to use your keystrokes and arrow keys to lock to axis. When I learned about locking axis, it opened a whole world to me.

Also, if you haven't purchased a 3Dconnexion space navigator, I suggest you do. Makes moving around in SketchUp easy. No more having to flip between orbit/pan and the tool you are trying to use.

[catsmeow]

This is very cool! I wish I'd watched it sooner because I was struggling to make some of the shapes

[thor]

I am a complete newbie, thus, everything in this video was useful to my education. Thank You for creating it, and the series of other videos!

[miraclespyer]

Super handy and more useful than anyone would expect 😊

[SineEyed]

This was helpful, thank you. I'm pretty much a noob to 3D modeling, but I've been using Algodoo for a few years and so I'm used to manipulating geometries, even if it was only in 2D. This puts me at a weird spot though because I have no trouble understanding the concept of a function (or a tool, or whatever), but I'm a total klutz when I try to use it. Beginner videos bore me to tears and don't teach me anything but I doubt I'll catch someone going over how to do some basic action while covering a more advanced topic. It's just common sense that if you're watching a more advanced video you're well past the point of needing a helpful reminder on how to friggin move an endpoint to the origin along an axis lol. That's just an example btw, not something I'm stuck on. Nope, I got that figured out way back like, 12 or 13 hours ago. And I gotta say I like SketchUp a lot more now that I can move things... sometimes.
I was even able to make all these shapes you covered here in this video (yay me). I made it all the way to the icosahedron when I realized I should have listened to your advice about saving before any reasonably funky rotate&paste maneuvers. I paused the video and jumped ahead a step figuring you were going to do the three rectangle thing to get the icos's vertices - I wanted to see if I could do it on my own with what I learned in the past couple days and of course what I picked up in this video. I was rotating the third one (poorly) when the program borked on me lol. Sure enough, you called it. I shoulda listened.
To my surprise though, I even managed to use that alternative extrude method for the top of the gem. That's a neat trick, thanks for that one. And I gave my gem 8 sides because f@$%-it why not. I think I found out you need to select the number of sides after clicking the center point and _before_ moving the mouse in any direction. That's actually a good example of the kinda stuff I need to know. It's all the little mechanical movements that you experienced guys probably aren't even conscious of when you're doing it. Take inferencing for example - I totally get the concept, and I can see you guys doing it when you mention that's what you're doing, but I suspect it happens a lot more than it's being mentioned. I see little moves happening, and I'm sure many are intentional but I can't follow or pick up on what's going on because I have no idea when to go touch an axis real quick and then click an edge or a face, or in what order these things should be done. I understand the 'why', I just don't get the 'how' or the 'when'. Especially with the rotate tool. Ugh. Yours will always go right where it needs to be, while mine is exceedingly stubborn about that. I can't seem to switch between axes like you do. You just click the start point and then an arrow key, right? Nope. Not for me lol. I got it to work _once_ but I dunno how I did it - I do remember my eye level was intersected with the ground plane (however I managed that) and right then the protractor turned red and went perpendicular, which was what I wanted. So I wonder, does the 'camera' position lend itself to these tools behaving nicely? Should these operations happen with regard to some proper orientation or something like that?


I'd be grateful if you could shed any light on that stuff, but no worries if you don't get around to it. Time is precious - I know how it is. Lemme thank you again though for doing all this to help others in the first place - good on ya bro, the world can use all the help it can get..

[oscarporter]

thanks Justin imma start binging your channel

[joseibanez]

NOT every square bipyramid is an Octahedron, faces must be equilateral triangles. In your model, horizontal edges measuring 1, the others are sqrt(3/4).
To make a true Octahedron you should connect midpoints, not vertices.
Thanks for your fine job, I learned a good deal.

[dineshbasnet]

Lovely video ❤✌ I love these type of video✌ and best video for beginner

[smileyvibes]

Very good tutorial and easy to follow-up
I did all shapes including the icosahedron _couldn't get the inner star shape though!

[aleksandrasaneva]

Hi Justin, another newbie here 😃 thanks for these tutorials, they are super simple and clear! But I was wondering, what if I wanted to export one of these forms in a pdf that I could print and then assemble together as a real 3d paper shape? How can I do that? Thanks 🙂

[swbernstel]

Great video again. What's the difference between using the circle tool, viewing Hidden geometry, unsoftening/unsmoothing to get a hexagonal prism, vs just using the polygon tool? The polygon tool seems to have fewer steps.

[bushraa]

Great video. Really it helped a lot, as creating geometric shapes in sketchup is a tricky task. Thanks.

[Viv-xhyv]

learnt something new in every video . :D you are really awesome !

[taris]

Your videos and the tricks are super Please more videos architecture, greetings from Switzerland

[shalotstage]

thanks I have been frying my brains on how to make an icosahedron, but I did it on four pieces... it works but takes to much timeand I dont have the "star" shape. haha. Now I want to rotate the icosahedron on a "path", like a "follow me" stuff, but where you can see the icosahedron rotating. Do you know how can I do that. pleasse help. Maybe to change the scale of said icosahedrons along the path would be great. please share your opinions about this. give a hand.

[DarkMoonDroid]

Trying to figure out how to do Durer's Solid in SU.
Having trouble...