02. The Very Basics (3D)

Step 1
	Draw the flat surface as in the previous tutorial "01. The Very Basics (2D)", and make sure that you delete Susan.
Step 2
	If you try to select the face you will notice you can only select one part of it at a time, either the rectangle, or the arc. To solve this, select the dividing line and press "delete". This will combine the two faces into one. Note: This will only work if both faces are on the same plane, which in this case they are.
Step 3
	Select the "Push Pull" tool from the "Large Tool Set", click once on the surface and as you move your cursor upwards you can see the face being extruded into a volume. Similar to the line tool, you need to point the extrusion in the direction you want it, in this case either up or down. We want to extrude the surface upwards, so pointing in this direction, type in "4000" and press "Enter".
Step 4
	To select a face you just need to use the "select" tool and click on it. To select a face and it's edges you can double click on the face. Here we want to select all of the adjoing geometry (the whole volume), so triple click on a face and you will notice it selects it all. You can also see dotted lines along the length of the curved face. This is because the curved face (as with the initial arc) is gradated; it is actually made up of 12 flat surfaces.
Step 5
	With everything selected, right click and select "Make Component". You can also click on the "Make Componenet" button in the "Large Tool Set". This dialogue box will appear. Give the component the name "head", and ensure that the box next to "Replace selection with component" IS ticked. Click "Create".
Step 6
	The object now has a blue outline box around it. This signifies that it is a component.
Step 7
	From the top menu bar select "Window" -> "Entity Info". The entity info box will give you various information about the current selection. If you have the component selected then it should have a label "volume" followed by a large number. This means that the component is classed as a "Google Solid" and you can therefore use the "Solid Tools". If you do not have a volume then it is possible that there is an erroneous line within your component (this could also include Susan).
Step 8
	We are going to make another component now, but to do so you must make sure you do not make it within the other component. Note the difference between these two screenshots. The top one is within the component editor, and has a dotted line around the component. The bottom one does not have this dotted line, nor is anything highlighted in blue. To get into the component editor just double click on the component. To get out of the component editor double click outside of the component.
Step 9
	Using the "Line" tool "L", draw a line diagonally across the back of the component. Use the "Circle" tool "C" and select the centre point of the diagonally line; it should snap with a little blue dot. Click to set the centre of the circle. Type in "1000" and press enter, to set the RADIUS of the circle to 1000mm. The circle will divide the line into three. Delete these lines using either the "Eraser" tool "E", or by selecting them and pressing "Delete".
Step 10
	Double click on the face of the circle to select the face and the perimeter. Make it into a component called "Shaft" ensuring that the "Replace selection with component" is ticked. Double click on the component to enter the component editor, and then using the "Push Pull" tool "P", extrude the face by "15000" as shown. Exit the component editor.
Step 11
	Select the shaft component Select the "Move" tool "M". Select a point to use as a reference point for the move. (I selected the bottom corner of the "Head" component") Move the cursor along the red axis to indicate a move of the shaft through the head, type in "3500" and press enter.
Step 12
	Turning on the "X-ray" style at the top you can see that the shaft passes straight through the middle of the head.
Step 13
	The following steps will explore the "Solid Tools". These are only available in Google Pro, and unfortunately not in the free version. Solid tools will also only work with "Sketchup Solids" which always have a "Volume" value in the "Entity Info" dialogue box. If you only have the free version, or one of your components is not a "Sketchup Solid" you will need to use alternative methods to create the same effect. Such methods will be explored in future tutorials.
Step 14
	Select the "Outer Shell" tool. Now if you hover over a component you should see the number 1 appear. Select the shaft. And then when the number 2 appears, select the head. You can see from screenshots here that the tool has made the two components into one, and the overlap has been deleted. I.E. it has only retained the "Outer Shell" of the components. It is worth noting that the combination is actually a group, and not a component. If you were going to continue with this shape it would probably normally be worth turning it into a component by the usual method. For now just use Ctrl+Z to undo the tool. The "Union" tool will not be shown in the following tutorial as it only varies from the "Outershell" tool in that it retains internal geometries, of which we do not have in this model.
Step 15
	Trying using the "Intersect" tool and you will be left with the following. The intersect tool saves the intersection, but deletes everything else. Again, this is now a group and not a component. This will be true of all of the following outputs of the "Solid Tools" a well.
Step 16
	The "Subtract" tool will subtract selection 1 from selection 2. In this case we have subtracted the shaft from the head.
Step 17
	The "Trim" tool will trim selection 2 using selection 1. In this example the shaft was selected first and used to trim the head. Both objects are retained and shown here seperately to better understand the tool.
Step 18
	The "Split" tool will trim both selections across each other AND it will retain the intersection as well. The three screenshots here show the three outputs from this tool.