Complete Guide to SketchUp Layout
Extract floor plans, elevations, and sections from your SketchUp model using Layout. You'll link viewports to scenes, choose between raster, vector, and hybrid render modes, add dimensions that snap to model geometry, and output complete drawing packages with title blocks and schedules.
- 2+ hours of premium content
- 10 step-by-step video lessons
- Future updates included
About this course
Layout comes bundled with SketchUp Pro and lets you extract annotated drawings directly from your 3D model. This course starts with interface fundamentals—paper space, toolbar customisation, and tray management. You'll work through shape tools, transform commands, and object styles before learning to link SketchUp models via Send to Layout or File > Insert. The core lessons cover viewport render modes (raster for speed, vector for crisp lines, hybrid for both), scene switching, and viewport locking. Then you'll add dimensions that snap to model geometry, labels, schedules, and title blocks. Using a real residential project, you'll build complete drawing packages and output presentation-ready PDFs.
This comprehensive Layout course transforms your understanding of SketchUp's documentation capabilities, teaching you to create professional construction drawings that rival traditional CAD output. Through the Brooks Drive residential project, you'll master the complete workflow from 3D model linking through to construction-ready drawing production.
The curriculum emphasizes Layout's unique advantages for architects: seamless integration with SketchUp models, automatic updating capabilities, and comprehensive annotation tools that create coordinated drawing sets. You'll develop expertise in viewport management, scale control, and drawing organization that maintains design coordination throughout project development.
Advanced documentation techniques include professional annotation standards, title block setup, and output management that meet construction industry requirements. The course covers both technical drawing production and presentation enhancement strategies that serve diverse project communication needs.
These specialized skills position you to leverage SketchUp's complete design-to-documentation workflow, eliminating the need for separate CAD software while maintaining professional standards for construction drawing production and project delivery.
What will you learn?
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This course will turn you into:
A Layout interface expert
Navigate paper space, customise toolbars and trays, set up A3 templates. Apply strokes and fills via Shape Style, organise documents in the Pages tray.
A SketchUp-to-Layout connector
Link models via Send to Layout or Insert. Choose raster, vector, or hybrid render modes. Switch scenes from the SketchUp Model panel. Lock viewports before annotating.
A drawing package producer
Add dimensions that snap to model endpoints. Create labels, schedules, and title blocks. Set up templates for reuse and export presentation-ready PDFs.
Syllabus
Navigate SketchUp Layout's interface, including the Pages panel, Layers tray, and Instructor. Learn selection methods—direct click, fence, and crossing—and use zoom, pan, and orbit to move around your document.
Draw lines, arcs, rectangles, circles, and polygons as vector graphics that stay crisp at any zoom level. Use inference snapping to lock to midpoints and face edges, and hold modifier keys to constrain shapes.
Move, nudge, copy, scale, and rotate objects with precision. Create rotational copies for circular arrays, use the offset tool for parallel edges, and double-click shapes to edit individual nodes.
Control fill types, pattern hatches, stroke weights, dash styles, and arrow terminators through the Shape Style panel. Round or sharpen corners, and apply consistent colours across your linework.
Add text, labels with auto-leaders, and linear or angular dimensions with configurable styles. Use auto text tags for dates and page numbers, and create tables for door and window schedules.
Set up multi-page documents using the Pages panel and organise elements across layers. Group objects to keep them together, and preview your sheets in presentation mode with live markup tools.
Send your SketchUp model directly to Layout and create viewports at specific scales. Switch between raster, vector, and hybrid render modes depending on whether you need styled visuals or crisp linework.
Use scenes from SketchUp to generate separate views—plans, sections, elevations—on your Layout sheets. Set up title blocks, save templates, and import DWG files from AutoCAD for coordination.
Add dimensions that update when your model changes, and use auto text labels for door and window marks. Create clipping masks to crop views, and build reusable elements in scrapbooks.
Run presentation mode with live markup for client walkthroughs. Export to PNG, JPEG, or PDF for issue, and export to DWG or DXF when handing over to consultants using AutoCAD.
Meet your instructor
Radu Fulgheci
Architect
BDP
Hi, I'm Radu. I'm an architect with over ten years of experience using many architectural design and modelling applications, for both professional and academic purposes. Working on challenging, high-profile projects, and international competitions, I've continually sought ways to optimise my workflow, from single to multiple applications, in order to achieve the best results in the shortest time. I believe in constant learning, so regardless of what knowledge level you may be, there is always something new that can help you improve. I want to teach you how to do the same.
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