In Style Builder, you can set a few Preferences options:

In Style Builder’s Preview pane, the default model preview shows off your styles as you add strokes to each set in the Sets pane. This aspect of previewing happens automatically, with no extra effort on your part. However, Style Builder also includes a few extra tools and features that enable to change your preview:

In Style Builder, you can adjust some of the same style settings and effects that you can add or edit to styles in SketchUp, including halos, extensions, profiles, and depth cue. Tip: When you apply these settings in Style Builder, they’re ready to go — just as you want them to appear — when you load your sketchy style in SketchUp or share your .style file with another SketchUp user.

The Sets pane holds all the strokes for your sketchy edge style. The strokes you place here are the ones that become part of your .style file. To add strokes to your style, first make sure the Sets pane reflects your desired sets and number of strokes per set. Then you begin filling and editing the Sets pane with strokes by using a few different commands. The following sections walk you through the details.

Style Builder includes a library of sample strokes, but the whole idea behind creating your own sketchy edge style is that you can use strokes that you’ve drawn yourself. To use your hand-drawn strokes in Style Builder, you can import strokes from a folder of stroke images, from an existing .style file, or from a strokes template. Tip: The most common source (and the easiest to create) is a strokes template. Follow these steps to import strokes into Style Builder:

After you draw your strokes, Style Builder enables you to create your own sketchy edge style in three basic steps:

To draw strokes for a sketchy edge style, you create individual files of each stroke. Although you can save these files in a folder and import the folder, copying your strokes into a template and then importing the template into Style Builder is easier — and the more common method. To draw your own strokes based on a template, here’s an overview of what you need to do:

Style Builder works with .style files. Here’s a quick look at how Style Builder enables you to work with these files:

How is a sketchy edge style born? Compared to stars emerging from a nebula or a baby mammal barely able to open its eyes, the style-building process is pretty quick and easy. Your sketchy edges may even look out of this world or too cute for words.

Style Builder has one primary job: enabling you to create sketchy edge styles from your own images. Style Builder's laser-like focus on this one task means that its interface is pretty simple. When you open Style Builder, you see four main areas of the interface. The callouts in the following figure identify each area as it appears on your current operating system: