Customizing SketchUp

You can customize SketchUp so that it fits you like perfectly worn-in blue jeans - the pair you wear so often you worry how you'll ever leave the house after the inevitable hole appears in the seat, because how you could ever leave the house without those jeans?

Or maybe you're more the button-down-shirt-and-trousers type?

The point is that you can fashion SketchUp to reflect your specific situation:

  • Create settings that fit your general work patterns. For example, to keep your most often used commands accessible, you might create keyboard shortcuts or customize your toolbar display.
  • Tailor settings for a specific project or workflow. For example, if, every time you create a new model, you adjust the default template to suit a client or project, you can save those settings as a custom template.
  • Adjust settings to patch up computer or performance issues. SketchUp's defaults are set to help you recover your work, if needed, and render graphics as seamlessly as possible. However, your computer may have its quirks, and adjusting a few settings, like how often SketchUp auto-saves or how it renders graphics, might help SketchUp better fit your system.

For details about designing settings for the way you or your projects work, check out Customizing Your Workspace, Customizing Your Keyboard and Mouse, and Setting Up Templates.

For help ironing out wrinkles in your system, see Setting Software and File Preferences and Improving Performance.

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