UPDATE: SketchUp to LayOut is now available in paperback format, but the video above hasn't been updated yet to reflect that. Click the View Packages button below to see how to choose between the ebook and paperback version.
UPDATE: SketchUp to LayOut is now available in paperback format, but the video above hasn't been updated yet to reflect that. Click the View Packages button below to see how to choose between the ebook and paperback version.
When I was first introduced to SketchUp Pro, I remember opening LayOut a few times and messing around with a few buttons. Honestly, I didn’t really have the time to figure it out, so I would close it down and go back to drawing in SketchUp. Working for myself as a remodeling contractor, I typically used SketchUp to help me visualize new projects for my clients.
But I wanted my sketches to look more professional, instead of just having a piece of paper with an image on it. I wanted to have a titleblock with my company name and logo. I wanted to have the job and customer information on the drawing too. And I started working on larger projects that required me to create elevations and sections with dimensions and annotations, so I knew I needed to make a serious effort to learn LayOut.
Tell me if any of these things have happened to you:
Yup, that was me, pretty much. It was really frustrating for a while, but I got better at it in time. When I was stuck on something, I’d search for an answer online or spend hours messing around until I could figure out a good solution. It wasn’t easy, because there really wasn’t a good resource out there for learning how to use LayOut, so I had to do my own research and investigation on my own.
This was the same experience I had when trying to learn SketchUp. Information was scattered about the internet, so I had to go looking for it in order to learn anything.
I created Mastersketchup.com in 2012, as the ultimate resource for anyone wanting to learn SketchUp. On my site you’ll find a ton of tutorials and videos to help you learn SketchUp. I wanted to save people the time and frustration that I went through by create high quality, easy to follow tutorials.
Over the past few years, MasterSketchUp has grown to become one of the top resources for learning SketchUp.
In a recent survey, I asked my readers "What do you like about my tutorials?", and here’s a sample of what they had to say (Thank you so much for those who left me this feedback, you know who you are! I REALLY appreciate all your kind words)
• They are clearly presented and cover well defined areas of interest. • Very clear and well explained. • They are simple and easy to follow. • Clear visuals. Love the animated gifs! Very clear and 'friendly' text. • Your prose style is warm and with a pleasant degree of informality that makes me feel engaged with the content. • Steps are explained clearly and in a logical order, with reasons for different procedures being made explicit. • I like the way you explain things so well. I think you do a very good job as a teacher. • Intuitive and direct • Practical and advanced tips
• Help to discover the less obvious methods of using tools or drawing objects which is very important. • Very useful, short exposition of one topic in depth... • Simple to understand and follow • They work, and they show me some of the more obscure ways of doing things. They also have an insight into how the finished model needs to behave, as though someone is actually going to make something. Not like a house made from a push/pull solid block! • Great! • They are very easy to adapt to my classroom instruction plans. Clarity Clear intention and performance very interesting,direct to the point • Very easy to follow.
• I like the topics. They are pretty original. • Quick they are well done • Well explained. • Clear and concise. • Well thought out. • Easy to understand. • Good approach, easy to follow, offer basic information. • The easy teaching style. • simplicity in the complex • Clear, straight forward instruction • The way that you take your time teaching. and having to go back every once in a while. • I am finally learning how to use Sketchup efficiently.
• They show you what they want to show in a short period of time, what is very important these days. • They are relevant and easy to follow. • Some of the tutorials are significant to me and what I am doing at the time. • Everything • They are easy to follow and learn from • very useful tips • terms/concepts are explained well. • Very informative clean and crispy • user-friendly and well presented • Easy to follow, good narration, experienced teacher • Easy to understand • They are a good information source
• They are fairly clear and reasonable to follow Information. • They helped me learn the basics. • There has been an answer (so far) for almost every modeling question I've had. • Breaking down complex topics simply (like scaling) plugins and sketchup technique • Easy to understand and follow • They're generally thorough • Well put together • The straight forward professional approach. • Very well done and very understandable. • explains new ways to do things in SU
• Is hands on and treats things I find difficult to find • They are easy to follow. • That I can understand what you are teaching! • Sequence and development easy to understand, simple language and clearly when speaking. • Clear and concise, easily understood by beginners (like me!) • The clarity and simplicity of the explanations. • They are thoughtful and complete. • They don't assume that the student has any prior knowledge about the subject. • They are easy to follow • I think you have a great site and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and expertise with me.
My tutorials are frequently featured by the official SketchUp social media pages.
SketchUp even personally invited me to World Maker Faire in New York to help answer questions at their booth.
Here’s a picture of me with John Bacus, the SketchUp Product Manager. (Both wearing awesome limited edition SketchUp T-Shirts.)
In addition to creating tutorials on MasterSketchUp, I have also been asked to speak at numerous conferences about SketchUp. I have taught SketchUp one-on-one, in private groups, as well as large conference groups of over 100 people.
I was actually a carpenter by trade who just had a natural passion for design. I love architecture and carpentry! Any time I would go into a new restaurant or building with my wife I’d immediately look all around at how everything was built. I’d visualize in my head all the different steps that were needed to build it. It’s just habit.
So now, with all the great feedback I’ve received about my SketchUp tutorials, I wanted to do something even more amazing to help my fellow woodworkers, carpenters, architects, contractors, builders, and designers learn LayOut.
Download the Table of Contents
The SketchUp to LayOut book is the essential guide for woodworkers, carpenters, architects, contractors, builders, and designers
who already know the basics on how to use SketchUp, but are looking to create stunning presentations to visualize
their ideas with their clients using LayOut.
The Ebook version is a 314 page instant digital download (PDF, EPUB, MOBI 33MB) that you can view right on your computer, tablet, or ipad. Each chapter and section is bookmarked for easy navigation, and all hyperlinks in the book are just a click away.
UPDATE: SketchUp to LayOut is now available in paperback! Due to popular demand, I've now made the book available in both digital and physical formats. If you want both, just choose the Professional Package and you'll get the ebook instantly and the paperback shipped to you. Free US shipping is included.
SketchUp to LayOut has received countless 5 star reviews on Amazon. Read them here, right on Amazon.
Here are a few selected reviews:
I am an architect trained in AutoCAD. Developing a familiarity many years ago with Sketchup as a design tool, took no small amount of effort, due largely to the fact that the two software's have many differences. Over the years I have utilized Sketchup mainly as a design/presentation tool. However, in the last few years I have tried to familiarize myself with sketchup in the Construction Document Phase of a project - hence Sketchup to Layout! Working with Layout quickly manifested future alienation from AutoCAD's process. Purchasing and working through Matt Donley's "Sketchup to Layout" book has lessened the learning curve - something one cannot bill the client for!
This book is most helpful for beginners as well as more seasoned users of Sketchup/Layout. Text as well as graphics explain a presented process in a most user friendly manner. The format of text, graphics, illustrations, tips, etc. flows easily & logically from the book. Presented material is bundled and categorized in a manner that allows for ease of study as well as present & future reference. I particularly appreciated the "step-by-step" method of presentation of a given subject.
The author seems to have a excellent grasp of knowledge with Sketchup as well as Layout, particularly when comparing this book with many other books on similar subject(s).
I would highly recommend this book to any professional in any applicable field as well as a non-professional utilizing the software for a personal application.
John L. Demers, Architect AIA
Matt's guide for using Sketchup and Layout has been an invaluable reference tool for my drawing projects. I use Sketchup as a general contractor and draftsman drawing plans for simple home additions, new home construction, kitchen cabinets, and furniture.
I wish I would have had a tool like this when I began using Sketchup in 2008 (it would have saved me a lot of time!), but I am constantly learning new stuff from this book. Setting up a model in Sketchup for importing into Layout is not as easy as one would think. Matt helps you establish good habits to make importing into Layout easy, good looking, and as seamless as possible.
This book is a great investment if you are using Sketchup in your business. I highly recommend this book for every level of user, from those brand new to the software to those well advanced users, there is stuff to learn for all. I look forward to future books and tutorials published by Matt Donley.
-Aearrinn
I have have been a SketchUp user since it was first released by @Last, well before they were bought by Google. As a full-time woodworker, SketchUp is indispensable to me. When LayOut was introduced as a part of the SketchUp Pro package, I could see it's potential benefit in preparing client presentations for my custom furniture designs, but somehow it's connection to SketchUp was a bit too obscure & confusing to me.
I bought Matt Donley's ebook several months ago & it opened up a whole new world in the use of SketchUp. Matt is a natural educator & he knows his subject extremely well. SketchUp To LayOut covers LayOut and its integration with SketchUp thoroughly and in a well-ordered, step-by-step manner that is comprehensive and easy to follow. In addition, Matt covers several functions of SketchUp that I had never fully understood.
After reading his book, I upgraded to include the accompanying videos. These are excellent as well!
-Gerry Kmack
Before you even begin modeling that first rectangle, you'll need to fully understand which type of model you should be building for LayOut. Don't make the mistake of creating twice the amount of work for yourself because you didn't properly organize your model ahead of time.
I'll teach you how to save time and frustration by organizing your model so YOU are in control of how your model viewports look.
The entire first half of the book is dedicated to preparing your model for LayOut. From organizational workflow, to scenes and styles. I share with you my 5 point method I use to visualize and prepare every scene I create for LayOut.
Not only will you understand exactly what those five points are, you'll learn multiple ways to control them. Using these methods, you will gain complete control over the look of your viewports in LayOut. You will master every aspect of a SketchUp scene and style, to enable you to create impressive presentations and drawings in the least amount of time possible.
"There are many people in the world today that have an exceptional grasp at how to use Sketchup and Layout. If you want that knowledge imparted on to yourself, there are very few people that can do that. Teaching effectively is an art that Matt Donley has mastered. His venture into teaching Sketchup is aptly named "Master Sketchup". In his inaugural book he does a fantastic job at delivering his breadth of knowledge to readers of all levels of skill. If you get this book, you will become more productive, and you'll be able to produce amazing results using Sketchup and LayOut."
This book is designed for construction professionals who don't have any prior experience in LayOut at all. But it's also structured in a way that lets you look up specific tasks or methods without having to read the book cover to cover. I’ll save you all the time and frustration that I went through when I first learned LayOut by quickly orienting you with the workspace, then jumping right in to creating your own titleblock, inserting SketchUp models, and adding dimensions.
You should have some basic knowledge on how to use SketchUp. But if you're just starting out, you'll have complete access to my entire library of tutorials and videos for free on my website to bring you up to speed quickly.
Every important aspect of LayOut is explained in the book, with step by step instructions for you to follow along. Learn exactly what you need to know and skip over all the little details you don’t need to worry about. The book has been updated for 2014 so you'll even learn about the new Auto-Text tag feature, saving you a ton of time on those redundant text edits.
Here’s an example page from the book that gives you step by step instructions on how to insert a linear dimension in LayOut. All of the instructional content in the book is laid out, step by step so you don't miss anything:
The sample projects in the book are real projects, not hypothetical meaningless shapes and boxes, so you can see exactly how to apply the concepts you learn in context with the real world. Plus, the SketchUp and LayOut files are included with each book download so you’ll be able to follow along and discover for yourself how to organize a similar project of your own. The sample projects include a woodworking table project, a kitchen project, and a three story house project.
At the same time, each step by step instruction can be read and followed independently from the project. So if you need to go back and reference a certain part of the book to learn how to do something specific, you'll be able to do that too.
I’ve consulted with many of the best SketchUp gurus in the world! I’ve hung out with Nick Sonder at the SketchUp basecamp conference. I’ve interviewed Aidan Chopra, SketchUp evangelist and author of “Google SketchUp for Dummies”, Eric Schimelpfenig from SketchThis.net, and Alexander Schreyer, author of “Architectural Design with SketchUp”. I’ve also consulted with Daniel Tal, author of “Rendering In SketchUp”, and many other great SketchUp experts.
"Matt at MasterSketchup is an outstanding resource for learning the essential skills and techniques in both Sketchup and Layout. Matt's ability to present in a clear, concise manner allows you to expand your repertoire in both modeling and eventual presentation in Layout. Matt provides an array of interactive learning, from his YouTube channel, personal interaction, and of course his most recent outstanding work, "Sketchup to Layout". For anyone looking to move up to Sketchup from the rigors of ACAD, I highly recommend MasterSketchup as an invaluable resource in the architectural community."
By consulting with the best SketchUp gurus in the world, I’m able to find and extract all of the best methods for using SketchUp and LayOut for a variety of different types of projects. From them, I’ve created easy to follow, step by step workflows for some of the best tricks and secrets in the SketchUp universe. You’ll learn multiple ways to create section cuts, apply hatches to surfaces, manage section cuts, control line weights and more.
There are a ton of plugins (aka extensions) available for SketchUp these days. The trouble is, how do you know which ones are worth the time to download and try out? In the book, I’ve hand picked a small number of plugins that I find essential to my workflow and save me a ton of time.
I'll also introduce you to how dynamic components can increase your modeling speed. Although we don't go into any of the how-to, I show you a few examples of how dynamic components can be helpful in your projects.
"There's a huge amount of work in this publication. I like the unprecedented level of detail in relation to LayOut, encompassing the new features and the vast amount of exercises you have made available. This should be hugely valuable to professionals who want to really get to grips with SketchUp Pro."
If you’re serious about transforming your sketches into stunning presentations, you’ll need some tools. In the Professional Package, you’ll get the SketchUp to LayOut ebook available for instant download, the paperback version shipped to you, along with a complete set of tools, including:
When printing out construction documents on paper, sometimes it's hard to distinguish materials that are textured to look like their "real-world" counterpart. Especially when creating section cuts, it's very important to be able to clearly communicate the type of material each space represents. That's why in most standard CAD programs, you'll find a set of standard hatch patterns for common types of materials.
In SketchUp, there aren't too many of these types of materials built in. That's why I created these custom CAD "styled" hatch patterns. They have a unique "sketchy" style to them, so they will stand out from drawings created from a traditional CAD program.
These are included with the Professional Package in two different formats, so you can use them however you'd like. Use them in LayOut as patterns, or use them in SketchUp as materials. They'll help you communicate more clearly, and you'll save on ink when printing your construction documents because of their simple style.
If you're a woodworker, using a set of high quality wood materials in your models can set your drawings apart from the rest. With the Professional Package, you'll get 7 high quality wood materials to use in your models.
These materials were created from a high resolution flat-bed scan of real wood veneer panels, so there is no lens distortion in the image at all. They were then professionally edited by a graphic artist to make the materials seamless. They can be tiled along large surfaces with no discernable seams from the image. Veneer types include bamboo, birch, maple, plain cut oak, rift cut oak, and steamed beech.
Styles can create unique effects when you pair them up with a watermark. You can finally make your edges appear dashed, or you can apply a hatch pattern to your entire model without having to change the materials on any of the faces. In the Professional Package, you'll also get 44 custom styles that you can use in your models to create these effects with one click.
Many of the styles are the same patterns included in the CAD Hatch style material pack, so it gives you an additional option on how to apply them to your model.
For any residential or commercial architect, having a set of electrical and HVAC symbols is essential for creating fully annotated drawings. Unfortunately, LayOut does not come with any electrical symbols built-in.
With this package, you'll have a full library of electrical outlets, switches, light fixtures, data, and HVAC symbols for you to drag and drop into your LayOut document.
When you purchase the Professional Package, you also get the Mask/Break scrapbook collection that will allow you to create break lines over your viewports that automatically create a mask over the object as well. You'll get exclusive discounts to Sketchucation's premium membership site. The Professional Package is a complete offer that includes the SketchUp to LayOut book. It's the best choice for those looking to add a powerful set of tools to their SketchUp and LayOut arsenal.
If you purchase a package from me and find that it doesn’t live up to your expectations, simply write me an email at Matt@mastersketchup.com and I’ll issue you a 100% refund on your purchase. If your package includes the paperback version of the book, just pay return shipping. I want you to be completely satisfied, nothing less.
" I find your SketchUp tips and tutorials extremely valuable, well prepared and just the right speed for an old woodworker to understand. The ‘Guides’ and ‘Scaling’ tips are two that really helped."
"As a five year SketchUp user and a 3D modeling and printing teacher, I have found Matt's MasterSketchUp tutorials and training vital for me and my students. He has an easy to learn format which can help any level of SketchUp user. Most recently I have been utilizing his tips for 3D printing within my classroom as we complete a scale model of our town's historic district. I look forward to diving into his SketchUp Layout and am happy to have access for myself and my students. Matt's easy to follow writings and videos really works to help anyone improve their 3D modeling skills".
"I have found your tips and tutorials
incredibly helpful, and they inspired me to give Sketchup a second chance! I am still grappling with the basics, but motivated to get beyond this - it will be so useful for my work to be 'fluent' in Sketchup!"
"This guy (Matt Donley) knows what it's all about. His videos demonstrate a thorough understanding - not just of woodworking, but of using Sketchup to produce detailed, dimensioned, scaleable, working drawings and not just in 2D either! Matt explains in his detailed tutorials how to produce a variety of 3D models. By following his instructions you can accelerate an already easy learning process and actually BUILD your project as a COMPLETE, DETAILED, 3 DIMENSIONAL model, and iron out all the wrinkles - before you even pick up your tools."
"I've been using SketchUp for about two years. It's an amazingly easy program to use. I once had a problem when I needed to print to scale and that's when I found MasterSketchUp on YouTube. I'm always looking for more of his tutorials. I'm really looking forward to his book. Thanks Matt!"