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Coming from SketchUp

SketchUp's mouse, keys and inference work in Stori3D. Here's how the tools map across and how to bring SketchUp models in.

Stori3D uses SketchUp's controls on purpose: its mouse, its default shortcuts, its inference keys and its Measurements box. Pick Architect when Stori3D asks how you work (or switch from the top bar): it has SketchUp's menus and toolbars too. See Quick and Architect.

Find SketchUp's menus and toolbars

In Architect:

  • The menus are SketchUp's: File, Edit, View, Camera, Draw, Tools, Window and Help. When the bar is short of room, Window, then Tools, Draw and Camera, fold into More menus.
  • View → Toolbars… ticks SketchUp's toolbars on or off and docks each one: Getting Started and Stori3D's Building start along the top, and there are Large Tool Set, Principal, Drawing, Edit, Construction, Camera, Views, Section, Solid Tools and Sandbox.
  • Window opens panels by SketchUp's names: Model Info (the Project panel), Entity Info (Properties), Materials, Components, Styles, Tags, Scenes (saved views), Shadows (Site, at Sun & shadows) and Outliner (the Scene panel). Preferences is the Settings panel.
  • Stori3D's own building tools are in Draw → Building and on the Building toolbar, where an extension's would be. There's no Extensions menu.
  • Purge unused stays in Edit, rather than in Model Info.
  • The status bar along the bottom keeps the Measurements box on, as SketchUp's does.

Use SketchUp's keys

These are SketchUp's default shortcuts, and they work here. Below, Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) is written as Ctrl, and Alt is Option on a Mac.

  • Draw: Space Select, L Line, R Rectangle, C Circle, A Arc, F Offset, P Push/Pull, E Eraser, B Paint Bucket, T Tape Measure.
  • Modify: M Move, Q Rotate, S Scale, G Make component, Ctrl+G group, Ctrl+Shift+G explode.
  • Camera: O Orbit, H Pan, Z Zoom, Shift+Z Zoom extents, Shift+W Zoom window, Alt+1 to Alt+7 standard views, Page Up and Page Down for the previous and next saved view.
  • Edit: Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z redo, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V copy and paste in place, Ctrl+D duplicate, Delete erase, Ctrl+A select all.

Stori3D adds its own building tools on letters SketchUp leaves free: W Walls, D Door, N Window and X Section cut.

Help → Keyboard shortcuts shows every command with its keys on one card. Click Print for a paper copy.

To change a key, go to Settings → Keyboard shortcuts → Change shortcuts. Reset all goes back to SketchUp's keys, and Export and Import move yours to another browser.

Make your own toolbar

In Settings → My toolbar, turn on Show my toolbar for a bar of SketchUp's usual tools down the side of the view. Dock it Left, Top or Right, put the tools in your order with the arrows, take some off, and Add a tool from any command. It's kept in this browser, and Reset my toolbar starts again.

Search for any command

Press Shift+S (or Help → Search commands) and type part of a name: rectangle, zoom, walls. This is also how you reach commands that have no key, as in SketchUp: Protractor, Tag tool and Purge unused.

Draw with inference

  • Hold Shift to lock the direction the inference shows.
  • If red and green are hard to tell apart, Settings → Axis and inference colours has Colour-blind safe and High contrast sets, or pick your own colours for each axis, for corners and midpoints, and for edges.
  • The arrow keys lock an axis: right for east–west (red), left for north–south (green), up for vertical (blue). Down locks parallel or perpendicular to the last edge you passed over.
  • Pass over an edge, then head the same way or square to it, and the line holds to it (magenta).
  • Tap Alt (⌘ on a Mac) to turn snapping off and on.

The Measurements box sits at the bottom right of the view. Right after an operation, type a new value and press Enter to redo it with that value, as one undo step. Typed forms include <x,y,z> and [x,y,z] in Move, and 5x or /5 for arrays.

Find the tools you know

  • Line, Rectangle, Circle, Arc, Polygon and Freehand are in the Shape tool, and SketchUp's Polygon is Regular polygon there. See Shapes and push/pull.
  • Lasso Select is on the right-click menu as Lasso select: drag a loop clockwise for what's wholly inside it, or anticlockwise for anything it touches.
  • Follow Me and Offset are the Follow me and Offset buttons in the Shape tool's bar.
  • Architect Solid Tools are under Tools → Solid tools: Union, Subtract, Trim, Intersect, Outer shell and Split, and on the Solid Tools toolbar.
  • Quick Solid tools are under Edit → More → Solid tools.
  • Architect Flip Along and Mirror are Tools → Flip along and Tools → Mirror.
  • Quick they're under Edit → More, and on the right-click menu as Flip east–west and Flip north–south.
  • Hide, Isolate and Select by tag or material are on the right-click menu. See Move, rotate and scale.
  • Generate Report is File → Schedules → Reports…, and LayOut's pattern fills, line styles, auto-text labels and clipped detail views are in the 2D drawings and Sheets. See Plans, sections and elevations and Sheets.
  • Glue To and Cut Opening are Glue to a wall and Cut an opening on a group or component. See Groups, components and tags.
  • Tags have their own Tags panel, with folders. The Scene panel is the Outliner.
  • Scenes are saved views, Styles are under the Shading chip, and Match Photo is Views → Match a photo…. See Styles and scenes.
  • Architect Styles are also View → Face style, View → Edge style and Window → Styles, and Match Photo is Camera → Match a photo….
  • Entity Info is the Properties panel.
  • Architect the Ruby Console is Window → Script console, in JavaScript: stori3d is the same API as the browser console and AI agents use (see AI agents).
  • Quick it's More → Advanced → Script console on the toolbar.
  • Snaps are More tools → Connection points. See Groups, components and tags.
  • Style Builder's hand-drawn lines are Strokes in the Style panel. Scan Essentials' point clouds come in through Import model as LAS. See Importing.

Know what's different

  • Ctrl+T and Ctrl+Shift+W belong to the browser. Use Esc or Ctrl+Shift+A to select none, and Shift+W for Zoom window, as in SketchUp for Web.
  • Faces and edges live inside solids. Double-click a solid to open it and work on its faces and edges.
  • Walls, doors, windows, roofs and stairs are building elements with their own settings, not loose geometry. You change their size in the Properties panel.

Bring in a SketchUp model

Stori3D can't open .skp files, because the format isn't public. Export from SketchUp as COLLADA instead, and its materials, textures, groups and components come across.

  1. In SketchUp on your computer, choose File › Export › 3D Model, then COLLADA File (.dae). Keep texture maps, two-sided faces and component hierarchies on.
  2. From 3D Warehouse, choose Download, then Collada File. Drop the .zip in as it is.
  3. Drop the .dae and its texture folder on the view, or use File → Import model….

File → Bring in a SketchUp model… shows these steps in the app. The model lands on the current level as one group. More in Importing.

Still stuck? Contact us, or ask in the app: Help → Contact support.