Google SketchUp 7 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)),   ISBN:9780470277393

Customer Rating: 

I'm learning Sketchup so I can use it for a project in a foundation art-design class. I want my students and myself to have a solid grounding in the basics so we can use the program in more expressive ways.

This book provides a clearly written, step by step guide for beginning users or for more experienced users who want to improve their skills. There are plenty of simple examples and enough more complex constructions to whet your appetite if you're interested in going further.

It's like having a very helpful person right at your side who can give you a solid grounding in the basics. I found Sketchup really frustrating when I was just exploring it by myself, because I was bringing too many assumptions from my past drawing experience. This book helped me understand how and why Sketchup works the way it does. It's helping me to "think" in Sketchup more easily.

And for me, I really appreciate having a written text so that I can try things on the screen and then be able to easily check the text for tips or further instructions. It's just less stressful than having to constantly pause a video. Plus, having page references is an easier way to refresh my memory than searching for an online tutorial and then finding the right section.

I'm going to recommend it to my students.

Customer Rating: 

I am so glad I bought this book. I had played around with SketchUp for months but always got frustrated when things didn't work the way I thought they should. Within the first few chapters of this book the light bulb went on and I finally 'got it.'

The only reason I did not give it 5 stars it that I felt some of the examples 'skipped' steps... I often found myself needing to page back several times because something seemed to be missing something between step "A" and "B"... a bit frustrating but not a big deal. I think the author just assumes your going to do little intermediate steps on your own.

If you really want a great foundation for using this amazing software - start here.

Customer Rating: 

This SketchUP 7 for Dummies book is a good basic intro to SketchUP, but does not cover any intermediate or advanced topics or skills (except it does cover "Photo Match" modeling from photos OK). If you bought his previous book, (not a "Dummies" book) on SketchUP 6 you probably need not buy this book... this is virtually that book, word for word, and picture by picture (It was pretty good too), with just a little bit of new info on things like Dynamic Components. I wish the book went just a little deeper into the topics covered...its a bit too surface in coverage. It also does not cover some entire aspects of both the FREE as well as the PRO versions. The biggest weakness of this book (and his previous book) is the quality of the illustrations. These COULD be very good and helpful. They are primarily screen shots of the program in use. However they are so small, low contrast, and fuzzy that the important info supposedly being conveyed is hard to glean. SketchUP works so easy because of clever, simple use of COLOR, THICKNESS and DASHES etc of lines... these are crucial to use (and see). The illustrations fail to capture these well. As screen shots it would have been very easy to spend a few seconds with each image in a simple image editor enhancing contrast, etc. The writing style is friendly, easy to understand, and clear. IF the images were handled better, and larger, this would be an EXCELLENT beginning intro book; as it is, it is GOOD book.

Customer Rating: 

easy reading. Above the all it has the videos on youtube for each chapters. so far the best computer book I have.

Customer Rating: 

Not only is this a great book for beginners who have discovered SketchUp -- and who want a companion to the YouTube videos and other tutorials online, but it also is good for those of us who teach SketchUp to others. The book contains many great examples that "connect" so easily with audiences.

I recommend this book to each and every person who attends one of my seminars.

Hopefully, this will be the launching pad for many new SketchUp users in the "community" so we will have multiplied resources and solutions to share with one another.