Importing Site Plans

Fig. 7-1: A hand-drawn site plan scanned into SketchUp for use with the chapter tutorial.

Importing Site Plans

SketchUp lets you import several standard image formats: JPEG images (.jpg), tagged images (.tif), bitmap images (.bmp), and Portable Network Graphic images (.png). When you use a site plan, make sure it was scanned or saved in a compatible image format.

To import an image, go to File > Import and select the file extension that supports the plan image. Several options will appear to the right of the file import screen. Select the Use As Image option. Click Open and the image will appear in SketchUp. You’ll have to place and size the image for SketchUp.

Place the plan image at the 0 insertion point of the drawing axes, much the same as you did with the initial rectangle for the Flatwork Base in Chapter 6 (Fig. 7-2). Once the insertion point is selected, you’ll need to size the plan. Simply click and drag the image and left-click to select the final size. The plan image won’t be scaled, but you’ll learn how to do that later in the chapter. Fig. 7-2: Inserting and scaling a plan.