Axes – orienting in our Model

All versions of SketchUp organize the Drawing Area in Three-Dimensional space using an x/y/z coordinate system. This system, also known as the 3D Cartesian coordinate system, keeps track of all SketchUp geometry by assigning each endpoint to a coordinate. Of course, endpoints are at the ends of Edges, and Edges bound Faces, so endpoints are involved in all SketchUp Geometry! These points are assigned an x-, y-, and z-coordinate so that they can be found relative to 0, 0, 0 (or the model Origin), as well as the other endpoints and other geometry in the model.

Note

There is some complicated math happening every time an Edge or Face is created, especially when the Edit Tools are used! It is a good thing that SketchUp Pro takes care of this math for us!

SketchUp helps us understand this 3D environment by including the Axes in the Drawing Area:

Figure 2.24: Image of Axes

These Axes are color-coded so that we can quickly...