Following our 2021 release in November and a Studio release in April, we're pleased to announce some more updates to SketchUp. With this release, our aim is to improve the uniformity of how the tool works, increase workflow efficiency and take advantage of SketchUp's learnability. Read on for more information.
Changes to SketchUp's modeling modifiers
In SketchUp 2021.1, we've changed the way ten essential tools work in modifier states. For example, SketchUp's Move tool can also function as the Copy tool. And with a modifier, Push/Pull actions can create new faces in the extrusion. You can read all about the specific changes to each tool in the release notes, but here are the highlights:
Alternating modifiers
The most obvious change is that there are more tool modifiers with toggle behavior that can be activated and deactivated with the press of a key. This means fewer press-and-hold modifier interactions for tools and more predictable modeling results.
In any tool, you can identify which modifiers are available in the Status Bar (at the bottom of the screen) and confirm the current modified state of the tool by examining the cursor or modeling behavior on the screen. With more modifiers with toggle behavior, we believe it will be easier to change the tool's state before completing a particular operation.
Persistent modifiers
We now maintain the states of the modifier tools in various operations. This means that you can make multiple copies of objects with Move or hide edges with Erase in display changes with the Orbit tool.