Common Sculpt Controls

The following controls can be used for the sculpt tools:

Performing a Brush Stroke

To use a brush tool, either click and release or click and drag across the mesh.  The brush tools only work if you able to select individual faces.  The tools will not work through groups and components.  Using the Select Tool, double-click groups and components until you are able to select individual faces.  Now you can use the Sculpt Tools.

Changing Brushes

Brushes can be changed using the brush settings drop-down, by activating the tool from the toolbar, or by using the right-click context menu (when a brush tool is currently active).

Brush Size

• Key-in brush radius in the measurements box
• [ or left arrow = Tap to Decrease brush size.
• ] or right arrow = Tap Increase brush size. 
• Hold square bracket or right / left arrows and move mouse up or down to change brush size
• Hold CTRL and move mouse wheel to change brush size
• Set brush radius using Brush Settings Dialog
• Enable the 'Pixels' switch to set the brush size in pixels (screen space) instead of world coordinates

Brush Strength

• Up Arrow = Tap to Increase Strength
• Down Arrow = Tap to Decrease Strength
• Hold up or down arrow keys and move mouse up or down to change strength
• CTRL = Invert Strength
• Hold CTRL + SHIFT and move mouse wheel to change strength value.
• Strength value and invert toggle can also be changed using Brush Settings Dialog

Detail Size

• Detail Size = Edges larger than the detail size may be split when sculpting if the Add Detail switch is enabled.  Edges smaller than the detail size will never be split.
• Add (Detail) = Automatically split edges to add more detail when sculpting

Symmetry

Click the Symmetry button to create a mirrored component of the active mesh.  The component will always be mirrored about the current origin and red-axis.  If you want to mirror about a different location and axis, first modify the axes using the native SketchUp Axes Tool.

Auto-Smooth

When enabled, this feature will automatically relax vertices after each brush stroke.

Lock Boundary

When enabled, boundary vertices (vertices along a surface border) stay locked in place and are not affected by sculpting tools.

Smooth Normals

Soften and Smooth all edges of the active geometry

Optimize Mesh

When enabled, edge-flipping will be used to improve the mesh quality during brush-strokes.  Note that this can impact performance.

Sculpt Shading

Uses dynamic shadow settings to facilitate organic sculpting

Display Edges

Show or Hide Edges (including soft edges)