Creating Sections
You can take sections of your model easily in SketchUp either to help in your editing of the model or to export as illustrative sections for a presentation.

Use the section plane tool ("add section plane") to cut a section so you can easily edit within forms in your model. The section plane, when selected, can be moved and rotated and scaled. You can use the toggle section tools to go back and forth between your section cut and the rest of the model as well as displaying the section cut plane.

You can export your section in two ways: raster and vector. Choose File > Export > 2-D Graphic and save the file (you can choose the image file type). Then use the image in any graphic design program. This is a raster file.

You can export the section as a vector file into CAD by choosing File > Export > Section Slice. You can then save the file as a .dwg or .dxf, which are both AutoCAD files.

Capturing Views
You can capture various views of your model by exporting as 2-D graphics (raster image files) or 3-D models (AutoCAD and .vrml files). You can position the camera tool to lock down a consistent viewpoint (think about how you could do a shadow study -- almost like time lapse -- by capturing a series of raster images from a set location during different times of the day or year using the shadow settings).

Making a Slideshow
You can make a slide show by creating "pages" within your SketchUp document. Do this by going to View > Tourguide > Add Page. Once you have more than one page, you can run a slideshow of your pages by going to View > Tourguide > Play slideshow. Think about how handy this would be for a presentation!

Making an Animation
You can also make animations of your model. This is a somewhat complicated process, but can definitely be learned. The best way to do so is to refer to the help files directly in SketchUp. Look up "Animation Export Basics."

SketchUp File Type
When you save your SketchUp file, the file type is .skp. Make sure that you always save your original SketchUp model no matter how many times you export 2-D or 3-D images of it. It would be a real shame if you had to rebuild your entire model again! No brainer, right? You'd be surprised!