Modeling My House

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I found using SketchUp pretty intuitive to use. It took many steps to make the basic shape of the house. To do this, I

  • first started building my house with a rectangle for the main part of the house
  • used the move tool to create the roof over the main part of the house
  • had to figure out how to build the garage and the part of the roof that bulges out
  • ended up extruding a rectangle on the roof and then drawing shapes to take out material to make the shape I desired
  • made a separate rectangle and extruded it for the beginning of the garage
  • used the move tool to create the roof on the garage side
  • finished the front side of the house by making the overhang by starting with a rectangle, extruding it, and taking out the unnecessary material
  • extruded a rectangle for the porch and then used the move tool to create the roof
  • added the deck by extruding one last rectangle

Now that the basic shape of the house was done, it was time to add textures to the house. I

  • drew lines on the faces to create the desired shapes for doors, windows, and a garage door
  • added in textures to the house including brick, wood, windows, roofing tiles, screen, and a door
  • deleted unwanted lines that were left over from positioning the feature

I was surprised on how well SketchUp portrayed the different textures of the house, as they almost seemed real. The roof was the hardest part of the house to make because it was hard to get the desired shape of the roof. It was difficult to make the parts of the roof that jet out over the front of the house. I had to compromise on the roof by making the shape of the roof simpler so I could figure out how to build it in SketchUp. TIP: To make shapes that are irregular, start with extruding a rectangle or a square. Then cut down the unnecessary material by drawing shapes and extruding the other way to achieve the desired shape.

Overall, using SketchUp was pretty easy and I didn’t have any major difficulties. I enjoyed using SketchUp and hope to continue to learn all of the features that SketchUp has to offer.

nardij

One Comment

  1. Your tip on how to model complex geometry by starting with a basic shape and whittling down is a good one. Starting from geometric primitives” is the standard for many 3D modeling packages and works well. I’m glad you found SketchUp pretty easy and intuitive, and your results look good.

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