Originally posted here.
The last time I used SketchUp to recreate a building, it was an experience marked by frustration. Now, as a slightly skilled novice, I have to admit it was still frustrating. Expecting to get a lot further than I did, beginning to recreate Boliou through Photo Match was not easy.
I expected Photo Matching to be easier than Free Form Modeling because essentially the entire blueprint is made ready for you with a little added information. But because Boliou has several building blocks to create one larger building, I became confused quickly. Also, the picture I used was not from the most prime angle.
Other than running into small frustrations along the way, such as “Why does my building decide to get rid of a wall when I use push-pull?” I did have triumphs like when I figured out why it decided to do that. Also, I was extremely proud of being able to finally copy the windows the way Austin taught us during class (I was confused during..)
3D buildings are a lot more shapely than they same. Even if it’s a huge cube, that building has a lot going for it. There are a lot of factors that play into designing and constructing – even through a digital platform.
And does this exercise add to the scholarship? I think it does. It’s perhaps a different layer of scholarship, not one that is visibly pedagogical but doing this allows the digital builder to understand the building better. We are able to get a more dimensional (pun intended) view on how the building was built and even why it was built that way.
Hopefully my next session with Sketchup: Boliou Edition will be a bit more successful!
Hi,
I also had struggles similar to yours, so I can definitely relate! For instance, I had a problem when pushing and pulling a wall worked differently. Whenever I used push, my wall would disappear, which is weird because pulling worked fine.
I had a lot of trouble with photo-matching as well, simply because my building didn’t have a lot of available photos from the angles that I wanted. However, it looks like you were able to get a basic model foundation done to build on. I think you make a good point about how Sketchup may not let the viewer see all the information, but really helps the virtual builders understand what’s going on!