A Difficult Introduction to SketchUP 3D
Looking back on my first experience with SketchUP, the only thing that I can think about to really describe the experience would be frustration. A lot of it.
I began by attempting to utilize the web version of the application on my laptop, only to discover that it was essentially inoperable. I wasn’t able to move my view around and attempting to complete designs using the trackpad was an exercise in futility. I only began to gain some progress after beginning to utilize a desktop.
Personally, even after getting situated with the tool on a desktop, I still found it difficult to use. My experience with three-dimensional design is essentially concentrated on the use of Autodesk Inventor; in relation to that I found SketchUP (at least the free version) to be clunky and limited in functionality and capabilities.
I had a hard time getting a hang of the tools available and their respective capabilities and limitations. I found the distribution of tools, their abilities and limitations to be rather confusing and sometimes rather irritating. This feeling became more and more apparent as I continued in the design and discovered that there were somethings that I could simply not do (or had yet to discover how) or would have to go through extra steps to complete, that I would easily be capable of in Inventor.
I couldn’t figure out how to develop a perfect cone to put on the top of the cylindrical aspects of my home, and therefore I had to settle for the misshapen ones I was able to come up with. I also still can’t understand how SketchUP processes it’s structures. To the point where completed structures could be erased, by the erasure of an added line (a line that had been added following the building of the structure).
The only tip that I can think of to offer any other new users of SketchUP is to be imaginative and creative. The way I see it is that the variety of tools and the capabilities with them are rather constraining and the intuitiveness also being rather low, you’ve got to work with what you’ve got and what you know. Sometimes that may result in just drawing features on (such as the sliding door on my roof); but ultimately you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to attain your end product.
Humanistically, I think SketchUP and other tools like it could be a great tool to use in the field of teaching a research. These tools have the ability to bring historical buildings to life and in front of students allowing them to be engaged on entirely new level with the material. In the field of research, these tools could allow us to review variances in historical accounts; allowing them to all be readily available or as a tool to identify the correct account
