My First SketchUp Experience

At first, getting familiar with SketchUp was a challenge for me, as I have next to know experience with modeling or computers in general.  However, after the tutorials and fiddling around with all of the tools for awhile, I was able to discover how I could use certain functions to piece together a rough model of my house.  It was not as bad as I expected, mostly because I used the rectangle and extruding tools liberally instead of more complicated functions. However, I could not figure out how to set dimensions because for some reason my laptop was not letting me input numbers as the tutorial showed.  I also had difficulty with changing shapes I had already made. For instance, I made the front of the house too tall and I just wanted to scooch it down a little bit instead of draw a whole new shape. I could not figure out how and had to instead draw a line bisecting the front, delete the top section, then redraw a rectangle over the top for a roof. I had to adjust some elements of my house and compromised adherence to its actual dimensions. Furthermore, the scale of my house in relation to its other parts were not accurate.  A tool I found helpful was the eraser, as it allowed e to quickly clean up areas of my house I deleted. I believe a good use of this technology lies in its accessibility. A common problem with trying to solve problems in communities such as water restriction or lack of recreation centers is that outsiders come in with designs they have created and don’t actually listen to the needs of community members. Instead, if these community members got basic training with SketchUp, they could design rough versions of the changes they would like to make in certain areas of their community and collaborate with outside designers. This would more effectively and accurately address problems and insight positive change.