I used to use SketchUp in middle school – and I struggled. Back then, I couldn’t make anything like this. I remember feeling very overwhelmed.
Now, it’s different. I am so excited by the prospects of creating and solving issues through using this application. Through the process of visualizing and building the house, I felt so creative.
I know the assignment was to draw my childhood house, but my memories are vague since I moved a lot. So instead of modeling one childhood house, I combined different aspects of various houses together and made them into one.
The Process: What is it like?
For all the houses, what I enjoyed was the simple rectangular sharp shapes, the abundance of windows for sunlight and the many different open spaces to enjoy. SketchUp allowed me to combine them all easily with the pop-up feature. In minutes, I had the structure of the house done.
The next thing I did was adding texture to the house structure-. I love plain glass windows from one of the houses I lived in, so I decided to use that, and as for the house exterior, it was brown-ish gray synthetic material on top of normal brick and cement. I did not like the solid colors, so I used this available format to best mimic what it was. The availability of these ready-made materials and textures – the 3D Warehouse – is such a time-saving tool. It took me about 10 minutes max to bring my bland house structure to one that looks realistic, holds personality and character.
The final thing I did was to add plants and greens to the place. The houses I lived in were out of the city, and so we had a lot of room for plants, and a front or back yard. Again, just a few clicks I got what I want.
What threw me off?
Now, I thought it was the final part but honestly, it took me 20 minutes to get everything together and 2 hours to fix details. I found it easy to start, but difficult to polish it.
Yup, 2 whole hours to:
- Align all the plants (it’s important, c’mon, half of one of my plants were 5 feet in the air *facepalm*)
- Make sure the windows and doors are popped out or in right, that they are aligned and erase all the unnecessary lines while making sure I don’t have the whole wall of the house gone while doing so.
- Check the dimensions and make sure it mimics the real life model(s)- I didn’t want a window barely fitting a face frame, and then my doors fit like 5 people at once.
Eventually, I compromise…
I could go on and on but I guess, at one point I decided to stop to just appreciate what I’ve learnt through the process. Comparing the beginning of house modeling to the end, I’ve learnt to fluidly view different dimensions, and adjust small-details without too much time (size, scale, location and direction).
As a starter, I’m pretty proud and can’t wait to learn more.
Where can SketchUp be useful?
I’d totally recommend SketchUp to just anyone really. It will be useful at one point in your life whether you’re:
- a student exploring concepts of exterior and interior design, trying to play with the idea of dimensions and scale, exploring the world of construction or simply envisioning your next big endeavor!
- a professor helping students understand applications of mathematics, physics and more (I know I would very much benefit from a visualized presentation and explanation from my professors in these fields.)
- someone trying to explain to civil engineers how you want your house to look like.
- someone trying to persuade your clients to pick your amazing design or simply just to show how small issues such as pipe leakage, electric system, child-safe hazards…etc could be solved.
One Tip!
As a starter myself, I don’t have any secret tips. I’d say just explore, most of the time, just have a plan. Plan how many floors you want, is there a staircase? Handrails? Jot it down!
If you can’t take that advice, this one works too. For me, discovering the sizing/moving tool early on would have helped me so much in making things fit better.
