At first, using SketchUp was fairly simple. Making the rectangles and raising them up mimicked video games I have played in the past so I felt comfortable with that aspect. Making the angled part of my house that sticks out provided a bit of a challenge. I used the line tool, but I wanted the sides to be equal and found that that was more difficult to achieve. I wound up using the scale in the bottom right corner to type in a specific length and then adjusted the direction once the line was in place.
I also struggled with the roof. The line would only move side to side, not up, and I had to find a new way to create the roof. I created a vertical rectangle and used the line tool to trim it into a triangle then pulled it from there. I’m sure there was an easier way to do this, but I found that this worked and then once I had a basic shape I just started pulling on corners and edges to match the shape of my house.
I found the most helpful tool to be the offset tool, especially for making detailed windows and doors. Double-clicking inside a new rectangle created a smaller rectangle the same size as the one in the previous rectangle and this saved me a lot of time trying to eyeball it or type specific lengths.
I could see SketchUp being used to re-create old, historical buildings. It would be interesting to study buildings from photos and texts that have started to collapse or have been fully demolished. These buildings could then be re-imagined as a 3D model which could survive weathering and be accessible online.
2 replies on “Using SketchUp”
Nice work! Thanks for explaining how you made your roof, I struggled making my roof with my house and your instructions give me ideas on how I could change mine.
Nice house Brooke! Roofs can be very challenging, particularly if they are not regular, so I’m very impressed with your efforts over that bay window. A few more detailed views of the house to illustrate the specific challenge spots might have helped your readers more.