Sketchup Free Basics

[Cheryll Witting]

3Dmodeling has become a crucial part of the modern woodworker's skill set. SketchUp is an intuitive 3d modeling tool that is easy to work with and once you master the fundamentals, it allows you to design at the speed of thought. We are going to go beyond the basics and dive into modeling complex shapes. While extensions exist for making some shapes, there's incredible value in attaining the skill set required to generate the shapes from scratch, much like our craft of woodworking.

Brian began his career in the trades when he was 13; he took an entry-level position working in a steel fabrication shop for a bridge construction company. Being the kid in the shop, the old grizzled welders took pride in teaching him how to weld, set up his work area to be safe and productive, build jigs for production, and how to properly lay out a workpiece from shop drawings.

All these years of designing and building things honed his skills to give him the confidence he needed to start his own business. In 2010 Brian started his design-build firm, Benham Design Concepts, specializing in designing and building custom furniture. His drive to learn new things has helped his portfolio grow and attract clients who are looking for the unusual.

Join Eric as he walks you through the process of how to model an existing building using nothing more than reference image. This process is an important given how many older buildings are in need of renovation or adaptive re-use.

This course focuses on the unique modeling, material and lighting strategies for interior spaces and rendering. We expand on the basics of V-Ray, so if you are new to rendering, start with our course on V-Ray for SketchUp.

Join us in creating a fully furnished co-working space. This Interior Design-focused course covers tips for drafting and space planning in 2D, model organization, 3D Warehouse best practices, export setup for presentation, and more.

Follow along with Eric, for a behind-the-scenes look at how we created the graphics for the SketchUp 2020 release. We'll talk about the creative process and inspiration, creating the mountain and terrain, the cabin and how it all comes together.

Scan Essentials is an extension for SketchUp that imports and provides tools to work with point clouds. You can import several formats and create a highly accurate reference for modeling with Scan Essentials.

You might try and convert your imported Sketchup objects to Generic Solids and see if that gets you the middle. I think it probably has to do with exactly how they are drawn in sketchup, but it is worth a try on a test file to see if it helps.

You may notice that there are certain elements that can be seen in the final model, but nothing is fully resolved. I was focusing on where and how the building cast shadows, how to form the land around the building, and how the form would reinforce my concept and performance, among other things.

Once I had a good base going, I began modeling the curves and softening the transitions. I have tested out many plugins and the problem I come across with most of them is how unstable they are. If they were not used just right or used inside of a group, they would crash my model. The series of plugins that I have found to work best are the FREDO Tools and more specifically the Curviloft plugin. You need to install 2 ruby scripts, the LibFredo6 found here, and the Curviloft found here. You will also need to log into Sketchucation (Free) to download the plugins.

Once I had a series of lines ready to loft, I started the Curviloft plugin. The process is really straight forward. (4) I choose the first spline curve, (5) then I choose the second spline curve, (6) and then hit the check mark twice to complete the process. The plugin creates a smooth surface between the two spline curves, allowing you to choose how many times to subdivide the surface among other options. The best part is that the plugin is really stable and can be used inside of groups.

Finally, time was spent cleaning up the edges removing any unnecessary line work. This meant hiding a lot of the line work. Below, I am showing two screen shots. One with the hidden geometry on, and the other with it off. This tells a better story of what is going on with the geometry and how well a model can be cleaned up for presentation purposes.

1. My linework that I export out of sketchup is always jagged and not clean like yours looks.

I have tried jpg, png, (and pdf which usually crashes) without good results. What is recommended

to get clean linework.

Just upgraded to SketchUp 2013

No Curvioft available for it apparently. Specifically, there is no longer a plugin folder availbale to instal LibFredo library and tools.

ANy suggestions on how to get curviloft again for the upgrade?

@Jay

If you feel that strong about SketchUP vs. Rhino you should just start a blog that is devoted to Rhino. This blog has been great for me and any others who all have jobs at architecture firms and students alike.

I think sketch up has its uses, while i personally haven't used Rhino it seems it has its own place as well.

They way i see it and correct me if im wrong. It seems like Sketch up is the preferred software for students to use in school. While The use of software such as Rhino or Revit is more of the professional side.

The way ive done it is. Ill use sketch up for very free form shapes such as what Alex did. I attempted doing something very similar to this in Revit, and it was a hassle, and didnt come close to looking like what was created in Sketch up. I will use Revit though since i feel its more of a industry standard just how Rhino is. Maybe im wrong and there is such a need for Sketch up.

I think overall we should respect each others use of software and appreciate for the exchange of informaton.

The work Alex has been showing is really interesting and great learning. I personally don't mind him using Sketch up.

@Jay

Dp Architects are based in Singapore which may be why you have not heard of us. It is not uncommon for narrow minded people to be xenophobic. Both Sketchup and Rhino (and Revit and 3DS) are used within the company, each for different purposes and stages of the process. I was making the point that sketchup is used in many firms, although you are correct in saying it is unlikely to be the sole piece of software used due to its limitations. It is useful to be proficient with many different software products to ensure you don't limit you're own options and design capabilities.

@Jonathan Llamas

I completely agree. Also on the point of it being used by students, this is one of the reasons why Alex's blog is so impressive. He focuses as much as possible on free software and doesn't charge for the tutorials, making it universally accesible. As an architect this is very important to me.

I would echo people's take on your opinion. Interestingly enough though, I was having a similar discussion with some colleagues recently and several of these points came up. However, what strikes me as odd is that you are not critiquing Alex's work, aesthetic, or composition? You're actually critiquing Sketchup which is just a tool. If the tutorial instead showed how to use pencils or watercolor, would you still hold the same reservations because of how 'mediocre' that methodology is in the digital age? You can loft surfaces using Revit, Sketchup+Plugins, AutoCAD3D, Rhino, Rhino+Grasshopper, etc. There is no golden rule, and if you prefer a different method, fantastic.

Grow up man, every person has the right to chose their own software and perfect their skills with it, anyways, "program skills" aren't what defines us as architects, its our ideas that define the work we do, software doesn't have to become that tool that makes or breaks our designs.

FYI, check Peter Guthrie's page if you want more proof of what can be achieved with sketchup.

As with the orbit tool, if you use the scroll wheel to activate the pan tool, then whatever tool you had active when you started to pan will remain active when you stop panning. This allows you to adjust your camera view without losing your progress if you were working with a tool.

There is a much easier way to zoom in and out in SketchUp, however. Using the scroll wheel on your mouse, you can zoom in and out on wherever your cursor is located simply by rolling your scroll wheel up or down.

In addition to the tools that are included for changing your camera view in the getting started toolbar, SketchUp also includes a group of built in views that can help you quickly navigate in your model. If you look up in your top toolbar in SketchUp, there should be a toolbar with a bunch of icons that look like little houses (see image below).

This tutorial covered most of the basics when it comes to navigation and view tools in SketchUp. There are also advanced navigation in tools that can be used to save your views and create animations that I will cover in a future tutorial.

Hi, I'm Justin Geis, and I'm the founder of The SketchUp Essentials. I started using SketchUp as part of my work as a general contractor in 2008. I quickly realized the power of the software and started using it for personal projects. I started The SketchUp Essentials as a place to share easy to follow SketchUp tutorials and tips to help everyone harness the power of 3D Modeling in their lives. When not working with SketchUp, I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my wife and our two dogs.

The only Sketchup objects that can be used are components. Groups won't work. So the outliner must have a component for a project, with a nested component for the site, with the building inside, storeys inside the building, windows in the storeys and I guess it keeps going on on for every other element.

CLASSIFICATION

You can use Sketchup Native classification and I found that the it is simplified in a streamlined way for architecture. You can click on the simplify button which complexifies the classification for other purposes besides architecture. I won't be doing that soon.

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