Is there easy way or plugin to design log cabin walls in SketchUp?
Which version of SketchUp do you use?
There is no desktop version make 2021.
I would go for a rough version of a log textured wall, the width of the logs, and with that build the cabin with rectangular wall blocks.
You can replace each wall with real logs later and add details etc.
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Hello,
I would use components. Make pillars components, pieces of timber inside them components. Then make unique as needed (rough but quick way)
This depends on what you mean by “design”. Sketchup is a drafting package and assumes it is the user who is the designer. Sure, there are extensions that make some things easier to draw and so might look like they are designing but those I know about are still really just illustrating.
Whilst I have never designed a log cabin myself, I doubt many are built the way shown in your image. How do the logs fix to the posts, for example?
Sketchup is mainly aimed at people who know how to design but help them to communicate their designs.
I too would use a texture material for the logs at first. At least until I had the layout locked in. Only at that point would I start modeling individual logs and/or log wall extrusions. It all depends on what the final outcome dictates.
How can this be done?
P.S. i used to put v2021 by mistake, but then fixed to v21. Does it still show 2021 somewhere?
Here’s what your profile shows:
Problem is, there is no version 21 either. If you are using the web app, you always get the most recent update. As a consequence there is no version identifier. You should just indicate you are using the web version.
I could try this, whats the step by step guide to make this work?
You could make one log component and stack multiple instances inside the previously created rectangular wall component, but there are multiple ways to create the walls. Look at what @paul.millet had to say about “building the wall”, 
You model it, of course! You can draw individual log components, joints, etc, or just extrude a profile that looks like stacked logs. Totally up to you and entirely dependent on what your desired outcome actually is.
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I don’t know what it is called in English, but it is not an actual log cabin construction method, but an archaic Iron Age (known hereabouts mostly from archaeological sites) post and beam construction method where logs are used as infill. Usually the posts have grooves and the log infill slots into them.
Usually log cabins need no posts but use different types of tongue and groove joints at the corners. This also allows the walls to remain tight when the wall shrinks by several % in the first years after completion. In a post and beam wall the shrinkage would create a gap of some cm between the top beam and the topmost wall log.
I had to learn log construction at great detail in my first year at architecture school (1974). Since then, I have never designed an actual log house but have had to deal with repairs and modifications to some old ones.
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[quote=“simoncbevans, post:4, topic:151126”]How do the logs fix to the posts, for example?
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I am sure there are other ways also.
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There are no posts in these pictures, just logs…
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I have got accustomed to seeing the “long” type of corner joint (right on your picture) used with round logs, and the “short” version with logs that have their sides cut straight (the most beautiful being cut with a broad axe). Traditionally the log houses with short corner joints were meant to be covered with siding when the logs have set.