I’m pretty new to SketchUp and in school we are supposed to have a final project about something. I love using SketchUp and therefore thought it would be a great idea to recreate the house I live in since I do have the blueprints for the house.
What approach do you think I should use? For example, what template should I use to start off? I used the architectural (millimeter) before for smaller projects but should I still use it when I design a big house or should I switch to meter?
It depends on how much detail you want to go into when you make the house down to the smallest fittings, but if thats not the case using a larger measurement is fine.
Converting your blueprints to paths and importing them is probably good idea and will save you a lot of time!
Are you familiar with metric units or feet and inches?
See what your blueprint’s measurements are in and your best bet may be to apply the same to start with.
I can imagine they are in millimeters.
You can always change the template later.
Great, I did not know you could change the template later. That will make things easier. I do use the metric system so I will check if I should use millimeters or meters
To be exact, a template is just a template - what you get when you open a new blank document is a copy of your chosen template. Your new document is in no way dependent on the template used to start it, and every aspect and setting can be changed like the units you use to model. They can be changed whenever and as often you feel like it via Window menu>Model Info>Units.
It is standard practice in the British architectural world to work in millimetres. However, in Layout, when you dimension things, the default is in metres. It is easily changed though.
You could argue that all this is odd because very little in the architectural design world needs to be accurate to more than a centimetre. In most of Europe, it is common to find cm used in lieu of mm.
It really doesn’t matter though. It’s just what you find most congenial.
You said something about Layout, I guess you tall about the program layout? When I downloaded SketchUp it also installed Layout I think and some other program. Should I use them all in the project do you think? Then I have to find out how you import from them to regular SketchUp.
Layout comes with the Pro version and is a means of presenting drawings produced in Sketchup. It is a bit like Paper Space in Autocad.
Although we model in 3D and at full scale, the only purpose of a drawing is to communicate and that is generally still done with 2D paper drawings or electronic versions of them. So, yes, you should definitely make use of Layout.
Layout now has some drawing capability of its own (since 2018 version). But it doesn’t replace the power and ease of Sketchup. So model in SU and present in LO.
This is the wrong way round. You export from SU to LO. Easiest is to use the dedicated icon as here:
Once you have a LO file set up for a project, when you return to work on it, it is best to open the LO file and then click on the drawing window and choose Open with Sketchup. That way, you know you are working on the right SU drawing. Also, if you do that, the LO file will automatically update as you edit the SU file. If you open the SU file first, you will have to remember to update the relevant window in LO.
I’ve seen from other users issues with the send to LayOut function not working with the trial version in some cases, can’t remember if they got it working or not though.
@Kammerfors Try closing the LayOut application if you have it open before trying to send the SketchUp file.
Obviously the alternate is to insert the SketchUp model from within the LayOut application.
The other thing that springs to mind is whether SketchUp were installed correctly by right clicking the installer and selecting “run as administrator”.
If LayOut is to be used, then scenes should really be set up for that first in SketchUp…
