How would you suggest I model this?

SketchUp
1

Hi,

I’m trying to create a model that looks similar to this:

Questions:

  1. How would you suggest I model the cabinet doors? They’re raised in the center and have a surrounding raised border. There are two different sizes as you can see. I was thinking of maybe having concentric rectangles where I move (not push-pull) up the center one vertically to get the trapezoidal effect, but I’m sure there are better methods.

  2. How about the fireplace? I was hoping I could just download a component from the asset warehouse, but I haven’t found anything that looks similar enough.

This doesn’t have to be exact, but I do want people to be able to tell the model is from the photo.

Thanks for your time.

2

It’s kind of a dark photo to get much detail from the fireplace.

As for the doors, I’d probably draw a profile and use Follow Me to sweep it around a rectangle. I’d only draw one door and make it a component. For the doors of other sizes, I would make copies, make them unique and resize them with the Move tool.

3

Here’s a different view that may help.

4

That’s much lighter. I’d still do the doors as I said. Do the rest of it the same way you’d eat an elephant. One piece at a time.

5

If you’re not already familiar with it, I’d suggest reading up on the “Match Photo” mode in SketchUp. There’s a bit of a learning curve but it’s very helpful for modeling from real life. Here’s a link to the official documentation: Matching a Photo to a Model.

-Marc

6

Whether you use Photo Match (which may not work in this instance) or not, you’ll need some key dimensions. If you know the height of the mantel and the width of the fireplace opening, then you should be able to size all the wall panels from those dimensions. Dave Richards is absolutely correct: Make each panel a compnent and scale them as needed. As you said, the SketchUp model doens’t have to be exact, as long as viewers know it came from the photo.

7

Personally I would use the photo to get the rough sizes and proportions for the main elements (the first one has more contrast, but for photo-matching you really want to be looking at it on a slight angle, preferably looking into a corner so you have green/red references to line up)

After getting the main boxes, I would go through the following process:

  • group all the proportional geometry together
  • use the tape measure tool to draw a line over a bit of the fire/surround I know the dimensions of and over-type the value it says with the dimension I know. (This scales it all so that you should be drawing at 1:1… ish)
  • make a rectangle over one of the doors
  • pull it to the appropriate thickness
  • offset the outside edge to mark the inside and outside of the bevel
  • offset inside of both of these to form a channel that will lie in the bottom of the bevel
  • use the “move” tool and arrow keys to move the channel into the door (this will put ‘creases’ in the door to make bevels)
  • use [ctrl] with the eraser to smooth/soften the inner bevel. (Note: you could form a profile and run it round the bevel, but it depends on the accuracy you want - this method is quick and easy)
  • select all this and make it a component
  • Enter the component and make a handle for it
  • Copy the component to make the door above
  • And again to make the one above that - since this is a panel I would make it unique and erase the handle.

For the fire I would only model 1/2 of it in grouped bits, combine these into an element and then mirror the component.
For the fluting I would use a similar method; drawing a rectangle, drawing a line down the middle, make the ends pointy and move the central line into the block (then soften it). Once I have one flute, I would just array the rest.