Hello everyone, I am VERY new to Sketch Up and have been using the trial version for about two weeks now. I am looking for a replacement software program for an outdated program that I have been using almost a decade. I am trying to find out if Sketch Up will easily draw bathroom and kitchen tile designs. My designs often have multiple sizes of tiles, along with various directional layouts. Does anyone know if this program can do this type of work without investing hours to each design? I have Googled this until I can no longer Google.
Any help would be very much appreciated. I did see that Gadget2020 had a drawing similar to something I’m looking for, but as a new member, I cannot email them direct.
Thank you David! I have seen many drawings with bath and kitchen layouts from Sketch Up. My real question is can the tile be applied easily and can I draw multiple sizes of tile easily as well?
Erika, there are a number of things you can do depending on what you need from the model. Are you designing the tile or are you just using existing tiles to create various patterns or layouts? Are you only doing the tile design or are you designing entire rooms. It may be that you would be best served by using materials/textures for the tiles. Or perhaps you need to draw each tile out. You might draw the tile layout in SU and create a texture from it. Maybe each tile needs to be a component and you place them much like you would if you were installing real tile.
You can do any of those things but you need to determine what you want as the end result.
Thank you for the quick response. At this point I would like to start by drawing shower designs. My designs will have multiple sized tiles and be placed in different direction on the wall. Some tile square, some tile rectangular. My current program allows me to use one style of tile and I designate the size and direction, then it populates in the designated space. I then have to layer additional tiles to create the look I’m after. The problem with this program is that it only draws in 2D. I have to manipulate the software and draw each and every tile along with individually place them on the wall. It is way too time consuming.
I have attached a file of a drawing to show you the basic idea of what I’m hoping for. Keep in mind that the “wing” walls are not part of the portion of the program that populates the tile, but the portion I have to hand place each tile… Can this type of drawing be easily accomplished in SketchUp once I have learned the program? I have invested nearly 40 hours trying to find this answer but I’m really struggling.
If this can indeed be done, the next step would be for me to apply the texture/color to the tile and eventually purchase a rendering software. Baby steps for now:).
SketchUp won’t automatically populate the wall with tiles but you could create components with gluing attributes that can quickly and easily be placed on the walls. Those components could be individual tiles or “sheets” of tiles. It’s up to you and how you want to work with them.
You can use Move/Copy to create arrays so once you have a few tiles in place to make a pattern, you can copy the pattern along the wall.
Ok Dave, that makes sense to me. I suppose that it will take some time to create the components but in the end, it should be worth it. Thanks again for your help. Wishing I would have asked on this forum two weeks ago. I’m going to give it a shot and see if I can make it work.
It might take a little time to create a library of tiles but you can make them as you need them and save them. You might also be able to modify tile components you’ve already drawn to make other sizes or colors so you won’t have to draw every one from scratch.
I have a number of hardware components such as screws and hinges that I use in some of the furniture projects i draw. When I need a different sized hinge, I find one I’ve drawn and modify it instead of drawing another one. After modifying it, I make sure to save it into the library so I don’t need to do that again.
Keep in mind that you can locate the component’s origin and thus its insertion point to make inserting the component easier. For example, if the grout line between tiles is 1/8 in., you might locate the insertion point for the tile component 1/8 in. down and to the left of the bottom left corner of the tile. Then when you insert the tile, you snap the insertion point to the bottom right corner (or maybe the right side midpoint) of the previous tile and you’ll automatically get the grout spacing.
Great tip, thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate it. I’m excited to have a new tool that will look much more professional than the current archaic program I use. One last thing, do you have any rendering software that you would recommend?
I’m not well-versed on all the different renderers out there. I’ve used Kerkythea for years and it does what I need but there are others that are good or maybe better.
Efrey, Sketchup is a no brainer answer to your needs…
Apart from components you can use textures of tiles, either generic or specific from a catalogue… you can resize them, rotate them, apply them on different surfaces, subdivide those surfaces and rotate the textures indeoendantly on each surface…and hide the intervening line. we do this frequently in interior designs, quick, effective and accurate…
Thank you for the additional info. It helps me to make the decision a little easier when it comes to forking out the $700 for a program. With some time and practice, I’m sure I can figure it out.
Erika — you may also want to look into Dynamic Components (DC), especially for field tiles. Here is a 3D warehouse link to a basic configurable floor tile DC:
Component Options allow you to configure the tile parameters and textures:
With SU Pro you can modify the attributes and behaviour of the DC itself: for example to make it a wall tile component (by changing the axis); or to embed favoured texture options; etc:
For sure there is a learning curve —and DC’s aren’t the first thing to learn in SU— but longer term, it may well be worth it for the type of design work you do. (or you could hire a developer to make/modify components for you.)
Hope this helps to reinforce your decision to go with SU,
Doug, thank you for the wonderful help. I had actually be trying to study dynamic components as that seemed to be the preferred method for drawing tiles. I’m going to have to play around with it some more and see if I can make it work. I have been taking a great course from a trainer out of Denver and it is covering the basics, which is so helpful. I work in so many different design software programs that I seem to get a bit mixed up with all of the commands though, ha ha. Sketch-Up has so many to remember, I cannot imagine how anyone could ever learn it all. It’s mind blowing to me.
Once again, thanks for the help. Everyone has been so wonderful, I appreciate the amount of time people have put in to their reply posts.
This will give you a healthy bit of info on DC’s and very straight forward working examples to get oriented with them.
Nick Sonder Process 4 - Detailing - YouTube as Dave had mentioned about libraries. This guy Nick Sonders is a SU guru and architect / builder. If you took sometime to see how he makes SU work for him and his explanations. It will help open your mind up to getting your thoughts conveyed… you are both designing. Different objects yes, but the same purpose or sharing the same end results. It will be worth the time and it is free and EYE opening info…Peace…
I know that it can be overwhelming to become a beginner again and have to learn a whole new application and all of it’s capabilities, commands and quirks. And contrary to what some would have you believe, there is a significant (and frequently frustrating) learning curve to SketchUp — and therefore a concomitant investment of time — required to learn and master it.
But the pay-off is that once learned, SU is significantly faster, more intuitive, infinitely flexible tool with which to model your projects. Add to that the vast selection of plugins / extensions, renderers / presentation apps… plus the exceptional community which surrounds it, and I think that the decision —and commitment— is an evident one.
You should also check out Sketchucation.com — if you haven’t already — for another active and consistently helpful SU community, many members of which also frequent this forum (Dave R. being a particularly valued one)
Syzygy Tile has a ton of tile patterns built into components that you can download. Their video isn’t all that detailed beyond just getting the files but it is a great base to start from.
