Hi folks,
I am a newbie to Sketchup and would appreciate some help. I have recently bought four acres of land and am starting to plant an edible forest on the land. I want to create a scaled map of the land which I can use to design the planting, positioning trees and plants at the right spacing, and in relation to buildings and boundaries. I would like to be able to print 2D plans but also look at the 3D image to help decide on the design, see shadows cast by buildings and trees at different times of the year, and anticipate the increase in size of trees over time. My research so far has led me to using Sketchup, and I’ve come across two methods of getting started:
1 Add Geolocation, adding from Google Maps the image and terrain.
2 Save an image of the land from Google Maps, then import into Sketchup.
I’ve been using guides such as this one from the web:
However for both of the above options, I need to draw an initial 2D image over the top of the image for field boundaries, to add new outbuildings etc, and of course to add trees and hedges which already exist. I will then be using this layer to add the trees I’m planting. So I create a new layer, but when I try and draw over the top of the imported images in that layer to create a face eg of a hedge or field, after adding a couple of points the line drawing tool doesn’t allow me to draw the line to where I want. Either the black line will disappear, or it will change colour (with accompanying small boxes saying things like “on green axis”) and snap to points either side of where I need to draw to follow the field boundaries. I’ve tried changing the camera view, perspective, parallel perspective or two point perspective, but it makes no difference.
I would appreciate some guidance as to whether I’m trying to use Sketchup for something it simply can’t do and is not designed for, or if there are some settings I can change or other ways to achieve the same goal.
Many thanks in advance.