My current project. Have a looksy

Ok, so i decided to tackle a project i have been putting off for a while. I have been wanting to learn how the SU process for architects work. I took some 2d .dwg files of north, south, east, west, and section elevations/views. used them as a projection method to draw the 3d house.

I am following an online course through lynda.com. I highly recommend for beginner architects to take this course and his second one on using layout. Thats the next one im doing after i finish this model.

One thing that i would like to learn next, instead of using autocad to make the 2d .dwg files that were imported, such as the floor, interior walls, and etc,i would like to make those in SU, then use those as the projection medium. Basically use SU for the entire process.

Anyway, here is my current progress with the house. I did the windows differently then the instructor because i like my style haha.

Thanks for looking

house.skp (486.1 KB)

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SketchUp for everything is easy. Go to Camera>Standard views>Top for a birds-eye view of the model. Place guidelines and draw lines to outline the outside of the exterior walls.Use the Offset tool to create the interior side of the walls. Add interior walls and partitions as needed. Break out doors as needed. When you’ve finished, make the floor plan a component. Open the component for editing and use the Push/Pull tool to pull the walls up to the height you want.

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I guess what the tricky part is for me… designing the floor plan from scratch. I do not know enough about design to just come up with one on the fly. Maybe ill start with a one bedroom, bathroom and small living area and kitchen house… like a tiny house, and see if i can create the floor plan from scratch. Then ill see if i can create the other elevations for my projections:)

So far i have liked the course i am taking. Almost done.

I have done alot of sketchup before, but always engineering and parts, never architecture haha

The other good thing is that changes are easy. If a room is the wrong size, you can quickly adjust one or more walls.

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In case a new person shows up. This is what i mean by projecting:

Nicely done!
Very neat geometry and well organized grouping.
However, there is one thing you need to address; layers.


IMHO, we’re all entitled to our own humble opinion.
My opinion of their SketchUp content is quite the opposite.

For example: Their course titled, SketchUp 2018 Essential Training
Therein you’ll find the instruction in the lesson titled, Work With Layers, is at odds with Trimble SketchUp’s own documentation and training videos.

Work With Layers — Lynda content at LinkedIn Learning

Controlling Visibility with Layers — SketchUp Documentation by Trimble SketchUp
https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/controlling-visibility-layers

Layers — SketchUp Training Series by Trimble SketchUp


With rare exception, raw geometry belongs on Layer0

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Yes, i agree with you on the essentials training. I watched part of that and noticed alot of contradictions to the tutorial videos by trimble themselves. IE, in the layers section, he talks about how you need to select the “stairs” layer, then draw you geometry on that. In reality, or best practice, it should be draw geometry on layer 0, then group, then add group to layer “x”

The course i recommend strictly is the sketchup for architects. That one seems to follow the same rule-set as the essentials, BUT all other info is great. Still learned some new stuff

Yeah… thats where i was trying something new. I drew all raw geometry on layer 0, but wanted to see how the program reacts to having the raw geometry on separate layers. I 99.999% of the time have raw geometry on layer 0. thanks for pointing that out. I do think its important. I forgot to mention that i was just experimenting. I have found that if i have the east_wing raw geometry on the east wing layer, i cant edit it unless i have east wing layer active… do not like that at all. I will be going through to put all raw geometry on layer0. It was worth the experimentation though

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