Roof design 2 axis tilt

Good day, I am a newbie to Sketchup Makeup. I am struggling how to create a roof that has 4 corners at DIFFERENT heights. When I try to use push-pull tool I cannot seem to create this type of roof. Goal is where water flows left to right and back to front (i.e. left back highest point; right front lowest). Any suggestions welcome as I can’t figure this out-- probably very obvious. thank you

You should probably start by sharing a picture or model of what you are trying to do… some times words just aren’t enough…

try bezier surface

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Pushpull is not the right tool for this job. It can only extrude a polygon in a direction perpendicular to a single face. Also you should be aware that a face in SketchUp must be planar. Unless you are careful to keep it flat, SketchUp will break a face into triangles (which are always planar).

One way to do what you seek is to start with a level rectangle and pushpull it up somewhat higher than the final roof. Then, off to the side, draw a large rectangle and rotate it as needed to get the desired slopes. Then move it so that it cuts through the extruded roof. Use Intersect Faces with… to cut the extrusion and then erase the extra parts. You will likely end up with a reversed face that you need to correct.

tilted%20roof

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On a cubic, try moving the front line (edge) ,then the right or left edge, much quicker

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I’m assuming this is a flat roof that is sloped in two directions. The solution @slbaumgartner shows is one way, though I would probably do it using construction lines. I have assumed roof slopes of 5 degrees in this example.

Wow-- what a fantastic resource you all are ! Thank you so much for your kind guidance. I am an “old fart”-- 65 and trying to teach myself how to do this as I plan and dream my “art studio-- I paint large canvases” in the garden! 50 years ago (seriously) I did some basic architectural drawing and this is simply an amazing tool. What I am seeking to do is “play around” with various roof designs and room shapes as I try to make my project “noteworthy” and special. My goals with the Sketchup Makeup was to help me visualize different alternatives. Then once decided generate plans for me as I am planning to do most of the building myself. Can I do all of that using MakeUP (the free version)? We (Danish wife) have strong interest in minimalist Scandinavian “lines” and using light. So as I try to learn more, welcome your wonderful input. How can I save the above video from Simon as I will need to practice many times. Kind regards, Ed

Couple of things Ed:

I think you can save the video by right clicking and downloading to your computer but let me know if that doesn’t work.

You are actually using Sketchup Make (rather than Makeup!).

Being able to visualize things is one of the main joys of 3D drawing and SU just makes it all pretty easy, at least at the lower levels.

Although I use Pro, I am pretty sure the answer will be yes. There are some advanced tools you won’t have access to with Make but most of it is there.

If you are just starting there are a few “golden rules” to prevent you getting into bad habits from the start. One is to always draw on Layer 0 and use the other layers to identify Groups and Components. Another is to turn discrete elements into Groups or Components as soon as possible. The “stickiness” of geometry in SU is both its greatest boon and its greatest nuisance if mishandled. Watch/read as many tutorials as you can. They are very useful and should get you off to a flying start.

I got to thinking about @simoncbevans method and realized it depends on the fact that the opposite faces of the shape are parallel (which will usually be true). My method does not rely on that condition as the cutting plane will always be flat. Then just for fun I wondered how to do it when the opposite faces are not parallel and also if what you know are heights at three corners rather than slopes. Here’s a way to do that. You will notice that when I seek an “on face” inference to lock before drawing across to the fourth corner that I had to fiddle about a bit to get that inference instead of parallel or perpendicular to an edge, but the engine will find it if you try. Then I pressed the shift key to lock that inference while drawing across to the far corner. When I erase the extra edges, the top face remains - proving it is indeed planar.

irregular

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Interesting, Steve. Although in the real world, you are very unlikely to be designing a flat roof based on predetermined heights. You are much more likely to want to keep to a certain pitch with the only other controlling factor being the lowest point. However, you are quite right to point out that my method assumes parallel walls and, whilst that would be the commonest case, your original solution works better when they aren’t.

Yeah, the third way was just to show that it can be done :grin:

In a real world, architects and designers usually do not take in account for these kind of slopes, most of the times an indication on the drawing is enough.

here the ‘two edge’ method that @pcmoor refered too

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Hi, I am looking at creating 2 ‘slopes’ one left to right and another front to back. This way the water ‘mostly’ drains front right-- or that is what I am exploring. I used the method slbaumgartner suggested. Can I back out what the actual slope angle is from this? Many thanks-- great resource!!

Find a level line by making a level plane that intersects the sloping plane.
Click and drag with the protractor tool to define that level line as the axis.
Draw out a starting level line and then hover over the inclined plane.
The placed guide line is the slope and it reads out in the VCB.

Hi all,
Here is the type of roof I am exploring-- if you look at the center and right structure you will see how these roofs (I believe) are designed to ‘appear’ curved but have the effect of moving water from left to right and front to back. Here is a link to the Crows Nest:

Hopefully there is a simple way to create this rather unusual roof design. Thanks, Ed

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Though they appear curved, they are actually straight lines, I think.
The walls and the roof have the same cladding, varable width with a space between, so the water is handled underneath the visible cladding.

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They could be subtly curved. It’s hard to say at quick glance, but I suspect it is.

The roof lines look more “warped” than curved to me anyway.

Yeah, exactly. Something like this, but I haven’t learned Curviloft or other tools well enough to do the right thing with it. Tumble this around and you can see the warp shape in the contours.

Warped roof-2017.skp (362.9 KB)

Exactly, I was just doing more or less the same.

Speaks Foyer.pdf (19.8 KB)

Speaks Foyer.skp (3.0 MB)

I’m not sure whether Curveloft would do it or not. In the “real world”, by the time the rafters were in place, the sheeting would just conform to them.

Soap Skin Bubble seems to be a better solution.

Warped roof 2.skp (3.1 MB)