My quest has been to make a fully realized space colony in SketchUp. I’ve made dozens of models over the years to varying levels of completion. I’ve been using SketchUp since version 4.
I don’t often make use of extensions or plugins (aside from Podium, for renders). Most of what I do is simply using the default tools in SketchUp. I suppose the reason for this is that I’ve been through plenty of Windows and Mac installations over the years, and I never felt like re-installing plugins.
Heck, I don’t even use dynamic components; it’s the one thing I’ve done a bit of work with but I have yet to really learn well. I’ll get to it sooner or later.
I’ll start this thread with one of my better models: a Stanford Torus. (Click here to see nice pictures and renders) This concept was the result of a design study in the summer of 1975. The ring, one mile in diameter, built from material mined from the Moon, consists of an inner torus, with habitable areas and agricultural areas, and a massive outer torus, which is a radiation shield made from compressed lunar soil. A system of windows and mirrors lets sunlight in.
This project is in hiatus; I started work on the interior, but I never finished; this was for a variety of reasons. Pictures of the interior can be found here.
Chevron mirror system diagram (these are built into the outer torus):