Hi, I’m new to sketchup but before I get in too deep I was hoping to get
an answer …
I’m designing a house frame and I want to put many pieces of material in it: each individual piece of lumber for example. I also want to resize easily. Should I build first a model with the faces / planes of the building exterior an then attach the lumber component to the faces?
I would also add all the additional components: interior sheetrock, exterior siding, etc.
How would you do this so that when resizing of walls that also resize the wood framing?
Generally, the architectural design process goes from Schematic Design to Design Development to Construction Documents. Each step is more detailed than the last. Don’t invest too much time in details until design has settled down.
Medeek Wall will parametrically change framing when you edit and move things, but it’s a paid extension, and being an extension, does not work in any web version of SketchUp. You would have to use SketchUp Make 2017 or SkechUp Pro for that.
Although you can’t automate things as much as you would like in your version of SU, you can make Components. Each stud is likely to be identical so is perfect to be made into a Component. Then if you want to change the height of a room, you only have to alter one component and all will change.
Much of what you ask depends on how you set up your drawing in the first place. The biggest mistake a newbie makes is to launch in without much understanding. Then they find they have to start over with a lot of it, possibly at a point where it has all gone too far.
Immersion in tutorials and some very good books on SU is the key.
I agree with the idea that the first work in a project is a general layout, where details such as actual framing don’t need to be addressed, and changes are simple to diagram or model. It’s an interesting experience to model a framework and cladding. Professionally we don’t usually do it, unless the framing is unique or particularly elegant. We know how the framing and other parts will go together overall, and eventually work out the specific details that the builder will need.
If you already know the design, and want to go into a framing model, I’d suggest making a plan of the building that has the framing lines with which you can locate the plates, with the posts or studs, and openings, as well as the sheathing and finish cladding. This plan can be grouped and assigned its own tag so you can hide it or show it for reference as you work. Grouping different elements such as the wall framing and cladding, allow you to work cleanly, as revisions take place.
Yes, without plugins, you won’t have automatic rebuilding of your framing with changes to the overall size of the building, not in SketchUp; but with groups, components, and tags you can organize the work you do in those cases.
Thank you for sharing your advice! I decided to go back through the tutorials
and just model the exterior planes, openings and interior walls.
The framing matters to me - no so much for final structural integrity - but to
show the true interior dimensions of rooms considering wall thickness:
say 3/4" cladding + 3/4" sheating + 3.5" stud + 0.5" sheetrock. I guess I can
use a rule of thumb for wall thicknesses (5.5") instead of putting each of these
elements into this initial model.