# Sketchup FTW!



## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Thank's to Hellvin's recommendation I picked up Sketchup today and spent most all of my work day playing with it - thank god today was an slow day or I wouldn't have gotten anything done :googly:

I've always been intimidated by 3d apps and cad software. But after a day's work with Sketchup I've easily reproduced the entire front of my house. 

Check it out:










Gonna save that as a template and work from there each time I work on the yard design.

We should start putting together a set of Halloween models that can be shared by each other. This just adds a whole new level to haunt planning.

-TM


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## Rod Rego (Jul 31, 2007)

Sweet!! I might have to check out this Sketchup...


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## BoysinBoo (Dec 10, 2007)

Nice Porch, TM!


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## HalloweenZombie (Jul 22, 2007)

Holy crud! That's rocks! I will definitely be checking that out. Nice work.


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## Hellvin (Jul 6, 2008)

TerrorMaster - that is a wicked first outing! Congrats.

It is a deadly program without doubt. Just as an aside I bought my first license Oct. 31, 2005 (coincidence? I think not!). What is most impressive (in my opinion) is how simple to use it is and utterly powerful it is in capturing your ideas.

Also, you can find a place called Google Warehouse that people can upload/download SU models (let's say you need a bulldozer for the front yard...). You might find one (or several) available in the Warehouse.

There is also capacity to build a model of a real thing and then upload it to Google Earth and have it viewable in Google Earth. But I haven't explored that aspect too much at this point.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Hellvin said:


> TerrorMaster - that is a wicked first outing! Congrats.


Thanks. The hardest part really was getting the angles for the roof. The tutorials showed drawing a line down the middle of a rectangle then using the Move/Copy tool to drag the line upwards. However I found that only worked 1 out of 10 times. Instead I just drew a rectangle and then used the line tool to draw the slopes and then cutout the top half. Tricky but effective. I wish I could get the method from the tutorial to work right, this app is so simple I'm sure it's something ridiculous I'm overlooking.

-TM


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

Great design tool ! Good work TM...not so good for your company.


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## Hellvin (Jul 6, 2008)

When you use the move tool, you have to move it in a direction which is roughly parallel to the Blue Axis (up) - otherwise it will slide all over the place. The program was designed to be "intuitive" - meaning it tries to guess what you want and so once you learn to give the right cues to the program it will pick what you wanted (in other words you have to learn to be intuitive to what the program thinks is what you are implying in the first place...)

Another accurate way, is to draw your rectangle and then position the pencil half way along the edge of that has the peak. The light blue point will light up (meaning mid point) and you can then start a line there and then draw straight up X-feet and click to end. Then connect that end with the low points back on the rectangle and erase the vertical line just drawn (at this point you should have a triangle representing your gable). The use push/pull to extrude the volume of the roof and pull a little extra front an back for soffits.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

beelce said:


> not so good for your company.


No biggie - we have a "as long as the work gets done in time" policy. If there's nothing to do we don't get busy work. Some days I get slammed with stuff and get tied down for a good couple weeks. Other times there's nothing going on and I could surf all day. The only thing they get grumpy over is high bandwidth stuff like streaming music or videos so I usually bring my laptop and surf on my private wifi device - that way I don't use company bandwidth nor am I tracked which sites I visit 

-TM


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## sharpobject (May 7, 2008)

I can see it now... only a matter of time before the google warehouse is filled with tombstones, skellys, monsters, spiders, etc.


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## skeletonowl (Aug 8, 2006)

sharpobject said:


> I can see it now... only a matter of time before the google warehouse is filled with tombstones, skellys, monsters, spiders, etc.


oh defiantly Sharpobject I think we will start a revolultion that no one will see coming!

I'm defiantly gonna use this program!


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## Hellvin (Jul 6, 2008)

I have opened a warehouse collection called "Skullcroft".

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?styp=c&viewer=03113601374787610905

or directly to the model

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d141cac8341294ed1c4fd04e3554f993

The only item inside it right now is a model of my existing cemetery fencing & pillars. There are a few differences between model and reality (different finials, sitting lion rather than standing, etc.).

Let's see if people can download and use in their Sketchup. I believe it has to be stored as a KMZ file format so it can be dropped into Google Earth, but should still open in Sketchup (native format is SKP).


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