SketchUp for Builders

A Comprehensive Guide for Creating 3D Building Models Using SketchUp

John G. Brock

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119484127
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Design

The only comprehensive SketchUp guide written for builders and contractors

SketchUp is a 3D modeling application used in areas ranging from civil and mechanical engineering to motion picture and video game design. Three-dimensional modeling is of obvious value to the building industry—yet resources for transforming architectural designs into reality is surprisingly limited. SketchUp for Builders is the first comprehensive guide designed specifically for builders and contractors, providing step-by-step instructions on incorporating 3D modeling into all phases of the construction process. Author John Brock draws from his 30 years of experience as a custom home designer and builder to provide practical advice on how to understand what you are building before it is built. This valuable guide demonstrates how to eliminate cost overruns, construction delays, and design flaws by integrating SketchUp modeling into your workflow.

Emphasizing real-world practicality, this book covers all of the essential components of modeling a 3D construction project, from SketchUp fundamentals and object basics to importing construction drawings and increasing project efficiency with extensions and plugins. All phases of construction are clearly explained, including foundations, walls and floor systems, roof and mechanical systems, and exterior and interior finishes.

• Supplies a constructability process for efficient and cost-effective build projects
• Offers step-by-step guidance for creating construction documents, renderings, animations, virtual reality tours, and more
• Integrates SketchUp into all stages of the construction process
• Provides access to resources such as web tutorials, blogs, and the online SketchUp community
• Demonstrates how to generate construction documents with accompanying Layout software

SketchUp for Builders: A Comprehensive Guide for Creating 3D Building Models Using SketchUp in an indispensable source of information for contractors and builders, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, construction professionals, and anyone seeking to create 3D models of the design and construction process.

Part I
SketchUp Essentials

As with any software program, learning SketchUp can be both fun and frustrating! Part One will cover the basic SketchUp fundamentals you must learn before jumping into modeling buildings. This author has learned a tremendous amount about SketchUp do's and don'ts over a decade of trial and error. The goal of this book is to save you countless hours by getting it right the first time, or at least avoiding the mistakes I have made over time!

Note: Your workflow depends upon your needs and use of SketchUp. If you are using SketchUp to design the building from scratch, you may focus on the design at first, keeping in mind the site boundaries. The workflow detailed in this book presumes you are modeling a building and site from a set of construction drawings. Your approach may be different, but the fundamentals, tools, and techniques detailed in this book will work for either approach.

Chapter 1
Introduction

For as long as anyone reading this book can remember, architects, designers, builders, and tradesmen have been using 2D paper drawings to design buildings, estimate quantities, layout buildings, build foundations, build walls, roofs, and install mechanical systems. Builders and trades that are provided with precise details and drawings will execute the building process with precision. This has been going on for centuries, but it is a process that is fraught with unclear or missing details and prone to mistakes, delays, and cost overruns. The designer must convey intent with their drawings and the builder must be able to read, understand, and execute to build the intended structure. For the past three decades, CADD (computer-aided design and drafting) has become the standard, virtually eliminating hand-drawn plans, other than conceptual ideas. But this has still been primarily used for 2D drawings. Typical drawing sets include floor plans, elevations, and a few sections and details. These still may not convey the full design intent or may be missing vital information or views.

We see in 3D, so why don't we design in 3D? Technology is finally available to allow designers and builders to design, view, and study structures in 3D and better understand how to build the structure and how it will look before it is built. By now, you have probably heard of BIM (building information modeling), which is essentially the process of creating digital representations of the building process. A large part of BIM involves 3D modeling of the project. SketchUp is a simple yet powerful tool for creating 3D models for any and all components of a building project. SketchUp comes with standard tools for creating, texturing, organizing, and viewing geometry and they allow third-party developers to create “Extensions,” also known as “Plugins,” which extend the toolset and functionality that comes with the program. These are typically “scripts” utilizing Ruby Programming, a language built into SketchUp. These scripts are usually geometry-creating, time-saving, and reporting extensions that magnify the power and ease of use of SketchUp. Construction Documents can be generated using LayOut, the accompanying program that comes with SketchUp Pro.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?

Anyone desiring to create 3D models for any and all aspects or phases of the construction process, from the design itself, to construction and how some or all of the pieces come together. Builders, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, carpenters, and trades will learn methods and techniques to create 3D models for their projects, big and small, as well as how to create construction documents, acquire takeoff information, create renderings, animations, virtual tours, and much more.

WHY SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

This book summarizes the workflow, practices and methods acquired and developed over years of practice, trial and error, and real-world applications from a seasoned custom home builder and designer with 30 years of experience in the construction industry. You will learn what to do, and more importantly, what not to do in modeling projects in SketchUp. The tips scattered throughout the book are worth the read. The goal is not only to create 3D models, construction documents, and visualizations, it is also to understand what you are building before it is built, and to avoid costly mistakes, delays, and overruns during the construction process.

WHAT IS IN THIS BOOK?

This book begins by covering SketchUp essentials and will guide the reader through modeling a construction project from start to finish. It is loaded with tips, methods, and tricks that were learned from years of modeling literally every phase of construction, for residential and light commercial, completely inside of SketchUp.

Part One: SketchUp Essentials

SketchUp Free versus SketchUp Pro

LayOut—an Introduction

3D Warehouse

Extension Warehouse

Online Resources

SketchUp Basics—Review the basic tools...