A introduction to using the 3D modeling program Sketchup on iPad devices with a focus on buildings created by Samuel Landete.
How to change the units in Sketchup.
Working on an iPad will lend to accidental zooms: to fix them, reload the page.
How to save your progress.
Sometimes Sketchup on iPad does not work allow to resize rectangles, draw and drop or zoom: make sure that you are on mobile site view.
We create a simple square house with 3D walls using the rectangle tool and the push/pull tool.
For DEC, set the units to meters and precision to 0m or to 0.0m.
How to zoom in Sketchup.
This first exercise explores the basic tools we will need to create a 3D model of our eco-classroom, starting with the layout: rectangle, eraser, line
To pull the walls up you need the push/pull tool. It is better to pull the interior walls first.
Deleting spurious lines will give your model a polished look.
To create an accurate layout and position all the lines exactly we need auxiliary guidelines created with the measure tape tool. Then, we use the line tool to trace the lines.
If your building shape is not rectangular you will need to create the outer layout combining rectangles and deleting the extra lines.
When we finish tracing we should delete the auxiliary guidelines with the eraser tool.
To help communicate our design we need to include labels in all the rooms.
Dimensions help understand the size of each room but it is a tools that cannot be used on an iPad device.
The 3D Warehouse allows us to use models shared by others, simplifying the process of prototyping
The models rarely land with the right dimensions, in the right place or with the right orientation. It is very important to have snapping at 0.01m to fine-position elements.
Landscape elements will help creating context and communicating location.
The first step to create walls starting from a floor plan with just lines is to offset all the rooms by 0.1m.
After all the offsets are created we can delete the original lines.
One last step to fix the outside walls is to move the outside lines 0.1m away.
We just select the walls and pull them 3 m up, then heal spurious lines.
We create a 2x2 m rectangle in both sides of the wall to indicate the double door.
We proceed the same way, now doors should normally be 2x1 m.
We proceed the same way as the doors (rectangle on both sides of the wall) and we use glass material to paint.
We provide context by placing the terrain, creating a path, and using different materials.
To add trees, shading, etc. from the warehouse and be able to rotate and resize them revisit exploration 4.
We create the roof outside as a rectangle 1 m bigger than the floorplan and with a width of 0.2 m.
To move the roof, grab it from one side and place it in a corner of the building.
We need to exted the sides of the roof to overhang on all sides.
Optional roof wooden deck with crystal borders.
Optional shed type roof - the video is 4x speed and done on a computer with a mouse, it will take much longer on an iPad and probably create spurious lines that can only be deleted on a computer holding Shift + Delete :: proceed with care.
We use display -> Shadows on to see how the sun affects our building
Example study of my model with the implications: move and enlarge the shading to block direct sunlight in the classroom windows.
There are 3 ways to display the interior of the building.
There are 2 ways to create animations in Sketchup. They can be combined to create a more dynamic presentation than plain screenshots:
Scenes
The walk tool