SketchUp For Dummies

Chapter 4

Building Buildings

IN THIS CHAPTER

Drafting a simple floor plan

Going from a 2D plan to a 3D model

Adding floors, doors, and windows

Modeling stairs

Building a roof

Even though SketchUp lets you make (just about) anything you can think of, certain forms are easier to make than others. Fortunately, these kinds of shapes are exactly the ones that most people want to make with SketchUp, most of the time. That’s no accident; SketchUp was designed with architecture in mind, so the whole paradigm — the models made of faces and edges, and the kinds of tools SketchUp offers — is perfect for making things like buildings.

But what about curvy, swoopy buildings? You can use SketchUp to make those, too, but they’re a little harder, so we don’t think they’re a good place to start. Because most people live in boxy places with right-angled rooms and flat ceilings, that kind of architecture is relatively easy to understand.

In this chapter, you discover some fundamentals of SketchUp modeling ...