Create a Living Space in SketchUp
Say you want to design a house or a living space. Or maybe draw a car in 3D. Google Sketch-Up is a fun new program to create 3D models in the document. Here you can design just about anything you would like in a fun 3D model. Sketch-Up is a free program that you can download from Google.
Steps
- Download Google Sketch-Up. Launch your web browser, enter "sketch up" in the Google search window, and press enter. The first result will likely be Google Sketch-Up.
- Follow the link to Google Sketch-Up to download the program onto your computer.
- After the file downloads, double-click on it to install Google Sketch-Up.
- Download Google Sketch-Up.
- After the software is downloaded launch Google Sketch-Up. A new window should appear on your screen to set up a template. Here you want to choose the Architectural scale then click on start using Sketch-Up.
- A 3D space should appear on your screen, with a person for scale. To create a wall, click on the pencil icon on the top left corner. You will have a pencil appear in place of your pointer. Click on the origin which is the cross points of the lines. You create a line across the green line as long as you like. Hit Escape button on your keyboard to disconnect the line. Create another line that goes up the blue line about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} high, you can see the dimensions in the bottom right corner. Complete the square and click Escape button to exist the drawing process.
- Create the side walls. To create the side walls, repeat step 6 to complete the area of the room. After creating the wall, use the same pencil tool to create a bottom for the floor. Lines will appear to help create straight lines.
- Create the windows. To create the windows, use the pencil tool and draw a rectangle on the surface of the left side wall and the back wall.
- Last step is adding color, texture, and furniture to make the room look more like a living space. At the top of the screen click on the Window icon and select the Component option. Here is where you can find some furniture and different textures to add to the room. For example, select the couch component and move your cursor into the space then click on the mouse to place it. If you select the couch again, on top of the blue box you can move or rotate the furniture and place it where you like then hit the ESC button to lock it. To add the color and texture, go under Window and click on the Materials button. If you use the drop bar to choose more textures.Then you have your finished product.
Tips
- This is just a brief play around project for the software. I would suggest if you would like to continue to use the software, I recommend playing with the tutorials in the program or see if there are classes on campus. This is a fun program to be able to use.
Things You'll Need
- Computer (Windows or Mac)
- Internet access
- Room on your hard drive to download
