Sketchup Question... How do I make walls?

Heya Blake,

Try using the rectangle tool, draw two squares, one say 6 inches wider then the first. Delete the center, then use the push to raise the walls to the height you need. From there on it is easy enough to mark out using the measuring tape to find dimensions from corners or details. At that point use the regular draw, sketch out the frame and use push again to say make a window or door.

Also check out some of the sketchup libraries around, tons of already made stuff to work with.

-- Casey, Engineer, Escanaba, MI

Draw the 2D floor plan, then use the offset tool for the wall thickness, then push the whole lot at once.

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

I was looking into this a while back and this program http://www.cadstd.com/index.html came up on a google ad when searching for sketchup.

If you look at some of the youtube videos for sketchup it doesn’t look too hard to just draw it flat and then bring it all up at once like Damian is suggesting.

Here is one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJcMe1OFBRQ

http://www.aidanchopra.com/ This guy wrote the for dummies book and has a lot of good tutorials for sketchup on youtube as well.

Hopefully its ok to post urls in a message.

It is much easier to buy a cad program like 3d home architect. These programs already have 2d and 3d capabilities and are about $30 to $50. Much more practical and faster.

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

Hey Blake. Try drawing the shape with the pencil tool and using the shift key (I think, been a while) to constrain the angles to 90deg. Once you have the basic outline and the shape is closed, you can then use the push/pull tool to make it into walls. I think this is basically what Damien said less the use of the offset tool. Both should do the trick though.

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Hey Blake
I threw together a quick little tutorial for you and anyone else interested in basic floor plan creation. I was going to just post it in here but it was too many images and I didnt want to hijack your thread! here it is
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/Brad_Nailor/blog/4815

-- Women love me.....trees fear me

There is also a Sketchup Plugin call HouseBuilder which works pretty well. It builds actual stud walls and covers
them with a skin. The install instructions are included in the zip file (housebuilder_extension.txt):

HouseBuilder.zip

Video Tutorial:

Some love it, some hate it, but it’s free :)

Tom

-- Tom, Central New York

Thanks Tom!!!

That is a handy tool. Bob#2 could have used that for his shop drawings.

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

How the heck did I miss that!.
That’s the part that Google should buy for Sketchup!
By the time I built allthe components for my job I had about 6 hours into the lerning curve and 20 minutes productivity.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Thanks TOM – Just what I was looking for

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

Awesome, everyone. I’ll look into some of these when I have more time next week. Keep ‘em coming if you’ve got more.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com