Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Architectural Design with SketchUp
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component into the current model. This method is usually best if a search doesn’t immediately
return the desired object or if more detail about a model is desired.
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Search the 3D Warehouse from the Components window. When you
search for any term in the Components window, SketchUp displays the most
relevant models it found in the 3D Warehouse. You can then load any component
with one click into the current model.
Browse the 3D Warehouse using your web browser of choice. You can
alternatively search the 3D Warehouse, download any models you like to your
computer (as SketchUp’s SKP files), and then import (or drag-and-drop) the
components into the current model. This works well if you need to import
multiple components.
While the 3D Warehouse may be the largest resource for SketchUp models at
this point, it isn’t the only one. Various manufacturers offer 3D models of their
products for download, and there are also commercial websites that sell well-crafted
generic models (e.g., www.formfonts.com). Sample company sources are:
www.maglin.com/sketchup.html—Landscape furniture.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?uq=0209659327533626787604282&styp=c&scoring=m
(Short link: http://goo.gl/6ST1e)—GE has modeled many of its appliances and put them
into the 3D Warehouse.
When you work on lots of renderings, it is a good idea to create your own library of
these entourage items. That way, you can dress up a standard scene very quickly. Select your
favorite SketchUp components for their quality, good rendering appearance, and, possibly,
low polygon count, and archive them. Although you could create a library on your hard disk,
you can also create a Collection under your account in the 3D Warehouse and add your
favorite components to it. Those components will then be available in SketchUp via the “Get
Models. . .” button on the Getting Started toolbar.
Urban Context
If your entourage consists of neighboring buildings—as in the case of a model that is to be
shown in its urban context—then you can use the same technique as previously described
to load those buildings into SketchUp. All you need to do is select the Nearby Models menu
option in the Components window, and 3D Warehouse models that are located within a
certain radius of your model’s location will be offered for download.
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Keep in mind that you can download only user-submitted (or SketchUp-submitted) content
from the warehouse. Some buildings that you see as 3D buildings in Google Earth
(especially in larger cities) were created by commercial companies for Google and are
not available for download. You can identify those buildings in Google Earth when you
hover over them and they don’t get highlighted.
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