Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Chapter 3 Using SketchUp to Inform Your Designs
their volumes, their materials, and their sizes (with LENX, LENY, and LENZ representing lengths
in the three main directions—this information is useful when objects have been scaled).
You can now use this data to create various kinds of schedules: door/window schedules,
material lists, concrete volume estimation, and more. As you will see, if you make a component
“dynamic,” then you can add any attribute to it and report it using this method, too.
Materials will be reported correctly in this table when you apply a properly named material
to the component as a whole. Materials included within the component (i.e., applied
to faces only) are not being reported this way.
TIP
If you don’t have SketchUp Pro or you want a little bit more control over how components
appear in a cutlist-type component report, look for the Cutlist and Layout plugin
in Chapter 4.
TIP
Although not specifically mentioned here, adding layers (using the Layers window) gives
you an additional method to combine similar objects. This can be useful, for example, if the
floor group of components in the preceding situation consisted of existing and new joists
and you wanted to be able to separate them visually.
In that case, you would add “Existing” and “New” to the list of available layers in your
model and adjust entity properties by putting joists on the appropriate layers. You could then
display the existing and remodeled construction situation simply by turning layers on and off.
The example in this section shows how beneficial it can be to assume a rigorous groupor
component-based modeling workflow. This becomes even more useful when we include
a good naming scheme. At that point, we are starting to use data in SketchUp (in addition
to plain geometry).
A good real-world example where this can be employed even on very large projects is
the case of 4D (3D plus time) or 5D (4D plus cost) construction planning. Using those tools
(one example is shown in Figure 3.8), construction models can be enriched with timeline
data, and the construction process can be visualized (and scheduled), taking into consideration
estimated component fabrication times. Commercial software packages that do
this with or in SketchUp are 4D Virtual Builder, Envision, and Synchro.
Another example where groups and components can be useful to convey your message
is the case of historic reconstruction. As Figure 3.9 shows, timeline renderings can
employ a model, which has been broken into components by construction dates, and
then easily display this as a timeline. In this case, you would use a combination of layers
and the Outliner window to organize (and show/hide) buildings. This could even be animated
using SketchUp’s tabbed animation feature and saved as a video (see Example 3.2
for instructions).
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