Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Architectural Design with SketchUp
software and various low-cost rendering software packages can be used to create highly
professional renderings (see Chapter 5 for more on this). In addition—as you saw before—
SketchUp can be used successfully in construction planning for assembly mock-ups, 4D
scheduling, and site layout design.
On the other hand, a firm might decide to use SketchUp Pro as its sole CAD tool and benefit
from LayOut’s ability to create production-ready construction documentation. LayOut is
a drafting add-on that ships with SketchUp Pro.
With the recent surge in demand for virtual construction tools and Building Information
Modeling (BIM) emerging as both a tool and a process in digital construction, the question
validly arises as to where SketchUp fits into all of this. After all, BIM is all about 3D modeling
and data integration. And as you know by now, not only is SketchUp capable of 3D modeling,
it also features ways to include data in your models.
While SketchUp, at its heart, is general 3D modeling software (and not tied to a particular
industry), it can offer these avenues for use in architectural, engineering, or construction planning:
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As a massing-modeling tool—You can easily do massing-modeling in SketchUp by
importing existing 3D buildings from the 3D Warehouse and then blocking out new
buildings using SketchUp’s tool set. Many larger BIM applications (e.g., Autodesk Revit
and Graphisoft ArchiCAD) are able to import SketchUp models and use them to generate
more detailed building models. Figure 3.19 illustrates this for Revit.
Figure 3.19: Importing a SketchUp model into Revit (front walls were created using the
Wall by Face tool)
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