Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Chapter 3 Using SketchUp to Inform Your Designs
Making a Space Dynamic Component
PRO ONLY
1. Create a rectangle on the ground plane. At this point, neither size nor location is
important. Turn the rectangle into a component and call it “Space.”
2. Add all of the attributes as shown in Figure 3.22.
Figure 3.22: Attributes for Space Dynamic Component
3. Add these formulas: for Z use =(Story-1)*StoryHeightFt*12 and for LenY use
=AreaSqFt/LenX*144. This determines the elevation of the component based on the
story on which it is located. In addition, component size is always calculated based
on the square-foot area provided by the user. This is helpful when the user stretches
the component.
4. For the Material attribute, add several of SketchUp’s color names that are to your liking.
Users are able to color-code spaces this way. Alternatively, you could program into
the component the ability to automatically select a color based on the chosen use.
5. In the settings for the ScaleTool attribute, deselect everything except “Scale along
red (X)” and “Scale uniform (from corners) (XYZ).”
6. Set the visibility of all attributes that show a dialog icon on the right in Figure 3.22
so that the user can see and edit them.
7. Open the Component Options dialog. It should show all of the accessible attributes
such as color, use, story height, story number, and square footage (see Figure 3.23).
75