Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Chapter 3 Using SketchUp to Inform Your Designs
Figure 3.25: Space planning using our component
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There is a lot you can do with this seemingly simple approach. Here are some ideas:
Use the Generate Report tool to create schedules of these spaces and export them to
Microsoft Excel. If you need to attach more data to each space, do this in the Component
Attributes window, as previously shown.
Learn Ruby scripting (covered in Chapter 6) and create spaces automatically based on CSV
data provided from another application (e.g., Microsoft Excel).
Export all of the spaces as a 3D DWG/DXF (or any of the other available file types) and
import them into BIM software to start adding walls and other features.
Export your space model to Google Earth and view it in its urban context.
Upload your SketchUp model to the 3D Warehouse and use the Warehouse’s versioning
abilities to share and collaborate on programming.
Geo-Based Modeling
Whenever you work on a project that is physically located anywhere on earth, you might
benefit from SketchUp’s abilities to give your model a global location, too. As you saw in
Figure 3.21, assigning a location to a model is very easy with SketchUp’s Add Location tool.
Once you have your model accurately geo-referenced, you are able to use this information
for anything from adding terrain data to shading analysis. Both of these can inform your
designs in a variety of ways. Figure 3.26 shows an example of this approach.
In Figure 3.26, it was not necessary to model an entire building. Of interest here is interior
light distribution for various window shading devices. Having modeled the single office
in a geo-referenced SketchUp model gave enough information to compare them. As you can
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