How easy/hard was it?
I would say that it wasn’t too hard. I didn’t particularly try to hammer in the details as there weren’t that many, and I really don’t remember the ones that were. I haven’t lived in this building for 14 years now! Still, SketchUp does have a learning curve, and my previous SketchUp experience did not help as much as I would have wanted it to.
What elements particularly bogged you down?
The dipped roof section at the top, where it had some green rubber padding was particularly hard to carve out with the odd shape it had. I had to create a separate shape and then place it on top of the roof to be able to manipulated as it as I wanted.
What compromises did you have to make?
I sacrificed some details in order to get the odd-shape of the building and relative scale right. I tried to fit a little more details like doors and windows but they seemed to through the entire design off because of inexperience with scaling smaller details so that they may look right.What humanistic uses can you envision for this tool in the areas of research or teaching?
What humanistic uses can you envision for this tool in the areas of research or teaching?
Just like in a Literature class a professor might instruct their students to read a primary source document, 3-D modelling can be used to model primary source 3-D artifacts. Whether art, a location or point in time in history, a lot can be learned from first-hand observation of said recreation. As for research in sciences, many meteorological, geological, and overall mathematical models can be represented through the same exports that SketchUp can create, at a fraction of the cost (perhaps sacrificing some accuracy)
Make sure to also share a tip for other novice SketchUp users about the tool that you found most useful, or a technique that you wish you had figured out sooner. Part of the digital maker philosophy is sharing the knowledge you gained, so make sure to pass it on.
My number one tip would be to not focus so much on the details but on learning the tools and navigation first. Although this video is more about the downloaded version, some of the tips translate 1:1 onto the browser based version. A part from that I would strongly advise using a mouse and not a mousepad.
Aldo, I was really interested in your idea of making geological models — maybe because of this assignment, I was thinking along the lines of human-made objects, but modelling natural environments could have really cool implications too! Also, your building looks great.