A lot of people know how to make buildings with 90-degree angles on SketchUp, but there are more advanced functions of the software that you can use. Buildings these days are not always cube-shaped. How do you make graduated angles (angles not equal to 90 degrees) in SketchUp? In this tutorial, I will show the casual SketchUp user a technique that will help you make graduated angles (angles not equal to 90 degrees) using the example of a barn.
Firstly, go to SketchUp and either log in or create a new account. To do this technique, you do not need to get the “pro” version. If available, I would highly recommend using a computer that has access to a mouse, as it will make your experience much easier. Once you have logged into SketchUp, open a new project in feet and inches.
To start, put a large rectangle on the ground to act as a foundation. This will give you enough space to create your barn.
Next, create three rectangles on this foundation using the rectangle button. The middle rectangle should be significantly larger than the other two (3 or 4 times larger) and these two rectangles should be the same size. All the rectangles should also line up, as they will become part of the same building.
After creating the rectangles, it is time to raise the rectangles to create a building. Using the push/pull function on SketchUp, raise the middle rectangle to your desired height. For the side rectangles, raise the rectangles to a height that is lesser than that of the central rectangle. This is how we will make our angle, so the lower the rectangle the larger the angle.
How do we make an angle? In order to create the angles, you are going to make a rectangle that connects the outer edges together. To do this, open the rectangle function, and focus on one of the endpoints on the higher rectangle. Click on the endpoint, and move your mouse to the corresponding endpoint on the lower rectangle. Carefully, while holding, trace the exterior edge across to the end of the rectangles. Then, at the other endpoint, release your mouse and you should have a rectangle located on the edges of the rectangle. You may need to move this feature if it doesn’t fully cover where you want it to. If this does not work, try again as Sketchup sometimes will make odd-shaped quadrilaterals when doing this technique.
You may notice that either one or two sides of the finished angle are open-air and not closed off, as seen on the left side of the above image. This is a downside of the technique. In order to fix this, create a rectangle using the rectangle edges that cover this hole, with half of the rectangle covering the hole. You may be able to immediately erase the upper triangle and be left with the lower triangle, but sometimes this does not work. In that case, draw a line across the hypotenuse of the triangle and erase the extra triangle.
After, you can proceed on as you would with any other house: create a new face for the roof, raise the roof, create overhangs and doors, and color the building with whatever colors you want. Don’t forget to save and name it!
This technique has many implications for the field of Digital Humanities. Firstly, architecturally, many buildings are not plain boxes but are angled and have more faces. This technique can help those who are recreating or designing buildings create more difficult buildings. Also, some historical objects such as slanted furniture, are not box-like and require angles to be historically accurate. Techniques like this are necessary to keep the design integrity of these objects.
Resources
Tutorials on Sketchup for the novice: https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/getting-started-self-paced-tutorials
Another version of a barn: http://www.thesketchupessentials.com/sketchup-skills-for-architecture-structure-modeling-barn-structure/
Good list of Sketchup tutorials for architecture: https://www.arch2o.com/sketchup-tutorials-architects/
