- How easy/hard was it?
It wasn’t very hard at first; however, all the little details made it a lot harder. I created the house’s main body and added more rooms in the back to make it more realistic. I then added windows, doors, garage door, and the porch. These details made the process a lot harder and more time-consuming. I finally finished by filling in the house with color.
- What elements particularly bogged you down?
I had a tough time creating a roof using a line through midpoints to raise the roof and using the move function, and I could only move the line on the X and Y axes. I learned that using a computer with a mouse will help with this problem, and I am now going to use a computer with a mouse whenever I use SketchUp. I also got bogged down by the roof, as many smaller elements combine to make the roof.
- What compromises did you have to make?
I had to compromise on colors and the sizes of windows because windows were hard to make uniform. I also had to compromise with how I shaded the windows because I wanted to use SketchUp’s glass, which is see-through, but I couldn’t furnish the inside.
- What humanistic uses can you envision for this tool in the areas of research or teaching?
This program could be used when designing new technologies and reconstructing past buildings using blueprints or other information. In addition, this could be helpful for students in teaching various subjects, such as geometry.
Advice: I would highly recommend getting a mouse to move elements when working with SketchUp; it will save you a lot of time and frustration.
Your model looks great! Even using a mouse I had some difficulties, I’m very impressed that you got yours to look so clean. I also had some difficulties placing windows and wonder if there’s a way to put in coordinates instead of just dimensions.
I like your model. I also like the idea of using SketchUp to teach Geometry!
To reiterate what Lewis said, entering specific coordinates seems like it would be extremely useful since a lot of my windows ended up being a little misaligned too. Seriously, I can’t imagine that’s too difficult to do. On the other hand, I’m not totally sold on SketchUp specifically for teaching geometry, I just see the extra features and obtuseness as being less useful than a standard 3D graphing tool. Neat idea though, I’m sure there’s some niche where it works better.