Using Google Sketchup In Layouts Hey everybody! I have been using Sketchup since before it was owned by google, and never thought of using it to design a map -- that is, until I saw others do it. Anyways, this tool can be used to many things ranging from designing your layout (rough draft) to creating a professional presentation of your map. Thanks for reading this brief intro, the tutorial follows. But first, What is Sketchup? Sketchup was originally created by the company @last Software in august 2000 and was marketed as an easy to use 3D modeling tool. This ease of use plus advanced tools made it popular among interior designers and architects. As later versions were released, Sketchup became more popular for 3D graphical arts and now, forge layouts. Sketchup was acquired and now owned by Google as of 2006 Where do I get sketchup? For those of you who skipped the wall of text to get here, don't worry, nothing above is important. Anyways, you can get sketchup directly from google here. You don't need the pro version Installation is simple, but takes a while (~ 6 min) Let's get started Open up sketchup (Start->My Programs->Google Sketchup 6 ya n00b). You'll be asked to choose your default view. Pick perspective, it makes stuff a lot easier. Now you could [x] out of the little tutorial boxes, or watch if you're interested. Now there will be this guy at the middle of the window. No one likes him, so just click on him once and hit the delete key on your keyboard. Now we can start drawing. Make a floor Ok, first, click the rectangle button, your cursor should now be a pencil. Now click anywhere. You can now size-up the area of your floor. Click to finish. Now you have a floor that you have made proportional to your map. Now the fun stuff. Layout time! Now we're going to make some stuff. Click the rectangle tool again. Draw a rectangle anywhere on your floor. Now here is what is cool about Sketchup; click the "Push/Pull" tool and then hover over the rectangle you created. Click once, you now are pulling the "face" either up or down. When its at a position you like, click again. Cool, huh? Making a ramp/stairs Click the line tool. Now click the top corner of the box you just made (using push/pull). Now hover over the corner below that one and begin moving outwards to make a sloped line. You should see a red dotted line. The red line will keep you on track. When you get to the slope you want, click again. Now simply connect this line to the bottom corner of your box by drawing another line back to the bottom corner; from the end of the line you just made. (make a line where the red dotted line was) Now use your Push/Pull skills to push the face horizontally across to make a ramp. Cool! The END! Thanks for reading. This tutorial took a long time (~ 3 hours) to get materials together and to write, so rep would be nice please. Any ideas, questions, comments -- post here, I'll answer.
WOW this is very cool! This looks like it could definately help onm my next map (lots of interlocking means lots of planning). Thank you for helping not only me but the forgehub community!
Yea Sketchup is great for planning, I'm using it right now for my newest map. No so much because it is confusing, but so I can design it before I do hard stuff like geomerge float objects -- only to find out it doesn't look good. EDIT - Finally had some time to make some cooler-looking objects. Check the top graphic thing. These will be available for download soon.