If at first you don't suceed..................

jacm

Hi everyone,
I have come to the conclution that after my topic; "Built walls are are exact height, but there not??" I thought I had solved the problem but then another problem showed up. Whit that I decided "enough is enough" and scrapped it and I am going to start again even though I've wasted weeks and weeks of work.
I will try building in metric as it should be easier and some of the 'components' I have saved, hopfully there are no problems there. But before I start I would like a few answers:

Can anyone tell me if there any I can gleen information on getting started or a protocol on the correct way, i.e. should I build all the walls, and subsequent floors first before I carry on with other items?
Nesting groups/components or will it make things more difficult?
Should I purge a group of items before I make them a completed group/component?

I'm trying to get started without creating problems with my first prodject and ending up with a mess again.
Thank you for all your help on my last project but it was going from bad to worse so I had to stop. I have learnt a lot but I've a load to learn hense my questions before I start. Looking forward get going again and egger to hear your ideas which can help. (I must be a masochist).
Thanks again.
John

xrok1

well one thing i do in case of problems is to save different files at major points. for instance i'll make house.skp and build all the walls then save as house2.skp when the roof is on etc... that way you can just go back to an earlier (problem free) stage if major problems occur. also if you get to a point where you want to experiment or decide your design went down the wrong road, just go to an earlier stage and try a different direction.
as far as groups and components, i think thats kinda personal taste. i tend to rarely use components but theres usually not too much repetitive in my work. when i do use them its usually just for furnishings (chairs ...).

honoluludesktop

Hi John, Have you looked at some of the house modeling tutorials on youtube? That's a good place to start. I would make a floor plan, then with the face that represents the walls, pull it into the third dimension with a value. That way there is no chance that the edge will snap to anything. The videos are your best bet, and will be time well spent.

Gaieus

Hi John

Grouping (or making components) will always be essential. I think some of your flaws in your previous model came from some geometry sticking to the others and somewhere, some time you modified something unintentionally and without noticing.

Have a look at this two part (although never really completed) tutorial:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=723
and
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=752

Hopefully they will give you some ideas. And about the wasted weeks - no, they are not wasted at all. You have learnt a lot and maybe they only seem to be wasted because you started learning with a "real" project. Even if you hadn't screwed up your model at some point, by the time you would have finished it, you would also have realised that if you had to start over again, you would do things differently as you have learnt a lot during the process.

jacm

to: xrok1, honoluludesktop, Gaieus,
Thanks very much with ideas from you all, it was realy useful. I spent about a couple of hours looking at more tutorials, information, etc., being careful to 'walk not run' as it is easy to get carried away.
If I do make another mess I'll finish the topic with 2nd part of the saying........"try, try again" although I'll try to avoid it.
I had difficulty in 'youtube' finding anything to do with house building but I'll keep searching.

John