Problems drawing a surface for a roof

Jean Lemire

Hi Adrian, hi folks.

Not only is this part skewed relative with the rest of the house but this front part is not square.

See Scene 2 of this file for ideas.

TIG

Assuming the side extension is indeed at a slight angle in plan to the main house...
The eaves, front and back, are shown level.
Irrespective of the font/back roofs' slopes, if they each have a single single plane then they will intersect forming the ridge line, but that can't be horizontal unless the roofs themselves 'twist'.
It's basic geometry...
Here are some of the permutations...

mitcorb

On second thought: It did not immediately occur to me that this "skew" may be an existing condition, and the OP has not yet introduced any new construction geometry. I just assumed that this was a new addition and new roof to an existing house.

Gaieus

That can indeed be the case as he says "I am drawing our house to use it later as the base for a building application". Here, downtown (the historic centre of my city) you can hardly find a rectangular building for instance. These Medieval masons must all have been drunk when working.

mitcorb

So, my next word of caution would be--if this is existing concrete slab-- to verify the bearing capabilities of that slab before imposing significant weight of construction.

badera

Hey, thank you all for your help and comments!! I see, I have to learn a lot...
Especially, thanks to Gaieus for this step by step guide.

And yes, the floor plan is exactly according the drawings. (The house was built in 1961.)

Roger

Not sure, but some medieval masons may still have been working in 1961.

badera

Hi Jean Lemire

Thank you too for your drawing and your tipps in the drawing.
I have one question: your lines looks much smoother than mines / i.e. the basic points are not shown in your drawing. This looks pretty bether than mine.
How can I achieve that?

Gaieus

You are probably speaking about endpoints and such. Go to Window > Style > In model (that small house icon) > Edit and the first icon is "Edge settings". There you can turn endpoint on/off (or give them some less emphasized size), adjust profile width etc.

Note that these settings are not only aesthetic things but can often help trouble shooting issues. For instance, if a set of edges (dividing a larger face) are thin, they actually merge into the face and create smaller faces but if you have profiles on and see thicker edges, they indicate that they do not merge.

The same way, being able to see where endpoints are can be advantageous when dealing with something more complex.

TIG

Gaieus beat me to it, but since I already typed it here's my equivalent...
Play around with different Sketchup menu Window > 'Styles' from the installed Styles list- save them in Scene-tabs for comparison purposes - OR try editing your current Style's settings [model-tab > Edit] and/or save that as a new Style.
The way faces and lines display etc is determined by the Style's various settings...
For example 'end-points' are shown at the ends of lines - useful when modeling so you can readily see the ends, but for a final printed version you'd probably switch over to another Style that doesn't display them...
You can 'export' [save_as] your own Style into your Styles folder for reuse in other SKPs later, or even better make it the default Style in a new Template - save an empty SKP that uses that Style 'as a Template' - tip: also setup your preferred dimensions, text etc in the Template too, so that it's as you want next time you start a new model...

Gaieus

Also, you can set up different scenes with different styles. This would allow you to have a "nice style" in one scene and a "trouble shooting style" (which would probably also be "heavier" for SU) in another. In this case, turn off camera settings in the scenes so that they do not go elsewhere but stay where you are when switching scenes.

Jean Lemire

Hi badera, hi folks.

@badera said:

Hi Jean Lemire

Thank you too for your drawing and your tipps in the drawing.
I have one question: your lines looks much smoother than mines / i.e. the basic points are not shown in your drawing. This looks pretty bether than mine.
How can I achieve that?

If you read the text that I attached to your model in Scene 1, you will see:

**Your model. I took the liberty
of changing the **styleand reorienting
the faces so the front of all faces is
outside.

Just ideas.