Posts made by fbartels

Wouldn't be great to have a button you could click that would stop whatever process SketchUp is occupying itself with. For instance, when you accidentally double click on a high-poly TIN surface, then select the Smoove tool, and SketchUp goes into hyper-panic mode and won't pay any attention to you for 10 minutes. The button could be called "Never Mind". It would be a really nice feature.

Mike,

Thanks so much for the feedback. Much appreciated. I'll play around with styles a bit on the next one, good suggestion.

Regarding materials. I propose nothing. I have no idea. If pressed I'd say extruded aluminum, plastic, fiberglass, wood, concrete and stone, but since I never expect one of these things to be built I'm not particularly worried about it. I'm just having fun playing with the shapes.

Fred

Some additional views of the first of the abstract expressionist houses. I'll be working on number two this weekend.

Ahhh, thick walls, something like this I suppose. It just takes more time, and when I'm experimenting with new design ideas (aka sketching) it's a detail I feel can be left for future iterations.

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of Abstract Expressionist houses. They are an attempt to combine my interests in using SketchUp to produce abstract art and to produce architecture. We'll see how it goes. As usual feedback much appreciated.

I was actually aiming at something quite different but this came out. Thought I'd share since I think it's kinda fun. The file can be found at the bottom of this page. It is called "Abstract Expressionism 1," which should give you some idea of how widely I missed the mark.

Joe,

Nice design. Should look great on that site and help define the space.

How did you do the PDF?

Fred

The overall design is quite compelling and attractive, with an interesting variety of styles, shapes and textures. The detailing is quite amazing. Must have been a massive file.

Tried with Firefox as the default browser. Still no luck uploading a model.

John,

Thanks for your comments. The shaggy roof you created in Photoshop is great! What a delightful surprise to find on the morning forum check.

It's clear a house like this would need one of these with its own little curved-roof charging garage.

I've put an early version of the model that corresponds to the image below here. The roof could fairly easily be altered to minimize the soffit by moving a few elements, reintersecting, then copying the new roof and using "paste in place" on the newer walls.

is located here http://dws.editme.com/NovDec2007

First, regarding the SketchUp Cons list. Doesn't handle curved geometry well is arguable. I produced the first model referenced below in about an hour. The roof in the second model in about the same amount of time. If Gehry were to actually work on a computer (he doesn't, his assistants do) I think he would be a huge SketchUp fan.

http://dws.editme.com/files/SeptOct2007/swirl%20builidng%201.1.jpg
http://dws.editme.com/files/SeptOct2007/Sassafras%20House%20Step%202%20for%20DWS.jpg

This has been a really interesting conversation. As someone who teaches young students to use SketchUp both in large groups (we've had entire middle school grades do projects with SketchUp) and in small CAD/Architecture class, there has been much useful information from you professionals out there using the program in the "real world" that I can share with the kids.

Sometimes I feel people think that if SketchUp is so easy to use it can't be a serious tool. This is - as others have pointed out - like saying paper and pencils are not serious tools because they are easy to use. Having easy to use tools just makes the study and practice of design - of what to produce with those easy to use tools - all the more important.

We recently had two architecture firms present designs for an addition to a building. The first firm used a SketchUp model as part of their presentation. The architect doing the SketchUp presentation was rotating their model around when one of the older trustees in the audience asked him to stop as it was making him feel queezy. This flustered the architect who from that point on had to move really slowly and cautiously around the model. (You don't want to get the trustees upset... they usually end up paying for most of the building.)

The second firm didn't appear to use SketchUp but they did make an old-fashioned 3-D physical model. When they pulled this out and asked everyone to gather around there was a palpable sense of excitement in the room. The oldsters in the room especialy seemed to like it. The architect presenting gently pulled the floors off one by one until just the basement level was left (a big issue in the design was bringing more light into the basement area) and then showed people how they could put their heads down by a window and see just how the new design would look from the inside. He had them in the palm of his hand.

We have a student who wants to study architecture and has produced some wonderful work in SketchUp. I sought him out and told him this story because I thought he should know how much the audience had appreciated the analog model.

I think the moral is that SketchUp is only one tool in the designer's toolkit and over emphasis on that one tool (which SketchUp's power and ease-of-use tends to foster) can be counter productive.

Fred

The suggested fix of clicking on the Home button does not work for me. Perhaps I'm missing something?

This turned out a little differently than I expected. Anyway, the shell is complete. I don't feel like working on the interior just now. I think the roof would be fun to mow... at least the first few times.

Time to go make Apple pies.

I had the morning free today so I put together the walls and the roof. The walls have not yet been cut horizontally with their signature Zaha Hadid curves. That's step 4.

The first image shows the walls and roof before cutting with the intersect with model tool. The second image shows the model with all the excess wall areas cut away and the walls fitting nicely under the roof.

Should be able to finish this up in another day or two.

Can confirm the same behavior on a Mac Mini running 10.4.11.

Used a much bigger grid size on the TINs and everything went smoothly. This is getting pretty close to what I'm aiming for.

Getting closer but not there yet. SketchUp gets very funky sometimes when intersecting TINs. I'll try again with fewer polys. Meanwhile, this is the second attempt.

Tina and Eric. Thanks for your encouraging comments. Much appreciated.

I've been mulling over how to approach this Zaha house. At first I thought I'd use a facade of curvy panels separated from, but attached to, the house structure. That seemed a little too superficial, so I thought I'd try putting the curves right into the walls. My first test wall, which can be seen below, was a little too ambitious in terms of poly counts and in the process of doing multiple intersects I didn't get everything. Anyway, it was a step forward, and the next test wall should be much better.

The following is much closer to what I'm aiming for. It's a process.