Thanks Guys. Looks like I've started an interesting debate anyway.
I haven't had a chance to progress any of your ideas yet due to time contraints, but have some ideas anyway. Hopefully the double click will be enough, otherwise the dimension trick also looks good.

Will post again when I get somewhere, just wanted to post and say thanks in the meanwhile.

I have drawn a 3D model and used the section tool to create an upper and lower floor 2D plan using create group from section on the 3D model. I then ungrouped them.

I'm now onto labelling the 2D rooms with text, and have hit what I believe is a common problem. I'm using the ABC button and labelling in the middle of a room, and then hiding the arrow. This works fine until you zoom out where everything moves again. Is there any way of locking text to the middle of a room/object? Or a better way of doing this at all?

I'm not able to attach my document at the moment but will try to do so later in case it helps.

Thanks in advance.

OK, well I'm not 100% sure what I was doing, but with the help of the section plane tool I managed to get in and sort the stairs out.

Only trouble is, it messed up the rear and side wall next to it!!

http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem4/solid1.JPG
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem4/solid11.skp

Have managed to have a look and found a couple of lines making up walls that had dissapeared. Put them back in and have got most of it back, but for some reason the windows at the back are not right.

I can't even seem to push/pull them through again (it wont let me select them), though I shouldn't have to do this as the lines are there for them, as can be seen in the pic without the faces below.

http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem4/wireframe1.JPG
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem4/wireframe1.skp

Can anyone see what I've done and how to fix? I'm sure its just a single line somewhere, but it is driving my mad.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for being a pain. Every time I think I'm getting somewhere something breaks!

Thanks.

@unknownuser said:

I imagine you are not sure how to deal with the floor space between the upper and lower floors and the stairwell, correct?

Yes, thats the bit. On some of the links I posted there is just a void where the top storey clearly doesn't meet the bottom storey, and it seems to be really confusing both me and sketchup.

I am struggling to be able to 'punch a hole through' from top to bottom to continue the stairs.

I will have a go at grouping tomorrow, though it clearly would have been easier to do that as I went along.

I was also helped with the cosmetic stuff like the colour of faces last time round so know how to do that, I just never got around to tidying it up before I hit this current snag.

As I said even if I cant resolve this I think I should be OK as I only need 2D internal plans and 3D external, so the stairs shouldn't be an issue, I'd just like to understand and do it properly.

Thanks again

Hi,
Others commented on a previous thread that they were not able to open them by simply clicking, but if you right click and 'save as' it should allow you to save a local copy to work on.

I'm not really sure why?

Thanks

Hi,
I posted a week or so ago with some beginner issues I was having with drawing rough plans for an extension.
I have started again and all was going well.
I drew 2D ground plans, then pulled up a ground floor.
Then I made doors windows etc.
Next I pulled up a mid section from the 2D plan (the floor void) and placed it on top of ground floor.
Then I pulled up an upper floor from the 2D plan and again placed it on top, so I had a 3 layer stack of floors.
All seemed to be going well.

However, I get in big trouble when I try to open up the area between the ground floor and the upper floor (for the staircase)

I can sort of see what has happened - the middle bit I put in has messed stuff up.

So we go from this which looks OK - you will have to zoom out a bit:
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem3/23.skp

to the following when I try to open up the staircase between floors:
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem3/24.skp
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem3/25.skp
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem3/26.skp

So where do I go from here? And what should I have done instead?
I realise now that putting each floor on a seperate layer would have also made my life much easier! But now how do I now go about either joining up the 3 pieces vertically, or getting around the problem?

I am perhaps fortunate in that at the moment I am not too concerned with the internal detail - because the external detail is correct I may be able to just section plane it and draw the stairs on it 2D on the section plan.

Thanks in advance.
P.S. I made copies of various bits as I went along - you will see these if you zoom right out.

Gaieus,
Have managed to recreate what you did all except

@unknownuser said:

Then I reversed all back (blue) faces.

Could you please explain this step to me. Is it a global setting, or are you colouring each individual face?

Thanks

I will make some enquiries. I dont work with the system myself, I just asked someone (who I dont even know) to do me a favour and print them off for me. If I need electronic copies I'll see if I can get them exported.

Hi,
Thanks again. I have two O/S type location plans of 1:500 and 1:2500 on hard copy. I am fortunate to work for a utilities company with access to GIS data.
However, I'm not going to be able to import them into any CAD packages. From that website I was under the impression they were just standalone requirements.

Next door is a straight wall so I was just going to measure the distance from our property and draw it onto sketchup to show proximity.

I'd appreciate feedback if you think that will work? I know I should run it by the council but thought it easier to draw something for them to look at first, rather than trying to explain all this over the phone. As I said, I'm confident (well hopeful anyway) I can meet the requirements on that other forum with Sketchup.

Thanks again to all who have helped me on this - never expected even half as much helpful advice as I've recieved.

Hi linea,
Yes, I am in the UK. It was only my intention to get outline permission - not to do the second part myself.
The only info I found was on this site

http://www.diydata.com/planning/planning/planning_drawings.php

Hope I'm not breaking any forums rules posting that. I'm hoping that I can do drawings to the same level as the examples on this using sketchup. My plan is to do what I can then get the council to look over them and let me know what further detail is required. I'm hoping it will be enough.

If you have any further info on requirements for outline planning permission then I'd be very grateful/interested. Thanks for suggesting that package. I'll no doubt look at it at some point but after doing battle with sketchup for a few days I'm hoping I don't need to learn another new package!

Gaieus,
Thanks again for your continued input. I'd even seen a tutorial video on that and clean forgot about it! Just so much to learn I can only take so much in.

Thanks. I'll have a look at what you have said tomorrow when I have my other PC booted up.

I understand what you say about putting doors and windows in last. The reason I did them at this stage is I need both 2D plans and 3D models of the house. I produced the 2D models showing where the doors were, saved/copied it, then pulled the walls up on the original for the 3D model. If I had left it until last I would have had to open up the doors on both the 2D and 3D drawings separately.
Hope that made sense. This was a dillemma at the time as to whether to do the doors before or after I pulled the walls up. Knowing this, is it still better to leave doors and windows until last?

Thanks again for your assistance - you have been a great help on this.

Thanks. That looks great. Could you not see what I meant initially from the jpg captures?
Either way, it looks really clean now, but I'm struggling to work out/comprehend what you did?

I actually thought I was getting somewhere myself, in that I drew a line across the top and pulled it down, and I got a flat surface across the top of most of the model. Deleting that surface sort of allowed me to do what I wanted to do, but it looks nowhere near as neat as it does now.

Thanks a lot for tidying that up though. It looks much much better. If you are able to explain (in idiot's terms) to me what you did that would be even better, but I admit I'm starting to get a bit lost in termanology.

Thanks Guys.
Dont know why the links aren't working as you expect. In firefox perhaps you need to 'save as' and then work on it locally?

Firstly, the bay thing isn't too much of an issue. We already have the bay windows - there wont be any new ones. I think I've worked out how to drag the drop and bottom, leaving a 'hold' for the window.

Thanks also for the floor thing. You were right, it didn't really have a floor and once I push/pulled that it seemed to work.

I started again drawing on top of a larger 'floor' square and all seemed to be going well but I've hit the same problem again. Its when I try to add the bit at the top of the front door. This is how it was before:

http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem2/door1.jpg
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem2/door1.skp

goes a bit pear shaped when I try to add this bit. It seems to have lots of shading and lines joining other points that shouldn't be there. :

http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem2/door2.jpg
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem2/door2.skp

It all seemed to be going so well too!
Thanks in advance

Oh, one last thing - whats the best way to do a bay window. As you cannot just push/pull out a window opening on a curve, I've been drawing a curve at the top and bottom and lulling it up/down. Is that the only way?

Here is a test drawing I did using the method I said I intended to use earlier. Any comments or suggestions on whether this has been done properly - please dont be too harsh
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem1/test.skp

I'm attempting to draw up some plans of an extension for our house. Will leave the main building regs drawings to a pro, but want to do the initial drawings for outline planning myself (not sure if it will be granted and dont want a spend a fortune on arch fees just to have them turned down)

As such I'll need 2D ground plans, and also 3D models.

I made a start with a 2D plan as per below:

http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem1/plan1.jpg
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem1/plan1.skp

I then managed to raise the walls and poke a few windows and doors in.
The problem is there seems to be lines going from random points. They look messy, and even though I cant click on them, they seem to be stopping me doing further work correctly. What have I done wrong and how has this happened?

http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem1/groundraised1.jpg
http://rfmisc.homeip.net/problem1/groundraised1.skp

My overall plan is to design a 2D floor plan for downstairs, upstairs, and the new extension as per plan1.jpg. I will then copy each of these floor plans to another area of the canvas and raise walls to create the 3D 'storeys' before grouping each as a component and dropping them on top of each other, then adding a roof.
Is this the way to go?

Also, on my 2D model how would I draw in doors on the floor - just using the line tool, or are there proper 2D door components that can be added.

Any other help or advice for a beginner trying to do this would be greatly appreciated, or even just someone confirming I'm on the right track.
Thanks