It is my intention in this series of posts, to bring the budding designer along with me (also a 'noobie') on a journey of growth. I have always used the most basic and primitive tools in the design process. A few notes and drawings scratched on paper, detailing an idea whose fruition was most often preceded by a wasteful and prolonged period of trial an error. SketchUp has provided a means of avoiding all that. It has been a wonderful gift and a superb learning experience.

I would like to take a moment to thank the good people at Trimblefor providing a non-profit license for SketchUp 2015 Pro. It has been an interesting learning process, but ultimately very fruitful. Without SketchUp, I would not have been able to avoid all the pitfalls normally associated with my former methods. Special thanks to the membership here at SketchUcationfor sharing their hard-won experience and skills. I am indebted to you all. I invite everyone to offer suggestions and corrections as I am still just learning to crawl.

To continue with this project: The drawbacks to my current survival shelter model are both simple and profound. Every human has wants and needs that should be met. In order to properly address these issues, the following must be incorporated into the design process for a viable survival shelter within the context of the profoundly poor and disenfranchised to be realized:

• Security
• Portability
• Durability
• Flexibility
• Environment
• Facility

There are limits to what I can do. But to consider these necessities with my limitations in mind, I can still make progress.

Last year I was given some Coroplast in 4'x4' sheets. I acquired some screws, tape, tie-wraps and decided on a project. The results are detailed above. Herein I am attempting to address what I have learned.

Security
These people have very little and no place to keep it. Every day they start with what they can carry. The answer is to give them somewhere to keep their belongings and a means to secure them.

Portability
A transient lifestyle require that their resources be portable. Should they gain employment, no matter how temporary, they must be able to respond without concern for their belongings and their place of shelter. The answer is to bring it all with them.

Durability
The shelter must be able to withstand daily use while providing protection for their meager possessions and comfort and practicality for them.

Flexibility
The shelter must be able to meet their needs in an ever changing environment. Where they are welcome of at least unmolested one day, may change without notice. They must be able to move and re-establish camp with a minimum of time and effort.

Environment
Controlling humidity and temperature are crucial to comfort and health. But they are also crucial to storage too. Both perishables and non-perishable items can be damaged or ruined without environmental considerations. A means must be provided to address these issues.

Facility
The normal day-to-day needs that we take for granted are often denied to the homeless population. A place to bath, wash clothes or use the restroom are not guaranteed. The facility to accomplish normal daily needs should be included in the design process.

In a final note, I am far from wealthy. So the design process must accommodate my limited resources too. With this in mind, my solution to a utilitarian survival shelter for the homeless is inspired by the trend toward 'Small Houses'. But my effort will be towards an Ultra-Light, Micro-Miniature Small House on Wheels. Stay tuned...

I started using SketchUp in earnest in January of 2015. I had been trying to model survival shelters for the homeless population in and around Houston, Texas. Aside from the 1x2" wooden door frame, it was built of Coroplast 4'x4' sheets, tie-wraps and the seams were sealed with Gorilla tape. I also used coated drywall screws (1 1/4" - 3") straight down the flutes in the Coroplast to reinforce and strengthen where cabinets and end-walls attached to the housing.

This shelter was placed in a homeless camp on a vacant lot, hidden in the tall weeds and shrubs. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 6 months. It was durable enough to survive the extremes of the weather and daily use; but it was not portable enough to accommodate the homeless lifestyle. It finally broke apart and has not been repaired. I did gain some valuable insight in how it could be improved. I will detail those in my next post.

@richard said:

There is the Layout wish list, that I'm pretty sure the developers are keeping an eye on!
Thanks Richard. You are too kind sir. I just think that discussion on this topic would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn new perspectives from (as we sometimes say in Texas) the old hands. I do hope they are listening.

Phillip

pilou! WOW!

Perhaps it would serve this topic well were it recast as a poll and made a sticky. This seems like an important discussion that has the potential to drive the future of product development. It is the kind of discussion that should involve the leaders of this community if not whole membership. I'm sure we could benefit from observations and experience of those more accomplished than those of beginners like me. Just sayin', I'd like to hear more.

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Kenneth,

I should have asked, is there a general rule that can also be applied, such as a engineering requirement or building code that might affect minimum or maximum spacing?

@ Philip - great example.

Peter,

Somehow, I missed your reply. Thanks for the explanation. I have some pretty minimal settings that I use for generic tune-up purposes. For me, it has served as an enhanced find and fix errors utility that has saved more than one of my models. But your points are well made and well taken. Thanks again.

Phillip

Hi All,

I hope I'm not intruding in what is obviously a higher level discussion. Not having a dog in this fight, I hope that my perspective will be of some small value among my betters. I don't use Layout. Why, may or may not surprise you.

I had played around in SketchUp over the years. It wasn't until this last year that I started to concentrate on learning SketchUp in earnest. I started designing in earnest.

As an intermediately proficient 'noob' (that may be a little generous), one of the most important things I learned about using SketchUp was the methods I consciously memorized; the things committed to preference and to reflex. Whether it is in the creative sequence I memorize for modeling certain types of objects, or the keyboard shortcuts I have assigned in support of my current methods, one thing is abundantly clear: whatever interferes with the creative process is bad.

Keyboard shortcuts are a prime example of the point I would make. The idea is to reduce the tool selection process to muscle memory. This is the desirable result. This is also why I have made a conscious choice not to use Layout.

Much like SketchUp, I have dabbled in it. But I was not forced to commit to its use due to job requirements or any pressing need. So I chose not to even try. Why? The interface. It is just different enough to cause confusion and interfere with my efforts in 'internalizing' SketchUp.

Personally, I believe any effort to reduce the differences in the interface cannot but help make it more intuitive and therefore, more attractive.

@kennethagiusmosta said:

Hi to all,

I'm a newbie with dynamic components and I'm finding some difficulties as such. Web is not so helpful like it was when it was with the basic sketchup. Anyway!

I've managed to copy components and position them with formulas. I cannot find a way though and here is my question:

Is there a way to copy a component as specified by the user and position them as he likes.

For example:
The user wants 4 copies of a horizontal member in a frame (let's say 5 metres in hieght). Then he positions them in
1st at 10cms
2nd at 20cms
3rd at 100cms
while the last at 400cms.
These are not standards or constant position as the user may vary the positions at will and most importantly he can use more or less than 4 copies (maybe 5, 9 or 10)

Is there a formula that can be used? Help is much appreciated..I'm stuck

Best regards
Kenneth
Unless I misunderstand you, from the users perspective, there is no standard distance between copies or number of copies. It sounds like you may want to set up some custom attributes to be filled in by the user in the Component Options Window. The first attribute to hold the number of copies desired and the second to record the sequence of custom spacing for each copy in order. An alternative would be to simply set a default (or custom) spacing value and let the user place the copies themselves with the Move tool.

Hope this helps,
Phillip

When I said, "I presume you already have something in mind.", I was sure you had already thought it through. You don't disappoint. I all sounds good.

Thanks for the heads up. I certainly don't mind making the change, but in the US market, I can see how that might be a problem. Since you are already aware, I presume you already have something in mind.

Impressive.

Ditto on the thanks, Garry. I consider it a privilege. Registered and downloaded the beta last night. No issues with either.

Have a long day ahead but will try and put it through its paces starting this evening. I'll be working in feet, inches and fractions thereof, so it should be interesting. Anything pops it the Ruby console and I'll forward it along.

Phillip

@pbacot said:

I would NOT suggest using CleanUp plugin unless you are totally clear with what the results will be. In the present situation Hellnbak is trying to sort out Scenes. CleanUp works on the model geometry. It will change things in your model geometry. Hellnbak has NO issues with his model geometry.

Hi pbacot,

Glad you chimed in. Hellnbak seems to be at his wit's end and I'm sure he would appreciate any suggestions you might offer.

As far as your suggestions to me, I'm sure you are correct. And I will of course, defer to your superior knowledge and experience. However, in the past, I have encountered some strange behavior with models, not all of which I would have attributed to geometry. This was suggested to me when I had tried everything else. It worked. It has worked so well that when all else fails, it's become my run-to-mamma strategy.

Of course if you have suggestions as to what to do about his current dilemma, they should indeed be tried first. However, I was under the impression that hands were being thrown up in the air in frustration and surrender. So I just volunteered what has worked for me.

Just so I know and for future reference;

1. Wouldn't running Cleanup[sup:ihgtexey]3[/sup:ihgtexey] on a copy of the file make it clear what the results would be?
2. How do we know there is no issue with the model's geometry if we don't check?
3. How will cleaning up the geometry of the model be detrimental to Hellnbak's current situation?
4. How do we know it won't affect Hellnbak's model in a positive way if geometry errors are corrected?
5. In short, where is the harm in trying? Y'know, no harm no foul?

I am on a Windows 8.1 HP EliteBook running SketchUp 2015 Pro. This is what I do when I have a ghost in the machine. From the SketchUp menu bar, click on 'Window' and select the 'Model Info' window. It will open a new window (surprise, surprise). In the left hand pane, select 'Statistics'. Then there will be a small drop-down box at the top where you should select 'Entire Model'. Finally, at the bottom of this window are two buttons. Click 'Purge Unused' followed by 'Fix Problems'. Save. Exit SketchUp. Reboot.

If this doesn't work, my next action is to use the Cleanup[sup:v9f4bxzt]3[/sup:v9f4bxzt] extension by ThomThom (which I use a lot anyway). It cleans up and optimizes your SketchUp model. And since I use Windows, I always save and reboot except when I have to do a hard reset. Hope this helps.

@cotty,

Wonderful work. I could learn a lot from you.

@richard said:

Actually, I'd reckon it probably needs longitudinal webbing as well! otherwise each web could move to open up a gap between. Check out a Rison for reference.

@Richard,

Good catch on the webbing. But even without the longitudinal addition you suggest, it still looks pretty awesome.

Do you remember the plastic hammock Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) designed for his brother David Larrabee (William Holden) after he sat down on the champagne glasses tucked in his back pockets?

Garry, this is amazing work. Your attention to detail is impressive.

My father was a builder/developer, mainly in residential construction. As a kid I was allowed to sit quietly as he met with architects, designers, vendors etc. I remember vividly him sharing his drawings and notes with me long before the advent of personal computers. He would have been delighted with this.