If your goal is to design, not just to practice with SketchUp, don't simply take an existing plan, make a few changes, and call it good. Instead, think about the qualities that make for a great house, and incorporate those qualities in your design.

Christopher Alexander and his colleagues thought about the qualities of great design, and in 1977 they published their thoughts in "A Pattern Language." The book is widely available, but it is a little pricey. Even if money is a problem for you, though, you are in luck: Alexander has a web site.

301 Moved Permanently

(www.patternlanguage.com)

You might not agree with some of the conclusions, but I guarantee it will get you thinking.

Also, it would be good to study the works of past masters. (Learn, don't worship.) You could start with Frank Lloyd Wright. Both his work and his biography are amazing - so much so that I sometimes wonder if he made a deal with the Devil to become the best architect ever. You can find a lot about him on the web, and I would be surprised if there weren't books about him at a library near you.

If you do become an architect, I wish you great clients with great commissions and the talent to do them justice.

Thanks for the pointer to the Most Used Scripts thread. Lots of interesting notions there.

I particularly liked the menus idea, as it seemed to me that Plugins was going to get awfully cluttered. I know next to nothing about Ruby (I don't want to, either. I spent too much time customizing AutoCAD. Now I want to design and draw in SketchUp.) but I was able to discern the structure and to customize it for myself. I was even able to hack out a way to make a heading and a faux separator at the end.

I can see using Roof so often that I don't want to have to go through the extra step on the menu, so I left on it's own under Plugins.

Bur's layer_manager_extension and projection_extension look to me to be so useful that they should be integrated right into SketchUp.

Shapes also seems like it will be important.

As time goes by, I expect to refer to that Most Used Scripts thread again and again.

I've been searching the web for ruby scripts, and there's about a million of them. So, I was wondering: what would you all - the experts - recommend a) for everyone and b) for architects?

I like it, too. I only wish I had a project that would let me borrow (i.e. steal) its good looks.

@pmiller said:

once you start to add windows, vents, doors, etc. you will probably end up with a lot of unique components anyway.

Not to mention the off-module oddballs and the inside corners. Nevertheless, I like your approach since it permits one to array the tops along the slope and the bottoms along a level plane, and I would not have to go in and adjust every panel individually.

Also, I think that just a few component styles would take care of 90% of the panels on any one project, even on the large-for-me 200,000 sq. ft. buildings.

Thank you gentlemen for your thoughtful, and useful, replies. I suppose, now that you have stimulated my brain, that I could create one panel as a group, array it along the slope, and then push-pull the bottom surfaces to the correct height. Yes?

Regards,

Walt

Here is a situation I've encountered in the past and probably will again. What is shown in the attachment is an insulated, precast concrete, wall panel. In my drawing, I would treat each such panel as a group. The top of the panel slopes 1/4" per 12" to follow the roof.

What I have tried is extruding the panel's top profile as a "follow me", exploded the group, intersected the extrusion with the panel, erased the excess, and then regrouped. Easy enough for one panel, but there might be 100 panels side by side.

Is there an easier way?

Wall Tee.skp

That's good looking work on your web site, Tina Anne. Is is all SketchUp?