Introduction

Sketchup is fantastic for linking your computing lessons to your current topic or theme in class, especially history or geography where you might be looking at different parts of the world or periods of history. Many of these have recognisable architectural styles for buildings, or you could draw objects associated with a particular theme or time.

The plans for these next two lessons are very open ended and are written in a way that you can adapt them for the topic you are covering. But it should build on the work they have done in the last few lessons, particularly the houses they designed, and give them the chance to work more independently. It should also give students opportunities to explore some of the more advanced tools available in Sketchup, while consolidating the skills they have been learning. 

 

Background research

Take some time to have a good look at the type of buildings or architectural style of the period you are studying. Find images of good examples that the students can analyse and ask them to consider things like

• What sort of materials are used in the building? 
• How were things different when this building was built? How? 
  • Tools
  • Machinery / technology
  • Resources and materials available
  • Knowledge of building techniques

• What are the key features of buildings of this type? 
  • Colour
  • Shape
  • Size
  • Materials 

• Why was it built in this way? This could be many reasons such as:
  • Defence
  • Materials available
  • Religion
  • Style and fashion
  • The building needs to fulfil a particular job/purpose

 

New Sketchup techniques

At this point, or during this project you should try and introduce some of the more advanced building techniques and tools in Sketchup, which can make your model look much more realistic and impressive, and in many cases reduce workload and make difficult looking things easy. 

Not all will be appropriate or needed in every type of model, so consider which could be most useful to your students and give them chance to practise the techniques before using them in a bigger project. 

Many tools are demonstrated and explained with the excellent Sketchup tutorial videos in the Sketchup Fundamentals series.

 

 

Here’s a few specific videos to take a look at if you’re not already familiar with the tools or techniques: 

• Offset (in part 5 - Drawing tools)
• Components (part 8)
• Move (part 10
• Follow me (part 11)
• Inference locking (part 12)

 

Topic examples

Below you will find Sketchup model examples for a variety of different topics and themes. Most have accompanying resources to go with them showing tips for creating the models. Pick one and have a go yourself, or use them for ideas and inspiration for a different model!

Below you will find ideas and guidance for:

• Churches
• Romans
• Castles
• Bridges
• Stadiums
• Mayans
• Egyptians
• Ships
• Ancient Greeks
• Playgrounds
• Waterwheels
• Lighthouses
• Product design - phone cases

 

Churches

Resources: 3D Design- Churches presentation

 

Here’s some specific tips on creating elaborate church window frames using Offset, Components, Follow me and creating your own edits of materials.

Draw a rectangular window and add an arc on top of it. Rub out the middle line and use the Scale tool if you want to adjust the height, width or size of the window. 

 

 

At this point select the window pane and it’s frame with a double click in the centre, then right-click it and make it a component so you can duplicate the finished window easily later. 

 

 

Remember, from this point you will need to double click the window component with the select tool to be able to edit it. 

Use the offset tool to create a couple more outlines of your window, parallel to the first one. Then use the line draw tool to start to divide the window into as many panels as you want. 

 

 

Next, zoom in to make things easier and then use the offset tool again to create a thicker frame for each panel of the window. Try and make them all even, you can use size referencing to other parts of the frame to help with that.

 

 

When each pane is done, rub out the central lines between each pane to leave something like this. 

 

 

Then use push/pull to bring out the window frame and the pane dividers. 

 

 

Shaping can be added to the outside of the window frame, which is a great opportunity to introduce the follow me tool. 

Zoom in close to the bottom corner of the window. Draw a line on the face of the wall coming away from the window. Switch to the arc tool and connect the end of your line with the corner of the protruding window frame. Ensure you are on the same plane, if it is, it will seal up the shape you have created with a darkened area.

 

 

Select the Follow Me tool (available in the large tool set, click: View > Tool palettes > Large tool set). Click on the arced shape you have just created and then begin to move your mouse around the edge of the window, it should wrap the shape around the window as you go. You may need to move the camera as you go to be able to reference the edge that you want to follow.

 

 

The last corner, where it all joins up, can sometimes be tricky, but move your mouse around at that point until it all connects up as it should, then release the mouse button to complete the frame.

You can start to paint the window when ready, with stone textures.

 

 

When it comes to the glass choose one of the transparent materials from the glass and mirrors category (translucent in older versions of Sketchup). However, these all tend to be standard translucent glass colours, so to create a stained glass window with coloured glasses we need to edit the material. First right-click one of the glasses and make a copy of it by choosing duplicate from the menu that appears. This maintains the original version when we make changes to the colour. Then, from the drop down box at the bottom that shows Colour, choose Edit. Use the colour wheel to recolour the material and the slider below it to change the saturation of the colour. This can be done for any material, for example if you want a different colour wood or brick you can use this method. 

 

 

Repeat this for as many colours as you want for your window and then colour each pane carefully. 

 

 

Here are some shots of the rest of our church design. The shape and construction of the main building is reasonably simple and not very different to the techniques described in lessons 3 and 4, for creating a house. 

 

 

Romans

Resources: 3D Design- Romans presentation

A variety of Roman style buildings are possible with Sketchup. The presentation above has guides, stimulus images and lots more details for creating Roman buildings with Sketchup, including Roman villas, amphitheatres and temples.

The amphitheatres are a good way to introduce and use the follow me tool, which makes creating rounded terraces very easy.

 

 

Castles

Resources: 3D Design- Castle presentation

Castles are fairly straightforward if built in parts as components. There is a lot of symmetry in most designs which can make your job easier. The presentation above has a collection of castle images to inspire and some examples of castles made with Sketchup. 

 

 

Bridges

Resources: 3D Design- Bridges presentation

This is a really nice one for looking at design principles and combining your work with other STEM areas; you could actually build your bridge in DT once you have designed it here. The presentation above gives a few more ideas, tips and tricks for creating your own Sketchup bridges.

 

 

Stadiums

Resources: 3D Design- Stadiums presentation

There are many ways to do stadiums, but a relatively simple technique is to start with the base area where your pitch, running track or surrounding area goes. Create a staircase shape that is perpendicular to the edge of your base and use the follow me tool to wrap it around your base to create the terrace effect for the stands. Take a look at the amphitheatre in the Romans presentation as the technique is the same. Some other parts like arches or olympic flames are easier to build separately at the side as components and move in with the move tool and arrow keys.

You can even import photos to add to the walls of your stadium (see the stadium entrance below): File > Import > Browse for an image > drag it out onto a flat surface.

The presentation above has a collection of images of current as well as innovative and futuristic stadiums to inspire your students as they plan the design of their model.

 

 

Mayans

Resources: 3D Design- Mayan temples presentation

Another historical topic link. If you’re studying the Mayans, then have a go at creating a Mayan temple with Sketchup. The presentation above has a detailed guide to show you how.

 

 

Egyptians

Resources: 3D Design- Egyptians presentation

The pyramids are probably the first thing that pops into your mind if you think about Egyptian buildings, and there’s no reason why you couldn’t build them in Sketchup, but for something a bit different and open ended, we had a go at creating a Pharaoh's palace. The presentation above has lots more details, plus advice for techniques to make the process easier. This is another good project for teaching and using the ‘Follow me’ tool and copying, duplicating, resizing and moving objects. 

 

 

Ships

Resources: 3D Design- Ships presentation

This idea came from a school that were studying the Titanic as their topic, but you could apply it to other areas too, perhaps with more of a STEM angle. The presentation above has images to inspire and a detailed guide to creating a Sketchup cruise liner.

 

 

Ancient Greeks

Greek temples make a nice project. The best advice for this kind of model is to build things in separate parts, make them into components and then put them together. Build the base and the inside rooms section first, then a pillar, make it into a component and copy it so they are all the same height. Finally, build the roof section separately and make it another component and use the move tool and the arrow keys to move it into place on the top of your model. 

 

 

Playgrounds

Another great ‘real world’ application of 3D design skills, your students could design a new playground for your school. Take some time to discuss and study play equipment, what they’ve seen in other parks and what they’d like in their ultimate play park! 

 

 

Waterwheels

These models are featured on the Sketchup website, created by pupils from a school in the Isle of Man.

 

 

Lighthouses

With our close proximity to the coast and recent development of things like the Whitley Bay Dome and St Mary’s lighthouse, this could be a perfect project with local links. Artist impressions for St Mary’s looked like this when the development funding bid was submitted.

 

 

Could your students create alternative designs? These lighthouse examples were also taken from the Sketchup website.

 

 

Product design - phone cases

Not a building this one, but another great project! Almost everything that is manufactured now will have been designed in 3D modelling software first. With the arrival of 3D printing, items can be designed on screen and turned into reality, right in front of you. Products can be genuinely customised to a person’s individual needs by tweaking designs and 3D printing one-off pieces, which might not have been possible in the past due to manufacturing costs for single items. Have a look at this example of customised trainers, made to perfectly fit the foot of an athlete. 

Sketchup is fully compatible with 3D printing (find out more here), but even if you don’t have a 3D printer yet, it’s still a fabulous tool for students to use for product designs as part of a design and technology project.

For smaller scale projects start a new file and choose the millimetres template. This makes it much easier when working with small measurements and gives you more precision when drawing lines, using the measuring tape (measurements are shown to 0.1 of a mm) and pushing and pulling. 

You could design anything you like, but look at some real examples with the students, study them and discuss design, effectiveness, materials etc. Measure them as precisely as possible and then have a go at recreating it with Sketchup. Below is an example of a phone case designed in Sketchup. Images you have saved on your computer can be imported onto models from File > Import > Choose the right file type and browse for your file. Then click to place and size on the surface of your model.