Model 2: Using a Floor Plan

    Follow the instructions below carefully, and by the end of this section, you'll have turned this:

...into this:

Getting Started

You should have kept the settings from your previous assignment. This means, you should start your assignment in Metric - 2D, and have your large tool set already visible. If this isn't the case, go back to the previous assignment and follow the steps to make it happen.

Importing a Floor Plan

There are all kinds of floor plans on the internet. We're going to use a very basic one in this assignment, of a room with a staircase and a door.
Right-click on the following image, and choose 'Save Target As...' from the menu that pops up:

Make sure you save it to your U:\\ drive!
Now, create a new document in SketchUp, and go up to the "File" menu. Select "Import", and find the floor plan in your U:\\ drive. Make sure to select "Import as image" from the drop-down menu before opening (this should be selected already).

ALSO, make sure you select 'JPEG files' in the Files of Type... window.

You'll notice that now, a picture of the floor plan is following your mouse around the screen. Click on the origin (the middle of the screen, where the green and red lines meet), and start dragging left or right. Now, just as you've done before with Push / Pull or Move, type the following while dragging and press Enter:

5m

This should finalize the floor plan, giving the shorter wall a dimension of 5 metres.
Lastly, right-click on the floor plan you imported, and select "Explode" from the menu that pops up. This will make SketchUp treat the floor plan like a regular rectangle with a picture on it.

Watch the whole thing:

Click here to watch a video of the above steps

Raising the Walls

Once you have your floor plan in place, and it's treated like a normal rectangle, we can break it up into two areas - the walls, and the floor.
Use the Rectangle Tool to trace a rectangle following the inner wall. This breaks up the surface geometry, so you can deal with the walls and the floor separately.
Use the orbit tool to move to a 3D view, so you can see up / down for the next step.
Once you've traced the floor, use the Push / Pull tool on the walls. Raise them 3 metres. (Type 3m while dragging upwards).
Now your room (including your door) should have a solid wall all around it:

Watch the whole thing:

Click here to watch a video of the above steps

Punching a Door Through the Wall

While we can still see where the door ought to be, use the Line tool to draw a door 2.5 metres tall.
(Start from the floor, type 2.5m while dragging a line upwards and push Enter. Then draw a line horizontally across the width of the door, and draw another vertical line downwards.)
Now that we have a shape for our door, use Push / Pull to "punch" it through the wall.

Before we continue, you may have noticed that your model might not look exactly like the one above. If this is the case, it's just because the picture on the floor plan 'spilled over' onto the walls.
To get rid of the spill-over, use the Paint Bucket tool on each surface of the wall to give them all the same colour.

Watch the whole thing:

Click here to watch a video of the above steps.

Tracing the Staircase

To make the staircase, all you need to do is trace over each line.
Start by using the Rectangle Tool around the whole staircase.
Next, use the Line tool to trace each step of the staircase. This will break up the main rectangle into smaller rectangles representing steps.
Starting with the back step, use the Push / Pull tool to raise it 0.3m. SketchUp remembers the last distance you Push / Pulled. All we need to do now is double-click on the remaining steps to bring the up to the same level. Once you have all the steps at the same level, go back to the back step and keep raising the steps in the same manner. As you work your way to the front, leave the last step alone.

Watch the whole thing:

Click here to watch a video of the above steps.

Finishing Up

To finish up your model, we need to do three more things.

Use the Paint Bucket tool to give every step in your staircase the same look, just like we did with the walls of the floor plan.
Use the Eraser tool to erase any extra lines you might have in your model. We don't want things to look messy!
Use the Dimension tool to show me the width of the short wall, the height of the wall, the height of the door, and the height of two different steps (so I know you were double-clicking to have them all the same height).

Watch the whole thing:

Click here to watch a video of the above steps.

You're done!

Save your work, and then save a copy to the Assignment Drop Box by going to File, then Save As..., and navigating to the correct folder. Be sure to enter your name as the file name, so Mr. Najarian knows what belongs to whom!