SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization: Beginner’s Guide

408 Pages·2010·19.3 MB·English

by  Robin de Jongh

SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural
Visualization
Beginner's Guide
Create stunning photo-realistic and artistic visuals of your
SketchUp models
Robin de Jongh
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization
Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without
warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers
and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However,
Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: April 2010
Production Reference: 1210410
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847199-46-1
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Robin de Jongh
Credits
Author Editorial Team Leader
Robin de Jongh Mithun Sehgal
Reviewers Project Team Leader
Thomas Bleicher Lata Basantani
Colin Holgate
Project Coordinator
Acquisition Editor Poorvi Nair
David Barnes
Proofreader
Development Editor Aaron Nash
Rakesh Shejwal
Graphics
Technical Editor Geetanjali Sawant
Tariq Rakhange
Production Coordinator
Indexer Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Hemangini Bari
Cover Work
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Foreword
Unwittingly about four years ago I woke up to be an Internet celebrity. I discovered that an idea
I had previously left up for review on a SketchUp Gallery forum had grown to be the largest
thread on the site. It was about a non-photo real visualization technique -people were actually
calling it in my honor "the Dennis Method", and now I was receiving requests to give speeches
and teach seminars. The technique lives on to be included in this book along with the other
gems of visualization wisdom meticulously collected for your reading pleasure.
This is the first book ever on SketchUp that goes beyond the basic modeling exercises that
you can typically find in the online video tutorials. It contains a kind of instant information
that anyone using SketchUp needs to deliver a knock out visual punch.
As a registered architect I often rely on the power of SketchUp generated imagery to help a
client to become comfortable with a solution that I am proposing. "Seeing is believing", says
the proverb, well done visualization helps people to believe in the possibility of the design.
Personal proof of this for me came recently when I had to sell an idea of an underground
shopping mall to provincial Chinese officials. The prospect of having to educate them
for hours on patterns of pedestrian retail traffic; means of vertical circulation and the
importance of natural light, especially if you consider my less than perfect Mandarin,
was rather daunting. However, an effective visualization did all the work for me and
secured the client.
This book shows you how to set up your work and dress it up for a kill in such a way that it
jumps off your screen, grabs your audience by the guts and never lets them go.
The newest gems of SketchUp visualization wisdom are here for the taking. Read on, my
friends, and see your models shine like they never did before.
Dennis Nikolaev, AIA
About the Author
Robin de Jongh is a consulting engineer and designer who has successfully used SketchUp
for multi-million pound new developments, and a whole bunch of smaller projects, from
steel staircases to new product prototypes. He previously ran an architectural and product
visualization company. Robin holds a degree in Computer Aided Product Design and is a
professional engineer registered with the Institution of Engineering Designers in the UK. He
writes a blog about SketchUp for design professionals at www.provelo.co.uk.
I would like to thank my wife for her unfailing support during the writing of
this book. As a divergent thinker I come up with scores of ideas daily, only
a few of which will come to fruition. This book is one of them and I thank
her and my commissioning editor for believing in the book proposal in the
first place-and of course rejecting the bad ideas. My thanks go to all the
SketchUp newbies whose faces light up when the software is demonstrated
to them; I hope my enthusiasm for bringing the power and simplicity of
SketchUp to you comes across in this book, and that it echoes your own.

Special thanks to all those whose images are included in this book; to my
diligent technical reviewers and editor whose suggestions were invaluable;
and to Poorvi for keeping me on schedule!
About the Reviewers
Thomas Bleicher graduated in Architecture at the TU Braunschweig in Germany. Since
then he has been working as Architect, Lighting Designer and IT consultant. As a student he
started using daylight simulation software and began to program computer software. He is
working in London as a daylight designer and in his free time he writes plugins for SketchUp.
Colin Holgate has been programming for almost 30 years, with the last 22 years involving
multimedia authoring tools, including HyperCard, Director, Flash, and Unity. He uses 3D
models in his work, in both touch screen kiosk applications, and in online and offline
simulations, and has been a SketchUp Pro user since 2004. Using SketchUp models, he has
developed a virtual walkthrough of the future World Trade Center site.

For Debbie