SketchUp for Design – New and Improved!

SketchUp for Design – New and Improved!

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
I originally created this site at sketchupfordesign.com as a companion site to my book "Architectural Design with SketchUp". When I did that (in 2012), I came across BuddyPress, an add-on to WordPress that allows for managing an online community, complete with chats, forums, groups, and notification emails. While the idea of creating a community around a book was a good one, spammers, new privacy rules, SSL, and time spent on general maintenance of such an endeavor eventually made me realize that this was a bit too idealistic. Besides, there are many SketchUp forums out there already. As a result, I removed BuddyPress and its functionality completely from this site. This summer I set out on redesigning this site more as a blog where I post news and tutorials related to SketchUp in general and my book in particular. You can still engage in discussions related to book chapters or anything else that's posted on this site. You can also subscribe to...
Read More
Pulled Brick Design Options (Ruby Snippet)

Pulled Brick Design Options (Ruby Snippet)

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
I came across brick wall designs today where the architects were considering various options with pulled bricks. This design approach has been used before in many different ways but the basic principle is always the same: In a brick wall that is dominated by stretchers, you insert strategically placed headers which then protrude a little bit beyond the brick wall surface. This creates a very nice pattern with interesting shadows. The first image below shows such a design in a SketchUp model: A wall with evenly pulled bricks Given that in reality these are placed manually it may be reasonably easy (and therefore not too costly) to vary the extend of their extension beyond the surface and thereby create more interesting undulating patterns. One such pattern is shown below: And one with a sinusoidal pattern As it turns out, this is very easy to do by simply modifying some of the scripts from Chapter 7 and combining coding with a carefully created SketchUp model....
Read More