So the idea is to show you what I do when I am bored. I have no CAD training and had never used SketchUp until a few months ago. At first, my buildings looked pretty plain and simple, but over time I have slowly started the understand the tools and the relationships between them.
Used the push/pull tool to shape the eaves....
Wabo's - note that this looks plainer because I did not shape the eaves with push/pull
The entire front of this restaurant is done with draw square tool & push/pull. After you have a basic shape, pull up the streetview image of the front of the building. (use the add photo texture tool). Use this as a template for all your lines and dimensions.
Starting to get a bit more complex. Total time for this model, six hours.
Another church takes shape. You can see that i have used "draw triangle" to make the basic house/pitched roof shape.
Next, using the technique of pulling squares right out of the streetview image as a template - you can start building more detail
Churches are great autodidactic projects because they are a little more complicated than the average house. Don't worry about the images! At this point they are ONLY a template.
Using the shadows in the GE imagery helps you judge HEIGHT.
"ARC tool" is very complicated. Grr.
Use very narrow, tall, sections of Streetview imagery for arc surfaces.
Refining the steeple
More Google Art, pardon the pun.
here, the square on the right is just a placeholder for the image, so that I have something to build by on the left. When the one on the left is done, I'll delete the one on the right.
Some detail of the belfrys
Don't do twice what you've already done. Use the "component" tool to easily clone and position large structures.
Again, using "component tool" to easily place entire sections.
Expanding the back...
Finished model in Google Earth
Oooooooh small repetitive parts! use Component Tool to easily clone and position these rather than spending hours creating each individually, and placing them individually. Component tool saves time!
This looked like it would be easy despite it's size.
Was I ever wrong. Streetview has no good, unobstructed images. The imagery doesn't fit, it's fuzzy at best, and the terrain is not level (cuts off the bottom of all the buildings. This makes positioning the imagery very difficult.
This Foodland had pretty clear images on Google Earth & Streetview. Took 20 minutes to build.
Service station, take two. This time I got it pretty good. Stole the pumps from the previous model, as an entire component.
So this model was rejected to 3D Wharehouse because I made the shrubs in the back in 3D. Shrubs are ephemeral and should not be included in Google 3D models.
