MisterEd's Eclectia

Master Suite Framing, Partial

As part of my house redesign renovation project, I’ve been taking a run at learning Google Sketchup.  It’s an interesting app and for most things it’s very easy to use.  I’ve been spending some time watching Google’s excellent online training videos for the app, and I’m getting it.  I’m nowhere near the level of my Architect, but then I’ve been fiddling with the app for about two weeks on and off now as opposed to him, who’s been using it pretty much since it was introduced.

It’s a cool app, but the basic fly in the ointment for me so far is that I’m and old AutoCAD guy.  Using Sketchup is not like using AutoCAD, and like a person trying to learn a new language who keeps trying to mentally do translations to their native tongue all the time, I’m constantly finding myself having to fight the urge to think “hmm, how does this relate to the similar AutoCAD command…?”   Sure, I’ve got the basics down for inputting exact dimensions for elements, moving things specific distances, copying things ‘n’ number of times and so on.  What’s been frustrating me so  far, however, is things that occur that I consider unexpected, unanticipated or just plain wrong.  I’m constantly having to erase new surfaces that get created when I happen to complete a series of lines on separate elements that are all on the same plain and, to the app, form a closed border.  In AutoCAD, you have to specifically work to create a surface – Sketchup just assumes that every time you complete a series of lines that look like a closed border, there should be a surface joining those lines.  There are times when that feature is really nice, but I haven’t yet figured out how to force the app to ignore certain “closed” borders and not others.  So, for now, when an unexpected surface pops up for no apparent reason, I just erase it.

By the same token, one of the more frustrating things, to me anyway, is the behavior in Sketchup of the app automatically joining everything together so that it all interacts.  Create four walls for a building that are joined together and now when you go to move one or rotate it, etc., it drags pieces of the other walls with it.  Take two solids and put them together, then move one and it takes a piece of the other one with it, leaving a hole in the other one that has to be patched.

I’m not yet in the habit of creating components and groups.  From what I know so far, that may help some of these issues.  The drawing that’s attached to this post is a first draft of the framing for my new master suite on the back of the house.  In the second draft that I’ve now started, I’ve started creating components (studs and ceiling joists, for instance) and things are, indeed, behaving better.

I can’t just go ahead and beat the AutoCAD out of my head, because I still use it every day.  If I want to get good at Sketchup, I’m going to have to treat it like I did Photoshop – just toss aside any concepts from other applications and immerse myself in the new one.  No more translating between them … I need to become a digitally bilingual drafter.

I recently relocated from Portland, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona for my work. I’ve bought a house here (in what is perhaps the most depressed housing marking in North America right now) and have embarked upon a project to renovate it.

The house is a 1950 model that was built by the family from whom I bought it in April 2009. One owner? GREAT! Same owner for 60 years … perhaps not so much. While the home is very well maintained and clearly shows that the couple that built the place loved it for all the years they were here, it is most assuredly a 1950 compact floor plan. It’s very “mazey” and feels, frankly, like a dark little rabbit warren.

One other side effect of the same family living here for 60 years – handyman specials. All over the house, the work of a home handyman is evident. Romex wire run outside the building in the open air to lighting fixtures which are connected by nothing but wire nuts (no box or anything). Outdoor storage cabinets tossed together out of a few sheets of plywood. A patio enclosed by what appears to be windows and doors that were finds from the dump or some other salvage – nothing wrong with that, of course, but not when the stuff is falling apart.

So, since the place needs some significant TLC, I’ve taken the step of hiring a local Architect to work with me through the design phase and to produce a complete set of construction drawings.

I currently plan to do most of the work myself, calling in pros when necessary (major plumbing, electrical, concrete, roof framing, etc.) … we’ll see how that goes.