What you'll learn

When it comes to architectural design, the process begins with the site and a great concept. In this set of tutorials we'll use SketchUp Pro and Google Earth to quickly create a site model for visualizing a conceptual mass within the context of its overall site as well as in the design site. We'll begin this SketchUp tutorial by exploring our site and understanding the context of our environment within Google Earth. We'll take a look at a few of the basic tools we'll be using throughout our design process. From there we'll export our initial massing concept into Google Earth to find a few crucial measurements, as well as examine its impact on the surrounding site. Next we'll jump back into SketchUp Pro, where we'll use the Sandbox tools to quickly sculpt and paint the terrain in our site model. We'll even explore how work with components from your favorites library and in the 3D warehouse to add scale and a sense of life to your model. Once we've modeled the design site, we'll learn how to create views, scenes and even simple animations that can help us communicate our concept. By the end of this SketchUp training you'll know how to create a site model, generate scenes and even walkthroughs. You'll also learn how you can utilize Google Earth to aid in the communication of your design intent. Software required: SketchUp Pro and Google Earth.