I am very excited to be announcing the release of the second edition of my book “Architectural Design with SketchUp” today!
For this edition, I went back through the text and updated and improved a lot of content. As before, my main goal was to keep it relevant for as large a variety of SketchUp users as possible and at the same time provide thorough yet easy to follow examples and tutorials.
I am also very excited to announce a completely new chapter on physically making things with SketchUp that includes 3D printing, CNC cutting, and other techniques. Lots of fun stuff!
As before, this second edition will use the companion website at http://sketchupfordesign.com where you can find free sample chapters, videos, references, 3D models, and tutorials.There are also now over 30 videos that accompany the book and can be accessed using the instructions in the book.
Interested in getting the book? Check out Amazon or Wiley.
Here’s the official press release:
3D Modeling in SketchUp and Digital Making Come Together in Second Edition of “Architectural Design with SketchUp” Book
AMHERST, Mass. — The second edition of “Architectural Design with SketchUp: 3D Modeling, Extensions, BIM, Rendering, Making, and Scripting,” by Alexander C. Schreyer is being released today.
Schreyer is Program Director of the Building and Construction Technology program, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Conservation, and faculty member in the Department of Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
This book, which has since its first publication become the main reference, textbook, and sourcebook for designing with SketchUp, uses step-by-step tutorials and full-color illustrations to teach anyone 3D modeling and to show what one can achieve with SketchUp. Trimble SketchUp, the application at the heart of this text, is a popular 3D modeling software that comes in a free and a professional version and is used by students, architectural and interior designers, landscape planners, builders, engineers, and makers worldwide.
Coming three years after a successful first edition, this new version features many updates and improvements but also a completely new chapter on “Making with SketchUp”. This added chapter provides clear instruction to translate what has been designed on the computer into real, physical objects using such techniques as 3D printing, CNC routing, or laser cutting.
3D modeling using computers is ubiquitous nowadays: Every object that we use—phones, furniture, cars, houses, planes—is designed using 3D modeling software. “Even our kids enjoy spending copious time with Minecraft, which is an app that lets them play using 3D modeling”, Schreyer says. He therefore makes the case that not only designers but arguably everyone should know some principles of 3D modeling. And SketchUp, which is used everywhere from elementary schools to multinational architecture firms, is the ideal software for this kind of wide appeal.
Using examples from architectural and interior design as well as construction, landscape architecture, and fabrication, this book takes the reader from a section that reviews the basic principles of SketchUp all the way to advanced architectural design concepts such as Building Information Modeling (BIM). Other topics covered are: photorealistic rendering and presentation, advanced 3D modeling using plugins and extensions, design to fabrication, and scripting using a language called Ruby.
The last chapter in this book on “Creating Geometry Using Ruby Scripting” serves two vastly different purposes: For designers, it provides a way to use a scripting language to create complex computational geometry. For everyone else—and increasingly for school kids—this chapter can serve as a “learn to code” curriculum, which teaches coding principles in a fun and accessible way. “Many argue that coding skills are essential to success in a technology-based society”, Schreyer says. Contrasting with other coding curricula, scripting in SketchUp can produce virtual 3D objects that can then be turned into real objects using 3D printers, which are increasingly available in schools.
This book is being released with a collection of over 30 instructional videos. In addition, an interactive companion website at http://sketchupfordesign.com provides previews of those videos, access to 3D models from the book, and a way to interact with the author and other readers.
This book is being published in paperback and ebook versions by John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.