The real advantage of SketchUp as a construction modeler is
that it can quickly illustrate or animate any sequence of events from a
piece-based assembly. Notes and
dimensions are easily added to exports and the results inserted into working
documents, presentations, and email during an ongoing construction process.
Review Steps #1 and
#2
#1.Each piece begins as a box. Start with a
rectangle, extrude it, then shape and modify the box to match the specifications
for that piece. When ready, group and
name the results. Make them SketchUp Components
when you know there are going to be several identically scaled clones of the
same piece.
#2. Assemble the grouped objects using one of the
many Inferences and Guidelines built into SketchUp. Use the Move and Rotate tools to snap the
pieces into position and the Control key to make copies as you build the model.
Once the construction model is assembled, it can be quickly staged
for Export as a 2D Graphic or Animation using SketchUp’s File Menu. Deconstruction for illustrations and
animations are controlled by the SketchUp Outliner and Scenes.
The Outliner
Use the Outliner to nest the named groups into subassemblies
that represent subcontracts or sequences that will be important to the processes
you may want to illustrate.
Group the pieces by selecting them in the Outliner with the
Shift or Control key. The Shift key lets
you select a series of pieces and the Control key allows you to pick and choose
the pieces you want to be in the nested group.
Once selected, use the Make Group command in the Edit Menu and immediately
name the new group. A Shortcut key makes
it possible to group objects by pressing a single key.
Once a group is formed in the Outliner, you can drag pieces
in and out of that group, double click a name in the Outliner to edit that
piece in the 3D model, or combine and reorganize several groups into more
complex subassemblies.
Setting up the Scenes
Use the Orbit and Pan tools to position the camera angle. Then select any piece or group in the
Outliner to Hide or Unhide it and change its visibility for each Scene.
When ready, use the “ + “ symbol at the top of the Scenes
Dialog Box to add a Scene along with the “Properties to save” with that
Scene. Scene names and descriptions help
identify content in the Scene, and the “Include in animation” check box will
schedule the Scene for export to an animation.
Transition and delay settings are found in SketchUp’s Model Info Dialog
Box in the Window Menu.
Annotations and dimensions can be added to each Scene. You can also capture or Export the Scenes as
a 2D Graphic or Animation for further editing in a draw or image editing
program, or insert them directly into a working document.
Controlling the visibility or motion of individual pieces in
the subassembly is a little trickier, I’ll cover that next time.
Tips
Use a library.
Every piece only needs to be made once when it’s saved to a
library. This means after a couple of
models, rapid assembly is possible because you simply drag and drop the pieces into
the model from your own collection of construction materials.
Annotate the images.
Use a Draw program to edit and annotate exported graphics. A free version is included in OpenOffice, or use any of the many free
screen capture and image editors found at Only Freewares. Faststone
and PicPick are probably the easiest to
use free programs for image captures and quick annotations.
Export animations.
You’ll find the Export Animation feature in the free version of Google
SketchUp produces a pretty basic low-resolution animation. Check out one of the many video capture
programs found at Freeware
Home when better results are important.
I use the free version of CamStudio
for AVI movies and Wink for Flash animations.
A 3D construction model starts by first “fabricating” the pieces for the construction and then assembling them exactly as they would be put together in the real world. You can make the pieces as you build the model, or copy and paste them from any previous models. Inferences and guidelines simplify the assembly and the final quality of the construction.
SketchUp’s Components or Groups?
The key to fast construction modeling is to keep the pieces named and organized so that they are readily available for both field changes and new constructions. The best way to keep a large collection of proprietary pieces organized is in a library folder on your hard-drive.
Alternatively, for some projects, you might want to set up a virtual staging area in the same or a separate SketchUp model file. Lay-down yards or staging areas help visually control materials and manage inventory.
Pieces you drag into a model from a library folder are always Components, while pieces you copy from a virtual staging area can be either Groups or Components. The difference is important because Groups can be edited without affecting copies of the group in the same model. But Components must be made “unique” so they can be edited without affecting their clones or matching copies.
For a construction model, minor changes to a series of Components can quickly overwhelm even a simple piece-based assembly. It’s much faster to Explode, Group, Edit and rename the Component as a new Group, especially if you use the Outliner to track a materials list.
Explode, regroup, and rename
Built-in Inferences
Inferences, as visual hints in SketchUp make it possible to quickly assemble the pieces. There are three basic types of Inferences that are important to construction modeling:
1. First, there are the Inferences found on the body of the piece itself. These include edges, faces, midpoints, and corners. Each is a snap point for one of SketchUp’s tools.
Typical Inferences
Hover over the piece with the Move or Rotate tool to see inference hints. Then click to snap the tool to that position and start the command sequence.
2. Motion Inferences are red, green, or blue dashed lines that become visible as you Move or Rotate a piece parallel to a SketchUp axis. The Shift key constrains the motion. Press the left, right, or up arrow key to lock movement to an axis. The Control key is used to leave a copy. Typical Assembly
3. Reference Inferences are similar to motion Inferences. They display a dotted line when two Inference points are aligned. Touch the reference Inference point with the cursor while moving or rotating a piece into position to let SketchUp know the desired alignment. Here’s where the Shift or arrow keys are often necessary to constrain the move.
Centerlines and guidelines
To assemble cylinders (pipes, tubes, and fittings) use mating extensions. The extension can be a projection from the centerline of the piece or any other axis important to the assembly. A fixed length extension makes it possible to quickly join their endpoints and then move the pieces together. Extension lines
Guidelines are necessary to ensure the quality of the final construction in the same way stringlines and chalklines are required in the field by any good builder. They act as temporary references for site layout, as well as intersecting snap points to locate plates, studs, and rafters. Guidelines are also important to center window and door frames, position equipment and furnishings, and install parts of a building’s system. Piece-based process model
When pieces are assembled and tracked in virtual construction in the same way as they would be on a jobsite, the sequence and scope of the work is automatically built into the construction model. And when these same pieces are nested into sub-assemblies, phases, and sub contracts in the Outliner, their visibility can also be controlled.
This makes it possible to both illustrate and animate the scope of the work, adding new potential to your practice and your market presence as a builder and construction manager.
The key to SkUp as a construction modeler is to think out of the box. Unlike a more complicated BIM or solid modeling program, the free version of Google SketchUp is a simple and easy to use surface modeler.
That means it’s very quick to make, modify, and assemble the pieces of a building or other structure. Important though is that it’s this piece-based assembly, rather than a single-shaped static-design model, that makes SketchUp a construction communications tool.
It all starts with a box
Almost all of the pieces used in construction are variations on a box. This includes milled and engineered structural members, as well as formwork, foundations, framing and most of the parts found in the building’s mechanical systems.
In SketchUp a box starts with a 2D profile. The 2D profile is then extruded into 3D with the Push-Pull tool. For some objects the profile is shaped or modified with drawing tools before the extrusion. Fabricate for assembly
To convert the 3D surfaces and edges of the extrusion into a piece that’s ready for assembly, you need to immediately group and name the box as a distinct object – even before finalizing its shape.
To group the extrusion as a single object, triple click any of its surfaces, and select Group from SketchUp’s Edit menu. When you use shortcut keys, the fabricating process is really fast: 1) Triple click; 2) Key-in “g”; and 3) Name the group in the Entity Info box. (See this video for setting up ShortCuts ).
Groups are quick to make and easily modified with the Edit Group command (or double click). They also save a lot of time when there are only a few instances of the group in the model. For example, use groups for a model base, concrete footing, or part of a building system (See this video to review groups).
In SketchUp, you can also make any piece of an assembly a component, but avoid components unless you know you’re going to be using a lot of pieces throughout a large construction model – for example as an array of studs, joists, or the steel in a moment frame.
Components reduce calculation time as you move in and around large assemblies with hundreds of similar pieces. They are also important when an object is going to be saved into a stock library folder. To make and save a component, right click a group and select Make Component, then right click again and select Save As to store it in a file on your computer.
Component storage
Even a simple construction model uses a lot of the same standard pieces. That means once a piece is manufactured you can save it so it’s ready for assembly in a new model. In other words, you can add to your collection with every model you build. You can also Save As any piece as a component from any another construction model -- hundreds are available to save from the models found in our books alone.
Scale to fit
Groups can be easily edited in SketchUp, but changes get complicated when you start modifying components. To make things quick and simple, resize components with the Scale tool instead of editing each as a unique piece. For example, framing members can be resized to fit different lengths along a single axis without affecting other copies.
This saves both the time it takes to make a unique component and the confusion that comes with having several minor variations of the same component. Even a few unique components are cumbersome and have little value in construction modeling.
If you need to change a component and only want a few copies of the new version, its much faster to Explode the component and immediate Group and rename it as you build a model. Using shortcut keys again: 1) Select the component; 2) Key-in “e” to explode; 3) Key-in “g” to group; and 4) Rename the new group in the Entity Info box. Stay organized
Of course, construction modeling only works for builders who know how a building actually goes together in the real world – piece by piece. And just like the real-world, when assembly is smooth and everything is coming together quickly, it’s tough to slow down and keep the jobsite and materials organized. At the same time, the importance of a well organized construction model is exactly like a well organized construction project.
As such the SketchUp Outliner acts as both a management tool and a materials list. When the pieces are grouped and named in categories (concrete block, rebar, joists, blocking, and subflooring), they can then be nested into assemblies (stem wall, floor, wall, roof framing, building systems), and these assemblies can then be grouped according to phases or sequences or further subdivided into subcontracts.
This means the pieces in the Outliner can be controlled, counted and correlated to a spreadsheet or schedule. In other words, the construction model can be used to generate materials lists, illustrate parts of the assembly, or animate sequences as slides or videos to communicate the construction process.
Most important, no piece or assembly is ever lost. The model can be deconstructed, resized, and modified for every new project that comes along. The result is a very effective management and marketing tool. One that clearly demonstrates what your company can and will do in an increasingly competitive construction industry.
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A construction model is about construction communications and not design. These are simple 3D and 2D models that can be staged and sequenced to illustrate a technical process that many (if not most) designers don’t really understand. It’s simply not what they’re paid or trained to do.
Design engineers and architects use complex building information models (BIM) to document the requirements for a completed building. Instead, a construction model is a graphical tool used to visually manage the construction process. The model frees constructors from a tradition of diagrammed dependencies that often leave them on the receiving end of a one way conversation. A simple visual explanation
For example, imagine what would happen if a builder pulled a pencil stub out of his or her tool belt, grabbed a scrap piece of paper from a trash pile, and used it to sketch a detail for the designer to take back to the office and draft. With that drawing, the builder just stepped back into a time when visual explanations were a natural part of construction management.
The “art” of scratching lines on the earth, marking corners with stakes, and notching stones with chisels stands at the Paleolithic beginnings of construction. The earliest construction drawings were prehistoric ideograms, visual gestures used to represent an idea that needed no words or dimensions to layout and complete the construction.
In the field, chisel marks, mockups, strings, and plumbs were used along with chalk, straight edges, and protractors to physically layout the work. These were spontaneous graphical devices that builders used to manage the construction process. Important is that the workers using these visual tools were builders and not designers, markings and models were part of the way buildings and bridges got built.
Evolution of the explanation
Somewhere in the evolution of construction communications, these early field markings were scaled to paper and parchment and what was once a working drawing became a contract document. As such, field drawings became technical representations, drafted to stand as an abstraction of values and no longer seen as a tool integral to the flow of the work.
As a result, diagrams and models that were once used as management tools, drifted away from early builders to become their own kind of technical art. Drawn by skilled draftspersons, first with pen and ink, then vellum and calibrated pencil, Mylar and waxed lead, and eventually vectored lines on a computer monitor, these documents became the dominant voice on the jobsite.
Today drawings and specifications are extracted from BIM models, plotted on reams of paper, labeled as “information,” and distributed almost as an after thought to the subcontractors and workers in the field. What was once a straightforward visual explanation has become a static construct, built to reference the legal requirements of a contract, obfuscated to a point where many experienced designers no longer need to understand how to operate the underlying model. The result is tedious, even for those trained and paid to perform….
Untangling ideas
Output from the BIM remains as a graphical explanation, but the drawings are now much too deeply entangled in their own internal complexities for any real collaborative input, especially from workers trying to put something together in the field. This means alternatives that could once be considered and grudgingly erased and redrawn by a draftsperson, must now be painstakingly reconstructed within the layers and references of a complex model.
As a result, a BIM model is simply not intended to spontaneously respond to new ideas. Instead, it anchors a preconceived approach into a muddle of memory and menus, creating the illusion of a collaborative process.
Real-world collaboration only succeeds when simple explanations can be generated on the fly, well before they’re cast into the murky depths of a model. This might still include the stub of a pencil and a scrap of paper, but on a post-modern jobsite, it’s just as likely to include a tablet computer and a few taps on an open-source program, capturing and communicating process-alternatives using a straightforward construction model. BIM is a design tool
In short, simple construction modeling programs (like SketchUp) do not even come close to challenging the entrenched commitments most firms have for BIM technology. Output generated from a designer’s BIM models are contractual statements of static intent, rendered as a motionless landscape, representing the finished product.
In contrast, quick and simple construction models are used to generate animations, study sequences, and capture images in order to manage the flow of the work. That means they support real-work in real-time, fulfilling the real-need for immediate visual explanations on a real-world jobsite. The same explanations once found in an ancient tradition of graphic communications in construction.
With the recent installation of BIM modeling programs after the US government issued their National BIM Standard and the United Kingdom set a mandate for BIM modeling, many construction offices and even a few star struck designers are beginning to see the underlying myths of a building information model (BIM). Most are finding the experience “a cautionary tale of virtual design and construction,” along with many more examples illustrating how BIM is far from the panacea claimed by software providers and their bureaucratic partners.
Myth 1: BIM is Easy
Many of those who think BIM modeling is easy to put into practice in a design or construction office have been blinded by the hype of clever marketing. The truth is, that other than standard (and colorful) objects like columns, beams, and simple gridlines, the real work of documenting a building’s construction is either quietly ignored or passed on to some unwitting subcontractor as part of a bid proposal.
It also doesn’t take long to find that the hardware required to run a BIM program is well beyond the average desktop computer. In addition, the software is myopically tedious and labor intensive, requiring suites of specialized add-ons with mind boggling menus of objects as product placements. This complexity means any hope of successfully extracting information from a model requires a highly proficient operator, a lot of time and money, and a hands-on journeyman level of expertise in building systems installations.
Of course, the very idea of a collaborative approach to coordinating building systems is lost on project executives who have neither the time nor the practical knowledge necessary to teach a CAD operator how to build an installation exactly as it will be placed in the field. No BIM model can anticipate variables of cash flow, scheduling, weather, materials, and the availability of busy subcontractors.
In other words, except for the assembly of a straightforward structural frame or the combination of standard engineered equipment, any potential conflict or interference that might be detected by BIM software depends completely on the construction and modeling expertise of people who know little about bending, welding, or hanging the pieces of a building in the real-world.
Myth 2: BIM is Automatic
Unlike a machined part, a building is an assembly of diverse and interrelated pieces, separated by different trades, expertise, criteria, and rules of thumb. No amount of office collaboration will match the hour to hour decisions made by construction superintendents, foremen/women, and leads on the jobsite.
In the office, the quixotic challenge is to layer two and three-dimensional visual information into a BIM model, while coordinating cross references, sequencing output, and accommodating last minute changes. All with a constantly shifting team of isolated CAD operators. This means the very idea that a technician can simply extract a 2D construction drawing with a straightforward Export command, ignores the frustration that all too often accompanies almost every task that includes a computer. Something always seems to go wrong.
This means, the promise of BIM modeling requires technical skill to operate the software, construction skills necessary to build the model, drafting skills to pick up corrections and changes, and a mind numbing focus on the intricacies of layering useful information into the model’s construction. 2D output must then be manually plotted along with stock specifications and details into a well referenced set of paper-based documents and material lists.
To do this successfully, IT managers must also maintain the technology with constant upgrades, backups, repairs, comprehensive and continuous training, and a collection of proprietary tricks, key codes, and macros that work around long and often convoluted command structures.
Myth 3: BIM is Useful
And after all this extra work, the resulting model file is completely useless to long term facilities management after one or two generations of software upgrades. In fact, the very idea that a facility manager has the time, personnel, or budget, to keep up with the hardware and software necessary to use a BIM model stems from even more imaginative marketing.
First, because even the exact same workstations used to produce the exact BIM model is actually rapidly going out of date as the model is being built. In other words, once the model is finished, funded, put out to bid, and finally gets into the field as part of a contract, it has already been outdated by technical advances in the hardware and software. Everyone knows these programs are constantly evolving: debugged, tweaked, or abandoned simply to encourage sales of new versions. That’s a fundamental truth in the computer industry.
This means the “saved” files downloaded from the original equipment are nothing more than a volatile mix of soon to be antiquated media. Anyone who remembers a cartridge recorder, floppy disk drive, or zip-drive knows it’s just a matter of time before the data on CD/DVDs, hard-drives, solid state, and cloud storage will no longer be useful for future computer devices.
To some the solution may seem to be to keep early software purchases on older computers and maintain proficiency on backwater versions of the program.
But the personnel capable of operating these antiquated workstations efficiently are also volatile. First because a vacation, temporary assignment, or unemployment will reduces proficiency within weeks. In addition, competitive CAD technicians must job-hop to better software or workstations if they sense their current equipment is becoming out of date. They cannot afford to be left behind in a rapidly evolving industry. And those that do stick around are often burned out by boredom and dissatisfaction, having lost the will to keep pace with the treadmill because of years of utter frustration.
The Solution is Simple
The solution to the failures of BIM modeling is a 3D information management tool that does not require a lot of updates or changes, is free for the asking, and doesn’t require a CAD technician to operate. If communication and collaboration is the key to more efficient construction information modeling, what the construction industry needs is a simple, universal, and transparent 3D program that anyone can use on any computer. That’s Google SketchUp – which wouldn’t be FREE without Google.
Mark Carvalho, an early “voice” in 3D modeling software, once articulated a vision for SketchUp as a universal visual-communications tool; one that comes close to being the PDF of 3D modeling. His view was based on the philosophy of Brad Schell, the founder of SketchUp, and the original start-up team’s company motto: "3D for Everyone."
Brad envisioned a software program that would match the feel and freedom of working with pen and paper using a simple interface, easy to learn, allowing people to play with ideas in three-dimensions after a few minutes of practice (See Wikipedia). In this way, models could be used to document constructions, simulate sequence and process, communicate alternatives, and be useful to anyone with the click of a mouse or a tap and pinch of the fingers.
Medieval contractors used three-dimensional construction models called “okoshi-ezu” in the early 1600’s to build elegant teahouses. The okoshi-ezu were not design models, they were origami like pop-ups of 2D drawings, annotated with dimensions, details, and descriptions just like any other construction drawing.
These were very early multidimensional construction documents, viewed as a series of pages in a set of 2D working drawings and at the same time folded into three-dimensional construction models in order to visually communicate the details of the completed building.
Two dimensions of 3D
In a modern interpretation of the okoshi-ezu, simple 3D modeling programs of the 21st C can and are being used by a generation of technically oriented constructors to capture 2D and 3D images that can be quickly added to purchase orders as a shop drawing, or as a diagram of a solution in a RFQ, field bulletin, or change order.
The trick to drawing with any 3D modeling program space is to keep in mind that a 2D drawing is nothing more than a collection of lines, notes, and dimensions on any two-dimensional plane in the three-dimensional environment.
All one has to do is orient the drawing to a fixed and flat point of view -- anywhere in the construction model.
Drawing on a 2D plane
For example, in a program like SketchUp, select Parallel Projection in the Camera menu to flatten the image and eliminate perspective, then use the Camera menu to select one of the standard top or side views.
Next, pan and zoom your view point to an open space somewhere in or on the model that’s large enough for the image you want to draw. Once the location is set, use the Scenes dialog box to add and name it as a Scene.
Now all that remains is to use the Line, Oval, and Text tools along with inferences and guidelines, to draft the detail on the two-dimensional surface. Since the drawing is literally built at full size, there’s no need for rulers and scale calculations. Printed scales are controlled by the SketchUp program in the Print dialog box.
2D from a 3D construction model
A 3D construction model can also be used to capture two-dimensional plans, elevations, and sections.
2D Elevations
To do this, keep in mind that 2D building elevations are no more than parallel projections of one of the standard views around the outside (or inside) of the model.
To capture these projections, use the Camera menu again to position a preset standard view. Select Parallel Projections. Then adjust the shade and shadow controls to add depth. Shade and shadow might also be turned off completely to eliminate shading that might be distracting.
Once the image is ready, notes, projection lines, and dimensions are added and grouped on a common layer so that their visibility can be controlled or hidden with the Scene’s specific properties. The size of the model in the display is again not important since scaling will be calculated in the Print dialog box.
2D Floor Plan
Use the same technique to cut horizontal sections through the model as 2D floor plans. Start by selecting the Parallel Projection and the standard Top View settings in the Camera menu. Place the section plane through the window’s waist line with the Section tool so that it includes the wall openings.
Zoom and Pan to set the Camera’s point of view for the floor plan, then annotate and dimension the plan on a separate layer, or group in the Outliner, in order to control their visibility from scene to scene. Finally, click to add and name the floor plan in the Scene dialog box, making sure to set Scene Properties so that notes and dimensions are only visible in this one scene.
2D Building Sections
Cutting a vertical section is a lot like cutting a cake. In SketchUp you can extract a 2D outline of the profile of the cut at the section plane, but it’s far better to contextualize the section by keeping objects beyond the plane in place to add depth to the two-dimensional view. In SketchUp you can also add shade and shadow, along with Fog and Edge Style and Depth Cue to strengthen the image and adjust the section’s profile – but it’s really not necessary for a working drawing.
3D in 2D
The result of these simple 2d tricks is a collection of drawings as a series of two dimensional scenes. Each scene can then be printed to scale as a single plate or a page in a set of construction drawings. The scenes can also be exported as low-resolution 2D graphics to be cut and pasted into a memorandum, field document, or as part of a larger sheet in a Draw program.
The scenes could even be reassembled and folded into a three-dimensional model – just like an okoshei-ezu.
In 16th C Japan, the need for a new kind of construction drawing emerged with the proliferation of teahouse construction. These new documents were necessary because sanctions, based on the generational secrets of a rigid class-trade structure, meant mainstream Japanese architecture followed an empirically controlled system of building construction.
Three-dimensional construction drawings
At the same time, variations in private teahouse construction created an opportunity for many builders. These structures required special attention to detail to satisfy owner expectations.
However, the demands of customization meant it was important to document both intent and process to elite owners in order to avoid the shame a poorly executed project would bring to the honor of its builder.
Okoshu-ezu
In response to the need for a detailed document to control the production process, Japanese master carpenters began using a construction drawing called an “okoshu-ezu.”
Pages scanned from "What is Japanese Architecture" (Amazon) An okoshu-ezu is a folded drawing that can be opened into a three-dimensional construction model. Many were animated with pop-ups using origami techniques to explain special features in the construction. Specifications for alcoves, posts and lintels were written directly on the folded pages, with cut outs for steps, floors, and shutters glued onto the model’s surfaces.
Pages scanned from "What is Japanese Architecture" (Amazon)
Instructions were drawn on both side of the folded paper so that shelves, alcoves, shojis, hardware, and wall finishes were visible in direct relationship to the opposite side of the wall. Penetrations like crawl doors and shoji screened openings were then seen from both the inside and the outside of a wall at the same time.
Three dimensional construction communication
Okoshu-ezu were drawn by scribes to layout and communicate the details of the construction for both craftsmen and influential owners. Important is that their purpose was not to visualize the design, but to communicate the requirements of the construction.
As such, they were carried by masterbuilders in the field along with a measuring stick and plumb-level. These were the tools of early construction managers.
Pages scanned from "What is Japanese Architecture" (Amazon)
On the jobsite the drawings could be referenced as individual pages by viewing the folded pages. But the pages could also be unfolded into a three-dimensional form to contextualize a particular detail or special instructions.
Three dimensional construction information
In practice, an okoshu-ezu is not much different from the construction models used today. Assembled in three-dimensions by experienced builders, construction models lay flat in a file-pocket ready for access, viewable in two-dimensions using defined view points, and easily annotated with notes and links to contextualize the information in 3D.
The only difference is how simple it has become to create a functional three-dimensional information model. Using simple 3D modelers like SketchUp and virtual construction methods like those found in books like “Mastering the Art of 3D Construction Modeling,” modern builders now have a dynamic and versatile tool to use in a new era of construction management.
Technologies like Twitter and Facebook are beginning to demonstrate the potential of social media for construction and construction management. This began with some construction companies promoting their services with photographs and marketing material, but has recently evolved into a new set of tools for construction management. Tools that add a social dimension to project-based information.
What’s interesting is that this new dimension sets up a casual relationship between production teams and project owners as a “community” of mutual interests. The result is a computer mediated space where a stream of informal posts add a deeper understanding of the day to day challenges faced on the jobsite. For example, take a look at the website for Pentland Homes, Oehlberg Construction, and Lyons Sitework.
Though content differs for these companies, what comes across in the postings, comments, and “like-clicks” is a community of interests centered on not only a particular project, but the concerns of the company’s managers. In other words, what we see are the social values associated with their work. These are the same values that are usually buried by formal transactions commonly found in construction communications.
Flatland
Recognizing the value of these social associations to construction is a lot like seeing into the reality of the one and two-dimensional worlds described in the book, Flatland by Edwin Abbott, 1884.
In this book, women are lines while men are segmented polygons. However, when viewed along their one dimensional edges both line and polygon appear the same. It takes the invasion of a three-dimensional sphere to even suggest that there may be a dimension beyond the flattened world-view of a single dimension.
While the narrator in the book (a square) struggles to explain a second dimension where both line and polygon can be seen for what they are, it takes the invasion of a three-dimensional sphere into Flatland to expose the limits of their narrowly defined perceptive understandings. But even as the sphere clearly demonstrates the limitations of 2D by introducing the spatial superiority of 3D, the sphere refuses to consider the logical assumption that there must be yet another dimension beyond its own.
As a social commentary, Abbott goes beyond structured dimensional consciousness into a allegory on social order and class based prejudices. For construction communications, what he points to is the difficulty of changing immediate and long held perceptions of the way things ought-to-be, in order to recognize the potentials that come from new dimensional insights.
The 4D Doodler
In the same way, Ralph Waldeyer writes of the complexity of multidimensional experiences. In his book, The 4-D Doodler, 1941, he describes the confusions and misunderstandings that his characters experience as they slip in and out of a fourth dimension. As they are pulled in and out of the spatial warps of 4D, their understandings are clearly bound by the limits of their own three-dimensional experiences.
For them, 4D is something to be feared and avoided. Waldeyer describes how each one of his characters struggles in different ways to deal with being partially or wholly in and out of a different dimension. His lesson is that it’s quite possible for objects to exist in more than one dimension at the same time. Their only limitation is their inherent ability to deal with these multidimensional world views.
Push Pop Press
The ideas illustrated in these books show how dimensional change disrupts our response to new perceptions. This includes the challenges faced in simply recognizing the potential of these alternate dimensions. For example take a look at Mike Matas’ presentation at a recent TED conference on the next-generation digital book.
Though the book is said to be the number one book on ITunes, in the end its really not much more than an imaginative interactive website viewed on an Iphone or Ipad. What’s important is that Matas points to the potential of a multidimensional communications tool that requires the same perceptual shift suggested in Flatland and The 4D Doodler.
For those locked in a traditional way of doing business, the very notion of another dimension remains somehow tightly held by higher, more mysterious powers. This means the transparencies of social media and the capacity of the web to deliver deeper levels of graphical information, raise both fear and frustration as new dimensions disrupt long standing traditions of construction management. Traditions that are rapidly changing in a new age of hypergraphic construction communications.
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If you’re beginning to think SketchUp has some potential for construction management, you should take a look at the SketchUcation website. The communities surrounding the user forums on this site are at the core of the SketchUp community and one of the most important resources for construction modeling.
SketchUcation
You can click around the forums and tutorials before you join, but to search topics for help or to download components and plug-ins, you need to register to participate and post.
Once inside the forums and links, you’ll find every possible SketchUp resource as well as answers to (almost) any questions you might have about SketchUp. The SketchUcation forums and content make this website an essential modeling resource.
One thing that becomes almost immediately clear is that the SketchUcation website is dominated by designers, which means most of the model exchanges and discussions center around what makes the program work as a colorful and photo-realistic predesign tool.
You’ll also quickly discover that design-oriented users, by Google strategy or neglect, pretty much define the modeling program. This includes a development team with limited industry experience that drives the program to become even more narrowly focused as a design tool. In other words, you won’t find a lot about process, production, or construction modeling unless you dig deep into the SketchUcation forums.
Design is color and style
At the same time, no where is the contrast between construction and design more clearly demonstrated than on the pages of the CatchUp – SketchUcation Community News where we’ve recently started the first in a series of articles on construction modeling.
An interesting thing occurred with the second issue of their online magazine. As you flip through the pages of the e-magazine, the layouts and the quality of the graphic design are really impressive. But look at the last page and the first part of a long (long) series of short tutorials on how to build a little house as a SketchUp construction model.
The juxtaposition of our unembellished, black and white format and the stylistic and design oriented images in the rest of the magazine, brings the difference between construction and design modeling clearly into focus.
Production and process
The contrast in the look and feel of these pages illustrates the difference between design and construction modeling. Like many outside of design, only a few construction managers care about color and style, except how it might be specified in the construction documents. Instead most want to communicate intent or process and the cold hard facts associated with getting a building built.
In this way, the contrast is a graphic representation of two different worlds. One uses models to introduce or sell a design product with color and imaginative style. While the other uses three-dimensional models to visually manage the materials, labor, equipment and tools necessary to produce that product.
Construction models are built to communicate construction and not design. The emphasis is therefore on models that can be quickly staged, annotated, emailed, posted, exported, printed, or faxed in minutes by anyone as fast, simple explanations. The models are used to generate graphic explanations, visually simple, black and white, with the focus on process and production.
Simple, fast, and repetitive assemblies
This means construction models are faster to generate than design models. As such, they are assemblies, nested and organized by the SketchUp Outliner, and based on a library of prefabricated pieces saved from all previous constructions.
The model combines a scaled site setup and wire frames as component rigs on which to align and join previously fabricated pieces and subassemblies. When these pieces are saved from models of the same building type, almost anything can be quickly reassembled from what is basically a proprietary kit of parts. The only skill that is really required is to actually understand how the building is put together.
For construction communications, the completed assembly represents the process embedded in the result. This is not a static picture of a construction. The SketchUp Outliner, layers, and scenes are therefore used to control sequence illustrations or animations in order to dynamically communicate particular details or problems, test preconstruction assumptions, and simulate activities in order to analyze specific concerns.
The result looks nothing like a design model. Images extracted from the model are visual explanations, generated on-the-fly, delivered as illustrated contractual documents, representing nothing more that what is necessary to communicate a production process.
