Creating the Walls of a House in Google SketchUp
TUTORIAL
Creating the Walls of a House in Google SketchUp – Tutorial by Tina Bryant
In this tutorial you will build the exterior walls of the footprint of this structure. You will need basic Google SketchUp knowledge for referencing. You started with importing an AutoCAD file in the tutorial Importing an AutoCAD file in Google SketchUp. This is a continuation of a Case Study. You will be using the same floor plan building various aspects of this model. In the later part of this series you will render multiple views of the exterior and interior using multiple different programs.
01
INTRODUCTION
You are going to use a simple method of building the exterior walls of this structure by using the Line and Rectangle tools. Then you will Offset from the footprint and create the wall thickness from the footprint by using the Push/Pull tool and Offset tool. There are many different ways to do this, this is only one.
Left: This is the Imported AutoCAD File From the Previous Lesson.
Bottom: This is How Your Model Will Look After You Build the Exterior Walls from the Footprint of the Structure.
02
Step 1/5
Starting With the Imported AutoCAD File
&
Selecting the Imported File
Start with the imported AutoCAD file from the tutorial Importing an AutoCAD file in Google SketchUp. As you can see, sometimes when importing AutoCAD files not all Faces are created. I like to leave the original imported AutoCAD floor plan grouped separately for reference.
Group the floor plan for reference by dragging a rectangle around the entire floor plan to select all geometry.
03
Step 2/5
Making a Group
&
Begin Drawing the Wall
Context-click touching the geometry and select Make Group.
Select the 
Line tool.
- Click at any corner of the perimeter of the floor plan to start the line.
- Enter the height of the wall in the Measurements Box. For this tutorial the wall height is set to 10′0″.
- Press Enter.
04
Step 3/5
Making the Walls
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Finish the Exterior Wall
Now select the 
Rectangle tool.
- Start your rectangle by clicking at the endpoint of the line you drew in the previous step.
- End your rectangle at a point on the wall.
Continue the previous step until all outside Faces are erected.
05
Step 4/5
Closing the Exterior Walls
&
Offset the Wall
When all the walls have been erected and closed this will create a Face. You will use this Face to build the roof in the upcoming “Multiple Intersecting Roof” tutorial of this series.
Select the Face and click the 
Offset tool. Then reference from the perimeter of the Face and enter 4″ in the Measurements Box.
06
Step 5/5
Creating the Walls Thickness
&
Finish the Exterior Walls
Select the Face using the 
Push/Pull tool and push the Face down to create the interior Face of the walls. The Face will create the interior floor of the floor plan that we will develop later in this series.
The finished exterior walls.
In the next tutorial in this series, you will add doors to the model.
07
Thank you for the tutorial.
This is a minor item, but in your step description, when you say “interior walls”, one thinks of all the real interior walls not yet created. My suggestion is to refer to the “interior face of the exterior walls”.
Ben
I meant to say, “…step 5 description..”.
Ben
Thank you for investing your time to create a tutorial and for your generosity in sharing it freely. Is it your intent that everyone using the AutoCAD tutorial(s), beginning with “Importing an AutoCAD File in Google SketchUp”, should import the exact same DWG file as shown? I would expect that using different drawings would unnecessarily add an element of confusion to the knowledge transfer process. If the AutoCAD drawing used in your tutorial is available for download, I missed the instructions on where it is and how to get a copy for my use. Perhaps your target audience is only people that have ready access to AutoCAD floor plans? I was hoping to learn the techniques independent of AutoCAD, but perhaps that misses the fundamental point that the tutorial is geared for “AutoCAD” users. If that floor plan DWG file is out there somewhere, can you tell me how to get it? Otherwise, you may want to add a notice at the top of the tutorial stating that “…you must supply your own AutoCAD file for this tutorial…”. Thanks!
same comment as VA_WW: where is the autoCAD file???
Thank you all for your comments! I hope you are enjoying the case study. The AutoCAD file is now available to follow along at Importing an AutoCAD file I will have the next in the series up soon. I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Enjoy!!
BTW, you will have to use your own components for the doors and windows as some of the ones I used I can not share.
Thanks for the file link. Got it and imported it just fine. Moving on. . .
Peeking ahead in the instructions, I get the message that you are going to demonstrate how to create the faces of all EXTERIOR walls and then use the offset and push/pull tools to make them thick, while simultaneously removing everything on the just-created upper face that’s not part of the wall. However, in the lower picture of step 3/5, because you switched perspective from one side of the house to the other, I initially thought that you were creating faces on an arbitrary selection of interior walls. I was looking for the bay window bump-out on the far side of the drawing and saw only a straight wall. DAH! It finally hit me that the drawing had been re-oriented without warning. In trying to sort-out just which walls are exterior, I also find it very confusing that there are doors (a double door and a single door) OUTSIDE the exterior walls (see lower-right of both pictures in step 4/5). Maybe they are courtyard gates or something?
Perhaps I’m being too critical in my critique. Since I am not an architect, I just decided to accept on faith that the walls you drew are the exterior walls and moved on. I just wanted you to know that re-orienting the drawing without mentioning it and selecting what appeared, to my eyes, to be a random combination of interior and exterior walls threw me a curve. You may want to re-do that one picture in 3/5 to make it match the orientation of all the other pictures. Have you given any thought to showing a picture, or pictures, of the final product up front so we know where we are headed?
Assuming that your target audience is newbie’s, it might also be helpful to make a note in step 3/5 that it is important to zoom in and move about a bit to ensure that one is clicking on the EXTERIOR endpoint (outer-side of the wall) when ending those rectangles. The curser tool tip may say you are about to click on an endpoint, but it won’t warn you that you are creating a twisted wall if that endpoint is on the inside of the wall. Without zooming in, the end result may be a house that looks like the one in a Harry Potter movie (forget exactly which one).
Thanks for the heads-up on needing doors and windows in the future. That’s another potential stumbling block for the beginner (knowing how to create windows and doors, that is). I think I saw a whole tutorial somewhere that addressed that issue all by itself. Ah, where do you draw the line?
If my comments are getting tedious or inappropriately long for this format, please let me know and I’ll back-off! I look forward to seeing your next installment in this series.
Off-topic: Tina, those are truly awesome digital watercolor renderings at your website (illustrationz.com). Are you going to tell me they were all done with SketchUp?
VA_WW… the doors at the rear open up to a private courtyard in the back of the house. I will be sure to mention that I had changed views in the next tutorials, thanks for pointing that out. An image of the end result is a great idea, although not done. This is a model that I’ve never done nor have a rendered. We are actually doing this together!
RE: http://www.illustration.com. Yes, all renderings shown were modeled in Google SketchUp and post-processed in various other programs. I will show some trade secrets in future tutorials.
Thanks for your comments!
You make it to complicated…
Instead of drawing all the lines for the wall,(all the boxs that make up the sides of the house.
just push/pull the walls up.
camakozi… Yes, it’s possible to push/pull the walls. The problem comes when you import the AutoCAD file surfaces are not always created. While there are many ways to create those surfaces (some of them can be VERY tedious, in my experience), I am showing another option. The other problem with P/P are the door and window openings. The modeler still has to go around the building (exterior and/or interior) and “close” those openings in order to add components that will “cut” through the walls.
Thanks for your comments! Hope you enjoy the rest of the case study.
Tina. Thanks for offering this tutorial….just what I was just trying to figure the best way to add width to walls from a floorplan yesterday.
When Subtracting interior volume do we retain a 6″ Concrete Slab or does the face delete itself in the press/pull command in step 5/5.
Dan, Yes you could retain the thickness for the slab. This is a step that will be included in the interior section of the series, but you could just do it now.
Great lesson, can’t wait to finish, Thank You!
How do I make a print in the requiered scale?
Hi everyone,
very interested in the tutorial but very said because i cannot afford the “Make group” command. I select the whole imported surface but the command is grayed out, not appearing in the context menu too.. I have the file that has to be imported from the previous lesson (”How to import…”) Where is the problem? Something in the import options may be?
Excellent! Been trying different ways to create the walls, this one is very easy.
Looking forward to the “roof plane” episode. Where is it? I’m really struggling with sloped roofs. Creating them accurately that is.
The joy of this tutorial is it shows that there are different ways to tackle any job, ie it is different to a sketchup tutorial. Ok some thought is required to pick the right walls, but this is no bad thing and probably not that important anyway. Thanks very useful!