VILLA
david hier Using Layers, Parallel Projection & Scenes When you import your drawings into SU, it’s a good idea to keep each floor plan and elevation on a separate layer. That way you toggle the visibility of the plans, which is especially useful when aligning your modelling with the elevations and preventing first floor plans from obscuring the modelling of the ground floor. It can also be useful to set a keyboard shortcut for Parallel Projection as it makes it much easier to switch to 2D views in order to lay out the house walls and align wall heights with elevations. Usually you can use SU’s Views tools to switch between elevations, but if you are dealing with an irregular or large site, it’s a good idea to create a scene for each elevation you need to use.
Working to Scale It’s important to establish a correct scale at an early stage in the modelling. It will help with the accuracy of your model and allow you to make educated guesses when it comes to modelling details that are not found in your drawings. Since most render engines use physically accurate calculations it’s also important to use a real world dimensions - a 1m x 1m house will render very differently to a 100m x 100m house. If your floor plans don’t have a scale guide, you can usually infer certain sizes from elements common to most builds. For example, single course interior walls are usually somewhere between 15cm & 20cm thick. In the case of the Villa PM I also needed a size for double cavity walls and using the interior walls as a guide a 50cm thickness seemed appropriate. I then used 15cm x 15cm and 50cm x 50cm modules as a guide when drawing out the walls.