INTERIOR DESIGN
how to make a vaulted ceiling
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ne of the most read topics that interior designers consult on my blog is how to make a vaulted ceiling. Writing this article for Sketchucation has a special meaning for me and I dedicate it to my mother who just passed away. This is the ceiling of the room where I spent 2 days receiving condolences and where I had to say goodbye to her at least in this life. The room had a comfortable and elegant design. The ceiling vaults intersecting in the manner of Gothic designs also had a cross slit in which artificial light emanated. Also, a great perimeter crown molding hided other fluorescent lights. The red granite floors combined with sandstone contrasted with 12’ height white walls. To complete the mystique atmosphere a faint diffuse light entered through 10’ height windows.
My first recommendation when you model an interior space is to group floor, walls and ceiling separately in order to manipulate the model much easier. It is very common to be handling one of these three groups and needing to avoid the interference of elements and planes that you are not working on. On this basis once created the walls up to the ceiling height, I grouped all the entities to prevent the “sticking” with the ceiling elements. As the ceiling was composed of eight intersected vaults, the first step was the creation of the first arc. To help me with this drawing I used the function “Extrude Edges by Vector” in TIG’s Extrusion plugin to create a face on which to draw an arc.
Note: This project is a good example in using SketchUp’s Solid tools that can save vital time and effort. The only requirement for using these functions is to be in the presence of volumes, ie grouped closed geometries.