Modeling a Room in 3D with Google SketchUp

Modeling a Room in 3D with Google SketchUp

It is now free to download and use a high quality 3D modeling software application. Just visit Google’s new 3D modeling center: http://sketchup.google.com/
The drawing above is a scale model of the control room at Indecent Music with one monitor, sans equipment and furniture. Measuring the SPLs in a room and using a model like this helps you to interpret the data you get from your SPL. It also helps you to see how sound might be reflecting in your room. The walls and other surfaces are easy to understand in 3D.
A floor plan view or a horizontal slice lets you write in data points to make the a data model.


It’s pretty easy to see how this kind of a tool could make working in your room easy and and more scientific.
The other thing that I love about SketchUp is that it has a built in tool to get models from Google 3D Warehouse and to upload your own models to share with others. This allows for both online collaboration with colleagues and for collabs with people you don’t know. One of the things that makes 3D modeling so painful, is the need to recreate all of the models that you need to use yourself. Most people end up buying a library of components for use with their own industries. For instance, Kitchen Designers use a variety of different CAD applications to design kitchens, but who wants to model 2300 variants of a Kraftmaid cabinet? So you buy the models from the source.
With the 3D Warehouse, you can check to see if anyone has made something similar already that you can reuse or recycle. Extremely useful. As long as everyone shares, this kind of system works very, very well. Did you notice the model of the monitor? That model was downloaded and imported straight from the 3D Warehouse.

credits: stuDIY.