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Game Room Layouts with Sketchup
Hey Guys,
I just wanted to post some info here on a tool that I know some of you may already use called Sketchup:
http://sketchup.google.com
It's a pretty powerful 3D rendering application, and its free. You can design just about anything with it, and it was pretty easy to figure out how to use.
Like many people, I am very close to being out of room for games. I have 20 games in my game room, and some more in my garage. I have some that I'd like to move into the game room but without some kind of layout software it was difficult to find a way to fit more. By modeling my entire arcade in Sketchup, I believe I found a way to fit at least 4 more games in and maybe even 5!
In order to get going with this program, download it from the above URL. After you install it, when you launch it for the first time it presents you with a dialog box that has some training videos that help explain how to use it. I watched about 6 or so of those short videos and was on my way.
I modeled my game room to scale and put some dummy model games in it that I found in Google's 3D warehouse. It has a layers feature that allows you to group particular entities (objects), similar to layers in most graphics programs (Photoshop, etc...). You can then show or hide the layers as needed. Here's the floor:
with walls added:
I have a column in the middle, with a heating duct running across the ceiling. Here it is with that:
My game room is also my living room, so unfortunately I'm stuck with furniture that I have no other place to put at the moment:
Google has an online 3D warehouse containing components uploaded by people all over the internet. There are thousands of objects out there that might be useful in a layout. The couches and TV you see above were obtained from that warehouse. I needed to get my entertainment center to scale so I just made that as a quick mockup from scratch. I also made the desk. To give you an idea of how you can zoom in and out to see more or less detail, checkout some closeups of my desk (which has never looked cleaner):
...and the stairs (click for more detail):
Here is the proposed layout so far:
I don't have that many Space Duels. :) I grabbed that model from the 3D warehouse so I'd have something to start with. I plan on modeling all my games to make sure the layout is just right before I start shuffling them around. Here's my Q*Bert model:
I just finished Mario Bros:
I uploaded all of these models to Google's 3D warehouse, so if you need them they are there for anyone to use:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?viewer=16023292783388...
For any games that share components, I've been making those as separate models. For example, Nintendo buttons, brackets, and 2-way joysticks:
Its a lot of fun seeing the games come together piece by piece. I plan on making a lot more of these so if you need them just keep checking the link above. If you have any models to share please let me know.
I just wanted to post some info here on a tool that I know some of you may already use called Sketchup:
http://sketchup.google.com
It's a pretty powerful 3D rendering application, and its free. You can design just about anything with it, and it was pretty easy to figure out how to use.
Like many people, I am very close to being out of room for games. I have 20 games in my game room, and some more in my garage. I have some that I'd like to move into the game room but without some kind of layout software it was difficult to find a way to fit more. By modeling my entire arcade in Sketchup, I believe I found a way to fit at least 4 more games in and maybe even 5!
In order to get going with this program, download it from the above URL. After you install it, when you launch it for the first time it presents you with a dialog box that has some training videos that help explain how to use it. I watched about 6 or so of those short videos and was on my way.
I modeled my game room to scale and put some dummy model games in it that I found in Google's 3D warehouse. It has a layers feature that allows you to group particular entities (objects), similar to layers in most graphics programs (Photoshop, etc...). You can then show or hide the layers as needed. Here's the floor:
with walls added:
I have a column in the middle, with a heating duct running across the ceiling. Here it is with that:
My game room is also my living room, so unfortunately I'm stuck with furniture that I have no other place to put at the moment:
Google has an online 3D warehouse containing components uploaded by people all over the internet. There are thousands of objects out there that might be useful in a layout. The couches and TV you see above were obtained from that warehouse. I needed to get my entertainment center to scale so I just made that as a quick mockup from scratch. I also made the desk. To give you an idea of how you can zoom in and out to see more or less detail, checkout some closeups of my desk (which has never looked cleaner):
...and the stairs (click for more detail):
Here is the proposed layout so far:
I don't have that many Space Duels. :) I grabbed that model from the 3D warehouse so I'd have something to start with. I plan on modeling all my games to make sure the layout is just right before I start shuffling them around. Here's my Q*Bert model:
I just finished Mario Bros:
I uploaded all of these models to Google's 3D warehouse, so if you need them they are there for anyone to use:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?viewer=16023292783388...
For any games that share components, I've been making those as separate models. For example, Nintendo buttons, brackets, and 2-way joysticks:
Its a lot of fun seeing the games come together piece by piece. I plan on making a lot more of these so if you need them just keep checking the link above. If you have any models to share please let me know.
Tags: sketchup
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Whitney on -
You lost me. I don't have any experience with 3D modeling beyond Sketchup.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on -
Any idea how to turn off the snap? I don't like having to move objects to a fine grained position by typing in manual measurements...
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Whitney on
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Jeff Rothe said:Any idea how to turn off the snap? I don't like having to move objects to a fine grained position by typing in manual measurements...
I *think* turning off "length snapping" might do that. However, if you turn it off completely you may have trouble lining things up. As it is now, I often find that I have to zoom way in to look at 2 objects that should be touching to see if they actually are. In a lot of cases, I'll find that those 2 objects will actually either have a small space between, or will be sticking past each other. I would think that would happen even more if you turn off snapping. It might be better to increase the precision setting and/or change the value for length snapping to a smaller number.
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Permalink Reply by Mrslo on -
I tried using this product a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of hours, I gave up on it. I got frustrated trying to align my games next to each other. I will have to go back and give it another shot sometime soon.
Your room looks great. How long did it take you to complete that sketch?
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on
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I don't know about Jamie, but I felt after about 4-5 hours of moving around, I had learned the power keys and could finally move efficiently throughout the software.
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Whitney on
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Mrslo said:
When I first installed it, the opening screen had links to tutorial videos. I walked through about 6 or 7 of them, trying the things they covered after each one. The videos helped big time. Their documentation is pretty good to. I would have been lost without the videos.I tried using this product a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of hours, I gave up on it. I got frustrated trying to align my games next to each other. I will have to go back and give it another shot sometime soon.
Mrslo said:
Thanks! For the room it self (without the games) I'd say it took about a day to get most of it done, but I was learning as I went. The games took me quite awhile....maybe 4 hours each or so. I started getting faster at it after awhile.Your room looks great. How long did it take you to complete that sketch?
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Permalink Reply by Eric Bousquet on -
AWESOME!!!!!!
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