modeling a fluted column in google sketchup · pdf filemodeling a fluted column in google...

3DVinci SketchUp Projects-of-the-Month March 2010 1

Modeling a Fluted Column in Google SketchUpArchitectural columns in ancient Greece, Rome, and even China used flutes - vertical grooves cut along the outside of the cylinder.

If you want to create a model of an ancient temple, or perhaps one of the grandiose government buildings in Washington, DC, this project will show you one way to build the columns.

This project is suitable for students (and teachers) who already have a bit of SketchUp experience (though detailed instructions are provided). If you need more information on how to get started, and a description of some basic tools, please read 3DVinci’s Getting Started Guide (PDF).

PC users: go to http://www.3dvinci.net/SketchUp_Intro_PC.pdf.Mac users: go to http://www.3dvinci.net/SketchUp_Intro_MAC.pdf.

Step 1: The Bottom of the Column1. Open Google SketchUp. If your file contains a person standing on the ground near the origin, click the Eraser

tool and erase him.

2. Switch to Top view (from the main menu, choose Camera / Standard Views / Top). You should see the word “Top” at the top left corner.

3. We need the model axes to be visible. So if you don’t see the red and green axes, choose View / Axes.

Modeling a Fluted Column in Google SketchUp


4. The basic shape of a column is a circle, so activate the Circle tool.

5. I’m going to make a simple Doric column, which usually have 20 flutes. So before clicking to place the center of the circle, we need to set the number of circle sides to match the number of flutes. Type 20, which appears in the Sides field in the lower right corner of the SketchUp window, then press Enter.

6. Place the center at the origin, then click on the red or green axis to complete the circle. (If the exact size of the column is important, pay attention to the size of the circle in the Radius field.)

7. Activate the Push/Pull tool, and pull the circle up very slightly, into a flat cylinder.

8. To see how the cylinder is divided into segments, we need to see the hidden edges. So from the main menu, choose View / Hidden Geometry.

9. At either end of a flute is a quarter-sphere. There are a few ways to create this shape; here’s my favorite way. First, activate Circle and place the center at the top midpoint of one of the cylinder segments, making sure the circle will be vertical and not horizontal.



10. Complete the circle when it takes up about half the width of the segment.

11. Use the Eraser to trim away the top half of the circle.

12. The next shape will be an Arc.

13. This arc will go on the flat top of the cylinder, and will share endpoints with the half-circle you just finished. Click Points 1 and 2 shown below, then click Point 3 when you see the “Half Circle” popup.

14. We no longer need to see the hidden edges, so choose View / Hidden Geometry again to toggle them off.



15. The tool needed to make these two half-circles into a quarter-sphere shape is Follow Me, but before you can use this tool, we need to define the Follow Me path. So activate the Select tool, and click the vertical arc to select it.

16. Keeping this arc selected, choose Tools / Follow Me from the main menu. Then click the half-circle face on the top of the cylinder.

Here’s what you should have: a quarter-sphere with some small, extra faces. Yours might look a bit different.

17. Clean up the extra faces by zooming in closely and erasing each extra edge. This is the bottom of the column: a solid cylinder with one quarter-sphere cutout. Only one flute will be made now, but the flute will later be copied around to the rest of the column.



Step 2: The Rest of the Column1. Use Push/Pull to pull up the column and flute cutout, stopping when the column is about half its desired

height (mine will be short).

2. The inside of the flute will have at least one, and maybe more, edges that don’t need to be displayed. These edges won’t be erased; they will be softened (a way of hiding edges while also smoothing the faces around them). Activate the Select tool and select the entire model (either drag a selection window around it, or press Ctrl+A or Cmd+A). Right-click on any selected face and choose Soften/Smooth Edges.

3. In the Soften Edges window, check both boxes and adjust the slider until the inside of the flute has no edges inside it.

4. Close the Soften Edges window.



5. Now the column and flute will be copied straight up, and the copy will be flipped over and moved down so that the two halves will meet. If the entire column is no longer selected, select the entire thing again.

6. Copying is done with the Move tool. Press the Ctrl key (PC) or Option key (Mac), click anywhere to start the copy, and move the mouse straight up, in the blue direction. Stop when the copy is directly above the original.

7. Now the copy is what’s selected. Right-click anywhere on the copy, and choose Flip Along / Blue Direction.

8. Now that the copy on top is flipped over, use the Move tool to move it straight down, stopping when the two halves meet.



9. To remove the “seam” in the middle of the column, activate Select again and drag a selection window that includes all of the seam edges. Be sure to drag this window from left to right, not right to left!

10. When all of the seam edges are selected, press the Delete key to erase them.

11. To make the flute easier to see, you can paint it. Click the Paint Bucket.

12. In the Materials window (Windows) or Colors window (Mac), find a collection of colors or textures to use.

(If you’re a Mac user, there are several options for picking colors; the graphic above shows the crayon picker. If you want to find textures as well as color swatches, click the brick icon, then select the collection you want.)



13. Click a color or texture, then click the flute - it should consist of only one face.

This flute has what’s called a “high-poly count” meaning that it consists of a high number of objects. This is what happens with complex, curved objects created from arcs and circles. High-poly objects take up a lot of file size, and if you copy the flute 19 more times around the column, the file size will be much larger. The solution for this is to make the flute into a component, so that SketchUp only has to store the flute’s geometric information once, and apply it to all of the copies.

14. Activate Select again and double-click on the inside face of the flute; this selects both the faces and its surrounding edges. Right-click on the selected face, and choose Make Component.



15. In the Create Component window, give the flute a name, and check both Cut opening and Replace selection with component. Then click Create.

16. The flute is now a component, and it should be selected. Keep it selected, and activate the Rotate tool.

17. Place the protractor at the top of the cylinder, where the cylinder meets the blue axis.

18. Press Ctrl or Option for copies, and click any two adjacent endpoints along the top of the cylinder. What is the rotation angle? The circle has 20 sides, and 360 degrees divided by 20 is 18 degrees. So 18 is what you should see in the Angle field.



19. Only one copy is made, but we need 19 copies (20 total flutes). So type 19x, which now appears in the Angle field, and press Enter.

There you have it - a basic fluted column!

This is a uniform cylinder; it has the same radius all the way along its length. Actual columns are tapered inward toward the top, which is possible to do in SketchUp but it takes a slightly complicated, incremental approach. If you’re interested, here are two tutorials on this: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=47 and http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://groups.google.ca/group/SketchUp/web/Fluted%2Bcolumn%2Bwith%2Benthasis.skp&usg=AFQjCNHPXvNox2xYWzlkFWRmSdfJLC06XQ.

Try This: Capital and PedestalThe objects above and below a column can be beautiful and incredibly complex, but you can also represent them with something relatively simple. Here’s how I did it; maybe you come up with something more ornate.

1. Use Push/Pull with the Ctrl or Option key pressed, and pull down the bottom of the column just a bit.



2. Select the bottom face of this new cylinder, and activate the Scale tool (Tools / Scale).

3. Click and drag one of the corner handles outward, keeping the Ctrl or Option key pressed so that the center of the face will stay in place.

4. Repeat these steps at the top of the column. When you Push/Pull with the Ctrl / Option key, you can double-click the top face, to pull it up by the same distance you used at the bottom.



5. Then for both the top (capital) and bottom (pedestal), use Push/Pull again (without the Ctrl / Option key).

6. If you were going to use this column repeatedly in a model (and what building ever has just one column?), you would make the entire column into a component. The Create Component window has an option to set a component’s axes, and ideally the axes should be placed at the bottom center point.



Here’s a model I made with my column - I’m not sure what it is but it looks like it belongs in downtown Washington, DC (where I live).

I placed the dome model above into the 3D Warehouse. If you want to download it, go to http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse and search for “dome supported by fluted columns.”

If you try this project with your children or students, and have a fantastic column model you’d like to share, please let me know! I will be happy to blog about it, and maybe feature it in a future newsletter. Contact me at [email protected]. Thanks!

modeling a fluted column in google sketchup · pdf filemodeling a fluted column in google...

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