Setting up an arch-viz scene

There are several ways to begin setting up our scene. All of these will help anchor your scene in the existing surroundings and give the model a context and scale that our audience needs to relate to the project.

The following are the main scene setup methods:

• Import a satellite image and terrain data via geolocation

• Use a site photograph with the Match Photo tool

• Import a scanned site map, image, or pencil sketch

• Build on data from an imported CAD file

Any of these can be used in combination, and it is this flexibility that makes SketchUp so unique. SketchUp is equally at home with accurate CAD, as it is with pencil concept art. We're going to look at each of these starting points individually so that you can choose the best combination for your particular way of working.

Of course, you can also just start sketching away and build up a complete scene with context from scratch. However, there is nothing special about this, is there?

Importing terrain data

Thanks to its...