Dimensioning up your garden room models

You will have picked up that we are advocates for you using the free version of Sketchup to design your garden room. The other day we had an email from a Self Builder who had read that you need to have the professional version and access to Layout to be able to dimension your designs.

It is true that Layout is a great tool for creating sets of plans and working drawings for your project, but it’s expensive! There is also a simple workaround you can use in the free version.

Remember to model in real world dimensions

To use this method you need to remember to model your garden room in real world dimensions – if your finished room will be 3000mm wide make sure your model is too.

Once you have your model, it is then easy to dimension it. Start by selecting the front camera view. Do this by going to Camera > Standard Views > Front. Then go to the Tools panel and then select Dimensions.

Then go to the first point on your model that you want to measure. You will see a little purple dot appear on your cursor. Then select the end point. Your dimension will appear, pull it to a clear area.

We have made a quick video showing you this in action:

If you want to print out your drawing go over to the File Menu > Export > 2D Model and save and then print out.

You can use this same system for more detailed models like a timber frame. This would allow you to create a cutting list of parts.

We have created another short video looking at this. The video also shows you how to quickly create a white background for your plan, which might be easier to read.

To do this you need the Styles panel open, if it’s not you’ll find it under Window > Default Panel > Styles.

There are lots of styles to choose from, we used the Default Construction one for our plan.

So you can see its quite easy to create working drawings from your garden room models – give its a go!