Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Building a Roof with an Overhang

As you add details your model begins to look less like a modified shoebox and more like a real house. Another detail that's important for real houses is a roof with an overhang. The body of the roof holds beams and rafters that support the roof, and the overhang protects the walls and siding from sun and weather. In the real world the laws of gravity and nature seem to have more effect than they do in SketchUp.

In this next exercise, you use the Offset tool to create a profile for your new roof, and then you use Push/Pull to give it shape. The first step is to modify the overall contour of the roof using the Move tool.

1. Click the roof's left ridgeline, and move it down in along the blue axis.

   When you move the ridgeline along the blue axis, you see a dotted blue line and a tooltip message that says "On Blue Axis".

2. When you see the "On Blue Axis" tooltip, press and hold Shift.

   The Shift key locks the movement of the edge to the blue axis.

3. Click the house's left edge.

   The roof flattens, eliminating the ridgeline.

4. Erase the shared edge.

   You no longer need the shared edge that divides the ridgeline; remove it now so it won't interfere with other parts of the model.

5. Move the outside edge down just a bit.

   Creating a slight slope here helps drain moisture and gives the building a bit of character, as shown in Figure 4-24.

   

   Figure 4-24. When you adjust the roof line, make ...