Jump to content

DIY - Modeling a Car/Truck in SketchUp


CADken

Recommended Posts

I've seen a lot of requests here and on other forums about how to model a car in SketchUp... and sadly not many DIY Tutorials on how to do it.

 

There are many ways to model a car, so I encourage everyone to model the way it suits you, and I'm not claiming these are the rules you must follow or how it must be done.

 

Please try to keep this thread clean and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them, but as long as they are dealing with modeling cars/trucks... and most of all please do not hi-jack this thread. Also, this is quiet a large project so bare with me as I will be updating this thread over the course of the next few days (or how ever long it takes me to model this project).

 

First and foremost, when it comes to modeling any car, try to find as many reference pictures as possible and even blueprints in the highest resolution possible (this will come in handy).

 

A great reference for blueprints for those who would like to model as close to the real thing as possible:

 

SMC Car Blueprints

Blueprints Database

 

Now, find the vehicle you'd like to model. In this case mine will be a 1951 Chevrolet Pickup (modeling for my 1949 Chevy Fire Engine, Chevy Pickups from 1949 to 51 were relatively the same).

 

Anyway, let's begin.

 

Open SketchUp and "IMPORT" the blueprint picture (make sure it is in jpeg form).

 

Step1-1.jpg

 

Select your blueprint and insert it at the origin. Select a size for the blueprint, in this case it asked for a distance and I entered 50' (keep that in mind).

 

Step1-5.jpg

 

Now Import your blueprint 2 more times (make each 50', or whatever distance you entered before, just remember, stay consistent). Move them around and make your "staging ground" look something like this. Make note of the 3 views, "TOP", "SIDE" and "Front" view. Keep these in mind as I will reference them from time to time.

 

Step2-1.jpg

 

Now take note how large "Bryce" is (Bryce is the default "guy" you see at the origin each time you open SketchUp). Bryce is small compared to the blueprints, in this case I made the height of all the blueprints 50', the higher the resolution of the blueprints the larger you can make them and the easier they are to work with.

 

Select all the print views and place them on layer 1 (this will come in handy when you need to hide the prints to edit our components).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 27
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • CADken

    11

  • Fast Gunn

    3

  • designerstuart

    2

  • ReMark

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Now, I'm going to start with the Fender (driver's side). Trace the outline of the fender (you may want to toggle the "X-Ray" on and off to be able to tell want you are doing on the "Side Blueprint".

 

This picture already shows the outline being extruded, but for reference, the outlined fender:

 

Step4-1.jpg

 

I position the "blueprints" to use for accuracy while I'm extruding the face of the fender. By position, I mean you want to line up the blueprints so that the views match, In this case I drew a line on the top of the fender on one print "SIDE VIEW", and a line on the top of the fender on another print "TOP VIEW". Using the lines as guides I match up the "TOP" and "SIDE" views to resemble something like this.

 

Here is roughly what I mean:

 

Step4-1-1.jpg

 

You want to make sure your prints line up, esp when time comes to extrude faces. In this case I lined up the fenders so that way when I extrude the face, it follows the "Top" view.

 

Step4-2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright, now that we have a solid rectangle fender we can move on. In this step we are going to utilize the "Intersect with Model" function. Be sure to select all the lines that make up your fender and create a component, name it "Fender" (or at least in this case that's what I did).

 

Using one of the blueprints, I trace the "TOP" view of the fender to achieve the overall shape when looking at it from the top.

 

Step5-1.jpg

 

After the outline is created, extrude the face to a size larger than the "Fender" we have created.

 

Step5-1-1.jpg

 

Now select all the lines that make up this shape and create a component named "cut". Rotate "cut" around so that it lines up with the print we are using as the "TOP" view. Make sure it is in place cutting through our "Fender" (make sure that "cut" is lined up exactly where it should be so that when we intersect with our "fender" it will give us what we are looking for).

 

Explode "CUT" and go to edit, then select cut. Now double click on "FENDER" to edit this component. Then go to edit, then select "PASTE IN PLACE" (this will insert our "cut" part right where it was before). Right-click on cut (after pasting in place it should be blue, indicating it's selected), from the right-click menu select "INTERSECT >WITH MODEL"

 

Step5-2.jpg

 

Now begin to delete the excess lines and faces (also as a side note, go to your layer manager and "HIDE" layer 1, this will hide the prints and make it easier to edit our component without ruining our print locations):

 

Step5-3.jpg

 

When finished we end up with something like this:

 

Step5-4.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry it's taken so long, work has been busy. Anyway, The above is the basic approach to modeling an object in SketchUp, using the above principles you can model the entire vehicle using the above features...

 

Now, let's try another approach!

 

Here we are going to utilize the wonderful blueprints to really "model" our truck. First things first, Start SketchUp and select "Import" (sounds familiar don't it?)

 

Once again, select your blueprint and repeating the same steps above, snap it to the origin and make the height 50' (or whatever units you are comfortable with).

 

So, we'll end up with this again:

 

Step1-5.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now here is where things change, we are going to change this image into a "texture", we will achieve this by right clicking the image and selecting, "Use as Material"

 

Seen here:

 

StepConvert-1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After we have made our blueprint a material, we will then "Explode" our material so that we can use it in the following steps. To explode the material, right-click the blueprint and select "Explode".

 

Now, with the blueprint exploded, draw a rectangle around the top view of the truck (or whatever vehicle you choose to use).

 

You'll have something like this:

 

RectangleonFace-1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alrighty, now select your "push/pull" tool and "pull" the face upward in a distance you think is about the height of the truck (or vehicle you are modeling). This will be adjusted later, but for now just guess the height.

 

Now, here's where the fun begins, select the paint bucket tool and go to Materials, "In Model". From here it will show you the blueprint as a material (just what we wanted), now with the paint bucket, select the side of the raised rectangle that will be the "front" of the truck.

 

Here's what happens:

 

frontmaterial.jpg

 

Now this isn't where we want it, so we are going to move the material around to where we want the "front" of the truck, right-click and go to "Texture" and select "Position" and move the material around to where we want it:

 

positionmaterial.jpg

 

Here is what we have after we have moved the material to where we want the front image to be (click "Done" when you are satisfied with it's location):

 

movedmaterials.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now, adjust the "top" view of the rectangle to hover just above the "front" view, right now we are roughing everything in, so don't make any drastic adjustments, just make everything closer.

 

Repeat the above steps on all sides with all the different views, this will step up a block for us to model from, the key thing is making sure all of our views are properly lined up.

 

Here is the finished "block" result before I finalized and tighten all the images up to match 100%:

 

CompleteBlock.jpg

 

The final step is to tighten up the block by adjusting the images so that they all are corresponding 100% from side to side and front to back views.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Hi!

 

I´m from Germany. Sorry for my bad english and this Off-Topic post....

 

 

@CADKen: Can you send me the Blueprint of this 51´ Pick Up? That would be realy great. I was looking on the 2 Website from your first post but i dont find this modell in this view.

 

Thx in advance

 

Greets Thomas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi!

 

I´m from Germany. Sorry for my bad english and this Off-Topic post....

 

 

@CADKen: Can you send me the Blueprint of this 51´ Pick Up? That would be realy great. I was looking on the 2 Website from your first post but i dont find this modell in this view.

 

Thx in advance

 

Greets Thomas

 

Sorry for the delay in response, attached is the Chevy Blueprint (many thanks to PALAT for creating this):

1951-Chevrolet-pickup.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

Thanks for the tutorial, CADken.

 

There was another tutorial where the designer cuts the sections of the blueprint, but I have been unable to do that with Sketchup.

 

Instead of bringing in 3 blueprints of the same car, I would like to cut up the blueprint into the different faces and then assemble them into the model.

 

Does anybody know how to cut up the original blueprint into sections and then start the modeling process from that point?

 

 

Thanks,

. . .Fast Gunn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Hey, CADken, where are you, guy?

 

Did you go comatose on us? :?

 

I would still like to know how to cut the blueprints into sections.

 

Anybody else know how to do that?

 

I believe you are looking for something like this:

 

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94879

 

Use the picture/blueprint as a material and adjust the position.

 

As long as you use the image as a material you should be able to apply it to an area and "cut" it up while maintaining it's positions...

 

Also, check out this forum for more help with SketchUP

 

http://forums.sketchucation.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...