Exercise 4 - Making some Stairs

In this exercise, we'll see how using SketchUp's component facilities can simplify creation of repetitive structures, in this case, a set of steps.

Creating a Step

Position the view so that you've got some working space off to one side of the starting room. We're going to start by create a single stair step isolated from the rest of the model. Using the Rectangle tool, drag out a floor face sized 1" by 1/2".



Now use the Push-Pull tool to extrude it up to a height of 1 1/4". (We're allowing a bit of extra height so the player doesn't bump his head on the ceiling going up and down the steps.)



Now we want to insert a horizontal edge into the nearest wall face 1/4" up from the floor. There are various ways to do that, but the easiest is probably to use the Move tool to make a copy of the bottom edge.

1. Select the bottom edge.2. Switch to the Move tool and tap the Option key so that a + sign appears. This means the edge will be copied before moving. Now click somewhere on the edge and drag upwards until the distance snaps to 1/4".

Now select the upper part of the wall face and delete it, leaving a 1" by 1" opening.



Turn the view around and do the same to the opposite face, except create the opening in the bottom of the face.



Now zoom in and apply some appropriate textures to the inside. The floor of this structure will be the top of a step, and the small piece of wall sticking up from the floor will be the front face of a step. Don't forget to texture the ceiling and upper wall face as well.

 

At this point we could just make copies of this structure and build our staircase, but there's a better way. First select the structure by triple-clicking on one of its faces -- this selects all the edges and faces connected to it as well:



Now choose the Edit>Create Component menu command, and click the Create button in the dialog that appears. The structure becomes highlighted with a blue box:



What's just happened is that the geometry you selected has become a component definition, and it has been replaced in the model by an instance of that component. The instance is currently selected, which is why there's a blue box around it.

If you look at the Components window now, you will be able to see the new component there:


Building Stairs

Next we'll make another opening in the starting room for attaching our staircase. Select the edge shown below and use the Move tool in copying mode (press Option to get the + sign) to make another edge 1" along the wall, then select and delete the resulting face.



Now we'll use the Move tool to position the first stair step next to the opening.

1. Select the stair step instance.2. Switch to the Move tool and move the cursor unti it snaps to the bottom right vertex.3. Click the mouse and move the cursor until it snaps to the bottom right vertex of the opening. Click again to position the object.
4. Now, using the Option key to make a copy, click on the lower right vertex again, and then on the upper vertex of the small wall face, so the copy is displaced 1" along and 1/4" upwards.5. Keeping the Option key held down, make more copies in the same way until you have about half a dozen stair steps.

An Upstairs Room

We need somewhere for our stairs to go. For variety, let's create a non-rectangular room this time. Zoom out and shift the view so you've got a nice big working space, and then switch to the Polygon tool. Click somewhere in the middle and drag out along the red axis (watch for a dotted red feedback line) to a radius of 4".



Use the Push-Pull tool to extrude it up to a height of 1". Rotate the view so you can see the eastward face and cut a 1" by 1" hole for attaching to the staircase, using the edge-duplication technique or otherwise.



Rotate the view until you're looking fairly steeply down on top. Triple-click on the hexagonal room with the Selection tool to select all its faces and edges, and use the Move tool to move the top left vertex of the opening you just created to the top left vertex at the end of the stairs. Make sure you snap to both these points.



Now finish off the hexagonal room by applying textures to its interior. You may also like to populate it with a selection of enemies to give yourself something to do with all your pistol ammo when you get up there. Remember that once you have an example of each object type in your model. you can add additional instances of it out of the Components window.



Now you can export the level and try it out!

That's all for this exercise. In Exercise 5, we'll learn how to set polygon properties and create doors and platforms.
---