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May 19, 2009
I found some firelighters for the logburner
Posted by conor at 1:51 PM
May 18, 2009
Bach at night
The Sketchup/Kerkythea combination's going to be really useful trying to decide on interior lighting plans when we get to that point. The thing about log houses is that it's almost essential to consider all your wiring upfront. Here's a play I've had so far. The rendering also shows I've got a "leak" in my model log wall at one point; this shows as a glow through the logs under the eaves at the top right in the first photo.
Posted by conor at 3:16 PM
May 15, 2009
More rendering!
The 3D terrain in Google Earth is slightly inaccurate (well, at sub-meter resolution anyway), hence the large visible foundation in my Google Earth model. I’ve added some actual surveyed terrain for our section and rendered some new images; as you can see, it’s flatter than it appears in Google Earth, although we may need to flatten/excavate a small amount of ground for the NW corner.
Posted by conor at 2:11 PM
Sun path
I've used Google Sketchup & Kerkythea to render the path of the sun across the north side of the house on the shortest day of the year. Given that there won't be curtains on the upper windows, it looks like it confirms our thinking that there will be plenty of sun entering the house in the winter to give us some passive solar heating, even when we're not there.
(Click on the image to see a larger version, ~5MB)
Posted by conor at 10:02 AM
May 13, 2009
Bach sun angles
I came across a piece of rendering software today called Kerkythea which allows me to very accurately view sun angles & shadows in my Sketchup model. It renders my model much more vividly, although it only renders static views (i.e. you can’t fly around). Here are a couple of views I rendered showing internal sun/shadows at 12 noon on the shortest day of the year.
Posted by conor at 10:53 PM
May 8, 2009
Holiday house model
I've enjoyed a bit of time over the last week or so mocking up a model of the holiday house we're hoping to build at Castle Hill when circumstances permit. I've used a free tool called Google Sketchup which allows me to display the model in Google Earth. I'm finding it useful for visualising sightlines, sun angles, etc. You can open the model yourself in Google Earth by clicking on this link (~6MB). Once you open it in Google Earth, the best place to start is to double-click the “Take the tour!” link in the “Bach” folder. You can also toggle the different parts on and off (e.g. the roof, 1st floor or site plan/sections). Double-clicking on each of the items under the “Views” folder will also show you different aspects of our proposed house. It’s been a very enjoyable project on which to learn how to use Sketchup, although I concede I may have gone slightly overboard downloading additional elements from the Google 3D Warehouse to place into my model!
Craig Boslem from Curio Design down in Cromwell is the log home designer working on this design for us. While a large part of the vision for the house is Ildica’s & mine, Craig is doing a great job of getting our ideas on “paper”, and guiding us as to what will and won’t work.
Linking is okay, but the Google Earth model, renderings & animations are not for reproduction without my permission.
Posted by conor at 2:06 PM