Why 3D Models Are Superior

After scouring the internet for days looking for a set of building plans for our tiny house, I got frustrated because I couldn’t find a set that matched what Hannah and I wanted for our tiny house.

My last resort was to design my own set of plans from scratch using a 3D modeling program called Sketchup.

My friends Jake & Kiva had done the same with their Tiny House and luckily for me they had a video course on how to use Sketchup.

So instead of buying a set of building plans, I set forth and designed my own tiny house from the ground up.

What I really love about 3D models is that you can view the home in 3D and see how the different sections of the house interface with each other. You can hide every single section that isn’t important to you at that time and just see the one section that you’re working on currently. You can see if there are going to be any conflicts between pieces. For example, I knew before we started building that our kitchen cabinets would need to be notched out to go around the wheel well. You can take exact measurements right from the 3D model (in feet and inches).

For some of you building your tiny house, being able to look at how all the different framing elements interface with each other (in 3D) would be a tremendous asset in understanding how homes are built.

What’s included with this purchase is the exact Sketchup file that I used to build our tiny house. All the important elements of our home are easily displayed or hidden because they are organized in to different layers.

Sketchup is a free download to either Mac or PC and if you don’t intend on modifying the sketchup file, that’s fine as it is quite easy to navigate around the model without making any changes to it.