SketchUp Skill Builder: Transparent Walls

Don't you just hate it when you design yourself a beautiful room, but end up locking yourself out because you need things like walls and ceilings? What if we said you make your walls magically disappear, allowing you to peer into the room? Well... That's exactly what we are saying. It's why this video exists. You should probably just watch the video, now.

[@CombrinkPierre]

At well over 50 years old I'm learning new things everyday. Thanks for being such a excellent teacher.

[@aarondietzen2995]

Pierre Combrink And thank you for being an excellent student!

[@legacyfound]

Aaro, thanks much for that . It was both concise and thorough. This kind of delivery on a whole host of topics is much needed .

[@aarondietzen2995]

Thanks, RJ! Please let us know any topics you are thinking of! We love to make videos that help you with what you need!

[@thibautdevulder3394]

Hi, Nice and simple technique. The only limitation is that that transparent wall lets light through when shadows are turned on, so that the shading pattern falling through the windows is not realistic. When designing spaces, it is often useful to be able to see how an opening (such as a window or skylight) affects the way the sun penetrates into a space. Here's my alternative technique: - create a new material with a solid colour (whatever you want, but with transparency of at least 70%, so that it will cast shadows) and add to this material a fully transparent PNG texture - apply that new material to the outer side of your wall, adding whatever other material to the inner side This way, you can see through the wall/ceiling (when in textured view mode) , but the sunlight still behave as if the wall was opaque, so you get realising shadows inside your room. The limitation of my approach is that the surface is then only truly transparent in textured view mode... Cheers, Thibaut

[@aarondietzen2995]

Thibaut Devulder Too true! If you are looking for shadow studies, you need walls that are more than 70% opacity.

[@Uncle_Buzz]

That's bad ass. Who knew. Thanks! Cheers, Chris.

[@aarondietzen2995]

You are welcome!

[@Cremantus]

That is great. Congrats for this really creative way of working with the settings and abilities of sketchup. Absolutely thumbs up!

[@milehighslacker4196]

This is brilliant! Thank you so much!!

[@ariowishnu9356]

How if the wall have offset ? How to make it transparent ?

[@plumbummax]

Большая благодарность Вам за этот урок!! Каждый раз узнаю что-то жизненно необходимое!

[@LEVEGUI]

Excellent work, very grateful for this great contribution. Greetings from Colombia.

[@vezahamed]

Thanks man...that was excellent.

[@boardthirteen_interiors]

it is like magic, only better. Thank you!

[@refusoagaino6824]

That's the magic that will make people ask, "how do you do that?" I couldn't have figured that out on my own.

[@aarondietzen2995]

Refuso Againo Abracadabra! You have new skills!!

[@agradoville]

Brilliant tutorial. Thanks Chris.

[@Skans-Gustav]

Very useful. And shift erase was also good to revisit.

[@egsiio]

Wow thanks this is what I looking for. Now I can make room just like in The Sims

[@Saleh.binmaleh]

THANKS for the Tutorial, hope all the best

[@JorgeSpina1980]

super useful! thanks a lot for sharing

[@TheRochy09]

This is great - thanks!

[@TheZhinozhin]

So Great!

[@tanyahendra6891]

very helpful and well explained, thanks!

[@moosaomran]

Great tip, thank you for sharing 😘👍

[@mraliali1579]

Thank you my dear teacher Really a lesson and knowledge is distinctive and important ..

[@10004iomthon]

Thank you ,from Thailand

[@sonnytanod8862]

Great, thank you.

[@Gloubi06]

Thanks for this! It's really a great tip! But hat means that the walls can't have a real thickness?

[@t.e.1189]

Does making a wall and/or ceiling transparent allow you to continue modeling or make edits? Or do I need to just hide them or use scenes? I'm using Sketchup Free.

[@bjbeatty9451]

How cool is that. Thanks

[@rawtee8957]

now this was new and neat! Thanks

[@silveriaido1]

very good tutorial! tanks

[@cognitive-carpenter]

Couldn't you also save it as a new view per side, and hide the particular items in that scene? Instead of creating separate layers?

[@holdenru]

You can see but you can't edit anything inside the walls. How to make them invisible for mouse?

[@abdulrehman1855]

Great! Nice tip man

[@rattakritkrongyut4677]

very nice and thanks.

[@aikalmohd9953]

THANK YOUU🔥

[@charlesmarion2032]

this is sooooo cool! Thanks

[@efraingalicia6900]

very interesting tip, thanks

[@blairpettigrew]

Fantastic. I’m definitely going to use this. For a future tutorial I’d love to see how to make revision clouds in layout. This is a missing element needed for an architectural set of drawings. I’ve used the arc tool to make generic ones in my scrapbook, but it’s just not working out. Maybe there’s a different solution? Thanks so much!

[@aarondietzen2995]

blairpettigrew Love that idea! I’m adding it to the list!

[@blairpettigrew]

Steve Gallant. When you want to point out a change you’ve made in construction documents (blueprints) you put clouds around the change. Important for re-issuing for permitting or to contractors when there have been changes. goo.gl/images/GTp2zk

[@colintranter5162]

Hi Aaron. I might have missed something but could you do the same thing if there was a little depth to the walls?

[@aarondietzen2995]

Colin Tranter You could set the back sides of both sides of the walls to transparent. You will run into a little bit of an issue at certain angles where you will be able to see the “insides” of the wall cavity. This particular solution really works best with walls that are a single surface.

[@ADVBear]

Hi Aaron. Thanks for the tip. Do you happen to know any extension that can solve this problem? I tend to use "complete" walls in my models... This transparency would solve a lot of issues for me, but it would have to work for walls with depth. Thank you.

[@acanthusflower6338]

Hi Aaron. Did you come up with a solution for the walls with thickness? I also, design with thick walls. Thanks for the tutorials!

[@hc8714]

the problem with sketchup is every few iteration the function acts completely different, gone or replaced

[@AladineTK]

Thanks awesome tips

[@thanoscy]

That's cool. There are two thinhs thats buthering me. First to disable it iI hat to go through all walls and undo the second transparent material, and second i'm not sure if this will not affect the render process like vray where both side of the material matters.

[@aarondietzen2995]

If you need to remove the transparent material, you can always delete it from the "In Model" list and replace it with the default... Or use the Monochrome view to see the backs of materials as the default gray rather than transparent. As fo rendering, does your rendering engine render back sides? Many don't, anyway. If you renders "what you see is what you get" then you will need to color the faces appropriately, anyway.

[@lanceraustin]

"The default material is front on the face, and gray on the back." Did you mean to say "white on the front?"

[@mohammedmasood6154]

Will the transparent areas be shown in render?

[@rmontena4583]

I wonder if I can do this with a site plan..... hmmm?

[@dougmcpeek1075]

I would like a tutorial on using the community. I fumble with it every time and therefore seldom use it perpetuating my problem.

[@jeremyjaquane7214]

Id like to know if its possible to make a transparent wall which does draw shadows. When you turn on the shadows, these transparent walls do NOT draw them atm. Or am I doing something wrong?

[@TheArtOfSidek2]

Great!

[@t.n.1953]

Can this be done in SketchUp Free (online app) 2022?

[@SketchUp]

Yes it can!

[@alekskroskin6101]

how to make this kind of effect in blender?

[@SketchUp]

You should probably ask that over on the Blender KZbin channel

[@alekskroskin6101]

@@SketchUp I already found the solution. Just had to dig in some node settings and it's done.

[@tengizjalaghania4768]

cool!

[@jaewok5G]

oooOOOOOooooooooo … i like that

[@andrewan4090]

Haha, that picture is the Avengers Alliance!

[@aarondietzen2995]

That's right! Just designing in SketchUp while I wait for Infinity War to release!

[@christinaeneroth675]

Can we stop saying putting objects on a layer? It is a quite large problem how users, especially new ones, think of SketchUp layers as the containers they are used to from other programs. Typically layers prevent merging and overriding of data, similarly to how groups function in SU. In SketchUp a "layer" is a property or class of an object, not a place in the document hierarchy. I prefer to say assign layer to object to be more honest about how SketchUp works.

[@dimav83]

the moment when I really feel limited by being able to give only one Like and not 10. (as SU Layers are rather tags and it is assigning a layer to a group/component, not putting them on a layer)