RpWallMaker Free

RpWallMaker Free is a free add-on for Google SketchUp (Windows or Mac) to create wide walls (3D walls with thickness), edit them and cut holes in them.

The custom walls are generated by drawing the center line of the wall in SketchUp and the wide, 3D wall is automatically generated.

Contents

Download and Installation

  1. Proceed to Downloads to download a copy of RpWallMaker Free.
  2. After downloading the ZIP file, click Click to install to install it.
  3. After Starting SketchUp, Select 'RpWallMaker from the Plugins menu.


Toolbar


Define and Place Wall

  1. Click the first - Define and Place Wall - icon on the toolbar.
  2. Set width and heights as desired.
  3. Using the cursor select points for the center line of the wall.
    (You may use the VCB - Value Control Box) to enter exact lengths after starting the wall in the proper direction.


Cut an Opening

Cut Opening Component

  1. Place an opening on the wall
    (SketchUp will glue it properly to the outside face of the wall.
  2. Right click on the opening and select Cut Opening in Wall
  3. The opening is cut through both faces of the wide wall.


Empty Opening

  1. Click the second - Cut an Opening - icon on the toolbar.
  2. Set width and height of the opening as desired.
  3. Click Place and place the opening cursor on the wall.
  4. The opening is cut through both faces of the wide wall.


Edit a Wall

  1. To edit a wall, right click on the wall and select 'Edit Wall. You can change the height or width of the wall.
  2. If you wand to change the end conditions (how the wall intersects with other walls), you will have to erase the wall and place it again.


Frequently asked questions

How do you make it close the last corner when you make a closed loop?

Good point. We need to fix this, and also operate better when you start a new wall from the edge of an existing wall. Also, we should add a "draw 4 walls in a rectangle" feature. We will make some changes and put out a new version.

How do I clean up walls after changes?

I noticed something, when I edited the thickness of a wall, the other connected walls didn't adjust the corners to match the new thickness of the wall I changed.

Right,

If you want wider walls, you need to set a wider thickness and remake the walls.

In our "CAD" world, we spent a lot of time working on a feature to let the user design a house with 6" walls, and then convert it to 9" walls. It turned out that this wasn't really practical. Because of the questions like "Do you keep the inside dimensions of a room the same, and increase the size of the whole building", or "do you keep the exterior dimensions the same, and decrease the size of the interior rooms", or a combination of both.

Or, If a door is 18" from the outside corner of the building, do you want to mode the door, because of the wider walls, to make room for the framing?

It is a nice feature, but we decided that our users would almost never use it.

The value here is to adjust individual walls, but you will have to stretch the other walls and put the room back together yourself.

Note: The length of a wall is not one of the parameters. You can use SketchUp to stretch the wall group, and if will still redraw properly when you make other changes - width, height, or add an opening.

Note also: You can use SketchUp to move an opening. It should work properly, so that when we remake the wall we find the new opening size and position, and re-cut it properly.

See also