Download

Online

Gallery

Blog

Sweet Home 3D Blog

This blog presents news and tips about Sweet Home 3D.

And you, how do you use your Sweet Home 3D? Episode 25

Gerardo Ascoli contacted us to present the projects designed by his students with Sweet Home 3D. He is a teacher in the "Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore Luigi Einaudi", an Artistic / Economics / Technological high school in Magenta (close to Milan in Italy). He published the projects of his students in the Gallery of the school. We were very impressed by the very good results obtained by these young students, the originality of their subjects and the Italian flavour of these images. Surely, Gerardo can be proud of them! Curious to know more, we asked him a few questions.

A swimming pool, also presented on YouTube

- What do you teach?

The course is called CAT, Environment and Territories Construction, ex Surveyor. I am a technical and practical teacher (I am both an electronic engineer and a surveyor) and I follow the students in various subjects: Construction, design, topography, economics. I started using Sweet Home 3D because in a previous work experience (when I was working as an electronic engineer), I was involved in home automation (2010) and I needed a software to make 3D plants to use for touchscreens.

A very nice hotel, also presented on YouTube

 - How old are your students? What do they study?

Students are aged between 17 and 19 years old. They attend in this course during 5 years. In my institute we start to study 3D drawing from the fourth year, but it is especially during the fifth year that students exploit their aptitudes.

Autogrill

- The originality and diversity of the projects is really remarkable. Who choose these themes?

The fifth-year students are asked to create their own project (swimming pool, hotel, bed and breakfast, car dealership, school, etc.) pratically realizing what they studied. Each student chooses the subject independently.

Mountain refuge

- How many hours did they spend on them?

I find it difficult to quantify the hours dedicated to the realization of their project, as everything depends on the complexity of what they choose. Certainly a good project is obtained by using more than 30 hours. To make a good project, the choice of textures is very important. The thing that most impresses me about my students is the care of the smallest details (e.g. various electrical sockets or different object in kitchen such as pots, bottles, etc.). I want to add a consideration: when creating a 3D project, we often lose track of time. Me too, I spend many hours without realizing how quickly time passes while using the program. I think the same thing happens to the guys too, who prefer to spend hours drawing a project in 3D rather than studying.

Castle hotel

- What kind of modeling process do you use? What is the part of Sweet Home 3D and other software in the projects?

The first phase is the design with Autocad: the boys realize plans, elevations and sections. Then between April and May, they can try to represent the project in 3D. Students are given marks on the completed project, which is often accompanied by a report, which also specifies the materials used.

A chapel, also presented on YouTube with Lumion 4

- Why do you use Sweet Home 3D instead of more professional software?

It is proposed to use Sweet Home 3D as it is very intuitive and is free (which is very important for the low budget of the schools). Students are not obliged to carry out 3D, but since we are proposing it, they are very enthusiastic. Clearly, to make it happen, they dedicate, with pleasure, a lot of time, both at school and at home. We know that it is very difficult to motivate students today, but 3D design succeeds in this. The students prefer Sweet Home 3D to Autocad, precisely because the vision of the 3D project is more appealing.

Car dealer

- Which Sweet Home 3D features are the easiest to use or the most appreciated?

The most appreciated feature is to upload an image of a plan and scale it, to be able to work on it. The easiness with which walls are drawn is another thing to appreciate. In my opinion we should add roofs, which are completely missing and, perhaps, create a special tool to generate them easily. Moreover, when it is necessary to create circular shapes, like bows, which is unfortunately missing in Sweet Home 3D.

Project of a building

- What Sweet Home 3D new features would you and your students be interested in?

It would be nice if one day we could also use the Extrude SketchUp type. Furthermore, if the texture libraries were expanded it would not be bad.

Institute project

- Do they also use other 3D models libraries?

The libraries of 3D object I use are those of Sweet Home 3D that can be downloaded directly from the site. When some items are missing, the students look for them on archive3d.net or I help them to create them with SketchUp.

An Italian farmhouse, also presented on YouTube

We hope you'll be happy, an update of furniture models should be published soon. Stay tuned!

Thank you very much, Gerardo, and congratulations for your work with these young Sweet Home 3D users. I am sure there are lucky to have you as a teacher. Have a good and resting summer holiday!



    Get Sweet Home 3D at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads
   
© Copyright 2006-2024 eTeks - All rights reserved