Task:

Download the most recent copy of Google SketchUp8, and try to build a simple 3D object. Choose something that is not entirely rectilinear, like a tetrahedron. A 3-sided pyramid, e.g. not a 4-sided (Egyptian) type, forms a tetrahedron. Keep a log of your salient experiences and reactions toward the interface challenge, i.e., things that worked, things that were confusing, things that were excessively difficult, etc. How easy to learn were the tools? Giving sufficient detail to understand the technical underlying issue, explain "Tool X or task Y was straightforward or natural because ...."

You might think of this as briefly reviewing SketchUp Interface relative to the task assumed.

Remarks:

This is intended to be a "light weight" assignment, one that exposes you to the task of creating a 3D geometric object with a 2D interface. The log of reactions will help you to prepare a more accurate summary of your experience. Try to record reactions as they occur rather than recreating the history from memory, so use any handy device to capture a realtime record. It may be convenient to jot down notes on a pad of paper, drop some succinct notes in a text editor, use voice recorder to dictate little nuggets and transcribe later, or convince someone to observe and take down notes for you as you comment aloud. Just select some comfortable, effective and reasonably convenient mode for this, but the final submittal should be (transcribed, perhaps) text.

Your work is NOT being evaluated according to how elaborate your final model is. A novice user will likely do something simple, a more advanced used should want to employ previously acquired skills to take on something a bit more challenging. It will be interesting for us to see whether any meaningful statistics (correlations) emerge between level of expertise and degree of acceptance/appreciation for the environment. I will have an eye out for any meaningful trends like that.

In short, treat this as a serious exercise, but not one designed to be onerous.

Submittal:

In a single .pdf file, roll up the following information:

1. Standard Assignment Info Block
2. an image of your designed object
3. accompanying commentary
4. your level of SketchUp experience (new, novice, modest experience, extensive experience, expert) and
5. list of tools/funcions used in the construction

and submit as SketchUp.YourFirstName.YourLastname.pdf . It is VERY important to name this file exactly according to this template, because the file will be retrieved based on this pattern. Departure from this naming template may cause the file to be missed in retrieval during grading, and thereby, engender negative consequences.

Submit assignment in a manner like this:

>handin

cs5540

assign_00

SketchUp.YourFirstName.YourLastname.pdf