SketchUp

Design Tools: What tools are used?

One subject that themedattraction.com has not addressed yet is the question of design tools: That is, what tools are used by designers to create theme park attractions?

Sketchup is a great new tool for theme park designers. It allows a designer to quickly take a two dimensional AutoCad drawing and elevate it, quickly turning it into a three dimensional object. As a theme park consultants, we frequently create new attractions from scratch using their easy-to-use interface. The drawings are simple to both import and export to and from Autocad, making it a truly wonderful tool in a designers’ toolkit.

Sketchup will never completely replace the 3-D mass model as a tool for designing a space, but the ability to ‘fly-through a space as well as the easy of editing of buildings and other objects make this tool quite invaluable.

One particular theme park designer recently was able to elevate and create an existing theme park in 3-D. In a little less than a week, he had an entire theme park model. All of this was made possible with Sketchup, a single AutoCad site plan, and a set of elevations. More and more theme park attractions are being designed conceptually from an archictectural standpoint.

Says one theme park designer, “We were tasked with elevating an entire area of a theme park for a new show. So along with a set of elevations, we elevated an entire theme park in about a week. Sketchup is an easy program to learn, and a valuable tool for the future.”

One thing is clear: While SketchUp is a very new tool, The future is bright for this program. You can purchase sketchup online at www.sketchup.com. Helpful online tutorials will allow you to learn quickly.