Herode Atticus' Odeon: how to build an amphitheater (#1)
Company's christmas dinner party last night. Even if I came home early (2am), i woke up at 8am and couldn't shut my eyes anymore. So... time to try another challenge on SketchUp :) This time, I throw the gauntlet to Herode Atticus' Odeon, the famous amphitheater stuck on one side of the Acropolis.
[This photo is from my blog]
The interesting thing with SketchUp is that there is not one way to do things, but a thousand different ways. However, the rule of the game is to find the most efficient way to achieve your goal. I mean, it makes no sense to design individually every little piece, when you can copy them, paste them, change the axis, etc...
So, in my case, I decided to start not with the whole theater but with the most different part (in my eye). And to divide the half-circle into a quarter of a circle. Later on, in another episode, I will duplicate it, change its axis, and stuck it to its twin and I'll have my full amphitheater.
As you can see I was not satisfied with my first sketch, so i abandoned it and drew a square and started again. Then, wondering how to obtain something geometrically correct, without having to measure every tiny angle, I figured out that I could hollow out my cube starting with an exchequer drawing. I assumed that it would make things easier
And it did make some things easier. However, not everything. I want to be as realistic as possible so I added another complexity by adding the little aisles between the rows of the theater. That means that when it's time to hollow out the structure, that took quite some work.
Almost there...
Now!
Now I have my quarter of amphitheater! And let's add some polish with the little staircase at the foot of every aisle.
Took me more time than expected and more work. So, I'll leave it there for now and will catch up tomorrow. Hopefully, my amphitheater will be full and i will be able to start working on the "proscenium".
Estimated time of work so far: 2.5hours.
TO BE CONTINUED...