Instant Roof Tutorials

Extension Name

Instant Roof NUI

Extension Developer

Vali Architects

Extension Cost

$39/Year or $118 for Entire Vali Suite

Where to get it
Instant Roof Download Link – https://valiarchitects.com/sketchup_scripts

Extension Description – Instant Roof NUI

Instant Roof NUI is a SketchUp extension from Vali Architects designed to help you create quick, detailed roofs in SketchUp. It contains options for many different styles, pitches, materials, framing types, and details.

Instant Roof NUI for SketchUp Tutorials

Instant Roof NUI for SketchUp Function Description

Like most of Vali Architects extensions, this is a fantastic extension for creating roofs in your SketchUp models. It definitely separates itself from other roof extensions with the sheer number of roof options available to you.

Creating Roofs

The way it works is fairly simple – just select the face that you’d like to create your roof from, select a roof type, and then click “Make Roof.” This will generate your roof inside your model.
One thing to note is that you can change the way that this extension creates roofs by selecting certain edges. For example, if you wanted to create a shed type roof on the side of a building, you’d select the face of the roof, along with the edge line to create a single sloping roof.
Note that when you create your roof, you’ll get a dialogue box showing you quantities – you can turn this on or off, and can still access the quantities by clicking the takeoff log button.

Materials

You can set the materials that get applied to your roof within the roof creation – note that materials to apply to your roofs have to be actively inside your model, so I recommend creating a little material swatch.
There are several great materials you can download from the Vali Architects website that work really well for this extension.
https://www.valiarchitects.com/misc_downloads
There are a number of options you can use to customize your roof that you can access by clicking the parameters button. This allows you to adjust just about everything about your roof, including eaves, hips, mansards, rafters, and much much more.

Dutch Gables

There’s an option for adding Dutch Gables to your roofs that is ridiculously easy to use – simply select a face and activate the dutch gable tool.

Dormers

Adding dormers is also really really easy – just draw a rectangle on your roof with two horizontal lines – Instant roof will automatically add the dormer in for you.

Roof Details

The roof details option is also amazing – it will actually go in and add thickness and detail to your roofing material, from shingles to standing seam metal. This will be a huge deal for me when creating roofs that are actually renderable – they look significantly more realistic.

CAD Fixer Tool and Style Manager

The CAD fixer tool is designed to help you fix input errors from imported CAD data, and the style manager allows you to import/export different styles.