anxiety management: using google sketchup for pre-instruction · 3dvinci and project spectrum asd...

3DVinci and Project Spectrum ASD and Pre-Instruction 1

Anxiety Management: Using Google SketchUp for Pre-InstructionSome ASD children and adults get very anxious in unfamiliar, stressful situations. The example used in this project is a visit to the dentist, but similar stress can occur with a introduction to a new classroom, new summer camp, haircut, outing to a store, etc. By creating and “walking through” a model of the situation ahead of time, an ASD individual can “rehearse” the event, therefore becoming more familiar with, and better prepared for, what he or she will encounter.

Scenario: An ASD individual has an upcoming dental visit, and is anxious about what he or she will experience (aren’t we all?).

Project Goal: Using a SketchUp model of the dental office, the person can “walk through” the office ahead of time, learning what will occur and preparing for interactions.

To get some basic knowledge of Google SketchUp, including how to download and install the software, set up your mouse, use the drawing tools, and navigate the view (zooming and orbiting), please read 3DVinci’s Getting Started Guide (PDF).

PC users: go to http://www.3dvinci.net/SketchUp_Intro_PC.pdf.Mac users: go to http://www.3dvinci.net/SketchUp_Intro_MAC.pdf.

Anxiety Management: Using Google SketchUp for Pre-Instruction


Walking Through the Model1. This dental office model can be found in the Google 3D Warehouse. Go to this URL:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse. In the search field, enter “dentist office tour.” The model shown below below is by me (Bonnie Roskes). To download it, click the “Download to Google SketchUp” link.

It is also possible to access the 3D Warehouse from within SketchUp, using either the Get Models tool or the Components window. If you use either of these methods, be sure not to load the dentist office model into another SketchUp model. This is because the dentist office model has scenes, and these will not be imported into another SketchUp model.

2. After the download is complete, open the model. You’re standing in front of a yellow brick wall, facing the open door to the dentist’s office.



3. Look at the top of the SketchUp window, and you’ll see 16 numbered tabs. These tabs access the various scenes in the model, which you can use to walk through the office. Scene 1 is where you are now, standing outside the office.

4. Click the tab for Scene 2. This takes you inside the office, standing inside the waiting room.

5. Here is Scene 3, facing the receptionist.



6. Click through the remaining scenes to see the rest of the office.

Each of these scenes provides an opportunity for discussion. Here’s a sample interaction:

• Scene 1: OK, we’re standing outside the office. But we know we’re in the right place, because the dentist’s name is on the door. Let’s go inside.

• Scene 2: Now we’re in the waiting room; if the dentist isn’t ready yet, we might have to wait for a few minutes.

• Scene 3: Wait, before we sit down, we need to let someone know we’re here. There’s someone at the desk - she’s the receptionist. That’s the person who asks you for your name, maybe gives us forms to fill out, and she’ll tell you if we can go right in, or if we have to wait. It looks like the dentist is still busy with someone else, so we should have a seat in the waiting room.

• Scene 4: This looks like a comfortable place to sit.

• Scene 5: But it might be boring to just sit here and wait. Waiting rooms always have magazines, let’s go pick something to read while we’re sitting. If you don’t like any of the magazines you see here, what magazines do you think the dentist should buy?

• Scene 6: The receptionist has called your name, and is saying that the dentist is ready to see you.

• Scene 7: Here’s the doorway to the examination room.

• Scene 8: Here’s the dentist. He seems to be looking at something, maybe it’s your tooth chart, or maybe it’s a set of X-rays.

• Scene 9: This is the dental chair. It looks a little like a bed, since you can almost lie down flat on it. This chair has a set of controls the dentist can use - the chair can sit up, lie down, and move up and down. Sort of like an amusement park ride, but a lot slower.

• Scene 10: Here’s where your head goes. The dentist will sit right next to your head, and use special lights to look at your teeth and gums.

• Scene 11: While you’re sitting in the chair, you’ll be looking up at the dentist. He’ll be using a few different tools, such as scrapers to get the gunk off your teeth, a little mirror to see the back of your teeth, and an electric toothbrush. You might even get to pick the toothpaste flavor. When you’re all done, you can pour water from a tap that’s built right into the dental chair, and after you drink the water you can spit into the little sink.

• Scene 12: Examination rooms always have a lot of cabinets. This is where the dentist keeps supplies like gloves, toothpaste, papers, X-rays, and tools. Sometimes you might see interesting things on the shelves, like pictures, clocks, or even giant toothbrushes.

• Scene 13: You’re all done, so get out of the chair and walk back toward the waiting room.

• Scene 14: There’s the door we used to come in. But wait - we can’t leave yet!

• Scene 15: We have to see the receptionist first, either to pay for the visit, or to schedule our next appointment with the dentist.

• Scene 16: OK, now we can go! That wasn’t so bad, was it?



How to Make Your Own “Rehearsal” ModelCreating a model likes this takes less SketchUp proficiency than you might think. You can get almost all of the furniture, appliances, accessories, etc., from Google’s 3D Warehouse. The main challenge is creating the room or rooms. You don’t need to know all of the exact dimensions of the space, but the room should be a reasonable size (spaces that are too large or too small don’t work well with models you import from the 3D Warehouse).

Here’s my model with all of the furniture hidden. (You can display and hide objects by placing them on different layers, and turning layers on and off.) I used thick walls, but for a simple model you could easily just use “flat,” 2D walls which take very little effort. Then erase the ceiling so you can see inside.

Here are some basic instructions for a simple room:

1. Start with either the Line or Rectangle tool.

2. If you use Line, trace around the outline of the floor, and when you complete a closed “loop” of lines, SketchUp will fill the empty space with a face. With the Rectangle tool, you click the two opposite corners and the face is filled in automatically. While you’re drawing with either tool, look at the field at the lower right corner. It will read Dimensions, Length, or something else depending on the tool you’re using. This field will tell you the size of whatever you’re drawing. If you want to use exact numbers, just type them (don’t click in the field, just type and the numbers will appear) and press Enter.



If you want to enter width and height for a rectangle, separate the two numbers with a comma. If you want to work in different units than what appears in the measurement field (i.e. inches instead of centimeters), choose Window / Model Info from the main menu and open the Units page.

3. Once you have your floor, use the Push/Pull tool to pull it up into a box. You can enter an exact height or estimate it by eye.

4. To remove the ceiling, right-click on the top face and choose Erase from the popup menu.

5. Painting walls, floors, etc. can be done in the Materials window (Colors window on the Mac). To open this window, click the Paint Bucket icon, and look through the various categories of materials (such as “Tile” shown below). To paint a wall or floor, just click the material you want to use, then click what you want to paint.



6. Now you need to fill the room with the appropriate stuff. All of the objects in the rooms are models I found in the 3D Warehouse. There are a few ways to access these models, but the easiest way is to use the Get Models tool.

7. I entered “dentist chair” in the search field and used the model shown below. If you click the “Download Model” link, you can import the model directly into the empty office.

There was no dentist in the Warehouse, so I searched for “doctor.” The one below is what I used; it’s a 2D, face-me model. This means that the doctor is basically a cardboard cutout, which is great because it’s a small, lightweight model that won’t slow down the overall office model. And whenever you orbit around, the doctor always faces you, so it gives the illusion of being 3D.



Once I imported this guy, I edited it (right-click on it and choose Edit Component) and changed what he was holding in his hand, and erased his stethoscope. This made him look more like a dentist.

Some models you find may be too large, too small, the wrong color, etc. Or you might bring in models that are facing the wrong way or need to be moved around. Details on how to work with 3D Warehouse models can be found in the Project Spectrum document “Project Spectrum: Toy Shop.” That project involves using communication and collaboration to fill an empty toy shop with merchandise, and shows all the various problems you might encounter with 3D Warehouse (and, of course, how to solve these problems!)

Taking the Tour of the ModelOnce you have a filled model, ready to walk through and discuss, there are two ways to create the tour. (At least there are two ways that I know of at the time of this writing; I imagine more possibilities will spring up in the upcoming months and years.)

One way is to create scenes within SketchUp, and the other involves a free, third-party product called “3DVia Scenes.”

SketchUp ScenesScenes are basically a way to save a view. This means that you can maneuver around to see what you want to see (otherwise known as placing the camera), then save the view so that you can get back to it later. For example, in my first scene in the Dentist Office Tour model, I faced the outside of the building, just outside the door, and saved the scene.

Scenes can be created, deleted, edited, or moved using the Scenes window, which you can open by choosing Window / Scenes from the main menu.

To save a scene, click the + icon at the top left corner of the Scenes window. A new scene is given a default name, but you can erase that name and assign your own name. If you want to change the order of scenes, use the up and down arrows at the top right corner. If you want to update a scene, make sure that scene is what you’re looking at, make the change, and click the update icon (the double-curved arrow at the top left corner).

There are seven properties of scenes that can be saved (camera location, hidden geometry, etc.) By default, all of these are checked, and you should leave them that way. Omitting certain properties enables you to do much more with scenes, such as changing the display characteristics, showing shadows, etc., but for the simple walk-through demonstrated in this project, just leave all scene properties checked.



If you’re feeling ambitious, a great way to simulate actually walking through a model is by using the Walkthrough tools (Position Camera, Look Around, and Walk):

You can find these tools at the bottom of the Large Tool Set toolbar, displayed by choosing View / Toolbars / Large Tool Set (PC) or View / Tool Palettes / Large Tool Set (Mac). These tools take a little practice, be sure to read about them in the SketchUp online help (press F1). Once you get the hang of these tools, you can easily walk, run, move, or look around at exactly what you want to see, then save a scene at each “landmark.”

3DVia Scenes3DVia provides several tools for model design and visualization, one of which is a free product called 3DVia scenes. To get started, go to www.3dvia.com and set up a free account.

Here are the steps you’ll need to get your model into a scene:

1. Once your SketchUp model is complete, choose File / Export / 3D Model. Save it in the KMZ or DAE format.

3DVia also has a modeling application, similar to SketchUp but not quite as robust (at least not yet). These models, of course, can also be used in 3DVia scenes.

2. Go to the 3DVia website and sign in (top right corner), if you’re not already signed in.

3. Pass your cursor over the You heading at the top of the window, then choose Upload.



4. Find your KMZ or DAE file and upload it. It will then be listed under My 3D Models, which you can open under the You heading.

5. Then you’ll need an avatar (a simulation of yourself), which you can choose or create here:

6. Then choose Create a Scene.



7. Pick a type of scene (grassy field, desert, room, store, etc.)

8. Give your scene and name and description, and set it to public or private. When ready, enter your scene by clicking the Play button.

Your scene will open with just you (your avatar) and the scene template (field, room, etc.)

9. Below your scene, you can search for models to add to the scene. Check My models, and click the model you want to add.



10. Then click in the scene to add the model. It will be the wrong size, but the little drag handles and arrows can be used to change the size.

11. Drag the corners of the model to make it larger or smaller, click the curvy arrows on the bottom to spin it around, and use the double-cross straight arrows at the bottom to move it along the ground. When the model is the right size, and in the right place, click outside the model to place it. (You can always change the model’s size and orientation later, by double-clicking on it.)

12. Now’s the time for playing: use the arrow keys to walk forward, left, right, or backward. Drag the mouse to simulate moving your head left / right / up / down, and use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out. If you switch to first-person navigation, you’ll be looking out from your avatar (the avatar won’t be visible). Third-person navigation enables you to see the avatar from behind.



Adding Some HumorIf during your “rehearsal” you can include some funny bits, an ASD individual may become more relaxed and less anxious. And during the actual event, thinking back to the funny aspects of the rehearsal can make the situation more bearable (and maybe even enjoyable).

Instead of walking into a dentist office and seeing a receptionist, it would be pretty funny if Spiderman were standing there instead. Here’s a 2D Spiderman model I found in the 3D Warehouse:

Since this will replace the receptionist, we need to save it. Click the “Download” link, and open the model in a separate SketchUp file. (If you find this model using the Get Models tool, do NOT import this model into a SketchUp file; click No which saves the model in its own file.) If the model opens directly in SketchUp, use File / Save to save it to your computer.

Back in the dentist office model, right-click on the receptionist and choose Reload.



Browse to the Spiderman model, and the switch is made. (The replacement model may be too large, too small, located in the wrong place etc. But these problems are easy to fix.)

And here I’ve replaced the dentist with Homer Simpson:

Here are some other things you could try with this model to add some levity:

• Replace the dentist chair with a sliding board

• Replace some of the objects in the dentist’s cabinets with toys, musical instruments

• Add giant bugs all around the rooms (look for normal bug models and use the Scale tool (Tools / Scale) to make them larger. Or you could try robots, monsters, or animals.

• Add a toilet on top of the dental chair

• Change the materials on the walls and floors: try translucent glass, carpet (on the walls), grass, etc.

If you try this project, and have a fantastic model you’d like to share, please let me know! I will be happy to blog about it, and/or feature it in an upcoming newsletter. Contact [email protected].



Want to Learn More?

If you want more ideas for SketchUp projects, 3DVinci has many resources for students and teachers.

Our ModelMetricks series (http://www.3dvinci.net/ccp0-catshow/Kids.html) builds 3D design skills by way of fun and interesting projects. In particular, the book Where in the World? explains everything you need to know about using SketchUp with the 3D Warehouse. (This book contains the project with the giant flies!)

Our GeomeTricks series (http://www.3dvinci.net/ccp0-catshow/GM.html) teaches important 2D and 3D geometric concepts, and prove that math can be fun!

And if you want to receive a steady stream of fun projects, check out our SketchUp Projects of the Month subscription! (http://www.3dvinci.net/ccp0-prodshow/POM.html)

anxiety management: using google sketchup for pre-instruction · 3dvinci and project spectrum asd...

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