I would advise any one looking into building a Tiny House (especially if you're considering SIP construction) to have a solid working knowledge of Google SketchUp first. If this incredibly powerful tool isn't in your arsenal, then you should learn it, or find someone who can help you get a 3D model of your tiny house before you build.
For us, because time is a factor and I didn't have time/energy to become fluent in a new software and still be able to get the rest of the Tiny House research done (and all the medical/legal clearance paperwork from the Peace Corps that Sam and I have been inundated with of late), we chose the latter of these options. We were really fortunate to find Joe Coover, who is working on a website to facilitate the sale of Tiny House SIP Kits. One of the biggest barriers we faced getting a SIP Tiny House was that I had no idea how to create a 3D rendering of the Tiny House and how to get that information into a format that would work for the SIP manufacturer. Joe knows the SIP guys, has ordered Tiny Houses from them in the past (including his own), and is a wiz with SketchUp. After exchanging emails with me about the details of our Tiny House, he created the beautiful SketchUp rendition of our tiny house you see above. Without this help, Sam and I never would have been able to order SIPs.
If you're dead set on doing every last piece of the puzzle yourself but don't know how to use SketchUp, Google offers some good video tutorials, and there are many other tutorials available on the web, both free and paid. Another good resource to look for is local Meetups at which SketchUp will be taught- I know that the Greater Boston Tiny House Enthusiasts Meetup Group has had several such sessions in the past, which I believe were well attended.
Whatever way you decide to go, make sure to take advantage of the incredible planning tool that is Google SketchUp. You'll have a better Tiny House for it in the end.
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