Sketchup

[Anonymous]

I went through my first few tutorials in Sketchup yesterday and ended up staying up till 3am! This morning I feel very restricted in AC, and it's not due to sleep deprivation. Sketchup is like a dream! Once you use it you will demand improvements in the AC 3d Window. And I don't accept the because-it-is-CAD-it-cannot-work-like-that excuse because once draws with excellent accuracy in SU. A good plugin with SU will boost any CAD programs sales.

I'll be suprised if @Last remains independent for long not only because of their brilliance but because they could easily be a threat. Imagine them adding a few "CAD" tools and library parts. There are hoards of users out there that would embrace 3d without the building information if it works as well as SU.

SU is EPIC!

[Dwight]

I was at the SketchUp booth at SIGGRAPH in San Diego when a guy came up and shouted:

"You've turned Architecture into a VIDEO GAME!!"

They just smiled.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Rashid,

SketchUp is indeed fun and fluid. Various people here were early adopters, including Dwight. After several trial periods, I finally bought a copy this year.

Not only is the software intuitive and fun to use, the video tutorials provide an excellent jump start (hit the pause button and follow along) and the company has an upbeat/fun attitude, excellent communication with the customers and a very active forum.

You'll find all kinds of uses for SU beyond preliminary design. For example, anything you build in SU can be brought into AC as a GDL object, complete with all applied textures if you export as 3DS and import using the 3DS import add-on in the AC 9 goodies folder (it will show up in the Extras menu). You can take pieces of your AC model into SU, precisely model embellishments, and take that new geometry back into AC (as an object).

SU as a CAD program? Not likely IMHO. You can be precise, as you note, but it is a surface modeler. Modeling masses and creating construction documents is a whole 'nother thing. You can try in SU ... but it is terribly tedious and painful compared to ArchiCAD. Oddly, there are people in the SU forum who use SU to do intricately detailed models ... which IMHO is insanity. Further, SU slows down terribly as the geometry load increases. Turn on shadows, and forget about it. For fast, fluid design without a lot of cuvy surfaces, it is without competition. Curvy surfaces are approximated with triangulated meshes ... but if they are frequent and essential elements and must be geometrically smooth (as opposed to visually smooth), then FormZ/etc might be a better choice ($$).

Have fun!

Karl

PS After the video tutorials, and beyond the manual, Bonnie Roskes now has a SketchUp 5 book available - in PDF form or printed.

[Anonymous]

Fine points Karl,

Yes, in it's current form, it cannot come close to AC, but with e few more CAD tools it could be...... wait.. Archicad with a great 3d window/controls!!.. you know where this is going....

[Anonymous]

Is SketchUp a link for a flatlander (2D designer) to get used to 3D design & be productive if the concept sketches are fobbed off to AC? I'm looking for an easy-to-use but AC exportable option to assist a fellow who currently exports .DXFs in 2D (He uses only 2D tools in SoftPlan. If fact, the whole design dept of that company does so!)

I import the plan lines & circles & labels into stories to use as ghosts.
Elevations are imported on one layer so I can toggle them on & off.

This allows me to accurately duplicate his work in 3D but it isn't helping them join the 21st century!

Is SketchUp a tool for non-designer sales people to get some initial ideas across to clients & communication to the design dept?

[Dwight]

SketchUp COULD help your guy, but:

flatlanders wont like SketchUp initially - it is too plastic and flexible - you really do 3D models from the get-go.

As for sales people, SketchUp doesn't have enough pre-sets to make walls and other forms like ArchiCAD does - you should be a designer to use SketchUp.

There's no risk to try SketchUp for eight hours: their demo is fully functional. It will hook them or it won't, but an evening spent with the excellent video tutorials and Bonnie's new book will answer the question.

[stefan]

SketchUp is a great application.

Their hand-on tutorials are very nice: you open an example file, which has all instructions right in front of you! You are actually learning and modelling in the same window. Excellent use of their own tools. Brilliant.

As for SketchUp becoming a CAD/BIM application? No way. It's not usable for technical drawings (hatches, elaborate text and dimensions, large amounts of data...).

But you can turn a SketchUp model into an ArchiCAD object or try the plugins for ArchiCAD and also for Architectural Desktop (yes, that's AutoCAD).

But it crawls on large files, has limited use for 2D (where the automatic surface filling and healing starts to come in your way) and is not too practical for modelling the inner side of things: you need to be a section-wizard to reach all points. And it's not usable for organic modelling (as in "subdivision surfaces").
Sure, there are nice cars and other full 3D-models, but that are imported models, slightly cleaned up to look good in SketchUp.

The price is right (well, I have a free education version), it's cross-platform (although I miss the real docking windows from r4) and the features are good, yet the program stays very friendly and not overly crowded.

The communities are nice, the firm keeps a very friendly approach.

Must I repeat that I love SketchUp?

[Eduardo Rolon]

stefan wrote:
SketchUp is a great application.

... And it's not usable for organic modelling (as in "subdivision surfaces").
Sure, there are nice cars and other full 3D-models, but that are imported models, slightly cleaned up to look good in SketchUp...

Must I repeat that I love SketchUp?

S. you forgot the new "SandBox" tool introduced in SU 5 to handle organic modeling including sites. It is a little bit wonky but it follows the ease of use of the other tools.

[stefan]

ejrolon wrote:

stefan wrote:
SketchUp is a great application.

... And it's not usable for organic modelling (as in "subdivision surfaces").
Sure, there are nice cars and other full 3D-models, but that are imported models, slightly cleaned up to look good in SketchUp...

Must I repeat that I love SketchUp?

S. you forgot the new "SandBox" tool introduced in SU 5 to handle organic modeling including sites. It is a little bit wonky but it follows the ease of use of the other tools.

I still have to try Sandbox... I'm preparing a SketchUp tutorial for our classroom.
But AFAIK, the sandbox tools do not allow for full modelling, only to generate a surface that connects curves and to interactively deform them.

Actually, having support for SubD surfaces would not really interrupt with the regular SketchUp tools, e.g. if it was provided as an "option" for a component or group.

But most 3D cars you see in SketchUp started life in other applications, such as Lightwave, 3ds max or Maya.

[Dwight]

Because the demo is active and the tutorials so easy, all ArchiCAD users should investigate SketchUp - it is a time-effective way to develop preliminary designs.