One of the thing that I could never get use to in version 6 was the three dimension presentation. Each time I used it my edges were in different plans.
With version 7 this seems to be corrected and you can make some pretty good old fashion 2d drawings.
Yes. Use the tape measure tool to measure known distance. Immediately type the value it should be. Voila.
I look at Sketch up as more of a "Kit", modify to your likes and needs programs. For me, it does 99.9% of what AutoCAD LT did in the last 12 years and adds the ability to assemble and disassemble a project in 3D perspective.
...I would say just the word "dude!"...hey, maybe that *is* good enough. I'll give you guys an update in a couple of months...LOL...
cg
>"Leon" wrote
Damn, I never thought I'd see you switch from AutoCAD LT to anything else!
Just reaffirms my long held contention that SU is an excellent, cost effective, woodworker's tool providing you're not so closed minded as to let preconceived notions/bias get in the way.
Then again, the first three times I downloaded SU, then wiped it, I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be using it, and it alone, to build a $300K budget house. That house is now well on it's way and the foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC were all bid from, and will be built, based solely on SU 2D and 3D drawings.
I did the install and remove a few time my self. IMHO the program was a bit too cartoonist in the earlier versions. Version 6 was the one that seriously kept my interest and Version 7 seems to have addressed several behind the scenes problems. Yeah, I think AutoCAD LT has out grown its usefulness, price wise, for me. While the CAD programs do indeed have more tool commands and icons I feel the Sketchup has pretty much simplified those commands into a far smaller group that pretty much accomplish the same thing 99% of the time. I would like to see a few more dimension commands and or options to tweak the a bit more.
Oh, for f*ck sakes. Just because people are putting the obvious SU limitations out there for all to see, does not make them closed minded. You have made it clear that it works for you. Great. But I have a company to run, in which SU has no place due to its limitations. I also know you weren't referring specifically to me personally as you fully realize my mind is wide open and always eager to find newer, better software solutions... especially when low cost/free. But to suggest that one can build a 300K house with SU is misleading as you fail to include the fact that YOUR ability to do so includes your vast and well-developed skill-set. Your skill-set can build that house without SU, IOW, what you got there is a sharper, better pencil. Period.
Never miss an opportunity to slobber in the public trough, eh Bubba?
It's a crying damn shame that no one here can't discuss something they find useful without your constant, denigrating snide, input on the subject.
Kiss my ass ...
You DARE to call other people closed-minded.
You don't like to get called on your bullshit much, eh? :-)
r
You make sharper, better pencils sound like a bad thing. That's all anybody is ever looking for - a better, sharper pencil (tool/thing/ whatever). I don't expect the pencil to be my only tool, and neither would I expect any one program to get things done.
Someone could use almost any program to build a house. I could design a house and do the design drawings in Photoshop.
SketchUp can be made to sit, stay and speak if someone wants to invest the time. From the stuff you've posted it seems that you have found something that works for you. We should all be so lucky.
R
I certainly don't mean to imply that it is a bad thing and I don't think I did.
Exactly, to say that you can use SU to build a house does therefore not validate the software but the builder, who can use anything if he knows how to build a house in the first place. I have 20 years and thousands upon thousands of dollars invested in my software, yet I cannot design, much less build a boat. The software is very capable as a tool to a boat builder, but *I* cannot design/build a boat. Owning software with capability means dick. If my problems are such that my selection of software DOES solve them, then I am a happy camper. And I am.
SU is inadequate for my needs. That doesn't make me a bad person
*plinks away a tear*Luck didn't have much to do with it. Tenacity, hard work and some college courses in how to interface with the rest of the planet in terms of drawing/blueprint standards. On paper and in digital formats. I got into a proper discipline and stayed with it. Then when software that I could afford and could handle Non Uniform Rational Basis Splines came on the scene I was feeling pretty damn lucky then. Bolted onto a real rendering engine, again, the format exchange was crucial... and now the CNC is on line, even more so.
So yes, one can build a house with SU, but will it be a better house?
Exactly, to say that you can use SU to build a house does therefore not validate the software but the builder, who can use anything if he knows how to build a house in the first place. I have 20 years and thousands upon thousands of dollars invested in my software, yet I cannot design, much less build a boat. The software is very capable as a tool to a boat builder, but *I* cannot design/build a boat. Owning software with capability means dick. If my problems are such that my selection of software DOES solve them, then I am a happy camper. And I am.
You may be in luck with that boat, There are hundreds of design drawings of boats/ships for Sketchup. :~)
Snip
So yes, one can build a house with SU, but will it be a better house?
Not necessirilly better or worse as the same goes for AutoCAD or the like software. The more in tune with the software you are the better the results of the plans.
I think the point to designing suitable plans for building a house using Sketchup is simply that Sketchup is quite capable of fulfilling this need. More expensive programs that will do the same are simply more expensive programs that do the same.
When it comes to house-building, you're right.
Ultimately, it's you not the pencil that creates the design, but the better pencil has to fit into that cycle somewhere. If it help shorten or hone each creative iteration more finely, it's a better pencil.
Ironically, I find SU best for the other end of the work. Start with a blank "sheet", slap in the topography from Google Earth, and have at it. Or start with the bare, empty room, and block in the new cabinet. It isn't until you get down to detailing out your ideas that you run into its, ummm, limitations.
Depends on which other program, of course. With some, you do get something for the extra money. But none are as friendly as SU for the quick blocking in and massing studies. We'll just have to agree to disagree on its usefulness on its suitability for detailing.
Right now I'm trying to get the site plan drawing, prepared by the engineer to agree with Google Earth in Sketchup. The engineer has the North arrow off by almost ten degrees (ummm, hey buddy, we're going solar with this thing!), the buildings are in the right locations but the edge of the lake is off by a fair bit, and that affects setbacks, lot area and all sorts of other stuff.
It's amazing to so easily compare and correct such specific information. Before Google bought Sketchup it was just a dream. Now it's almost free.
R
Magnetic declination? ... I just had the same issue when orienting the slab on a current residential project, which was ostensibly oriented specifically for solar heat/hot water. The designer, who drew up the original "plans" (in SketchUp, BTW), was not familiar with the difference between true and magnetic North ... among a myriad of other things.
Amazing, the cavernous gap in education of some of these so called "professionals" of today.
I grew up in Chicago. It wasn't until primary flight training in Seattle that I came to understand the difference can become rather significant and of more than academic interest.
"MikeWhy" wrote
Know the feeling ... in my case, calling in artillery fire, in earnest, was indeed of more than academic interest. :)
"Swingman" wrote
That is a profound level of ignorance. Heck, I had that nailed at the age of 11 in boy scouts. I used to reconointer with map and compass competitively at 13. I must be an old fart. This sort of thing has been replaced by GPS tecnology.
An aside to the above. I used to take all kinds of wilderness surivival courses as a teenager and used to build woodcraft types of shelters at fairs, etc. I also designed elite first aid kits and survival gear. So I know something about this sort of thing. When asked as to the most important peice of survival gear I would pack if I was to get very far off the beaten track, I always answer, "A satellite phone."
From here it looks more like when you do find the time, Swingman makes you look rather unfamiliar with SU's capabilities.
Not sure what you use all that fancy CAD software for that SU can't do, but it must be pretty technical? Don't you build counter tops?
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