Construction & Working Drawings - Discussion

[sintra]

@gjenio said:

@baseline said:

Keep your eyes peeled to this discussion - I'm working right now on a paired SketchUp / Layout template (whenever I get a spare minute) that I plan to post. This would have sections, styles, layers, etc all set up beforehand - simply build your model on the template and CDs would be easy to export.

As for dimensions, I put my dimensions on a separate layer within my SU model and then link them in layout as an overlay.

Template should be up by appx. May 1.

kyle

I´m waiting too for this promising template!
Any news?

Sounds good this really looking forward to seeing it and giving it a go

[troyhome]

can't wait to see this template!

[Bert]

@arail1 said:

Bert - I make stairs and I would consider your drawings to be as much information as anyone would need to build accurately. In fact more often than not we're working with much less information. A question - which was more satisfying to you - modeling the object in the computer or actually building it?
.

arail1 sorry for beeing away so long

In fact, before I got acquainted with Sketchup, all my furnitures drawings were only pencil sketchs with all the unexpected errors!!
Now that I am getting used to Sketchup I realy appreciate creating the furnitures on screen and building them after. And as you probably have seen, Layout allows me to have a very decent document to take to the shop. I wish that there was more tutorials on how to make good print presentation for furniture. Beeing close to the seventies, it is no easy for me to master new techniques

[redinhawaii]

Bert,
I think you are right.
There needs to be more discussion about how to get the 3d models into working drawings within the SU/LO platform.
I know that is possible, and know that there are some folks out there doing various parts of "construction documents".
But the "work flow model" has yet to be discussed.
Specifically how go from creating to documenting utilizing layers, outliner, scenes, styles and text (how and where to put it in a model so that it translates into LO documents easily)
If anyone has any experience and or insights on this I welcome your feedback.
aloha
red

[Dave R]

I've been doing a fair number of furniture lately using SU and LO. I'm starting to get to grips with LO although I'm also finding some things I'd like to see made better. One of those is text handling (esp. tables) and rendering speed. Still, LO beats alternatives where one would export images from SU and put those images into the document. Very frequently changes are being made to the SU model up to near the end. It's valuable to have those changes get transferred to the plan document.

As an example, here are some thumbnails of a recent one. It's pretty simple as they go.

The last page contains a cutlist and BOM which were generated directly from the SketchUp model.

[DavidBoulder]

Dave, that looks really nice. Any chance of posting it as a higher res PDF. Would be interested to know the workflow for the table. I haven't done anything with tables yet, and pulling data from SketchUp.

[Dave R]

Thank you David,

I shouldn't post higher res images due to copyright restrictions. I don't hold the copyright on it.

The workflow basically consists of drawing the complete model, making a number of scenes showing the various parts, adding some dimensions where needed and then sending it off to Layout. The callouts are all added in Layout. Body text is imported from a saved RTF file. The table on the last sheet was created from a cutlist exported out of SketchUp. I massaged the table in Excel, copied it to Word and converted from table to text and then copied it to Layout. sounds bad but it goes very quickly.

[redinhawaii]

Is this concept DEAD?

I really can see the value of designing, modeling and illustrating how things are to be built in 3d rather than 2d.

I see the value in creating "live, linked" models that can be viewed, modified, "taken apart" and rendered via SketchUp / LayOut / Google Earth.
And I see a lot of "missing links" to tie these concept to real world needs like working drawings, drawing documentation, building permit plans, details, door and window schedules, etc.

I see the value in a "semi-open source" software app, like SU, where there are lots of independent developers working on unique, specific supportive plugins/applications that make the software, much more vibrant, and adaptive and alive.
Initially I felt that SU could be / do that. Maybe now is just too early in the software application / development / intention.

I tried to do working drawings, construction docs in SU/LO, lots of hours and ended up with a lot of frustrations and the realization that maybe I was trying to do something the hard way. Maybe I have a zebra at a horse race.

I also don't see Google interested in supporting this concept/potential for SU/LO. In my searching I find only a few people actually doing working drawings/construction docs, and those that are doing them are only doing small scale projects, i.e. kitchen bath remodel in SU/LO.
I am on a Mac, but it seems, that those I have talked to are doing what I need much more efficiently on software like Chief Architect.

any insights or perspectives would be most appreciated.

aloha
red

[troyhome]

I would like to see more support for working drawings in LO. I am on a Mac, running XP in Bootcamp. I am about to begin a small renovation project and plan on using SU and LO exclusively. I will try and post my progress and maybe get some help/feedback that could be useful to others trying the same thing.

[Dave R]

I don't think this concept is dead, Red.

I'm still make construction and working drawings in Layout. I just finished one this morning in fact as well as another one yesterday. Here are some image exports from this morning's project. I realize this isn't the same as con docs for buildings.

And I made full size patterns for cutting out the hard parts.

[fionmacool]

Hello, Sorry I didn't check out this conversation earlier.

I am a SketchUp fanatic, architect and registered Google SketchUp Trainer.

I don't use CAD, but I use SketchUp to do all of my construction drawings. So far, I have carried out a commercial project worth roughly $1m, and a complicated house construction cost €0.5m without using CAD or any other type of software.

Please check out this link to a video showing some of the work I have done http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jw-q409XZc

Here is a link to some further images showing my working drawings along with random photos of the built projects: http://picasaweb.google.com/sketchupireland/ViewsionAspireArchitecturePortfolioDrawings02?feat=directlink

We have a Google SketchUp ATC company called viewsion: http://www.viewsion.ie, and we have the world's first advanced training program for SketchUp users that shows how to create the type of drawings illustrated above. (I hope you don't mind the plug. It's the only one I'll submit here.)

Please let us know what you think. We would love to get to the bottom of this debate about SketchUp because we think it is the ultimate future for this amazing software.

[tim]

I've also used SUPro & LO to prepare drawings for several projects including furniture, engineering parts and even my new house. I'm sure there are parts of the work that more expensive software can do better (sections and detail views come to mind) but having looked a few other packages I really can't say I like the UIs.

It would be nice if SU did the equivalent of the 'Add Section-Cut Face' plugin automatically as cuts happened. It would be nice to be able to set a suitable pattern for the cut-face to show the materials. I guess it would be nice if SU actually behaved as a solid modeller when you have a solid item.

It would be nice if LO could do the dimensioning and if the labels and texts in LO could attach to locations in the SU model so that altering the view didn't mess up the placement of said labels and texts.

But despite the above I managed to produce a precisely drawn model of a house, make dimensioned views of it, provide a variety of sectional views, several detail sub-views, annotate it all, put it together and build myself a pretty comprehensive set of plans. I'd provide a copy for perusal if I could find a way to persuade this damn forum to accept my file....

[chrisglasier]

@unknownuser said:

How to generate a complete set of graphical information needed for building from a Sketchup model

Not the only way of course but have any of you (apart from Red who I know has) considered what is put forward in this topic?

I would be very interested in your views.

My regards

Chris

[Gaieus]

@tim said:

I'd provide a copy for perusal if I could find a way to persuade this damn forum to accept my file...

What's the problem with the forum and the file? (**.layout* IS an allowed file format)

[tim]

Ashling Rd Layout.pdf
@gaieus said:

@tim said:

I'd provide a copy for perusal if I could find a way to persuade this damn forum to accept my file...

What's the problem with the forum and the file? (**.layout* IS an allowed file format)

I simply can't get the file (a pdf in this case) to upload. I can choose the file, I press the 'add the file' button and..... wait....wait.....wait.....wait.... give up after an hour or so. Of course, if I try now it will work immediately, so here goes -Ashling Rd Layout.pdf
Yup. Of course.

[chrisglasier]

@tim said:

if I try now it will work immediately, so here goes

Such is life! But now we can see the file, I would find it useful to know what difference Layout makes to what I see as a pretty straightforward set of SU views (title blocks aside)?

Thanks

Chris

[troyhome]

Tim,
These could not have been easy to make. What would you do differently next time? what gave you the most challenge?

[tim]

What difference does LO make ?

Well, it allows the detail views to be shown without having to see the whole model - see pages 9 & 10 for example.
It allows for annotations about details and labeling of parts of the views.
It allows for fitting several related views together on a page ready for printing. Can't do that from SU directly.
It produces a nicely organised PDF file I can share with my contractors or have printed full-size.
It allows generally understood markup for detail views - see page 9 upper right view where two details are called out and referred on the same page.

By and large most people wouldn't appreciate getting an SU file and the instruction 'open this and build a house from it'. This may change in the future but right now it is a treat to find contractors that even use email.

What would I do differently? Be more organised about layers and components from the start; I did fairly well and didn't have to mess around too much but I'm sure I could do better.

[chrisglasier]

Thanks Tim very useful. And I noted your points.

Chris

[Gaieus]

I made a "feature request" a while ago to enable creating and embedding 3D PDF version of the model (or its selected parts) into the PDF document. Imagine that you have these nice, detailed/labelled pages in LO that are practically "just" printable, 2D data but on certain pages you even allow a client to see the model in 3D and allow him/her to orbit/pan around.

This is possible with LO when you are using the presentation view but once you export into PDF, it "freezes" to that certain view and you cannot move around any more.

Another useful feature would be to allow LO users to embed flash videos (now also possible with PDF 9). This could go both into presentation as well as PDF export.

Of course, both features would be "lost" when you print the file on paper but as long as you are watching it on your computer, they would remain interactive.