Sketchup and Spirit for architectural working drawings
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Anyone looked into this combo?
Reputed to be very good.
any feedback?
aloha
red -
I'm curious to give a look to this combo, but could you please provide a link for the Spirit application: i don't know it and my attempts to find it through google weren't succesful - I tried a bunch of many strings like "spirit application", "spirit 3d" or "spirit renderer", "spirit architectural", but these are too vague. I found a lot of spiritual and philosophical web pages, but the program you mentioned.
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http://www.procadsys.co.nz/spirit-and-sketchup/ is probably of interest, as well.
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Yes, the NZ reseller has the software and...
here is the link,
http://www.softtech.com/
to the home site.
The software does NOT run on a Mac, to bad.
But the software is geared for residential / light commercial work, so supposedly an easy learning curve.
And supposed to work with SU very well.
I welcome insights, feedback, perspectives, I need / want a 2d drafting program that complements the SU 3d modeling.
I get 80-90% of the way to working drawings within SU/LO but fail miserably in the last stretch...so I am desperately looking for the "bridge" software that will get me the WD/CD set that I need.
Any insights most appreciated
aloha
red -
About a year ago, after many emails to procadsys, I finally got a 15 day, save crippled demo of Spirit. There wasn't much documentation with the demo and the gui is very unusual for a cad program so I didn't manage to do a lot with it.There was obviously some impressive functions in there but 15 days wasn't long enough to make a fair evaluation.
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Thank you for the link. I gave a look to Spirit.
My personal opinion, really woth 2 cents, is that Spirit is a program like Archicad, with some different features.
It looks that you have a lot to learn, before you can achieve some good results. It's not a simple extension of Sketchup. It's your choose if it is good for your work to invest some time on it.
I've learned Archicad, just to discover that it is not good for me: although some functions are reallt pretty, and the wall drawing system is gorgeous, it doesn't let me be free to draw what I want. You can draw almost everything with it, but you have to use many workarounds and be ready to spend a lot of time.
That's why you can recognize easily the projects drawn with Archicad: the program influences somehow your way of drawing, because if you want a smooth workflow, you have to stay on its path.The some priciple is true for every program, Sktechup too: you have only to decide which one suits better your needs.
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Yes, I agree, the program can influence the way you design.
That is why SketchUp is so interesting to me, in that it really causes you to "build" the project.
And that is why it is frustrating that once it is "built" in the computer there is a missing 20% to create workable construction docs.
I am looking into working with someone that might be able to make ruby scripts to have links to door and window schedules and detail notes.
Dimensioning in LayOut, that is another thing.
An I would hope to collaborate, with interested parties, in creating an "architect directed work flow diagram" to aid in the understanding of how best to design and draw residential and light commercial projects from schematics to construction docs....
would anyone be interested in collaborating on this project?
aloha
red -
Hi Red, I've had a Spirit License for 4 years and never really had the patience to sink my teeth into it properly.I like you need a CAD program to produce simple CAD output but Spirit till now has been quite 'disjointed' IMHO.
There has never been a user manual so getting started is difficult enough and once you do get started sourcing a help file is quite difficult.
I will say this though, Matt [reseller from Professional CAD systems in NZ]has always helped as much as he can and Gary Segal [Technical Director for Spirit] is very helpful and knowledgeable. It helps Gary being an architect as well; he brings a 'working mind' to the program....I think the biggest selling point of Spirit 2009 is its close collaborative approach to SketchUp.
It's just that when I need a job done, I can't afford to stop / start continuously to ask questions and get responses the following day.The same problem with anyone learning new software I guess.
There is MicroGDS also from the makers of Piranesi http://www.informatix.co.uk/microgds.htm which is around the same price as Spirit. Not in the price range of the big players but certainly up there in their operation....
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Red and others,
Matt from PCS in NZ has posted a number of Spirit tutorial vids here:
http://www.screencast.com/users/PROCADSYS/folders/SPIRIT%20Video%20Tutorials/media/fce08bce-33ed-4d7e-8cbc-46bd170a0e40go see.
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Andrew
thanks for your experienced perspective
and,
Spirit is on a PC, I spent 1/2 hour with one of the Spirit reps trying to understand which version of Windows to download and eventually we both gave up.
Just what I want, a pig in a horse race.
I keep looking
aloha
red
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