I'VE ALMOST HAD IT WITH TRYING TO UNDERSTAND DC's!!!!
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Well . . .anything to stave off the Alzheimer's. For me. . it's crossword puzzles.
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@unknownuser said:
Well . . .anything to stave off the Alzheimer's. For me. . it's crossword puzzles.
ha.. i'm into crosswords as well.. nytimes (i don't mess around with sunday though
, usa today, and the onion's weekly xword.. -
Thanks Jeff, I have tried that before but didn't get far with a solution. I thought everyone was in the same boat as me or either thinking I wanted someone else to do my work. I'm sure the penny will drop at some point.
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DC's, a great way to waste a lot of time figuring out only to realise the original method of actually modeling it in the first place is ten times faster.
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I spent something like a month (making 4 hours of video training) teaching most of the ins and outs of DC's in my SketchUp Pro training series -- which got very little traction (almost non-existent)... I think both DC's and Layout are very cool things (and I thought I taught them very clearly) but the demand for that information seems to be so small as to not justify any future tutorials on the subjects.
Don't get me wrong I think they need to be re-worked and I've made my fair share of suggestions about them (and Layout)-- but they are much more useful than they are given credit for...
I'd rather spend my time teaching things that people actually want to learn -- I make these things to get paid, but I also really want the information to be used... it's kind of like that old saw about "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?".
If nobody watches these things then I'm just some guy who spends alot of time talking to myself.
Best,
Jason. -
@solo said:
DC's, a great way to waste a lot of time figuring out only to realise the original method of actually modeling it in the first place is ten times faster.
If all you are doing is modeling with DC's then maybe I could agree with that sentiment -- although that ignores the fact that DC's can be very powerful for adding randomization to your models that would be very time consuming to actually model.
Really DC's are only minorly about modeling at all -- their strengths are really in areas that have very little to do with modeling... to understand DC's it is really helpful to think like a website designer, where you are not so worried about modeling per se but how the end user is going to interact with the model.
If your goal is to make DC's for your own use then it's probably not worthwhile.
Best,
Jason. -
A typical example of 'when to DC V when not to DC' are stairs. I know there are some guys who have gone to extraordinary lengths to create a Stair DC but I don't see why building a stair can not be done with a plugin.
We know the total run and what local bylaws allow so what I do is input my perimeters [sdmitch's stair plugin is pretty neat! http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=39706&hilit=stair]
I check my clearances and if I don't like it I delete it and run the plugin in again..... It's really not that difficult!
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@solo said:
DC's, a great way to waste a lot of time figuring out only to realise the original method of actually modeling it in the first place is ten times faster.
That maybe true for your trade (where you mainly model individual, custom stuff all the time) and is definitelytrue for mine but imagine a kitchen cabinet maker who (say) generally works from a dozen of door styles, the same wood board thickness all the time and such. If they spend a week or two to model their variations, they can sit back and make a custom kitchen design with a couple of clicks next time a customer comes. It may even look "impressive" for the client if they do it in front of them.
DC's can also be useful for manufacturers of (say) windows or doors. In this case, some (lazier) architects can easily place those things into the model. Just like those "finish" manufacturers (think of stone, brick, roof tile etc) who care to make nice textures of their products for arch-viz. Many will use them gladly (in the lack of other materials).
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I agree that the Dynamic Components aren't perfect, but they are a great addition for the cabinet mfg. Most cabinet mfg don't want Designers creating a bunch of "custom" cabinets. Using DCs the Designers have some pretty powerful building blocks to create "semi-custom" cabinets, and then of course SketchUp allows them to create the crazy stuff to. Most of the software in the Woodworking industry is just good at drawing cabinets, but not so good at creating the custom stuff, DCs allows SketchUp to do a good job at both.
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The collection of Marvin Windows on the Warehouse which are dynamic components are the best example of a successfully created DC's which make it easier and quicker for the end user to model.
These DC dialog gives you the ability to quickly change the window size, exterior and interior color as well as with the interact tool you can open and close the windows.
Some brain power must have went into the creation of these dynamic components.
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