Condoc Tools: Thoughts? Opinions?

Krisidious

What are your thoughts or opinions on Condoc Tools by Brightman Designs?
Anyone used it? Anyone thinking about using it?

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(www.sucondoc.com)

@unknownuser said:

Efficient Construction Documents in SketchUp Pro
Use the familiar and fun 3D SketchUp environment
Compatible with Mac and Windows

Compatible with metric and imperial scales

Flexible for any project type, new construction and renovation

Scaleable for any building size, residential and commercial

Eliminate difficult, expensive, feature bloated drafting programs

Save enormous amounts of money on yearly software expenses

Easy transition from 2D CAD to 3D BIM in SketchUp Pro

Get your team on the same page by working within the standards outlined in “The SketchUp Workflow for Architecture”

Adhere to industry graphic standards with full control of line weights and dynamic hatches

Realize ultimate efficiency by linking the 3D design model to the 2D diagrams and construction documents

Communicate your design seamlessly to consultants using .dwg backgrounds

one year subscription to The ConDoc Tools for SketchUp Pro 2014 = $149.99

JQL

It's very vague if you ask me. Can't have a real notion of what it is... By the description seems like my own method and I think it might be the same thing with some tweaks that I can't tell if are worth or not...

What I have is a workflow that fits sketchup to my every need (eating, drinking, sleeping, breathing, and some other stuff, not included) and it feels like this is just something like that!

kaas

It's very vague indeed if you ask me. Pity he didn't just show a demo of the tool instead.

Besides that, I have a great dislike for yearly subscription(s). I acknowledge firms / people who put a loooot of time in making good and bug-free software / plugins and they should get payed for that - no question there. But I rather buy it once and be convinced by them, by adding more and better features to the tool, that I should consider to buy an upgrade.

juju

First off, to make best use of the plugin/tool you should, preferably, read his book (on my to do list), see over at my thread, link below.

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=537435#p537435

@kaas said:

Besides that, I have a great dislike for yearly subscription(s). I acknowledge firms / people who put a loooot of time in making good and bug-free software / plugins and they should get payed for that - no question there. But I rather buy it once and be convinced by them, by adding more and better features to the tool, that I should consider to buy an upgrade.

My thoughts exactly kaas, see my posts (direct link below) over at the SU Exchange regarding this.

http://www.suexch.com/forum/topics/condoc-tools?commentId=6440402%3AComment%3A35232

The presentation at SketchUp Basecamp 2014, by Michael Brightman, is what caught my attention.

I must admit, the clip he has on the CondocTools website doesn't inspire one, his previous clip he had (it was recently replaced with the current one) seemed a little better.

I am still struggling with the thought of parting with $150 and again so every year thereafter, not too keen on that.

Still, have a look at some of his other clips regarding the ConDoc Tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZvouCvfUMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hS_FhT9GUg <- worth watching all the way through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYL4o6i8SRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Yns3BbQsE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRAjg-q7WZI

kaas

Thanks for the links JuJu,

You get to see his Condoc tool in action in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZvouCvfUMA from 15m50 onwards.

For those who are in a hurry and don't want to look at the video, I think his Condoc tool comes down to:

a tool in Sketchup for making the elevations (auto-align, change style, make a scene)
a tool for making a section (auto-align, change style, make a scene)
a tool for making the individual floorplans (auto align, change style, make a scene for every floor).

All these scenes are coded in a way so they correspond with his Layout scrapbook settings. So after opening his layout file, you have to re-link the scrapbook's Sketchup file to your new Sketchup file and all the sections, elevations and floorplans are initially set up with a lineweight and scale. You just need to arrange them and can start adding text etc.

kaas

@juju said:

I am still struggling with the thought of parting with $150 and again so every year thereafter, not too keen on that.

It all comes down to: 1. does his workflow fit you and your projects AND 2. do you think his tool is going to save you more than $150 every year?

For me it's:

No, I prefer an Outliner based workflow with a hierarchy of named objects. I started using it 5 years ago and it just fits me and is flexible enough to fit any project I have.
No, I don't have problems with manually setting up 4 elevations and 2 sections and a few floorplans. I don't mind spending a few more minutes to do so. Also, you can easily set up a scrapbook of your own to do something similar. I tried it once but every project has it own demands so I never used it again.
To be honest: asking $150 every year for the above to me is ridiculous. Better split that amount up and donate every year to TIG (SectionCutFace), ThomThom (selection toys), Fredo (FredoScale, JointPushPull) and maybe several others that have made tools you use every day and with those tools you will gain much more time ($150 worth) and joy/fun at work in Sketchup than by using Condoc.

just my humble opinion.

JQL

@kaas said:

@juju said:

I am still struggling with the thought of parting with $150 and again so every year thereafter, not too keen on that.

It all comes down to: 1. does his workflow fit you and your projects AND 2. do you think his tool is going to save you more than $150 every year?

For me it's:

No, I prefer an Outliner based workflow with a hierarchy of named objects. I started using it 5 years ago and it just fits me and is flexible enough to fit any project I have.

No, I don't have problems with manually setting up 4 elevations and 2 sections and a few floorplans. I don't mind spending a few more minutes to do so. Also, you can easily set up a scrapbook of your own to do something similar. I tried it once but every project has it own demands so I never used it again.
To be honest: asking $150 every year for the above to me is ridiculous. Better split that amount up and donate every year to TIG (SectionCutFace), ThomThom (selection toys), Fredo (FredoScale, JointPushPull) and maybe several others that have made tools you use every day and with those tools you will gain much more time ($150 worth) and joy/fun at work in Sketchup than by using Condoc.

just my humble opinion.

Couldn't have put it better. There are tools that simply fit your workflow by enhancing thing in sketchup. There are other tools that make you have specific workflows. I embrace the first gladly, I have to think a lot on the tool's benefit to embrace the second.

JQL

Do you know what guys. This is where I feel there is a gap in SU.

As SU is such an all rounder tool. There is space for people to make it towards specific markets or areas of activity.

The mantra for architecture is: you model a building and all the tedious and repetitive process is automatically created for you. SU is the best for modelling but we fight a lot to make all the necessary boring steps towards construction. I've put my own method up, you've put your own. There are a lot of methods, one for each one and no method is known enough. So there is space for all those want to be BIMs that impose the "right" method to the people that still try to find their own...

We should start some way of collecting specifics about our own methods for specific architectural tasks, so we could learn from each other. THere is the woodworkers subforum here, yet architects have no specific knowledge center.

Shouldn't we have one?

The Architects Forum?

All that knowledge would be centralized a specifically moderated there...

What do you think?

Krisidious

I've been saying for years there should be an Architecture sub-forum... So I'm a big yes on that.

pbacot

There's been a construction docs discussion. That should be sufficient. The discussion rises and falls with different innovative or pioneering examples, and occasional new BIM packages. From experience an "architecture" forum mostly attracts students and trolls.

I think there's room for condoc plugin packages--just because a certain one doesn't fit with your method doesn't devalue the concept. If you like what you are doing then...never mind. Still interested in checking this one out--if not to buy then for ideas.

JQL

I'm not saying this is interesting or not. I'm just saying this might be as good as what me Krisidious you or others might be willing to share and could be discussed as collective knowledge. Maybe it would be a forum where Condocs would shine above everything else, I don't know, but the specifics of architecture, make it a top modeling discipline inside sketchup capabilities and one that sketchup is being developed to specialize in. Layout and 2014 Classifier, besides all splash screens have architectural models... many people here are architects...

Rich O Brien

Close to 50% of the membership is architecture.

Krisidious

I have to say I agree with the sentiments expressed here.

I too use a similar system to what you all have described. I have one model and one layout file inside of a template project folder. I only need to change a few file names to have my new model already connected to layout with sections and elevations and floor plan levels.
It is very vague as to what you get.
I hate subscriptions too... I understand the money making part. I'm a capitalist. But charge one price for your product and charge me again for improvements or new features.

I also wanted to add that TIG made a script for me that creates interior elevations with architectural detail tags.

SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation

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(sketchucation.com)

Doesn't seem like you can download from there. Maybe we should ask Tig if ever published it.

Krisidious

I'd love it as a place to discuss theory and get mentor type help from the older architects.

JQL

I, for instance, when trying to help others here, fall into the mistake of thinking as an architect sketchup modeler. This frame of mind also alters the perspective I have over the software and how I look at plugins and search for stuff in the forums.

It's like a kind of a filter I put in everything and that has guided me and my workflow with sketchup in the past 2/3 years I've been using it daily. I've developed this by patiently look at the forums, while working and trying to solve my problems with the info gathered here randomly. There's so much info here but it takes dedication just to grasp a part of it.

Having an architectural subforum would help newcomers focus, would help helpers help. Would contextualize things. If you enter on Architecture Subforum to question something, you wouldn't have to explain your background, that would be cleared out and everybody would know that your question and everyone's answer is trying to go towards similar objectives.

How wouldn't that be useful if half the post subject would be already implied?

There is also a matter of Students and Trolls. I don't really know what you mean by the later, but students would be most welcome...

Krisidious

I'm Anti-Troll and Pro-Gargoyle when it comes to Architecture.

pbacot

Oh OK. Give it a try. I think it will be better here, if about how to use the software. I'm just thinking of other forums I thought would be such great discussions, but were dominated by cranks wanting to tell you what to think and students wanting someone to think for them. Seemed the word "Architecture" was the attractant.

Krisidious

The Architecture industry does seem to draw the know-it-alls...

JQL

It does, in fact all the world is an architectural savant, specially clients! It seems to me I'm the only one having doubts on my projects!

fastplans

I am getting ready to jump into the SU architectural process. Over the years, I have tried Revit, ACad architecture 2010, Archicad and Softplan. All do great 3d houses. It gets very complicated when you try to make construction documents from that. I usually end up importing to 2d cad to finish.
So what interests me about condocs is that, he has already thought through that process and set it up. One less thing that I have to figure out when I make the switch to SU. I have to be able to be productive almost immediately. So if anyone is 'using' the software and has a review, that would be useful to know.
I also have to wade through information looking only for the architectural applications. I dont care about 3d monsters and I dont like videos about how to draw a house in SU by people that dont know about building a house.
I also do not like subscriptions, which is why I cant and wont go back to ACAD.
I am looking forward to the forum exchange.