Label Tool as Tag for BOM

holdenc

I have to generate long schedules in table format -- not just doors and windows but all the fixtures and furniture in an existing building for as-builts. The standard is to label the objects in the floor plan with a numbered tag. Then you can go look up the number in the table to find out what the object is and how many of them there are in the plan, e.g.
Tag ID-1, Count-4, Item-Door, Type-Right Hand, Size-2'-6", etc.

Now we have custom attributes in components which can be auto-loaded into Labels -- which is GREAT! But too many labels clutter the drawing and I still have to get my table from SketchUp using Generate Report, edit it in another program and insert it into Layout -- which breaks dynamic linking and updating.

SO, what I want are labels in Layout that look like tags. Let's call them Report Tags. They could be labeled themselves and exported to a table, along with the attribute text of the dynamic component they are attached to. In other words, it's a little piece of Layout geometry and text that serves to select a component so that its attributes can be reported out, similar to the way you can generate a report of selected components in SketchUp. Non-tagged components don't get reported.

Report Tags could live in a sub-menu as options under the label tool. Choose the type of Report Tag (Circle, Hex, Rectangle) then click on a component, click again to define an arrow, or maybe right click to define NO arrow, and type in the Tag ID. Copy that Tag to other copies of that component. (Maybe the Tag ID lives in the component attributes, but this would mean going back to SketchUP if you had to change an ID for some reason.)

Or maybe even better, they could live as a type of Auto-Text that could be inserted into tag geometry in the Scrapbook. Drag them out to a component and Auto-Text asks you for a Tag ID.

When everything is tagged, go to the new Layout>Generate Report command, or maybe the new Table Tool and define which attributes to include and how they are arranged.

For a long time people have been hiding 2d geometry, like tags, in their 3d components so their construction documents look correct. But with the new access to attributes it seems we might be getting closer to the day that SketchUP is all about 3d and Layout takes care of all the 2d chores.

TommyK

It's great that you are thinking along the same line as me: Sketchup as a powerful production tool (as opposed to just concept design). However, I am not sure that getting output from Layout is the way forward. I would much rather get my information from the model directly as opposed to have Layout as the intermediary. I would much prefer the idea of a Layout tool (call it layout table) that generates a report dynamically from the model. The key, I think is in creating predefined filters that simplify the report into window schedules, door schedules and the like. You would filter by nested components/groups or by layer name, for example.

It is an important discussion to have. I want sketchup to be a highly productive tool in my architectural work. I am excited about the future, and discussions like these shape it.

holdenc

I think we're talking about pretty much the same thing. As I see it, Layout is going to get the information from SketchUp in any case. Dynamic linking is critical.

What I'm proposing is that the predefined filters, or hopefully user defined filters, you mention can live in a graphic tag with linking power similar to the Label tool. I would like to decide which components are going to be made available to the schedule by labeling them rather than deleting them out of the table. I like to be able to look at the drawing to see the things I've done and find the things I've missed.

My suggestion comes from generating drawings out of Inventor and SolidWorks. After laying out your parts in an assembly drawing, you label them with an automatic balloon tool. Then you can generate a quick BOM of everything with a balloon number attached. Often you are only labeling a sub-assembly and ignoring the majority of the parts in the assembly.

AutCad also has a powerful attribute and table system. You can add hidden attributes to any block but often the most efficient thing to do is make tag blocks and copy and paste them around the drawing. You can tell the table wizard to show you only blocks with attributes, then select only those you want to put in the table.