Layout: Love it or Loathe it?
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I use LO on a daily basis and I couldn't live without it...!
Unfortunately I won't be able to come to the SCF Basecamp in London...Yes, there's a lot that need to be improved and lots of new features that could get implemented...
If Trimble decide to implement the Ruby SDK, I'm sure we'll see a lot of great new features, similar to what we've seen with SU...
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Thanks for thoughts so far..
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Fully agree on all points with Frederik
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I use Layout at our Architectural Practice for planning drawings and presentation work.
Layout is much better than it use to be, I have been using it since it was first released, but since the ability of setting a scale to elevations we use it a lot more, mainly because you can get much better looking elevations than Auto-CAD.
Having textures, shadows, and line styles on the elevations is great compared to CAD.
I will be at the Basecamp both days and looking forward to your presentation.
I have attached an example of a recent planning drawing I did at the office.
kind regards,
Nat
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I have a love hate relationship with it... It's still fundamentally flawed, but it's also wonderfully functional and easy to use. Still, it needs to learn a few strokes from the old hands.
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Some light reading if you want to get a finger in the air to check the breeze.
Construction & Working Drawings - Discussion
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12%26amp;t=15911 -
I love it! I use it for all my presentations from schematic design through full construction documents.
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It is, without doubt, the best and only viable solution for 2D from Sketchup for me. I have generated thousands of pages of shop drawings, blueprints, and presentations with it and spend as much time using it as I do Sketchup
That being said, it is clunky, takes 1000% too many left clicks to accomplish anything, and feels like a piece of 1999 software. Just as an estimate, I would say that 40% of the time spent using Layout is wasted due to leader text editing sucking, moving dimension text around, and editing text.
For me, though, by far the most frustrating aspect of Layout is that the developers are not doing sh&%t to substantially improve it. I know, I know, it is way better than it was (true) but it is still way way not as good as it should/could be. Was it the last update that gave us two segment leader text that is awful in every other way? and what else did they improve? It's faster but still agonizingly slow with large vector rendering. And what else?
Would I recommend it to a SU user? Absolutely. Are there any other real options? No, not at all. Let's not forget that Layout was started by AtLast; that was a long freaking time ago, just sayin'
I would gladly pay for $1000+ for a real, substantive update.
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@unknownuser said:
I love it! I use it for all my presentations from schematic design through full construction documents.
I love what Sonder does with it.
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@otb designworks said:
Just as an estimate, I would say that 40% of the time spent using Layout is wasted due to leader text editing sucking, moving dimension text around, and editing text.
I wonder if i am missing the correct methodology as to get what would be appropriate leader text position on any CAD (and hand drawn protocol) takes a lot of extra steps.
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Use it everyday, some issues with it but the Trimble guys are continually developing it.. [and listening!!]
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@otb designworks said:
I would gladly pay for $1000+ for a real, substantive update.
Don't give anybody any ideas...
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I love and hate LO!
I use it and need it badly as it's very handy and I can get great results.
But I hate working with it, hate CAD exports and dimensioning/leader jobs.
It still is the best 2D/drafting output you can get from Sketchup so it's fundamental. I'd love a full revamp on a lot of stuff though.
What I do is push it way to the end of my production line and prepare all things in Sketchup to the full extent I can. The things I can automate inside LO, I do and I try to fast jump in LO and flee the also as fast as I can...
EDIT: My answer doesn't fit your poll...
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@juju said:
@otb designworks said:
I would gladly pay for $1000+ for a real, substantive update.
Don't give anybody any ideas...
The key was the word substantive. I have a long list, posted on this site years ago, that would need to be addressed in a serious manner before that kind of money would be warranted. That said, if I could improve my workflow by 40%, I would happily pay money for that.
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@utiler said:
but the Trimble guys are continually developing it.. [and listening!!]
How do you know?
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Someone is listening from above... creepy!
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Hi Marc! I know you know of the list I speak...
One day I would love it if the Layout developers flew me down to Colorado where I could pull out my years of Layout portfolio and I could demonstrate my workflow over a few hours and they could see for themselves of what I speak. Perhaps a dialogue and beta testing role would be helpful. It's always good to see what the power users are doing every day. I would love that. I would assuredly not show up with beer or anything silly like that..
You guys have the power to vastly improve a large chunk of my everyday existence! Help me!!! I'm on my knees over here:)
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We don't get to hear a lot about Layout from the SketchUp blog or team... I get the feeling they may be working with code that's outdated or that they are hindered in someway? Perhaps they are actually the SketchUp team, so most of their time is spent there? Not sure... I've always gotten the feeling that we're probably lucky to be getting what we have. What I really wish is that documentation was moved into SketchUp... All of it. and allow Ruby to effect it... That would give us everything from layout and the customization to specialize and flow free where we need to via plugin devs. Pipe Dream? Meh... Maybe.
But maybe with Trimble at the wheel they will get the backing/resources they need to take Layout to the next level. They certainly have a huge repertoire of software. I just don't know that Trimble has handed SU Team the keys to the castle and let them pillage all the other programs. I would imagine they are all separate teams and perhaps fairly autonomous. I mean I'm already here. I've already made the leap from Autocad and though it can't do everything Autocad does... I'm willing to make those sacrifices just to get out from under Autodesk. If Layout could take that leap too and bring her a bit further to pro documenting tool. I'd be ecstatic.
Price increase? Ummmm I think you owe me this one Trimble.
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Layout is really the next step towards CAD independence and a new architect's standard.
I've also made the leap since Layout3 but I'm fighting hard against the software. Even so SU+LO combo is way better than CAD.
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