Free sketchup or sketchup pro?

Chris Fullmer

Can the true free version import dwg files? or is it the Pro trial that is importing. One other concern is that the free won't output to dwg if ever needed.

Finally, if you are getting dwg files from clients, it seem slike SU might have problem with them if they are not trimmed down correctly. I don't know how elaborate they come in your line of work, but I can't imagine using SU to edit the CAD files created by my firm, just because of the detail and size of the dwg file.

I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree though.

Chris

Gaieus

Susan,

In SU5 (free) trhere was a restriction of 2D image output to screen resolution. Now in SU 6 (free) this is the same as pro.

Chris,

The import functions of the two versions are the same - the difference is in the export functions of 2D models: the free version only allows kmz export (i.e. to Google Earth).

The only other difference is that (in the Windows version) there is no location option in the Model info in the free version (I just learned that in the Mac version there is, here on the forums )

And, of course, LayOut...

(In the office I work I only have the free version installed so I can check regularly - Google has eliminated most of the differences between the two versions)

Chris Fullmer

@gaieus said:

The only other difference is that (in the Windows version) there is no location option in the Model info in the free version.

I sort of didn't believe you when you said that there is no model location ability. So I looked it up and sure enough, they took it out! I think that's crazy. Of course there is the workaround of opening google earth and zooming to the location of your model and then importing that terrain. That will set your SU model to the correct coordinates. But that's sure a long way around it.

Chris

Gaieus

Also Jim Foltz made a ruby that puts location into the free version, too.

Edson

@gaieus said:

Also Jim Foltz made a ruby that puts location into the free version, too.

do you where can it be downloaded from? i looked for it in our repository but could not find it.

Gaieus

We've already had this discussion, Edson, remember?
Well, it's listed here:
http://jim.foltz.googlepages.com/plugins_index.html
But you are on Mac, Edson, and the free SU for Mac has the Location afaik

Edson

sorry, gai, i did not remember it. yes, i am on mac but most of my students are not so the script will be useful to them.

thanks.

Gaieus

Yeah, I thought so.
Thank Jim, not me!

Goggin

I'm in a similar mode-- trying to decide whether to go pro or not.

The big drawbacks of the free version for me are

Difficulty in printing large (11 x 17 or 24 x 36) copies of blueprints.
Exporting to .dwg format.

If I have to have those two features, is there any option other than going pro?

Thanks. This is my first post here. I've been using SketchUp for about 2 weeks now, and I just found this MB a few days ago. Lots of good info here!

Gaieus

Goggin,

First of all, welcome - though you found us in the middle of a move (so please, read the announcement right now).

As for your problems:

works the same in the Pro and the Free versions now. Really no difference.
Exporters are different. You need the Pro version to be able to export 3D models from (native) SU.

Goggin

@gaieus said:

Goggin,

First of all, welcome - though you found us in the middle of a move (so please, read the announcement right now).

Thanks. Which announcement are you referring to? The one in this forum? I read that.

@unknownuser said:

As for your problems:

works the same in the Pro and the Free versions now. Really no difference.

Interesting. I thought that pro allowed you to easily select the scale, but that the free version didn't. If I want to print to scale at 24 x 36 (say 1/4" = 1'), do I draw a border around the plans so that printing to that border produces the desired scale? Otherwise, how would the program know how to scale things?

My only printing experience so far has been limited (I assume) by the ability to print only what is viewed on the screen at the time. Maybe I'm missing something...?

Gaieus

In order to print to scale you have to make sure that

you use "parallel projection" (not perspective view - see in Camera menu)
set one of the "standard views" (also Camera menu - or from the toolbar)
in the Print dialogue uncheck the "Fit to page" checkbox and there you go; on the left you can set your scale.

Note that if your model cannot fit on a page by the set scale, you have an option in the very bottom left corner to print it on tiled sheets.

Goggin

@gaieus said:

In order to print to scale you have to make sure that

you use "parallel projection" (not perspective view - see in Camera menu)

set one of the "standard views" (also Camera menu - or from the toolbar)

in the Print dialogue uncheck the "Fit to page" checkbox and there you go; on the left you can set your scale.

Note that if your model cannot fit on a page by the set scale, you have an option in the very bottom left corner to print it on tiled sheets.

Thanks. I'll have to try that. From the SketchUp Help section on Printing, I read this to mean that you needed the pro version to print to scale:

@unknownuser said:

PROPrint Size
The Print Size section of the Print dialog box is used to adjust the physical size of your output.

Fit to Page: The Fit to Page option is used to size the model to fit on a single sheet of paper. This option must be disabled in to specify a different size or scale.

Page Size: The Page size fields are used to enter a custom page size for your output.

Scale: The Scale fields are used to scale your model for printing. The first measurement, labeled In the Model, is the measurement of the exported geometry. The second measurement, labeled In SketchUp, is the actual measurement of the object in real scale. For example, for a scale of 1/4" = 1', simply enter 1 inch In the Printout equals 4 feet In SketchUp.

Gaieus

Yes but that's because they forgot to update that after SU6 was released in which version this - and quite a lot of other things - were made available in the free version, too.

In my office I only have SU free (it's a machine others may have access too and the Pro license is mine not that of the office) so fortunately I can follow all the differences.

Goggin

@gaieus said:

In order to print to scale you have to make sure that

you use "parallel projection" (not perspective view - see in Camera menu)

set one of the "standard views" (also Camera menu - or from the toolbar)

in the Print dialogue uncheck the "Fit to page" checkbox and there you go; on the left you can set your scale.

Note that if your model cannot fit on a page by the set scale, you have an option in the very bottom left corner to print it on tiled sheets.

I tried to do this today, but there is nothing "on the left" of the "fit to page" dialog box. There is something to right of it called "use model extents", and it does have boxes for "scale", but they are not accessible in my copy of the SketchUp-- they appear in shadow, as something would be that is disabled.

The (unaccessible) boxes below "scale" say "in the printout" and "in SketchUp", and they have pulldown menus to set the scale. But again, they are disabled. I tried selected and deselecting everything on the page, but nothing activated those menus.

Gaieus

This is the print dialogue box. Note that in pictzre one the "fit to page" (where my cursor is) .is enabled thus everythimg else is disabled:

Here I disabled "fit to page" and the scale settings are immediately accessible:

Now I'm pretty sure it works the same in both SU6 Pro and SU6 Free versions. At work, I only have the free version installed so I am going in there soon and check again.

In SU5 this was not a feature of the free version yet.

Goggin

Yep, that's the same box I get, but the settings on the right are never enabled.

Is it possible that the problem is my printer, and that it won't support scaling? I may run over to Kinko's today and see what happens if I set this up on one their printers. Mine is pretty old.

BTW, how did you cut and paste the print dialog box into your post? I have no idea how one would do that...

Gaieus

@goggin said:

Yep, that's the same box I get, but the settings on the right are never enabled.

Is it possible that the problem is my printer, and that it won't support scaling? I may run over to Kinko's today and see what happens if I set this up on one their printers. Mine is pretty old.

The printer shouldn't matter actually. Are you sure you did steps 1 and 2 correctly? Say are you really in top view for instance?

@unknownuser said:

BTW, how did you cut and paste the print dialog box into your post? I have no idea how one would do that...

I have a nifty little freeware screenshot program "PrintScreen" you can download it here (the second box is for the freeware - the top, Professional version is to pay for).
Ypu can either set it to "print" the active window or - as in this case - I took a snapshot of the whole window and cropped the image.

Very handy tool in these forum worlds...

Goggin

@gaieus said:

The printer shouldn't matter actually. Are you sure you did steps 1 and 2 correctly? Say are you really in top view for instance?

:
Damn, I feel like an idiot now. I wasn't in "parallel projection". It works now. Thanks for your patience on this. I gotta pay more attention to all these details!!

Gaieus

Good you got it...