Do i want to invest my time into learning sketchup?
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@johnsenior1973 said:
"Take out the trial."
Erm, why? The free version is more than capable of doing nearly everything the Pro version can do. As someone who is only asking if SU is worth investing time to learn, they only need the free version. If they learn SU and then find that they do need the exporters then they should think about buying the Pro version, but as someone new I don't see the point in them getting the free trial and messing around with the extra tools that they are going to lose in 8 hours anyway. Far better for them to get proficient in SU and then download the trial. That way they will be able to evaluate the Pro version properly because they aren't learning the the basics during the limited trial time.
so stick with the free version right?
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The "poly limit" applies to both the free as the pro version. SU cannot handle as many polys as, say, Silo or modo. You can work around the issue, up to a certain point, by carefully layering your model. Turning "repeated stuff" into components helps a great deal as well.
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@tekkybot said:
so stick with the free version right?
Definitely when you start. And from what I've read on here the only advantages of the Pro version are Layout (which no one seems to use anyway because it's too buggy) and exporters for 3ds and obj. If you absolutely need these exporters then you need Pro, but if you don't need them then the free version will be fine for you.
As far as I know the Pro version doesn't offer any extra modeling capability. I have the free version and haven't even tried the pro trial, so a Pro user would need to confirm that.
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Thats all correct john, with the minor difference that there isnt a native location setting in the free version, although i believe a ruby has been developed that does this.
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Interestingly, the location is available in the free Mac version. However yeah, Jim wrote a location ruby for PC users.
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Another point. If my memory serves me right, the first free version did not work with encrypted Ruby files...such as many of the commercial ones like Subdivide and Smooth. It only worked with the plain text Rubies. Is this still the case? I don't have a free version on my system at the moment.
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No Alan, Now it should be all the same for the scripts. A lot of people here use subdivide and smooth with the free version.
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one important thing about SUp: the amount of information available on the internet is enormous (videos, tutorials, forums, etc) which means that any doubts can be solved very quickly. i would definitely go for it.
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@edson said:
one important thing about SUp: the amount of information available on the internet is enormous (videos, tutorials, forums, etc) which means that any doubts can be solved very quickly. i would definitely go for it.
EXACTLY. this is why ive decided that sketchup is the program for me. the program im going to invest my time in, and learn, and get good at all the other 3d modeling apps had horrible documentation
sketchup rules 
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I've found that 3ds max has pretty good documentation. It comes with lots of tutorials and help files that are decent. Plus it has lots of books you can buy that are geared towards different audiences. It has a bunch of online communities, some better than others. I would suggest it might be more documented than SU.
However, its still a beast of a bulky software with so many options its impossible for most people to master it as an entire software. So it is not my #1 choice.
Chris
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well, maya has quite a good documentation too. and you can literally do anything with it. but the lord of the rings seems a a short magazine compared to this huge manual
I love the ammount of control maya gives you though. seperate control over faces, edges, whole curves, or vertexes, together with loads of different snap modes. that is really some nice programm. but by the time you are able to create simple objects, you will design complicated shapes with SketchUp...
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