Using Sketchup for Drafting

rafaagard

Hi
I'm new so I'll introduce myself. I'm a Mechanical Drafter and I've been researching google Sketchup as a possible CAD software for the company that I work for. I found this forum and I was impressed with the knowledge that was displayed. is there someone i could talk to that has knowledge in drafting and has written ruby scripts for Sketchup. some of question I have are:

feasability of writing a ruby script to quickly align components to each other.
Options for tranlating Solidworks files and Autocad Inventor files into Sketchup. and suggestions to decrease the number of faces when translating complex models
Creating an external data table from Sketchup using Dynamic components and/or outliner
Creating features that can cut through multiple surfaces example: (creating a hole then being able to move it and cut through the top and bottom of the part it is in.)

remus

there are a few align scripts around at the moment eg. http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=11224
If this doesnt do exactly what you want you could probably tweak it to work how you want.

The best workflow i know of for translating solidworks models in to SU is using MoI: http://moi3d.com/ Version 2 (which is currently available as a beta if you buy v1) has a really good NURBS to SU converter. the workflow would go something like this: export IGES from solidworkd->open in MoI->export skp from MoI. MoI also has a very neat feature that allows you to adjust the number of polygons in the export using a simple slider.

The external table might be possible, although im not sure how straight forward the process is.

it is possible to make holes which cut through parts, although it is quite messy and limited to surfaces that are a uniform distance apart.

remus

Oh and i forgot to say welcome to SCF

might be worth sending a PM to watkins, i believe he does a fair bit of mechanical drawing in SU.

rafaagard

Thanks Remus,
I'll have to play around with that align tool. I have tried to do some translating of Solidworks files into Sketchup with Deep Exploration but it didn't work very well, so I'll check into MoI. I've been trying to send PM's but when I click find a member it says "You are not authorised to view the member list or profiles." so what do I need to do to become authorised, or can you give me some email address of some people that could possibly help me this project?

Thanks again
Ross