Why Sketchup?
-
Hey, yeahright.
Very interesting discussion you started. Thanks.
What's your intended use? You mention employ-ability, so you are looking at software packages to learn as career skills, right? There's another dimension to "why sketchup?" if you have a particular use in mind. Some people have mentioned architecture, archviz, interior design, set design, exhibit design; there's game design people on this forum, too, and I'm sure many, many other professions. However, there are many people here that can point out all the shortcomings of SketchUp right along with its strengths. That's where you need to know WHAT you are using it for.
Organic shapes? Don't use SketchUp.
Maybe you need BIM or parametric features, so something like Revit, Bentley GC, or CATIA.
Are you doing fabrication? Maybe SolidWorks.
Are you going to do character animation? Maya, Blender, or something with character rigging... now I'm getting into territory I know very little about.So, what profession are you in? I have a philosophy that one should use the right tool for the job. I use SketchUp, Rhino, AutoCAD, and Revit all the time and often work between programs depending on the project or the task. I think one should learn the concepts behind modeling, rendering, scripting, etc. so it is that much easier to learn a new tool when you need it.
-
I have the same opinion and feeling like Pilou, even my 7 years old little boy draw in SketchUp since he was 5 and every time i checked the forum for new posts, when I see new plugins appearing, he says - dad, let's try all this!!
Finally, when I use this fantastic piece of software I fell free and ideas comes easy. -
Because it's actually quick and fun to design with, unlike some BIM monsters out there that tie you down with programed limitations and administrative complexities.
-
@unknownuser said:
It's the only one that you can master after 15 minutes!
Even kids from 5 years old!
Not saying I'm a sketchup master but it did take quite a bit longer to really learn it.
At least a year or two but maybe I'm slow.
-
yeahright, what a great thread you've started here. Almost every post so far has the answer to your question...fun. For me Sketchup is so versatile it's like a cordless drill but plug it in (plugins) then it becomes a mighty hammer drill, often under rated to what it's really capable of.
John -
It's not so much that people 'stick with' SketchUp rather than moving on to something more 'sophisticated'. There are plenty of people on this forum that have used Max or Maya for years but have actually ditched them in favour of SU. Sophistication is not necessarily of paramount importance; there are plenty of fields in which a short turn-around of visuals is equally, if not much more important....and it's here that SU wins hands-down over the competition. The vast majority of my company's clients (we offer SU components) fall into this category and are mostly involved in architecture, archviz, interior design, and movie or theatre set design/previz. They all relate how dramatically this reduction in time has affected their workflow.
The Intuitiveness and the fun go hand in hand. It's fun because it doesn't get between you and your ideas....well not unless you are attempting something incredibly organic that might be more suited to Z-Brush.
It's default image export is often far more effective in getting ideas across than some photoreal render. I used to use it for book and magazine illustrations, precisely because of its illustrative style. However, if you do require a more photoreal finish, there are a myriad of renderers available, or you can export to something like Lumion if you need easy-peasy animated elements such as people windblown trees, vehicles...even pigeons. Buy both and you'd still come out way ahead over purchasing Max to achieve the same result...with a heck of a lot less work involved. -
I design and make furniture, (amongst other things), the only downside to SU for me is that once I've designed and built a piece in Sketchup, I often lose interest in actually making it, because, there it is!
But really, since starting with SU (V4), my work has improved in efficiency 10 fold.
No more getting halfway thru a project and seeing the proportions are wrong and no more spending hours with pencils, (remember those?), trying to visualize a connection.And especially, no more clients saying "Oh, I didn't think it was going to be like that".
Yay for sketchup
Baz
PS: I do actually invariably start a new project with pencil and paper, nothing beats it yet for going crazy with ideas.
-
Wow, more fantastic replies... I think I'll be sticking around here
@ledisnomad: my intended use is - for the moment at least - to play! I work mostly in web design / graphic design, but I'm a bit of a jack of all trades (i.e. master of none) so I'm always happy to have something else to add to my CV. 3D modeling wise I'm interested in archviz and potentially organic landscapes - I've seen some amazing stuff done with instancing and indigo renderer.
Fun is definitely the keyword here - personally I tend to try and turn things I enjoy into a potential career (see the CV comment above!) which sometimes sucks all of the fun right out.
However, based on you guys and gals I'm going to stick with Sketchup! I had a peek at the 'get started' guide for Maya and threw up a little bit!
Next up is a thread asking for your recommendations for 'must have' plugins - i.e. what every newbie should have!
Thanks everyone for your views!
-
@unknownuser said:
Not saying I'm a sketchup master but it did take quite a bit longer to really learn it.
At least a year or two but maybe I'm slow.Sure...(and you are a modest Master
...but from zero that is only "complex" and "versatile" prog that you can use with very pleasure of building 15 minutes after
its start without any 3D knowledge!
I am not sure that you can make the same with Blender or Zbrush or ...!
-
Well, getting a cube is faster in Blender
Jokes apart, I agree with everything said up there so there isn't much left.
For my job it is the perfect tool, because I need fast results and accurate measures to show to clients few minutes after they make the request -
@unknownuser said:
getting a cube is faster in Blender
and make a hole inside when you don't kown anything in 3D ?
I don't remember that they had discovered the Push Puspull effect -
I haven't tried Blender for a long time, but I assume that Karina was making a joke...in that Blender opens a new file with a cube (or sphere) primitive already in place...ready to be worked on, like several other programs.
Of course, there is nothing to prevent anyone from creating a SU template that did exactly the same thing, but given that there are several Ruby scripts that will produce a cube (or box) almost instantly, it's hardly worth the bother.
-
The latest build of Blender is worth taking a look at. The UI is now more pleasing and once you get the right click setup under control you start to enjoy it.
The level of help you get at blender.org is incredible. They've some great members
-
I might do that, Rich...although at the moment, I'm wrestling with the intricacies of geo and spatial referencing.
@unknownuser said:
The UI is now more pleasing...
It would need to be, the last time I tried it (adittedly quite a few years ago) it made Maya look easy; and had the reputation of being the most devilishly unintuitive 3D app on the planet.
-
Awwwwwwwwww Rich, not the "B" word again, lol
-
Hi,
Why Sketchup. Because SketchUp is very easy to learn. If one has understood the use of standard tools there are very quick steps to the first success. I had found six years ago a video tutorial which consisted of twelve lessons. In these lessons, the use of standard tools were shown. I tried all the techniques shown in parallel with "Sketchup". Within four weeks I was able to take the first small projects undertaken. Of course, I've made many mistakes. Then I Found the SketchUcation forum, and learned much among others the various plugins to know. The rest was practice and practice again and again.
And that's what makes Sketchup. You can learn the use of the standard tools very quickly and you can have great success with. The whole construction techniques are easier to accomplish in Sketchup, as this is the case in many other programs.
Other 3D programs also have their place, because Sketchup is not the "non plus ultra" in the 3D programs. Sketchup has its limitations e.g. in the design of organic shapes. Before a decision is always the question, for what purpose I want to use a special 3D program.
Charly
Advertisement