Coming back to SU freelance
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So I used to work in SU for about 5 years, the first 2 purely in SU, the next 3 mainly SU but we did try and use podium, shaderlight etc. The emphasis was on a quick turn around.
Anyway I've just been offered some freelance work. What's changed since Trimble took over? I last used SU8.
What rendering plug-ins are the most popular, from my perspective Vray seems to be the professional choice, Podium and Twilight are both cheap and simple if I recall correctly and Shaderlight is located in my local city so that's also on my list. Anyone used LightUp as advertised up there ^^
Also can SU now handle technical drawings, I preferred using AutoCAD but I'll happily move over if it speeds things up.
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As to what's changed, the best thing is to look at SketchUp.com and have a read.
Rendering? There's probably a hundred different renderers and you'll get a hundred different answers.
What kind of "technical drawings" are you thinking of? Your profile indicates you are using SketchUp for woodworking. I do, too, mainly. I draw models in SketchUp and make full blown building plans in LayOut. For example, this is a little display case I designed for a client. This image is one of the images used in the proposal. From the same SketchUp model I made the plan so it could be built. The plan includes a cutlist, dimensioned drawings construction details and so on.
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Nice, I remember your work from the old forum. The freelance work will be for exhibitions so mainly floor plans I imagine. Could you post up some technical drawings if they aren't private.
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You will find some great examples for the use of Layout in this topic...
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I was going to suggest the same thread Cotty suggested. I haven't got any plans I can share at the moment but you can see some really nice work in that thread.
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Thanks chaps
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I wouldn't be too quick to ditch ACAD. I tried to like LO, but it's painful if you have to draft anything. Yeah, it's great for taking a 3D model and dolling it up 2D style, but don't plan on drafting in LO...
I
vray, but don't overlook Thea or Podium
jm2cand, urm, don't get me started on SU2013 and 2014...
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Thanks Andy, I think I want to ultimately go with vray but it's more expensive.
Cotty, I've just seen your Passivehouse window is that for the passivhaus company?
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No, it's a part of my own house, like the wall...
I've only rendered them for fun. -
Hey,
I also use SU primarily for exhibition design work, so hope this may be useful.
For rendering I use Thea, which I've found offers the best balance between quality and speed in a deadline-driven environment.
As for drafting, it really depends on the level you need. For knocking out some quickly dimensioned elevations, Layout does the job, but for drafting from-scratch, I found it way too laborious (I do accept this may be my shortcoming, not SketchUp's).
For 2D drafting, I've moved over to NanoCad, which has a VERY Autocad-like interface, and more importantly is FREE, for the basic version which does everything I need. Between SU, Thea and NanoCad, I think I've got it covered
cheers,
A
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