Layout: Love it or Loathe it?
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I have a love hate relationship with it... It's still fundamentally flawed, but it's also wonderfully functional and easy to use. Still, it needs to learn a few strokes from the old hands.
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Some light reading if you want to get a finger in the air to check the breeze.
Construction & Working Drawings - Discussion
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12%26amp;t=15911 -
I love it! I use it for all my presentations from schematic design through full construction documents.
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It is, without doubt, the best and only viable solution for 2D from Sketchup for me. I have generated thousands of pages of shop drawings, blueprints, and presentations with it and spend as much time using it as I do Sketchup
That being said, it is clunky, takes 1000% too many left clicks to accomplish anything, and feels like a piece of 1999 software. Just as an estimate, I would say that 40% of the time spent using Layout is wasted due to leader text editing sucking, moving dimension text around, and editing text.
For me, though, by far the most frustrating aspect of Layout is that the developers are not doing sh&%t to substantially improve it. I know, I know, it is way better than it was (true) but it is still way way not as good as it should/could be. Was it the last update that gave us two segment leader text that is awful in every other way? and what else did they improve? It's faster but still agonizingly slow with large vector rendering. And what else?
Would I recommend it to a SU user? Absolutely. Are there any other real options? No, not at all. Let's not forget that Layout was started by AtLast; that was a long freaking time ago, just sayin'
I would gladly pay for $1000+ for a real, substantive update.
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@unknownuser said:
I love it! I use it for all my presentations from schematic design through full construction documents.
I love what Sonder does with it.
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@otb designworks said:
Just as an estimate, I would say that 40% of the time spent using Layout is wasted due to leader text editing sucking, moving dimension text around, and editing text.
I wonder if i am missing the correct methodology as to get what would be appropriate leader text position on any CAD (and hand drawn protocol) takes a lot of extra steps.
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Use it everyday, some issues with it but the Trimble guys are continually developing it.. [and listening!!]
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@otb designworks said:
I would gladly pay for $1000+ for a real, substantive update.
Don't give anybody any ideas...
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I love and hate LO!
I use it and need it badly as it's very handy and I can get great results.
But I hate working with it, hate CAD exports and dimensioning/leader jobs.
It still is the best 2D/drafting output you can get from Sketchup so it's fundamental. I'd love a full revamp on a lot of stuff though.
What I do is push it way to the end of my production line and prepare all things in Sketchup to the full extent I can. The things I can automate inside LO, I do and I try to fast jump in LO and flee the also as fast as I can...
EDIT: My answer doesn't fit your poll...
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@juju said:
@otb designworks said:
I would gladly pay for $1000+ for a real, substantive update.
Don't give anybody any ideas...
The key was the word substantive. I have a long list, posted on this site years ago, that would need to be addressed in a serious manner before that kind of money would be warranted. That said, if I could improve my workflow by 40%, I would happily pay money for that.
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@utiler said:
but the Trimble guys are continually developing it.. [and listening!!]
How do you know?
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Someone is listening from above... creepy!
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Hi Marc! I know you know of the list I speak...
One day I would love it if the Layout developers flew me down to Colorado where I could pull out my years of Layout portfolio and I could demonstrate my workflow over a few hours and they could see for themselves of what I speak. Perhaps a dialogue and beta testing role would be helpful. It's always good to see what the power users are doing every day. I would love that. I would assuredly not show up with beer or anything silly like that..
You guys have the power to vastly improve a large chunk of my everyday existence! Help me!!! I'm on my knees over here:)
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We don't get to hear a lot about Layout from the SketchUp blog or team... I get the feeling they may be working with code that's outdated or that they are hindered in someway? Perhaps they are actually the SketchUp team, so most of their time is spent there? Not sure... I've always gotten the feeling that we're probably lucky to be getting what we have. What I really wish is that documentation was moved into SketchUp... All of it. and allow Ruby to effect it... That would give us everything from layout and the customization to specialize and flow free where we need to via plugin devs. Pipe Dream? Meh... Maybe.
But maybe with Trimble at the wheel they will get the backing/resources they need to take Layout to the next level. They certainly have a huge repertoire of software. I just don't know that Trimble has handed SU Team the keys to the castle and let them pillage all the other programs. I would imagine they are all separate teams and perhaps fairly autonomous. I mean I'm already here. I've already made the leap from Autocad and though it can't do everything Autocad does... I'm willing to make those sacrifices just to get out from under Autodesk. If Layout could take that leap too and bring her a bit further to pro documenting tool. I'd be ecstatic.
Price increase? Ummmm I think you owe me this one Trimble.
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Layout is really the next step towards CAD independence and a new architect's standard.
I've also made the leap since Layout3 but I'm fighting hard against the software. Even so SU+LO combo is way better than CAD.
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In France also we love LayOut, even if it is necessary to look for all the information on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
I use it on a daily basis. So, I love it.
En France aussi on aime LayOut, même s'il faut rechercher toutes les informations de l'autre côté de l'atlantique.
Moi je l'utilise au quotidien.
Cordialement
Henri
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I work in Film and Television. I have used Maya, Solidworks, Rhino, Sketchup, Autocad and a few other packages. I've abandoned all but Rhino, SU and AC. In my TV work we have to design sets, put out drawings, and get them built in days, and sometimes hours. For modeling, nothing is as fast as SU. Period! However, in my workflow, it is much faster for me to section through the SU model and export to AC than to use Layout. Layout just does not have the tools.
I will use Layout when I just have a small element to complete, and lots of time. Granted, I'm sporadically using Layout and by no means well versed. But even just moving around in Layout on my computer it is much slower than AC. I recently worked with someone who only worked in Layout and was considered fast with the program. I was doing the more complicated pieces, and my SU>AC export method was at least 2 twice as fast if not more.
Perhaps as I use Layout more I may discover methods that help me pick up the pace, but I'm still skeptical.
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I fall in the love/hate category, tho' as I get used to the quirks of LO, I'm leaning towards the love.
As Dave R and others emphasize, it is vital to organize the model as much as possible before importing and then to pay particular attention to Layout layers.
The ability to lock or hide dimensions, viewports etc. can reduce a lot of the frustration.
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@otb designworks said:
Hi Marc! I know you know of the list I speak...
Oh yes, I know the list. We've made progress on a few items, but sadly not many.
Is there any chance you can come to our next 3d basecamp event? I think we should be having one sometime next spring (this is not an official announcement). The LayOut team loves to see how people use the product and where the pain points are. We've talked about having a booth where people can come to share their feedback.
In response to some earlier questions in this thread, LayOut does have its own dedicated team, and it's by far the best team I've worked with in 14 years in the software industry. Even so, I'm always astounded at how long it takes to get anything implemented/fixed/etc in the product. For instance I've spent nearly three months this year just updating our code to keep pace with SDK changes on OS X, which is frustrating when I'd rather be working on features & improvements.
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