Layout: Love it or Loathe it?
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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 I get the feeling they may be working with code that's outdated or that they are hindered in someway?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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Thanks Marc...
Is it a separate beast than SU code wise? there is no hope of ruby integration? Or any other opensource plugin coding?
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@mikebelluckf said:
Hi Skupusers,
I will be presenting at the 3D Basecamp UK at RIBA on the 9th of September 2015 - the last slot of the day (some coffee will be consumed).
My presentation is about using both Sketchup & Layout in pitch & presentation context.
Some reaction - brief, monosyllabic, or gastronomic about this posts would be interesting to help shape my final words. LMK if you are happy to have attributations.
Me, I love em all......
Mike Bell
mike@mikebell.euMike, did you perhaps have any record your presentation? Youtbue link would be appreciated...
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@juju said:
Mike, did you perhaps have any record your presentation?
unfortunately Mike was unable to attend due to last minute personal issues...
john -
I've done a few live sketchup modeling on youtube Mike... Maybe we could just make some of those for them in Layout? and talk through it on places where we'd like new tools?
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@calypsoart said:
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.
+1 on what you say. here in our architecture practice in France we have tried all sorts of workflows & always come back to the export 2d > dwg method.
Using LO is SOOOOO slow even on our best machines with super graphics card etc... it's so painful I was tempted to smoke again after 18years !
I've been doing 3d and 2d since 1988 and am still waiting for the join-up between easy intuitive 3d (sketchup, or, back in the day ModelShop) and fast update-able 2d at a reasonable price for a small outfit.. (no, I do not want BIM bam boom as it standardizes thought processes & is actually there to further push industrialisation of building....
Anyway, I'm sure the Trimble guys will get there at some point... -
Hi Marc, great to hear from you!
I'm sure it was as hard for you to write, "We've made progress on a few items, but sadly not many." as it was for me to read them.
I do greatly appreciate your candor, however. I know it is easy for me to whine from the outside, with no insight to what you guys are going through to work on the code, and I appreciate being able to at least talk to someone on the development team.
I, of course, would love to make it to a Basecamp. Whether I can actually pull it off, or not, is maybe another question.
Any chance you guys were interested in maybe doing a video conference? I'd be happy to be a beta tester, too, if you were interested in that?
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As with any program, you have to understand its strengths and weaknesses to get the most out of performance. Once you clearly set the parameters of how LO works with SU, it is very fast. I used ACAD for over 20 years and I can produce a far more detailed set of documents with LO in about 1/3 the time I could with ACAD. The main place people have issues is when they try to vector render a scene that shows an entire model. Once you establish a good layering system that allows you to control the scenes you can easily determine which ones to Vector render opposed to raster or hybrid or combinations of the two which is what I do.
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@paddyclown said:
here in our architecture practice in France we have tried all sorts of workflows & always come back to the export 2d > dwg method.
For what it's worth that method is obsolete imho.
What Sketchup can give us is new methods of communicating our ideas that are simply not available in CAD.
For me it's a waste of time, investing in a model with material textures and 3d info, shadows, rendering capabilities and 3d data, dynamic components and possibly reports, and then go back to the old flat way of showing things.
2D plans, sections and elevations are a way of communicating that is still very useful nowadays.
However the amount of detail you can put into a sketchup model makes it way better at communicating with people that surround construction industry that it's simply not very clever to throw it all away by exporting to flat cad.
Hence I use layout hybrid mode most of the time.
It's heavy on the PC, yes, but with the money you save by not adhering to CAD you can eventually buy a good PC. With mine Layout flies in a nvidia Titan X and i75200k 32Gb total 3000€ (that of course is also a rendering beast).
Sketchup+Layout+Render (In my case Thea) can show things in ways cad will never be able to.
The only thing holding this combo back is Layout. It's the only thing that makes a direct connection to sketchup to create excellent 2D output but:
- It has a workflow that is very unpolished and;
- CAD export is still lacking and unfortunatelly this is a must if you want to share your work with an industry that has long standardized it's format to dwg/dxf. CAD is, as I stated at start, obsolete/dying slowly, BIM it's too technical so dead from the start, SKP and LO are the way to go...
So my main wish for 2016 is that Marc Durant endures that MacOS fight and solves those two things:
- Workflow (every command should be working like Sketchup commands, every text should work like word and every style should be work like CSS style sheets)
- CAD export should be flawless...
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