10 years with Sketchup

JQL

Too bad for students that actually want to design, not just draft. The freedom sketchup brings to the design process is unmatched by any of the big dogs.

Bottom line for me is that it's a waste to see young bright minds wasting themselves trying to become drafters. I'm always trying to convince the ones I meet to design instead of draft, but what really should happen is that more architectural practices would aknowledge that this is what they should do too.

There's a place for BIM and drafting and there's a place for architecture thinking. If software enables them both, then great, but I don't see many cases where that's true.

Sketchup seemed to be evolving over there though...

ntxdave

From my perspective, you need some of both skills. I got into SU because someone was looking for a replacement for their SU person. While I have been in/around technology for over 40 years, I am kind of a "Jack of all trades - master of none".

I have programmed and even taught some programming classes, but I am NOT a programmer
I have managed network people, but I am NOT very conversant in networking
I have designed applications, web pages, and web sites, but I am NOT a designer or coder
I have audited technology, managed technical auditors, and even taught information systems auditing to other professionals and even at the university, but I am NOT an up-to-date technical auditor
I have put together various versions of computer graphics, but I am NOT an artist

I have been able to do some work with SU but not having any background in engineering or architecture sometimes limits my abilities.

I do love this forum because many of you (in particular people like DaveR) are willing to share your knowledge and help people like me learn. One of my biggest challenges at times (again given my lack of engineering, architectural, or graphics background) is understanding the terminology used or fully understanding the technical aspects of some posts (like how light is refracted and etc. - valuable in rendering).

However, you people have made the past 3 years enjoyable for me. I am officially retired (do about 4 to 5 hours work a month for a company) so most of what I do is for my own enjoyment and "education". I wonder when I hit that 10 year mark how much I will have learned.

Edson

@pmolson said:

Too bad for students that actually want to design, not just draft. The freedom sketchup brings to the design process is unmatched by any of the big dogs.

Congratulations on 10 years, I have always enjoyed your posts.
p

thanks pmolson (it is Paul, is it not?)

you got it just right. sketchup is about designing, not drafting.

I must say something else about my 10 year anniversary. it definitely would not have been the same without the help of this forum. the amount of help –I lost count of how many times I had a problem that was solved in hours if not minutes by a fellow member– and friendship extended to me during this period is just invaluable and I treasure it.

ntxdave

Edson - I forgot to say congratulations on your 10 years.

Kenny

This thread has got me thinking about how long I've been using SketchUp. I did a search on my email and it was back in May 2001 I downloaded the Version 1 demo. I thought it was great and tried to buy it ($475 back then!) but it wasn't even licensed outside North America. I couldn't officially buy it in the UK until 2 months later.

There was nothing else like it then, or even today. I remember going on an Autocad course that my employer at the time sent me on and thinking that there had to be something easier than this! I researched the market and found SketchUp, which I trialed and then bought. After using it and demonstrating what it could do as an urban design tool, I also persuaded my employer to buy a couple of licenses as well.

Although it was very basic compared to today and crashed a lot, it was like a breath of fresh air. I also corresponded with Tom Wyman and Jim Holman at @last (the original company that developed SketchUp) who were great and passed on my feedback to the developers who slowly ironed out the bugs and added features. The @last forum was also very helpful with fellow pioneers feeding back our experience of the software, including Mike Lucey I remember! I haven't looked back since then and it's no exaggeration that SketchUp has been the foundation of my whole career, and I never did learn Autocad...!

Pixero

I started using SketchUp in 2001 or 2002 when I went to a ten week course in SketchUp and AutoCAD.
I did all the beginner errors but slowly built my knowledge of the program.
It's mostly been a pleasant journey but I still think it should have been developed more into a professional tool but I won't go into that here...