Plugins for Layout
-
Why oh why is there no plugin capabilities in Layout?! Using SketchUp without plugins would be terrible for me. The amount of people improving the program would go from a small office group to hundreds! It would make the program so much better!
Can this please be a thing! Can we do this! Think about it please Trimble people!
-
Trimble is working on it.
-
I expect the next version in November, 5 months away, let's hope they up their game on Layout.
-
I really do think LayOut is close to becoming a better idea of what BIM could be for many architects and design professionals. The other side of it that makes me more interested is it can become what BIM isn't: for everybody else that has a great idea and wants to communicate it easily. But to do that, LayOut seriously needs to embrace itself as a drafting program and the ability to draw to real a scale inside of the program, copy/paste back into a SketchUp model and continue to get as fast and easy to use as it's big brother.
I have utilized LayOut more and more in my daily practice with the help of Nick Sonder and Mike Birghtman's approaches. I see these methods of thinking about developing design (not just architecture) as a workflow from SketchUp to LayOut that fits more accurately in a true design process (i.e. You don't have to know everything you want in a design prior to starting- discovery and "happy accidents" abound.)
I really do hope Trimble understands this and continues to tie SketchUp and LayOut together in a fluid way so much that they are two sides of the same coin, rather than separate entities. Together with an ability to connect information on the web with components in models, sharing information as a project database with Trimble Connect and pushing the client use of incorporating models into a VR or AR delivery is exciting.
Anyway, here's to hoping, y'all!
Eric
Advertisement