Free sketchup or sketchup pro?

not registered yet

Any input would be helpful. I am trying to decide what CAD program to get. Now I don't know much, but I understand that sketchup isn't exactly a CAD program, but for my purposes, it effectively seems to be. I do interior design and often I do floor plans for furniture, desk systems, and lighting plans. I need to be able to import and export these drawings including being able to modify dwg's that are sent to me from architects. I have been considering TurboCad for Mac, Vectorworks, and Sketchup. I have been using the free sketchup and I think it's great! I tried fiddling with a demo of turboCad without much pleasure, and have been reading that there is little to no support for that program. I've heard great things about Vectorworks, but at $1200 it's a little steep for my budget. I would be willing to invest in Sketchup Pro, if I need to....
Any words of wisdom from you smart folks?
Thanks in advance!

P: joanffolliott

Gaieus

Welcome at the forums, Joan (?),

By now there seems to be only two differences between the free and pro versions (not counting the new though still beta presentation program, LayOut, that comes with the pro version only).

One difference is the geolocation about wich you can read more here but as an interior designer you need not care too much about this (and there are effective workarounds as you can read over the other topic).

The other difference is 3D export. While the import functions are exactly the same in the two versions, you can only export into other 3D formats with the pro version.
Now if that is really essential for you, you may consider buying the pro version (I also did and my first job payed the expenses back).

As you know, SU does not have interior lighting but there are a whole bunch of excellent (though external) rendering programs but quite a few of which is more or less integrated into SU. There are even free applications for this purpose and they can be very effective in lighting plans and studies. We have a nice "collection" of them here (and you can also browse our "Renders gallery" to see what great results can be achieved.

not registered yet

Thank you for the information. I am concerned about the exporting. Last night I had to export the floor plan and could only do it as a jpeg, tiff, or png. I am new to this whole thing, so I don't know if people can work on my exported file in those formats.
Would another program altogether be better?

P: joanffolliott

Edson

have a look at vectorworks. i have been using it since it was called minicad. it is really good and packed with features. much cheaper than autocad, archicad and pthers like these.

it comes with a render module (renderworks) and a fine terrain modelling module (landmark).

good luck.

Sawduster

On the legal side, if I remember correctly, the free version is not licensed for commercial use, so if you're doing it for money, then . . .

Anssi

In fact the free version CAN be used commercially, the agreement wording has changed from v.5.

The main difference between the versions is that Pro has Layout and vector-based output formats (DWG, DXF, PDF, 3DS, OBJ...)

Anssi

Gaieus

Yes, true, they left the "commercial thing" out of the free version now.

not registered yet

Well, thank you all so much. It seems like the pro version would be the one to enable me to export in the formats I want to.
I'd like to try Vectorworks sometime. Does anyone know of a free demo?

P: joanffolliott

Edson

try their site: http://www.nemetschek.net/

sorgesu

At one point I heard that the export resolution on raster files had a lower limit than in the Pro version. Is that true/still true?

Chris Fullmer

Can the true free version import dwg files? or is it the Pro trial that is importing. One other concern is that the free won't output to dwg if ever needed.

Finally, if you are getting dwg files from clients, it seem slike SU might have problem with them if they are not trimmed down correctly. I don't know how elaborate they come in your line of work, but I can't imagine using SU to edit the CAD files created by my firm, just because of the detail and size of the dwg file.

I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree though.

Chris

Gaieus

Susan,

In SU5 (free) trhere was a restriction of 2D image output to screen resolution. Now in SU 6 (free) this is the same as pro.

Chris,

The import functions of the two versions are the same - the difference is in the export functions of 2D models: the free version only allows kmz export (i.e. to Google Earth).

The only other difference is that (in the Windows version) there is no location option in the Model info in the free version (I just learned that in the Mac version there is, here on the forums )

And, of course, LayOut...

(In the office I work I only have the free version installed so I can check regularly - Google has eliminated most of the differences between the two versions)

Chris Fullmer

@gaieus said:

The only other difference is that (in the Windows version) there is no location option in the Model info in the free version.

I sort of didn't believe you when you said that there is no model location ability. So I looked it up and sure enough, they took it out! I think that's crazy. Of course there is the workaround of opening google earth and zooming to the location of your model and then importing that terrain. That will set your SU model to the correct coordinates. But that's sure a long way around it.

Chris

Gaieus

Also Jim Foltz made a ruby that puts location into the free version, too.

Edson

@gaieus said:

Also Jim Foltz made a ruby that puts location into the free version, too.

do you where can it be downloaded from? i looked for it in our repository but could not find it.

Gaieus

We've already had this discussion, Edson, remember?
Well, it's listed here:
http://jim.foltz.googlepages.com/plugins_index.html
But you are on Mac, Edson, and the free SU for Mac has the Location afaik

Edson

sorry, gai, i did not remember it. yes, i am on mac but most of my students are not so the script will be useful to them.

thanks.

Gaieus

Yeah, I thought so.
Thank Jim, not me!

Goggin

I'm in a similar mode-- trying to decide whether to go pro or not.

The big drawbacks of the free version for me are

Difficulty in printing large (11 x 17 or 24 x 36) copies of blueprints.
Exporting to .dwg format.

If I have to have those two features, is there any option other than going pro?

Thanks. This is my first post here. I've been using SketchUp for about 2 weeks now, and I just found this MB a few days ago. Lots of good info here!

Gaieus

Goggin,

First of all, welcome - though you found us in the middle of a move (so please, read the announcement right now).

As for your problems:

works the same in the Pro and the Free versions now. Really no difference.
Exporters are different. You need the Pro version to be able to export 3D models from (native) SU.