@jeff hammond said:

@hieru said:

Presumably if users don't like the development roadmap, they should just stop using Sketchup - is that the gist of things?

the main problem with that is that there is no development roadmap.. not publicly available at least.. they're entirely too secretive about the future of sketchup. (imo)

Compare that to the Rhino forums where the McNeel people respond to feature requests on the forum, indicating if they plan to include the request in a future release (generally it's a 'no promises, but we'll try') or not. They don't put out a 'roadmap' per se but if you cruise the forums regularly, you get a clear idea of what's being worked on. And they're very up front when they think a requested feature isn't feasible at this time.

What's not to like about 'transparency'.

@jman0war said:

Actually, i take it back about Revizto.

It costs €399 for stand-alone license.
While Theaa for SketchUp bundle costs €320.

I don't think Revizto is so much a rendering software as a platform to view models in 3D on the web.

@andybot said:

@arail1 said:

I've tried that in the past with V-Ray but haven't explored the option much because I'm using the physical camera to adjust the brightness of the scene. Turning physical camera off requires resetting other variables to get a similar look and that's not an easy thing for me to do.

If you want to try it, I've set up a vropt for doing a 2D elevation with sunlight. Here's the file, load this with the "import" button (not the "load" button)

Andybot -

Just wanted to let you know that I had a family issue that dragged me away from NY right after you posted this. Not back yet but will try it out as soon as I get back.
Thanks again.

@andybot said:

@arail1 said:

I'd love to be able to do some orthographic work that corresponded more coherently with the rendering section. I could add labels and text in Illustrator. Unfortunately I've already invested significant $$ in V-Ray SketchUP and V-Ray Rhino but it's something I'd like to know more about.

You can do ortho projection with vray for su. When you turn off the physical camera, it's possible to render ortho.

Thanks for that tip

I've tried that in the past with V-Ray but haven't explored the option much because I'm using the physical camera to adjust the brightness of the scene. Turning physical camera off requires resetting other variables to get a similar look and that's not an easy thing for me to do. I just tried this with my demo copy of Indigo and it's exactly the same scene, just in ortho rather than perspective. I'm sure someone with more experience than I have with V-Ray could do this easily but I find that I end up with two very different looking images.

@jeff hammond said:

@pbacot said:

What renderers do two point perspective and orthagonal views (for Mac --not iRender)?

Indigo

.
[edit- i'm not saying indigo is the only one that will do it on mac.. just the only one i personally know of that will]

I didn't know that. I have a demo version that I haven't played with much. I don't like the 'Frankenstein' quality of some of my drawing sets - a couple pages of renderings, a couple pages of Layout 3D views with labels and text and a couple pages of 2D drafting for technical details. I'd love to be able to do some orthographic work that corresponded more coherently with the rendering section. I could add labels and text in Illustrator. Unfortunately I've already invested significant $$ in V-Ray SketchUP and V-Ray Rhino but it's something I'd like to know more about.

I posted about this before. I'm hoping the first production run is this Spring and that it works as advertised. Much as I still depend on the 'old tape measure' and digital tape measures and such, getting the basic data of a whole room(s) with a scan would be an immense time saver for me.

http://structure.io/

@box said:

Have a read here.
http://sketchucation.com/resources/tutorials/37-beginner/315-edges-bleeding-through-geometry

Thanks for that. It's a problem I run into continually relative to a particular product I have to draw in many variations (drum shades for a retail client) so a workaround is very much appreciated.

If it's any consolation the problem is more apparent in Rhino than in SketchUp. Not sure why.

The download page is quite confusing and should be re-organized.

Some questions I hope someone can answer for me -

The download page only lists 32bit systems - why is that?

What is the difference between these two categories - V-Ray 2.0 Adv for SketchUp and V-Ray for SketchUp?
The first one lists builds up to Mar 4, the second one is Mar 19. Which one should I download?

Thanks in advance for any clarity you can provide.

@jeff hammond said:

fwiw, i'm constantly bumping into people using sketchup in their work.. as in, most of the architectural, engineering, landscape design, production firms i collaborate with on per project basis have sketchup and we'll often share files/ideas through sketchup (even though it may not be either of our main software).. a few of the firms are using sketchup as their main software.

Increasingly, when I send out SU files, I get SU files back. What I mean by that is a lot of the work that I do is shop drawings for contractors, millwork companies, etc. The majority of that work is done in AutoCAD LT (although I'm migrating my 2D drafting to Rhino). I send the drawings to the contractor and they pass them along to the architect who sends back red lines for revisions. Sometimes, to clarify a point, I'll send along a SU to show a detail in question in 3D. Almost as a rule now, the architect responds with a SketchUp reply. That wasn't true a couple of years ago but now it's almost standard. It's like once I've established that SketchUp is a acceptable means of communication, the architects dump their Revit, MAX and whatnot in favor of SU to communicate with me. And the work goes faster.

I think (and hope) NPR work will become more prevalent in the near future. My clients are bored with super photo realistic images and as one of them said to me recently (get ready for a chilling breeze): "Can't you send this off to India and cut our costs?"

These look great. They're very personal, very distinct. I particularly like the second one with water.

Okay, I feel pretty stupid. I was looking at the page linked from the Extension Warehouse and forgot I wasn't in the Sketchucation thread. I saw no replies and wondered if it was a dead plugin or something. But there are 15 pages of replies in the actual thread.

Maybe I need a new, stronger brand of coffee?

You should consider downloading a demo version of Rhino and running the Shell command. I'm assuming you're just printing the outside volume of these buildings, therefore you don't need floors. Shell will do what I think you're looking for.

Does anyone have any experience with this plugin?
If so -
Does it work well?
What versions of SU is it compatible with, etc.?

Thanks in advance for any input you've got.

I'd really like something like this to organize my Layers into some kind of coherent form.

http://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pauthor=jiminy-billy-bob

@chicos said:

seasdes

Could you elaborate on your transition from SketchUP to FormZ. I am considering moving to FormZ but I worry about its complexity.

I don't think you should worry about complexity in that sense. formZ has more functions than SketchUp but where they overlap (in modeling primarily) formZ operates in a very similar fashion to SketchUp. You should be able to transition very quickly.

@arcad-uk said:

@derei said:

All it takes is a smart guy to develop a similar software that will take the ease to use of sketchup and adapt it to nowadays needs. And there will be one... it always had been (this is how good things happened).

I'm looking at my options...

http://www.formz.com/products/bonzai3d.html

I came close to buying a license for formZ last month when they had their big anniversary sale. The price at that time was not much more than bonzai. I played with a demo and found it to be a very cool program. I especially like the way the work plane was 'attached' to the end of your cursor. It's a full program with a layout function, nurbs, etc.

Unfortunately, because of work pressure I have to add a parametric program to my arsenal soon ($$ ouch!) so I couldn't justify the license but I wish I'd been able to. A good program to have in your tool kit.

I think there's a general sense that JB's comments kind of miss the point and are worrisome to many. His position, if I understand it correctly, is that significant change (new features, etc.) to SketchUp would mean deviating from the original design of a fast, simple, flexible modeler. The response voiced throughout various threads here over the last few days is that there are many, many areas in SU that need improvement and, doing so, would not make the program more complex, more unwieldy nor would it be a denial of original intentions.

Therefore, let's have a Wishlist dedicated to Improvements Only. I'm sure there are lots of areas that will be hard to decide whether it's an improvement or a new feature. For instance, would parametric modeling capabilities be a new feature or an improvement?

To start this off, I'm going to copy and paste from Pixero's post in the Gripes and Bitchin thread (which is itself a copy and paste from the Bekerman blog). The list isn't mine, it's from sket83 at Bekerman but the list covers many of my needs.

• Why can't we dock the Materials, Components and other widows to the side of the screen in a scrollable panel?
• Why is there no longer option to save (and load) toolbar positions?
• Why can't we make groups for Layers?
• Why can't we make groups for Materials? ... (a feature i'd like to see in Vray too, btw)
• Why is there no better UV mapping (for organic shapes)?
• Why is there still viewport clipping in large models?
• Why is Sketchup still not optimized for detailed models?
• Why is it still stuck at 32bit?
• Why must we reinstall all plugins every time a new version is released?

@sfto1 said:

@arcad-uk said:

I recently bought Acad LT; the subscription fee is three times what I pay for SU but at least I can see a return on investment with industry standard DWG collaboration, hatching that works, accurate circles and numerous 2D function that make LO look like a "blunt stick".

Not to mention LO dimensioning is still woeful compared to ACAD LT, but then again, I seem to be the only one who gripes about LO dimensioning capabilities, so it's no surprise that I still cannot produce the documents I need to produce with just a SU/LO workflow.

BTW, blunt stick seems to be a generous analogy.

I upgraded my AutoCAD LT license to the Inventor LT Suite which bundles AutoCAD LT and Inventor LT. The upgrade price to the Inventor LT Suite was a few dollars less than the price to upgrade just to AutoCAD LT. Not sure why. So now I have a bare bones parametric modeler in my tool kit.

I model in SU and use LO to create perspective views of my work - something that AutoCAD LT of course can't do. But for any work that's 2D the dimensioning and annotation capabilities of AutoCAD LT are so far in advance of LO that there's no reason to use it.

Thanks - the double clicking trick did it. I couldn't make it dock otherwise.

Apologies for the profile issue. I thought I did fill it out when you last asked. Apparently not.

Whatever. I filled out the profile but I'll admit that I lied - for Interests I put Wine Woman and Song but the truth is I don't Drink (but at one time I did, oh yes I did), I'm too old to look at a Woman younger than Social Security age and as far as Song goes, my singing is not something you or anyone else should ever be subjected to.

Thanks again for the tip.

I will piggy back on to this thread as my question / complaint is similar. I can't dock my Large Tool Set toolbar. I dragged it away from the side to put it up on top and it won't dock on the top, it won't dock back where it came from on the left side, won't do it on the right side. Not sure what to do. I use 2 monitors and often have a number of programs opened. The toolbar is free of SU floating all over the place.

Any thoughts? Advice? Thanks in advance.

@dave r said:

You can already get that with the Layers toolbar. I find Entity Info works just fine for that since I always have it open where I can see it.

I wish the Entity and Layers panel were one or could be made into one optionally.