Hello!

Does anyone know if there is a plugin for tracking material costs? For instance if I assign a price/sq. ft. to a material and sketchup will automatically calculate a price based on face size? thank you!

edit: I'm designing a patio for my brother that he doesn't want to spend more than ~$7,000 U.S. This is why I could definitely use this.

-Chad

So I'm trying to use the smoove tool on a grid that I created using the from scratch tool. I can't get the red circle to show up indicating that the tool is activated - even though I had the grid selected prior to activating the tool. I then tried to make a rectangle, and the smoove tool will work on that....what gives? Even when I "explode" the grid (since it comes in as a group), I can't seem to use the tool on it...

My master's degree will be in Urban Planning with a specialization in urban design. I live and want to stay in Buffalo - a great city with no job growth hopefully those who hold public office can get their acts together and realize that some peoples' hopes of returning to a great industrial manufacturing city are dreams we would be chasing forever and never achieving.

@tfdesign said:

@chad_ub said:

What I would love is a career in modeling the built environment and various urban design proposals (transforming streets, etc.), but I also want to be involved in the research and analysis that goes into the decision making process on what it is exactly we should do. Would a position like that even exist?! haha.

Unfortunately this is another college myth- that the streets out here are paved with gold. They aren't. You have to make it work. If you like modelling, then brilliant- welcome to the club! However you must remember that once a house is built, it isn't going to be knocked down for a while, so you must chase all the work everyone else is chasing, unless of course, you also specialise skills in other areas- not just CAD. Just see CAD as a tool, and you will be fine. The thing with universities, is that the lecturers do this modelling stuff everyday- therefore, realistically, if you want to do CAD everyday, you really should be teaching it!

Sounds like you've already got it sussed anyway!

Well, 3D modeling isn't really a part of the department in my school - it's just something that I wanted to learn so I went out and learned it. GIS software is a tool that urban planners use, and that they teach in my department, and I also know that (ArcGIS). I guess what I am looking for is a landscape architecture firm or something along those lines....maybe...I don't know...some kind of consultant firm.

@mac1 said:

Chad
Think your priority is out of whack. Any good engineering company will have their way of doing business and using one program vs another is not a career path. Ones I have dealt with will quite often put there new hire grads through training programs including the use of their design software. Programs come in and out of vogue over time frames so hanging your hat on one is not good job security. If you are targeting one particular company find out what they use, get up to speed on that so it sets you apart from other applicants. If that does not fit in with various persons thoughts all I can say is get real

I'm a second year grad. student so I guess it's time for me to start researching specific companies that I want to work for. I'm not mocking sketchup - I personally love it. It's a lot of fun to use. I am slightly familiar with Maya (I can do modeling, UV'ing and texture baking, but not too much more) and even more acquainted with Creator (which is so damn expensive that no one probably uses it).

What I would love is a career in modeling the built environment and various urban design proposals (transforming streets, etc.), but I also want to be involved in the research and analysis that goes into the decision making process on what it is exactly we should do. Would a position like that even exist?! haha.

Thanks you for the replies. I guess that it is coming to BIM technology. I heard that the future of design-build is in BIM and if sketchup isn't capable, then that sucks.

I'm a student in urban design and am taking a 3D visualization class. We had a guest speaker come in from a development company (a pretty big one) and he told us that if he were to hand in a Google SketchUp model to his boss he would probably be fired. Does this mean that SketchUp is widely considered a non-professional software? Is there a future in Google SketchUp when it will be more accepted in the professional community?

Thanks a lot guys! Such a huge help for such a simple problem.

Hi. Maybe this will help for creating a tileable texture in Photoshop - if you have it of course.

Load your image. Use the offset tool (filter -> Other -> offset). this will essentially shift your image either horizontally or vertically so that you can see the seam that will occur if you were to tile it. Use the clone stamp tool (along with other tools (skew, warp etc) to "heal" the seam). Some textures, brick especially, will take a lot of time and practice to get right. A simple dirt texture though may not be so bad.

Hope it helps.

Hi everyone. I've browsed these forums quite a bit and decided to join so that I can actually post.

Anyways, I have a simple question. When there are edges drawn in my models, there is a thicker black line at the vertices. I turned off the show extensions option (I think that's what it's called), but that didn't have much of an effect. Is there a way to hide these lines without turning off edges? It's really annoying especially on 3D text where I want edges to actually appear.

Thanks!

Chad