New office is buying me a laptop.

I'm looking for something that can run sketchup and lumion on the go (main computer would be a desktop).

http://lumion3d.com/forum/f-a-q/lumion-2-minimum-hardware-requirements/

@unknownuser said:

CHECK YOUR PASSMARK SCORE
Please type in the name/series of your graphics card in the search field in the top right corner on the following page (eg, "Nvidia GTX 780"), and make a note of the number of PassMark points your graphics card has:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net

SIMPLE SCENES IN LUMION:
Minimum 1,500 PassMark points and 1GB dedicated graphics card memory (RAM).

MODERATELY COMPLEX SCENES IN LUMION:
Minimum 3,500 PassMark pointsand 3GB dedicated graphics card memory (RAM).

VERY COMPLEX SCENES IN LUMION:
Minimum 5,000 PassMark pointsand 6GB dedicated graphics card memory (RAM).

it doesn't need to run as good as a desktop, but at least it needs to work.

Ohh... one more thing, When I mentioned I wanted a fast computer, I was told I will be traveling a lot and that I should consider something light over powerful.... Hopefully there's a happy medium somewhere

@cotty said:

The only thing you have to do is: call it a button

Thanks... it was a matter of just finding where it was!!

Hey guys, I know about show/hide guidelines... is there another button to erase them all on one shot?

thanks!

Let's say I create a couple of crown mouldings or baseboards in my model by sweeping a plane around.

Let's say this plane is a component that I can access later and modify... then all the sweeps that I did early would automatically update to the new profile.

thanks!

@utiler said:

If you use SketchUp alot mate, try Spirit Architetcure by Softtech. It is a German based company with an international arm in the States.
http://www.softtech.com/

Gary Segal is the technical director and is very helpful.

Why Spirit? It is the only CAD program as far as I know that exports directly into SketchUp and visa versa.....

The idea is to move into BIM with a program that everyone else is using.... That would simplify coordination with engineers and when hiring new people.

Revit seems to be more mainstream than AechiCAD, so most likely we would go that route unless I get an overwhelming response here for ArchiCAD.

I'm trying to steer our architectural firm into BIM. We do mostly residential & light commercial (with an emphasis on Custom luxury home).

My current workflow is 2D plans in AutoCAD and Sketchup 3D modeling for Schematic Design. After that I export the Elevations and roof plans in CAD and have my team take it from there and do Design Development, CDs... etc.

I would like to move into BIM, but still have the flexibility to work with sketchup and I was wondering if one program over the other one plays better with sketchup.

The way that I envision it (not sure if it's possible)... is doing everything in BIM but if I need a cool detail I could export it from sketchup as a dumb geometry and integrate it into Revit/ArchiCAD

Basically, I wanted to know what my fellow Sketchup user are using.

thanks!

@box said:

I believe it is related to how the faces are created and their orientation to the global axis.
If you redraw the line you are erasing from the other direction you will get the other texture.

I just tried... You are right on target.

Not too useful tough

Ha, This brings me to my next question... is there a plugin that does the following:
If one side has a material and the other side has the default material... to automatically chose the new material.

OR

If one side is larger than the other one... the material should be from the larger side. At least this is what makes sense to me. lol

Let's say we have a plane divided by a line.... On one side you have one texture and on the other side you have another texture.

How does sketchup decides which texture is going to keep (once you erase the diving line).

I have been wondering about this since sketchup 4.5 ( @ last anyone? )... but some how I keep forgetting to ask

thanks!

@pbacot said:

just importing will not make mesh. If the CAD is in proper layers you may want to import all layers of pertinent building information. However if you have any problems with it you may wish to start with just the layers that give the basic shapes you need to start the contours and building-site outlines. Simplify and clean-up when you can before import.

Get the countours on a separate layer. arrange per elevation and run toposhaper. Make sure the contours are continous (often broken i the CAD for text etc>) I often fix them up in CAD first to be continuous polylines.

Got ya....
I think what I'm going to do is:
1- First, create a mesh of the existing terrain.
2- Then Create the cascading retaining walls and the fill them in
3- finally rework the grading on the side setbacks and splice them to the original terrain

@pbacot said:

If you want to use plugins, Toposhaper (search here) may be a good start. Get the CAD of the contour lines and raise them up in the proper height intervals in SU.

Nice to have a site that is only 3' difference. Often houses have to be designed as you note because of the slope being so steep. Have a site now that is difficult NOT to have 10' between floors.

That looks like pretty good plugin... especially how it cleans up the mesh. I had someone at the office do the contours in CAD and create a mesh... but for some reason when I import the .dwg or .dfx into sketchup all i get are lines no mesh

No sure if I'm missing a setting in CAD to export the information or what

@alpro said:

Post the cad file if you can and I'll give it a go tomorrow.

Mike

Thanks for the offer Mike, I just sent you a PM

Hey guys, I have a house that we want to make it look like a 2 story house on the front and have a walk-out basement on the back (3 stories). Current site conditions are not as favorable: Only 3 feet difference between the front and the back.

Anyway, the solution involves some retaining walls (see green lines - the numbers are elevations) and I'm not quite sure how to approach the site. I know there are some plugins out there for site grading but I haven't played with any of them besides sandbox.

Retaining walls shapes and even site grading can be imported from autoCAD

thanks!

Pretty awesome plugins!!! thanks guys...

I was wondering if there such a plugin that would allow me to select surfaces by their texture even if they are inside a group or component.

The overall goal is to be able to change textures quickly

thanks!

@tig said:

But... you could perhaps devise a piece of update-able screen-text on a specific layer inside the SKP that displayed 'Time' in whatever format you wanted, whenever the SKP opened.
It would need an 'observer' to set it when the SKP was opened ?

I'm not following you all the way, you you show me?
as far as how I want it formatted to show up: "February 21, 2013"

Thanks a lot TIG

Just wondering if Layout has a function that will allow me to have an date that updates itself every time I open the file.

thanks

I end up messing around with my screen resolution until the window dialog pop-up in a place that I could grab it.

When I press the create material button, nothing happens. If I try clicking somewhere else it makes a noise like (windows error). If I press Esc then I can continue working on the model.

Pretty much the dialog box doesn't show up (or if it's showing up it's far away (off the screen) and I can't see it.

thanks for the help

Sing me up!! If you guys can take it to the next level it could freaking awesome. BRB gotta try this thing!