This is a brilliant start Dex. It will scare the bejaysis out of many BIM... let's call them "enthusiasts" out there. I have wanted to see SU being used this way for ages, and due to not being well versed in programming, I have been only an armchair supporter. Here is a post I created in June 2010 on the SketchUpIreland blog regarding SU and BIM:
http://sketchupireland.blogspot.com/2010/06/sketchup-natural-bim-platform.html#links

Keep up the good work! Will be delighted to see a metric version of the plugin and a function for creating objects. I know everyone wants everything perfect and they want it yesterday- but seriously- thanks for doing this!

Wow! BIM in Sketchup.... I have to try this! Merci.

These copyright bills freak me out. if you have ever been locked out of a site without having done anything wrong it is a very stressful and frustrating experience. the advantages of an open internet vastly outweigh the disadvantages.

Im not saying anything goes- I am happy to see genuine abuse being punished, but in this current climate of attempted lockdowns around the world and with another potential attack by the US on yet another middle eastern country (funny... that happens to have large reserves of oil) looming, i think the corporations need to take a backseat for a while before they lead us all into the abyss with their appalling use of disinformation, dodgy IAEA report etc.

its kind of like the way Michael Bloomberg is suddenly interested in the cleanliness of Zucotti park while the cleanliness of the rest of new york is not really as important.

Leave the internet alone, thanks. Our survival may just depend on it.

Heres Wired's opinion: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/blacklist-bill-analysis/

Strangely, street view had been working perfectly well on my Mac but now doesn't any more.

Welcome to the ATC environment guys. We are happy to have more SkUnkies pushing the SU platform in Ireland!

And if you ever get more business than you can handle you know who to call

Hi,

This is a great thread. There's all kinds of exotic plugins on show that I would love to know more about.

Here are my screenshots:

Hi there,

I recently gave a talk to the institute of architects in Dublin about advanced SU which I called "SketchUp to BIM". This title was chosen carefully to avoid the usual "heat" generated by using the words "SketchUp" and "BIM" in the same sentence, paragraph, chapter, book, or encyclopedia.

The talk didn't quite go as planned, in that it was (almost) taken over by a debate about why I was giving the talk in the first place. Wierd, seeing as most architects are using SU anyway, and if they weren't into SU, why didn't they let other more interested members attend? I will never know.

Rudeness and disrespect were also on display. Lets just say that I won't be giving any more free talks to architects institutes in Dublin. I am stronger and fitter since my talk. (cue insane laughter)

Here is a website I started on the subject. http://sketchup2bim.com/ Any information from interested parties to add to this website will be most welcome!

Zis is both confusing and beautiful... I love eet.

@unknownuser said:

This guy Le Corb is surely escaped from Flat Land
Une véritable romance pour ne pas dire a true Romance!
Zere is very elegant

Merci pour les compliments!

Now you can download the brand new Le Corb Component from here:

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

Mr. Corb has asked that a discussion area be created in his honour. Though I tried to dissuade him by pointing out that it would just be percieved by many as just another testament to his out-of-control ego, he has (as you would expect) insisted strongly (as he tends to do) that this should be done. So its done.

First up, here are his videos (just in case you didn't catch them already... I have seen enough repeats of them to last a lifetime...)

The first video introduces LC. He spares no time in ramming SketchUp down your throat:
http://bit.ly/Sk_train

The second video talks about controlling model size:
http://bit.ly/iDLmLH

Third video: Fredoscale and plugins
http://bit.ly/lQD86J

The fourth one was played at Basecamp 2010 and gives CAD a really unfair bashing:
http://bit.ly/cZFD0N

Enjoy! More "treats" to come....

Yes thanks for that. i didnt read the readme file as usual. anyway, having struggled with this problem I now realise that there are no plugins that will provide material quantities for groups or components. (Please correct me if i'm wrong in this.)

Thanks for your help and your useful plugin.

Hi All, I'm desperately looking for cost plugin. I am hoping this one will work but when I load this on my Mac I get the following message:

Error Loading File attributes.rb undefined method `GetString' for nil:NilClass

Any idea what this is about? I really appreciate you creating this plugin. I am hoping to show it to others as a great tool for SU.

Thanks.

[quote="Saladyne"] I've created a fairly simple dynamic door called 'Door Multi' (search under BaxStudio), also attached. Also it was created on the PC version of Sketchup 8 so I don't know if it will work properly on a Mac. Any positive criticism/feedback would be gratefully received. And links to 'good' examples of Dynamic Components would be greatly appreciated!

Hey thanks for a great component. I have just checked it out on my Mac and it seems to work fine. Its great to see a component that not only works well but looks great as well. I love Google but the components they come up with like doors, windows etc. are fairly lame. I have uploaded a DC called "block wall"

http://bit.ly/kUCsmN

See what you think of it. Its not perfect and anyone who would like to improve it I would be delighted to share credit- would love to partner up with people who want to make DCs commercially. Any takers?

@ledisnomad said:

@unknownuser said:

there are several plugins that will help sketchup become the BIM you want..... I love SketchUp, but being a Revit user, SketchUp can't and shouldn't compete. Each program has its strengths and weaknesses and it makes a lot of sense to me to use more than one.

After a lot of hard searching and experimentation I have to agree with ledisnomad. Until someone comes up with a way of expanding Layout's capabilities there is no competition for Revit in construction documentation. However, Layout is capable of being usefully and economically deployed as a construction documentation tool for limited size projects.

Also where small size projects are concerned, full BIM may often be inappropriate. In such instances, a "light" BIM approach such as that provided by SU (with the use of appropriate plugins) may be far more sensible. I have just attended a BIM conference in the Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) where excellent presentations of Revit, ArchiCAD, Bentley, and Vectorworks were given. One point made in all presentations was: "Don't model everything" the reason being: Your workstation can't handle the data. This illustrates the point that high-end packages also have their limitations.

Another interesting point is that all 4 vendors referred to SU- further confirming my suspicion that SU is almost always relevant in discussions about BIM. Bentley even spoke about how they borrowed ideas from Sketchup in designing their software.

Having said all of that, Sketchup can only be part of the process and I wish to gain others' experiences of sensible partial use of SU in full BIM projects. I will be giving a presentation about this and other aspects of Sketchup to the RIAI on the 15th of June. Thanks for reading!

I tend to be silly enough to take on the burden of implementing as realistic a landscape design as I can in SketchUp. This can be a loss-making exercise because it is so slow and painstaking. Having said that, I think reality is the problem, not so much the software. If the job is big enough, then this process pays for itself easily. In any case, the heartbreak it saves when starting construction on site is invaluable.

Attached are some sample drawings of a very interesting recent building cost analysis project. This involved importing a "LiDAR" survey of some tricky terrain data into SketchUp. I was able to impose Google Earth imagery onto the survey and I then had an extremely useful set of data to begin to design artificial levels from. This was so much better, cheaper and faster than anything I could have done in AutoCAD it just isn't funny.

I impressed the socks off my clients and they are now locked into using me and my services (I think)These are the relatively inexpensive cost survey drawings- simply because I am competently using the best technology available to do the job- ie SketchUp Pro. All done on Mac.

Hope the job goes ahead.. Will know by the end of July!

Hi All. I'm having a problem with an urban development file that when I upload to GE, I can't run the animation smoothly (it moves jerkily) because the file is too big at 25MB. I am running a 3GB RAM iMac.

Either I need to reduce file size of the SU model or I need to somehow get GE to manage this big file. I asked Mike Lucey about it and he was just plain useless Only kidding Mike.

Deadline: About 5 hours. Any suggestions appreciated.

The file is here: http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1m19BTSsz-TYmMxMmE0ZjctMWEwYi00YzJkLWJmNmMtYjNmOGJjNDcxZGU1&hl=en

Thanks.

Hi. Hopefully this adds value to the discussion. Here are some new resources for this topic that I feel are relevant/ important:

SketchUp vs Revit: A Comparison: http://bit.ly/Skp_vs_Rvt

Examples of full construction documents using only SU Pro/ LayOut (along with some photos of resulting completed projects): http://bit.ly/condocs_supro

New downloadable Course Content Sample: SketchUp for Architects Engineers and Construction (AEC): http://bit.ly/su_aec_sample

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/BXLPTYnxNiS9a9usLD7cSA?feat=directlin
A Recent sample of construction document from SU Pro/ LO

3 minute video (already posted in this topic- apologies for repetition): http://bit.ly/view_vid

Feedback and comments very welcome.

@dan rathbun said:

IFC2SKP plugin
http://www.ohyeahcad.com/ifc2skp/index.php

Question? Is there an SKP2IFC ?

Thanks for that Dan. Yes, a system that works the other way around would be much much more relevant. Going from Revit to SketchUp is putting the cart before the horse (as far as I can see). If this ever becomes available I would love to hear about it.

@utiler said:

@hank said:

Anyway, this is probably the wrong place to discuss the intricacies of how this could proceed. What about a SU-BIM Google group? I will make my marginal programming knowledge available for what its worth.

Bring it on!!!

I'm all ears and willing to pitch in. I checked out Hank's plugin and it seems to work very well. I'm trying to figure out the logic and how it can help my workflow. It hasn't clicked with me yet but its a very nice programming job.

I would love to see it when SketchUp is able to take on the tasks of 1. Outputting quantities and schedules, room sizes etc. 2. Automatically updated references in LayOut for Sections and Details. The kind of stuff that Revit is able to do. Anyone know who is doing interesting work in that area?

I have been using Layout for Construction documents for a number of years. I wanted to get all my work done in Sketchup. Have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jw-q409XZc. I eventually set a company http://www.viewsion.ie to train others to do the same thing. For one-off projects, SketchUp is at least as efficient as some of the more expensive software (sketchup cost x 15 or more) and it is set to become even better.