@fbartels said:

I think the moral is that SketchUp is only one tool in the designer's toolkit and over emphasis on that one tool (which SketchUp's power and ease-of-use tends to foster) can be counter productive.

obviously we're all biased here, but lets not be totally one sided. sketchup is not above most of the cons of any computer modeling programs, although they all have a part in a well rounded design process. gehry doesn't design in catia, it is a tool in his design process after crumpled paper and meticulous wood models that are transferred into the computer using a 3d digitizer in order to get the structure to work (whether you agree with that workflow is up to you, right?) its not the tool you use, its how you use it!

just to play the devil's advocate---> i think the reason there is such a negative reaction to sketchup as a design tool (especially in architecture schools) is that it is not always taken in moderation with other tricks of the trade- sketch models, trace paper etc etc. Part of sketchup work "all looking the same" is the push-pull-y nature of the product.. you're going to get push-pully looking architecture because its just so easy to work that way! lets face it, gaudi would never have designed such beautiful, true to physics work if he had started with sketchup rather than his upside-down parabolic physical models.

to size the window proportions right for any exporting, i usually go to the export jpeg options menu, set the desired width, then keep resizing your sketchup window until the desired depth appears (guess and check style). Very annoying! anyone have a work around?

kannonbal, your trick is pretty good but still doesn't let you set the window to the exact proportion you need. It would be nice if you could do it all in sketchup.