I don't think complexity will have any issue on using layout. The problem with most architectural firms is they have invested years into their CAD standards and details. While I focus mainly on homes, some of them are quite complex. I have also done a fire station using this system with no issues at all.

I think the best aspect of SU/LO is being able to visualize the project and details in a way that typical CAD systems cannot. To me that would make it an ideal candidate for very complex projects.

@krisidious said:

@unknownuser said:

Yes, thanks Marc. Fixing that bug is huge for me. I use that process quite a bit.

Yes you do... and I liked it quite a bit when I saw you use it. It's not good for changes down the road, but it's nice when you just want some linework transferred over.

I now only use it for things I know won't change - like property lines, setbacks, easements, existing topography. I can still do it via saving scenes, but I like to have the option of copy / paste between the two.

Yes, thanks Marc. Fixing that bug is huge for me. I use that process quite a bit.

As stated above, you need to approach the use of Layout with an entirely different work flow than you would with traditional CAD programs. I only use SU and LO for all my work, and I can confirm that extremely detailed sets of drawings can be produced extremely fast. I am at my 9th set of detailed CD's in the past 12 months, to different building departments, with zero comments being issued. I attribute this to the level of detail I am able to provide. A level that is simply too cumbersome to provide in traditional CAD programs.

The slowness you are seeing, given the 8 core processor, is due to either a crappy video card in that MAC or more likely, you are trying to vector render and entire SU model.

You just need to take more time with it and figure out where the strengths lie.

Moving in LO works the same for all entities. It moves about the insertion point which can be placed anywhere you like. So if you want to move the text constrained about the string, Double click the dimension, highlight the text then, first move the insertion point onto the string. You can then slide the text constrained on the string. I do this often with smaller dimensions.

Mine is now LumenRT4 Studio. It is by far the fastest with the most accurate lighting and intuitive tools I've tried. Even straight exports without material edit work wonderfully due to it recognizing material names. Animation is incredibly fast with most of my animations at 720P & over 2 minutes long taking less than an hour to render.

I'm really enjoying this software.

Clients love it.

Trying to embed video with major fail. Sorry.

@krisidious said:

I have to agree that true dynamic connection does not exist. When revisions come time I'm hating life. Having copy and pasted vector lines on top of updating graphics is a pain.

Save the line work in scenes. It is much, much faster. I stopped using the copy paste method for anything that can change. For site work items like property lines and setbacks I still use this method, but for everything else it is a saved scene in SU.

Keep in mind, you can set any layer to be on all pages or just one page. The toggle is in the right column of the layer control.

HI Jim:

If you don't know the original size of the viewport, then no you can't recreate it. If you do know the original size, it would be as simple as unchecking preserver scale, and re-rendering the scene.

As an example, for details I use a detail grid that fits 12 details on a 24x36 sheet. The grid is a layer that I can turn on to size the viewport. This way I always have consistent control over the SU view.

What I described above is exactly how LO works. Knowing this, you should be able to predict and control your work.

So your steps do illustrate how LO behaves, but it is reversable as long as you know the original size of the viewport. If you are preserving scale, the size of the viewport is irrelevant, because you will expand the viewport to show the whole image. The image will maintain its scale. The only time LO images will change size, is if you do not check preserve scale and resize the viewport.

Understanding how this works should really make things simple to get your desired result.

Hi Jim:

I never have render set to auto because sometimes it takes up too much time. Regardless, LO will react the same way.

When you click "Preserve Scale", the viewport will not change the zoom factor/scale of the scene. Depending on how you size the viewport, this will clip the image. All you need to do is then adjust your viewport to fit the image

When you unclick "Preserve Scale", the viewport adjusts the zoom factor / scale to recenter the scene as it is saved in SU.

This is all Layout is doing with the "preserve scale". Nothing more and nothing less. This is why when saving scenes you either want to zoom extents or try to center what you want to see in LO as much as possible.

It is also reversable by simply resizing the viewport to the exact same size when you started. You should be getting consistent results.

Jim:

You are skipping a step. As soon as you crop the viewport, or change the status of scale preservation, you need to re-render the scene unless you have it set to automatically update. (note the triangle with the exclamation point that appears each time you do one of these commands).

There is a reason for LO to work this way. It allows you to size viewports to any size you like, remove scale (for perspectives, since they can't be scaled anyway, and preserve scales for items that you want rendered to a specific scale. For preserved scales, it lets you optimize the size of the viewport for the given drawing.

Preserving scale is solely for the purpose of 2D or 3d Axonometric content. It's use in 3d perspectives would only be to maintain a particular scale of the image on a given page.

LO is functioning fine, you just need to understand how it works.

You probably do not have a hard line at the intersection of the chimney and the roof. In 2d there is then no point for layout to recognize. If you rotate the view to axonometric or perspective, it would.

Jim

Object snap works regardless of vector, hybrid or raster.

Again, your issue is related to scenes being "modified".

Best,

Nick

Jim: are you rendering after you edit? If not your scene is "modified". I'm not sure what the issue with object snap is? I often align interior elevations as an example with all floor levels aligned - same for building sections where two sections are cutting through the same area. I align these views based upon snap points of the SU model, not the layout viewport. Again as I stated if object snap did not work, the dimension tool in LO would be useless.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I see this as input error, not a software bug.

Jim:

Dave is spot on with this one. This is not a bug, but how you are using LO. LO's strength is how it ties to the SU model. This is done by preserving scenes. Once you have a "modified" scene, it no longer has the direct tie to all the elements saved in a given scene. As for object snap, LO absolutely snaps to items with the model and not just the viewport. If that were the case, how would the dimension tool work?

You need to really focus on your SU model and how it is organized and use the scenes to define your LO display. This is probably the number one biggest mistake made by LO users, so don't feel bad, you are not alone. Once you figure out how LO and SU talk to each other you will really see how powerful it is.

@luisfernando said:

Wow! I don´t understand why the hell sketchup does that. I mean, it creates a half face in one layer, and the another half in another. There´s no sense.

Thanks a lot guys, mainly Thom for the quick and eficient answers. (Dave too).

Actually Sketchup doesn't do that, you did. Always draw on layer 0. Once a layer is selected, all lines and faces created are on that layer. In this case you must have selected the layers or copied something from another file set to those layers.

Check to see that your group is not textured. The surfaces inside should be textured, the group should be default. I'm pretty sure you accidentally textured your group.

It does dimension a perspective accurately, however the dimension lines do not follow the perspective. So you can have a dimension line that is smaller than an adjacent dimension line, yet reads as a larger dimension. It is accurate to the model though, as long as you are choosing the correct points in a given plane. I use many 3d details and dimension them in LO.

@elibjr said:

Solo this is nice. I have always liked your work. Is it truly that quick though? I was going to buy this when this version came out but now after they raised the price, it is just out of my current reach! Interesting, when a company develops a great product for Sketchup and it does well... They then make it available to the world. When they do, they raise the price because "professionals" won't take it seriously if it is too low or they cannot "write it off" then the people who made it popular cannot afford it anymore. What is the deal. Does anybody else see this or am I truly way off here? For some reason Sketchup is still not taken seriously. Anyway, these are very cool models. A little too much ambient light for me though.

Well, this version is literally 10 times better than version 3. They added point lights, more features galore. It is well worth the money especially considering the speed. Yes draft takes 5 minutes to export a live cube. The live cube is what I use with contractors and clients. Completely interactive.