@bjanzen said:

If this of great interest, it would be a reasonable feature request to have VCB, er, measurement box input be scaled, so if I drew a rectangle and then typed 3",6" to get a 3" by 6" rectangle, but figured it was 1" = 1', to directly be able to type 30',60' and have it scaled for me. Is that what you're looking for?

b

I second this - it would be a very useful feature. It would be great to develop this and additional Layout features similar to those in ACD Canvas 11, which incorporates the features red and others have mentioned.

-wb

Here's a link to Dennis' blog, if anyone's interested:

3D Construction Modeling

Small, Simple and Sustainable Construction Books

3D Construction Modeling (insitebuilders.wordpress.com)

Hi All,

This has been a good discussion to follow, I've appreciated everyone's insight and comments.

I'm an architect as well, and it's interesting to look at how technology again is going to change the way we produce drawings (similar to CADD in the 80's).

I think at one level, there needs to be a change in how we think arch drawings need to "look". In some ways, we've continued to hold on to methods from the hand drafting days (e.g dashed lines for above or hidden items, etc)even though we now have the ability to do color transparency, x-ray view, 3D views, 3D section, etc in very quick fashion. I think these methods in many ways can communicate much clearer to a contractor for scope, design intent,resolve detail issues, etc. Take a look at Dennis F's work at insitebuilders.com, or Mortenson Construction as other people pushing the use of SU in very compelling ways.

Guess my thought on this is, I don't think we should try to make SketchUP into everything the bloated BIM software or CADD apps are. Adding additional dimensions (like angle and radius) to Layout, and improving linetypes are great suggestions. But it would also be great for us architects to explore the possibilities in new ways of graphic communication that the software allows us to experiment with.

I believe SU and Layout is going in the right direction, and is already in its present state extremely capable, more than we give it credit for (and this from a $500 software that in some cases rivals the $6000 BIM software I use, that shall remain nameless........)

WB

Martin,

Have you tried TIG's roof maker plug-in? I've used that for what you show below, and many other roof/eave configurations. It's a great script.

Best,

Will

I've noticed Didier's MultiWall ruby doesn't work on SU v.7+. (Works fine in V6 though). It only draws a rectangular face but does not make the extrusion. Anyone else have this happen, or know how to fix it? It's a great script and I'm hoping to continue to use it.

Thanks!

WB

We usually find 55 to 70 deg FOV is somewhat acceptable without skewing the vertical lines in the space too much. If needed, we also hide a wall temporarily and pull the camera outside the space, then use a more standard FOV.

Hank: Great comments, I too dread the "architectural desktop" business model that requires multiple gymnastics and loaded scripts to complete a project (going through that right now on a Revit project that requires endless tweaking of the families). I think your comments about auto-generated views for documentation and annotation is actually close to becoming a reality. If you haven't yet, check out IMSI's DoubleCAD, they are attempting to build a bridge between sketchup and 2-D documentation that allows continued changes to SU model to reflect/update in the construction documents (would work similar to your Revit analogy re: detail drawings).

linea: have you used Didier's cutting component ruby? This has worked well for me, allows you to define a cutting plane for each door or window component by points, and then just right-click to cut a wall. You can also specify offset distance for the door or window in a wall.

For everyone who hasn't yet, check out InsiteBuilders web site and blog (Dennis Fukai). Dennis' work with SU as a construction modeler is great. I think he's got a good method for organizing the building elements in a flexible BIM/PEN fashion that gets away from the rigid Revit family/category model.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to adopt these (or create similar) methods, and put everything together.... (I know, easier said than done.....but we're close in my opinion).

-WB

Just wanted to thank you guys for continuing to contribute to this thread.

DS, thanks for your examples, they are great!

@unknownuser said:

We have decide to try and use layout for our CD and permit set. So once they are done I'll post them.
@unknownuser said:

I would be interested in hearing about your experience using Layout as you use it to create your Permit and CD set - and thanks for offering to post examples of these.

Regards,

-WB

Bert, Charlie -

These are great, thanks for sharing them for us to see.

Mike, I agree - I think Layout needs a second look as well.
My own thoughts are that Layout and Sketchup together are very very close to being capable of acting as a Parametric/BIM solution for everything from shop drawings to construction documents for small to medium size buildings.

Does anyone have any example construction drawings of buildings done in Layout they would like to share? Hopefully at some point Google will want to add a "Gallery" section for layout drawings so we can see this sort of thing. Similar to what Chief Architect software does at their site (see "Plan Sets")

301 Moved Permanently

(www.chiefarchitect.com)

-WB

Here's a partial list of available plug-ins that I think get towards BIM-PEN - feel free to add to this.

1. 1001bit architecture tools
2. TIG's roof plug-in
3. Didier's multi-layer wall tool
4. X-ref manager
5. Driving Dimensions
6. Rick's Windowizer
7. HouseBuilder Extension (older, but still pretty cool wood framing script)
8. Profile Builder
9. Dynamic Components!
10. Attribute Reporter (ashley joyce and google code groups)
11. Cut List
12. TIG's "text tag" plug-in
13. Balustrade & Railing
14. Copy along path

It would be great to develop a common UI like 1001bit has done, and maybe rework scripts like these into a BIM "package" (with the authors permissions, compensation and collaboration of course). What do you guys think?

Hi Guys,

I work for a New England health care architecture firm, used SU on several project sizes, though we are also jumping on the Revit bandwagon.

I think you propose an excellent direction to push toward for SU. My thoughts are, if this doesn't become a focus for Google, what about 3rd party developers? VisionREZ software springs to mind (guys who leveraged Architectural Desktop into a better BIM-PEN like software for residential and light commercial projects). For SU, The 1001bit.com plug-ins seem like a step toward the direction you're proposing. I wonder if Google would also open the API/code (sorry for my lack of programmer-speak) to Layout in order to allow ruby scripts to be written for it?

-WB

Hi Daniel,

What CADD program do you use to import SU models into for ConDocs?

Regards,
WB

Have you guys looked at the basecamp videos by Mitchel Stangl?

(http://sites.google.com/site/3dbasecamp2008/)

Seems like this has come the closest (that I've found so far) toward describing a workflow in ACAD.

The DoubleCAD option looks interesting too though - It would be interesting to post a sample working drawing page showing what can be created with SU and DoubleCAD. In my own experience with ACAD, I've ended up importing the SU model via plug-in and then drawing over it again in ACAD to get clean lines.

I would suspect the layer structure in SU should mirror something akin to Revit, e.g. objects are put on layer categories like "walls, doors, windows, annotations, structural framing, etc"

wb

I've been impressed with the potential to create working drawings for residential and light commercial projects using layout. Sure, it's no where near where it could be. But - it would be great to post examples of what can be created, to see what's possible, etc. So how about it? If you have any example sheets from construction or working drawing sets that you've completed (or even just experimented with) post them here! The goal I guess is just to see what Layout is capable of, if pushed to it's limits.

WB

Hi Everyone,

Do you think the HouseBuilder script could be updated to give it more features? Would this be of any interest? I'm an architect that has used it on and off for the past few years, though not for anything that actually went into production. A few features I thought would be cool to add:

1. Allow structural elements to be swapped in and out as components (sort of like the Balustrade ruby). Would allow wood, metal studs, manufactured lumber, etc.
2. Curved wall types
3. Allow numerical adjustment of top plate location/ wall height
4. More roof types - maybe a merging of TIG's roof script and the Housebuilder script?

I think it's a great script and has exciting additional potential as an add-on tool. Maybe even destined for CadFather's toolbar????

-WBA

PS - Thanks to all for making SketchUP what it is today!! You guys are great, and I have learned much from this forum.