Sketchup free

[stosostu]

I have my plans drawn in AutoCAD, which our draughtsmen use at work, does anyone know of a way to import these into sketchup?

[John Sayers]

yes - the AutoCad files will probably be .dwg or .dxf files.

Go to import on sketchup and select .dwg and go for it

[stosostu]

Yes they're .dwg. Thanks for the help.

[mileskb]

I'm gonna take a guess that I'm overthinking things as I'm a programmer (30+ years).

I'm not a designer... I don't think I'm an idiot... but...

It took me 4 hours just to get the Housebuilder plugin to show up and the only thing I've managed to create is getting red of the blue gal that shows up on install in the middle of the screen.

I need floor plans in about 4 weeks. I used to have a home designer package where I would just enter the dimensions of the room and drag wall, doors and furniture to their spot on the grid.

I guess you get what you pay for cause I remember the software was pretty pricey, but I used it to design my last studio. Unfortunately that was a few operating systems ago.

It seems everyone on planet earth understands Sketchup and how to use it except me. I got nothing... in other words... HELP !!!!! please....

And FWIW, I watched the videos... no help. They are pointing to tool bars and show drawing blocks... that look NOTHING like the gorgeous studio drawings I see around this site.

I'll be at the drawing table (literally) patiently awaiting a response.

[Soundman2020]

It DOES take some getting used to! The learning curve is a bit steep to start with, but once you understand the basic (sometimes "quirky") concepts, it is a really powerful tool, and even gets to be intuitive after a while.

Take another look at the tutorials that you can find on Google.

What part are you getting stuck with? One key concept is "components". Don't try to just use surfaces. Each time you have a bunch of surface that belong together, such as a wall, then select them all and make them into a component. You can then drag components around as needed, copy them, scale them, rotate them, etc. Also, if you copy them and leave them linked, then changing any one of them will change all of the copies too. Useful for studs, for example: Make one stud taller, and all 87 other studs follow! Or you can make some of them "unique", so that they don't change with the rest. Etc.

and drag wall, doors and furniture to their spot on the grid

You can do that with SketchUp too! There's a HUGE on-line library of objects that you can import and drag around just like that, if you don't want to build things yourself.

It takes a while, but it's a great tool.

But you need plans in four weeks? That's pretty tight, even for a professional designer working full-time on your project, who already knows SketchUp well! Do you already understand the principles of acoustics and studio design, or do you also have a bit of learning curve to go there too? Maybe 4 weeks is a bit optimistic: Can you postpone that?

- Stuart -

[mileskb]

Thanks Soundman..

I have the acoustics part covered. I need to review a little as I don't have formulas memorized or anything, but I know what to look up when I need it pretty much. I'm posting in another thread about the actual build. I also learned in the past as with anything to do with acoustics... it's easy to overthink things. Treatment will be needed no matter how good the design is especially when working with an existing shell. So I plan to follow good construction technique and try to eliminate dimensions and angles that will cause problems later... then treat as necessary.

I am going to give sketchup another go... I don't take defeat well. Yes, 4 weeks is aggressive, but every day of delay is a delay in the opening. I'm sure there will be other delays to deal with but most of them I can blame on someone else not delivering.

Thanks for the advise... with a time crunch there is no such thing as too many opinions or too much information, so I'm all ears...

Miles

[Johnny Corvette]

I took some time over the weekend and got to know sketch up a little better. There is definitely a learning curve but, I am beginning to see the beauty in the software.

Made a reasonable looking sketch that included several downloaded components - including for example some dynamic drywall component, stairs, doors, etc, I was not however, able to get the house builder installed properly.

Now I see we need to keep these things to 500k to upload - oops.

I purged components - what else can I do to purge? Is there some other way to reduce things? Is there some presentation output we normally use on this site? I know this is likely a better question for the Google Sketch up forum - but didn't find the tread I needed there.

[Soundman2020]

Now I see we need to keep these things to 500k to upload - oops.

Yeah, files can get pretty big, pretty fast! Some of mine run to 20 Mb, and more.

If you already purged it, then about the only thing you can do to make it smaller is to take out some objects that you don't really need. 3D text, for example, takes up lots of space. So do things that you might have imported, such as furniture, instruments, equipment, etc. Big textures can also hog space.

Try taking out stuff like that, purge it, and see if that helps (but do keep a copy of the big file, with everything it it!)

Alternatively, upload it to a file-sharing service, and post the link here.


- Stuart -

[Johnny Corvette]

OK - thanks - I am not sure if I have set things up wrong to start or that when trying to install the House builder Plugin I loaded a bunch of baggage that is causing big files.


I basically stripped out all components one at a time to see which was the memory drain. Still was big. Stripped out scenes. Still too big. Stripped out everything except basic room space - still almost 900k.

I guess I just need to upload elsewhere and link. But I noticed the small vocal booth sketch is almost 900k as well.

Attached is a jpeg rendering of the stripped out version. Doesn't seem like it should be 900k?

[Soundman2020]

Attached is a jpeg rendering of the stripped out version. Doesn't seem like it should be 900k?

Definitely not! Sounds like there's something else going on there... Hidden layers, maybe?

Try opening a new, empty file, and copy-paste that model into the empty file. Save it and check the size.


- Stuart -

[Johnny Corvette]

Yes. Cut and paste the strip[ed out version creates a new sketch only 33k.

Cut and paste the original big version - back up to 5 MB. More dissecting needed - Must be one of the components I downloaded.


OK - now I was able to load house builder - very slick script - I will monkey with it all and see what I can do


Thanks for the help!

[BriHar]

Just a thought FWIW because not everyone gets this at first, but after deleting anything from your Sketch, you have to use the purge command each time in order to reduce the filesize.

[John Sayers]

just purge the file.

Windows/Model info/Statistics/Purge unused...all

try this site for further info

http://forums.sketchucation.com/http:// ... /index.php

[mileskb]

Ok... I know when to cry uncle.. so U N C L E !!!!

I can't anything in Stetchup to do anything but make a mess. I look at the video's and I don't have the toolbars they talk about. I installed the housebuilder plugin, and nothing looks different, no new menus nothing. I am obliviously missing a basic step... Ya'know like in the studio when someone asks "is it plugged in?"

I'm guessing it's because I'm a programmer and developer, I just don't get it. I don't think in 3D, maybe that's it. I don't know. I open the software, play the "getting started" video in a frame and it might as well be the teacher on the Peanuts cartoon. "wha wha-wa wha-wha"

< insert many four-letter words here >

and yes, I have uninstalled and reinstalled...

=== about 5 minutes passed ======

I'm editing because the software just made a liar out of me. For the first time I see the housebuilder toolbar. I still only create a mess on the screen, but now I see I have the right mess creating tool. It still is all greek to me.

Miles

[Johnny Corvette]

I am not sure what it is about S-U but, it appears at first, as with a lot of software, to require a big commitment and learning curve. I would say roll through the video tutorial on the Google S-U site and take your time. Things click pretty fast once you get over the hump and it is really pretty easy to use for basic layouts. I am ready to give up forever on AutoCad.

I messed with it several times and gave up - the tutorials took a little time but it is worth it. I - possibly like others - tend to just jump in to new software and figure I can wing it without instructions. This sometimes works. I think with S-U you need to be taught first.

Good luck.