Some Suggestions

[Al]

(from the Google SketchUp Forum)
http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp3d/browse_frm/thread/e1493f77848d22c7/#
Well Al Hart, congrats.
I had abandoned the idea of SU producing CAD, plotter-ready plans. I even posted requests to the Ruby community (since SU 4) for some SU CAD plugin but got little response. My comment was that if SU happened to do it I-d gladly dump AutoCAD. I will most certainly, like many other SU fans, welcome your efforts and look forward to using those capabilities. It seems someone has finally grasped the need.

I am sorry, I have seen ARRIS CAD somewhere, but never had a chance to
testdrive it.

This make some obvious questions spring:

Do you plan to do some ARRIS-SU plugin? some SU plugin? some RUBY
standalone plugin?

Is ARRIS SU compatible? is ARRIS parametric?

Thanks and cheers"



One 2D CAD feature is ready - "Rich Text" - which lets format Wordpad
like documents and save them as images in SU.

The second - 2D Plot should be ready for testing at the end of this
week. It adds pen weights and colors.

See: http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=Construction_Docume...

Regarding ARRIS: ARRIS can load .SKP files, and export 3D data into
SketchUp it has been doing this for about 2 years. ARRIS is
customizable using its own Sigmac language. (We are in the process of
adding Ruby to ARRIS, but that may take another 6 to 12 months before
delivery).

See: http://www.arriscad.com/arris_sketchup.html

I would appreciate comments on what we should add to make SketchUp
more useful for 2D CAD and plots.

[Al]

Thanks Al Hart. I think the rich text format is unique in the CAD
industry. Also the pdf feature is tops because plotting studios hardly
keep wide fonts libraries.

Please notice that fine renderings are docs done thinking in the
customer, whereas 2D CAD, plotter-ready plans are needed just for mech
w'shops, construction docs, or permit purposes. They are technical
docs legally required in most cities. We architects need both.

I would suggest you to add:

- Customizable paper frame plus standard paper style and sizes (this
could be a library).
- Customizable dimension styles which could include...
- Customizable text tags and leads (so you can choose text and arrow
size and style)
- WYSIWYG pen weight (most CADs use color dependent line thichness and
you notice wrong pen weight in hard copy when it's too late to
correct).
- Vectorized line editor and sizer, so you can customize your own
lines.
- Parametric functions. This will make ARRIS SU beat any CAD in the
market
- Hatch editor, so you can use any self made line texture into hatchs.
- Bill of materials

This are some of the features I think most architects use. I guess you
can do a few plugins for these.

There is also a feature that no CAD has and which could make Arris SU
stand out strongly:

One single click to show drawing in real WYSIWYG size on the screen at
will. This way you see exactly what size your fonts and lines will
look like against the drawing.

I can think of a few others, but I rather leave this to the SU-CAD
users.

I hope this helps.

Congratulations for your initiative and thanks.

Cheers.

[Al]

Thanks for the suggestions, Odlanier.

I appreciate your taking the time to help us figure out what we need to 2D plans and elevations...

- We can't display the Pen Weights in SketchUp. However our 3D Plot routine creates a PDF file which you can preview, zoom on, etc. The PDF lets you create paper sizes, etc. for printers which you do not have, and lets Adobe handle other items - such as fitting the page to a printer (which, of course, would lose any precise scale)

- We plan to add a cross hatch (with lines) funtion as the next step after plotting.

- We have a Bill of Materials feature already - see http://forums.renderplus.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bill_of_Materials