On 4/20/2017 5:32 PM, OFWW wrote:
On Thu, 20 Apr 2017 12:53:01 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 10:02:42 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/

Leon - how long did it take you to complete your drawings? I have a friend of mine that owns a small remodeling company that just can't get it kick started. He has been in the business now for many years, and does indeed know what he is doing.

As a sidebar, he has a degree in business that was a double major. He went to a school in CA that had a degree (that had to be coupled with business) in cabinet building. So when he graduated he was fully qualified to run all aspects of a cabinet shop, and was trained to do all aspects of the work needed from using the shaper to accounts receivable management.

He hated working with only one or two guys in the shop, and he loathed working alone.

This is a guy I spoke to you about before, one that you generously allowed me to send some of your renderings (along with Swing) to him. He was pumped up, as he was still doing his drawings by hand. I had lunch with him a while back, and he had not finished his online Sketchup courses, and was starting to forget what he had learned. Now you sent me the renderings almost two years ago, so I figured he would be whizzing along with his sketches by now.

I can't get him to understand that using Sketchup is like me using a publication program, a word processor, or any other kind of layering program. Certainly the end product is the goal, but using software, the end product is achieved in a very efficient manner. To me, the key to learning to use any program that will produce a finished product is the complete ease of endless editing. After watching you and Karl, I opined to my buddy that this was no harder than learning the photo editor I use, the publisher I use, or the advanced features of my word processor. He was enthusiastic as hell!

Now, we meet again, and he has fallen on his old ways. It takes him weeks to render new drawings, days to redraw a detail or two, then it has to be scanned, compressed and checked for readability if he wants to email it. Otherwise, he has to hand carry drawings he paid to have printed over to the client and the doodle their changes on the newest renderings and start again. This is the way business was done for decades, but not now, nor had it been done this way for about 10 years. He is rapidly falling not just behind, but out of the race altogether.

I would like to make one more pass at him, send him the drawings you published here, and some commentary from you on how long it took you to do those. If this doesn't work, I give up. He is literally losing business as he sees himself as a "traditionalist", and he thinks folks like to see his hand drawings. Actually, the probably do, just not a month after he makes his changes.

He needs the level of detail that you can generate with your drawings as he always finds clients that are cabinet/built in heavy. Otherwise he could get one of the many pieces of software out there (some free!) that allow you to move walls and cabinets around in a rudimentary way with pretty renderings.

Just a few words, sir. I am worried that my buddy will be out of business soon, as he won't move into this century. His other problem being that he doesn't know how to promote his company makes his lack of technology a killer.

Robert

The guy is so used to 2d drawings that he might be better off with a
2d Cad type program. It would be more familiar to his style and once
he got used to the commands, and just redoing his basic prints for
mods, and finds how simple it is then He might feel better moving to a
3D program.

That is a thought but IMHO 2D programs are not any easier to learn than
Sketchup. AND if you want you can draw 2D in Sketchup pretty easily.
The "got'cha" though, is than customers want to see 3D. 2D does not
always convey the message to the customer.


IMHO there is NO better drawing program for a woodworker than Skethup
especially considering its price for the Make or the Pro version.

I have used IMSI Designer in the mid 80's moving on to Turbo CAD a few
years later, then 3 versions of AutoSketch, then AutoCAD LT when it was
first introduced as a Windows program, plus multiple costly upgrades.
And then about 8 years ago Sketchup, under Google, became the easiest
for me to use and my customers know exactly what they are getting.