"MikeWhy" wrote in message
...
"Leon" wrote in message



What is it you can do on a CAD program that you cannot on Sketchup?

Where to start? Working drawing sets. Bills of Material. Parametric
configurations. Multiple parts configurations. Editable feature history.
Weldments. Sheet metal. Mate constraints. ... SU is a minimal set for
defining and manipulating simple, static surface models. It is what it is,
and it's good for what it is, but it helps sometimes to keep in
perspective what it is not. What you sketch is what you get, sometimes
less. Circles are pie wedges; curves are straightline segments. When you
change a dimension, the dimension text changes, not the underlying object.
You glue things together, or set them next to each other, they don't move
to maintain the relationship. You sweep a shape, and that's the shape it
will ever and always be; editing the shape that defined the sweep doesn't
change anything. Is any of that a condemnation? I don't think so.
"Minimum" usable subset is still a pretty high bar for getting useful
things done.

Well this being a ww group I was thinking more in lines with wood working
projects. So yes I agree a CAD program absolutely does more outside this
area.

As for as abilities, I have not checked all the plugins and scripst that are
available however there is a dimension plug-in called Driving Dimensions
that let you edit the dimension and that also changes the length of object
that it deminsions.

I am not sure what you are talking about concerning glueing things or
setting them next to each other and not maintaining the relationship. If
you make them into components and make the components into a group they
stay together until you edit or explode them. I may be way off base here.


So, about those angle dimensions. How?

Search for the script/plugin " dim_angle.rb ". Copy it into the Plug-in's
folder and the next time you reload Sketchup 7 ;ppl imder "Tools" and you
will find a new command called Angular Dimension. Choose that command, pick
3 points, and you will get a angular dimension typical of what you might
expect.
Keep in mind however that on this particular dimention that if you chang eht
angle of the object you will also have todo the angular dimension command.

Scroll down the page a bit until you see the file I mentione above. Click
the file name and it will open a page of script. Right click that page and
"Save page As", and save it in the plug ins folder. Besure to add the .rb
extension to the name if it does not do so automatically.
http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibrary...m_arc_page.htm

There are literally hundreds of scripts and plug ins that make Sketchup act
more like a CAD program.