On 5/1/2010 8:20 PM, DougVL wrote:

I've downloaded and tried Sketchup too, when wanting to digitize the house
plan drawings for my mother's house. It seems like it's intended for making
3D models rather than construction drawings, though, and I didn't get far
with it.

I build houses, and for the past few years I've used SU to good purpose
when doing so. When taking on a new project, I now routinely transfer
both traditional architectural and structural drawings to SU for use in
the field on my laptop, often starting out with the site plan, oriented
correctly with GPS information, adding the foundation and using "layers"
to effectively build the entire house adding _all_ plan details and
schedules ... there is nothing like 3D to get folks, including
subcontractors, focused on how things go together.

The program runs extremely well on a laptop, even a small one, and the
file can be freely given to others quickly and easily, with emphasis on
"free". An interested user will find that there are many architectural
and engineering models and resources available on the web, and many
architects have found the benefits of presenting their ideas using the
program, some even migrating to doing complicated construction concepts
entirely with the program using the actual fabrication process using layers.

Here's just one example of a engineering resource that is handy"

http://sketchup.engineeringtoolbox.com/

Last year I built a $350k house using nothing but construction plans
generated _entirely_ in SU, including a full set of architectural and
structural drawings for bidding and building.

As with just about any type of software, the limitations are generally
with the user ... this is especially true with SU.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 4/15/2010
KarlC@ (the obvious)