"Lee Michaels" wrote

"Swingman" wrote

Once again, as far as the drawing of 3D/2D models, there is NO functional
difference in the Pro and free versions of SU.

Not to pick nits or anything. but there is one primary difference that I
am interested in. And that would be the "drawing" abilities of Layout
included in the Pro version. It doesn't affect what you are doing though.

What it does is take that drawing produced in the free version and turns
it into a sketch. You have your choice of many different mediums. Pencil,
chalk, marker, technical pen, pen and ink, etc. This humanizes the drawing
and makes for a better presentation for certain audiences. I know, it is
a presentation thing. It can even be argued that is sort of an artsy
fartsy kinda thing.

But for certain audiences, it will get the deal where the more technical
drawings will not. And that is the sort of thing I need to do. These
kinds of tools used to be quite common. I have used them before. Then
they got bought up and became part of big, expensive graphics packages.
It will be worth $500 to me for this capability alone.

Besides I used to do my drawings with a T square and triangle. And I
sketch constantly on graph paper. The Layout module is a nice touchy
feely thing that breaks down communication barriers for certain audiences.
It will help secure funding for a couple hard sell projects.

I know that this is NOT what you were talking about Swingman. I just
thought I would contribute this comment. Primarily because of all this
discussion, I am looking at Sketchup more closely now. And this Layout
functions looks like a winner to me.

I am really curious as to why google included this feature. I haven't
seen it for awhile. It is good to see it back.

Oops, I checked and the features I was talking about was in the Stylebuilder
module (not the Layout module) of Sketchup Pro. To quote the website, "We
put the Sketch back into Sketchup."