Hello Bentham,
Our firm made the jump from BIM to using SketchUp/Layout for construction documents the first of this year. Overall, I am very pleased with the results. The documents look great, we regained efficiency after 4 or 5 smallish projects, and most importantly, I believe that we are more thoughtful and comprehensive in our work. Here are a few things we've learned…
- Success hinges on being very organized. We've striven to use as few carefully determined SketchUp layers as possible. We draw everything on Layer 0, and then make groups and components, and move those groups and components to appropriate layers.
- We've been successful having only two SketchUp files per project. One with the overall building model, and one for "details." We haven't had to create separate files for RCPs for example, as some other folks suggest.
- Similarly in Layout, we use as few layers as possible.
- SketchUp provides only a couple different line wights - standard and profile. You can apply more line weights in Layout, but don't start tracing everything - don't fight it. In lieu of line weight, use colors, fog, shadows and even perspective to delineate/differentiate materials, surfaces and depth. We've even gone to using a little fog in our floor plans. If color printing is an option, that is obviously a good match.
- Layout is simple, strictly for notation and graphics. Don't try to use it like 2D CAD.
- Make your own Scrapbooks and Component Libraries - they are powerful time savers.
Good luck whatever direction you take.
Joe Calvin, Project Architect
Thorp Associates, P.C.
Architects and Planners
(970)586-9528
joe@thorpassoc.com
Original Message------
Sketchup has the freeform modelling nailed and gives you the freedom to design and communicate with clients, engineers, builders and manufacturers, which I believe is its true benefit, however you can find yourself spending a lot of time editing, changing components, setting up scenes and groups when you want to start modifying the model at the time of creating construction documents.
If you like using Sketchup yet simply wanted to increase the ability to change the model parametrically like ArchiCad and Revit, you could look at some of the extensions available as there are many.
BIM/VDC in Sketchup Pro is a reality, the learning curve is shallow and the output can be amazing. If you want to move to stage 2 and really get into BIM in Sketchup the opportunity is there and viable. There are hundreds of 3D CAD tools on the market, the key is finding one that suits you best. I did this model (4 hours draw time) in Sketchup and with the BIM Plugin PlusSpec. You can now work more efficiently with Sketchup and have an organised model without having make groups, components, or assign IFC categories.
To be transparent I do work for RubySketch, yet I also work with Revit users. Many use PlusSpec and Revit in their day to day activities:
- Residential & multi residential BIM/VDC in Sketchup Pro with PlusSpec
- Larger commercial projects Over 10 million EG hospitals in Revit.
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Andrew Dwight
Designer/BIM manager AAD Build
BDM RubySketch
Sydney Australia
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