5D+ Plus - Flexible Documentation For Architects

Extensions
630

No luck with that, I have show new tags in scene checked and when I delete the new tags it doesn’t ask to move anything to the remaining tag, indicating that nothing was created. Thanks for trying. I wondered if it had to do with the bounds (model, scene, or grid) I set because I can see a dashed line going off a ways along an axis, but that did not change anything. Maybe the Curic Text did not actually get bundled? I was considering buying the curic studio, but it doesnt come with the text tool!

I am an architect with 15 yrs experience. I have used revit for most of my career, but I am now working on revamping my design department’s workflows to be entirely in sketchup + hand drawing/pad drawing. I am testing out the Medeek tools for parametric modeling and 5D+ for automating documentation. Is anyone using these tools together? Do you still use the native sketchup tags window? I noticed that when I hide/unhide a tag 5D+ is running some script to move the order of it. Is there a way to turn that off? Or should I be using a 5D+ UI to manage my tags?

631

Hello,
I replied you in a comment you asking in Facebook page, that you need to install Curic Text for dimensions and annotations can be displayed.

You can check the email with title “You 've got Curic Text…”.

633

Where can I download the latest user manual (in PDF format) from? The one linked further up here and the one from the plugin is from version 1.80 while the latest version is 2.7.7…

634

Hello, sorry for the User Manual. It is stopped to be updated since 2.0.0. I’m preparing to release 3.0.0 at the end of this September, and I’ll update the User Manual since then.

635

5D+ Paper Dynamic Text.

You can make the text dynamically change with the Project Information, but also viewports.
Music: There you’ll be - Faith Hill. I love this song.

636

Looking forward to being able to use these features. @Cyentruk Can we sign up somewhere to do beta testing of the to be released version 3?

637

Hello,

Welcome to the Beta Testing for 5D+ Paper.

Download the installer here:

Please remember to remove the old version first, install this version, then restart SketchUp.

If you are not a 5D+ Plus user and don’t have your own license key, you can use this license key. It is valid until 30/09/2026.

License key:
917FF4D3-905C-4848-B2D5-29A4C202075E

You can report issues and send your requests here. @joshua_studiojdb

638

Yesterday, I officially released the public trial of 5D+ Paper, a new feature for 5D+ Plus.

I received some kind words and encouragement, along with many questions about 5D+.

So I decided to share the story of how I developed 5D+, how I am developing it today, and where I want to take it next — so those who are interested in 5D+ can better understand the ideas behind it.

Draw First - Define Later
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Part 1 — Why did I create 5D+?

It started with my frustration with Model Space and Paper Space.

I started as an architect who was very comfortable working with AutoCAD.
Later, I moved to SketchUp and LayOut — and even became a big fan of them.

I was very familiar with SketchUp LayOut, AutoCAD Layout, Sheet Set Manager, and the traditional way of organizing drawings between Model Space and Paper Space.
I still believe it is a very powerful system.

But there was always one thing that made me uncomfortable:
The disconnection.

When I am designing, I work directly with the building.
I can see the space, move a wall, change an elevation, adjust a detail, and immediately feel the result.

But when it is time to create documentation, I have to move into another space.
The building is in one place. The drawings that fully describe it — with dimensions, notes, symbols, and other information — are somewhere else.

Over time, I realized that what bothered me was not the lack of a particular tool. It was the fact that I had to leave the building in order to describe the building itself.

Later, when I started using SketchUp for larger projects, I began asking myself a question:
Why not use SketchUp itself as a Documentation Space — but in 3D?

What if dimensions, notes, grids, symbols, labels, and technical information could live right beside the model? What if, when the model changed, those things could still keep their relationship with it?

And more importantly:
What if an architect could stay in the same creative space, from the first design idea all the way to the final documentation?

That was where 5D+ began.

It did not start with the idea:
“I want to build a plugin with lots of features.”

It started with something much simpler:
I wanted to keep the creative process and the technical process from being separated.

Many of the design decisions behind 5D+ later came from this simple idea.

Next: One Creative Space — and why “touch & feel” matters so much to an architect.

639

Thank you for all this work, it’s truly changing the way we use Skp professionally, It truly is an important work !!

640

@cyentruk First of all, this plugin is great and I don’t know how you made the time to build it while having your own architecture business.

Two questions:

  1. Is there a way to set the dimensions to what Sketchup calls “fractional” format?

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In the U.S. as you know we’re stupid and use feet, inches, and fractions of an inch. In our millwork interiors, we don’t use feet and inches and fractions, only inches and fractions. For example

Literally the entire world - 1578mm

U.S. Architectural Style - 5 feet 2 1/8" inches or 5’ 2 1/8"

U.S. Engineering Style - 5.177 feet or 5.177’

U.S. Decimal Style - 62.125 inches or 62.125"

U.S. Fractional Style - 62 1/8" ← this is our work

It seems like with 5D I can do architectural but not fractional.

  1. Related: I’m getting my level grids to show up with dimensions that look like 5’2" and grid levels that look like 62.000" I want them to be in the same format for units and preferably be in fractional i.e. 62". Are the units and precision for grids configured in a different place than the units and precision for dimensions?

On a technical note I wonder if the Ruby API offers an endpoint for reading the units in model info. It might save everyone a lot of trouble if you had a weakly enforced default that reads that value from the model, but still have the option to customize it.

641

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On this one I have engineering feet for the Toe Kick, decimal inches for the other levels, and architectural feet and inches for the dimensions. The Toe Kick seems to be a bug.

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642

Thanks for the detailed feedback and examples!

I understand what you mean about the Fractional format and keeping the units/precision consistent between dimensions and grids. I’ve noted both points and will consider adding better support for these in upcoming versions.

Thanks also for the suggestion about reading the model’s unit settings — that makes sense and I’ll look into it.

643

Draw First - Define Later
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Part 2 — One Creative Space

“Touch & feel” is not about the user interface

There is something quite difficult to describe when we talk about architectural software: the feeling of being able to “touch” the design.

Of course, we are not actually touching the building. But I think architects know exactly what I mean.

Select an object. Move it. Adjust it. Orbit it.
Look at how it relates to everything around it. Then adjust it again.
It is a very intuitive process.

Architects do not simply “input data” to create architecture.
We think about space by interacting with shapes, objects, and geometry.

That is why I have always wanted the technical elements in 5D+ to feel the same way.

Dimensions should not just be something rendered on the screen.
Notes should not just be a graphic layer over the viewport.
The same goes for grids, labels, symbols, and other technical elements.

I want them to exist in the space.

You can select them.
You can move them.
You can edit them.

And you can directly feel their relationship with the building.
When you change the design, the technical information is still right there beside it.

To me, this is One Creative Space.

It is not about putting as many tools as possible into SketchUp.
It is about keeping the design and the information that describes the design inside the same world where the architect is already working.

Technically, this may seem like a small difference.

But from an architect’s point of view, I believe it makes a very big difference in how the work feels.

Next: Why 5D+ Dimensions and Annotations are built as real geometry instead of overlays.

644

Do you have a document set in PDF that you can share with us to check the output quality?

645

Thank you, here is the outputs (PDF & DWG) from 5D+ Paper.

Inside SketchUp with 5D+ Paper

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DWG output

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PDF output

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646

Can the selector be based on the tag and instance name?

647

Is anyone else experiencing this behavior from the dimension tool? The tool worked normally when I first used it, but when I adjusted the height of the text for the first time, it seemed like it broke the tool. Notice when I click the linear dimension button, all the on screen options are visible, but when I click the first reference point, they disappear, and no dimension number shows up on the line. When I adjust the height, and the extension or arrow factors in the dialogue box, those elements become visible again, but they do not seem scaled properly. This scene is set to 1/50, and the text height set to .9 ft, but the text height shows up on the dimension at about 4 ft.

I first did this on a mac. I just installed sketchup, 5D+, and curic text on a pc and it behaved the same way.

So far I have been very impressed with 5D+ and excited to see if it can become a key tool in my architecture firm’s design workflow. Grateful for any help people can offer!

648

The reason is you set the size of text too big.
The size of text in dimension is in Paper, so 0.9 inches x 50 of scale ~ 45 inches in model.
You should set the size as the size you want it will be print in the paper. Then let the scale do the rest.

649

That’s must be Definition Name, but currently not yet.

650

Thank you @Cyentruk. Ok that makes sense on scaling. Although even when I set it at 1/10 and the height .1 or anything in between, the tool behaves the same way. When I click the linear dimension button, all the on screen options are visible, but when I click the first reference point, they disappear, and no dimension number shows up on the line. When I adjust the height, and the extension or arrow factors in the dialogue box, those elements become visible again.