Thanks, @Guy, I’ll take a look sometime. But understand my background: I was working for a 3 initial company in printing, then at a startup for large format printing software. Little did I think 20 years ago that we’d still be doing hatching for something that color would express better. Long live black toner! 
Good Afternoon,
Sorry to dig this bone from the archives, but I am new to SU 2016. I am a 20 year 2D production user of 2D Datacad, and 28 Year user of Timberline estimating. (Licenced in Construction & Architecture Florida)
We have stumbled into BIM by using Datacad’s details and or 2D orthographic for presentations and contract attachments for commercial renovation projects.
I intended a workflow very similar to the one you referenced above ( model shoved into 2D Datacad). While searching for the closest location for the Sketchup, which I took last week, I came across “Con-Docs” and Michael Brightman’s presentation of it at basecamp.
IU subscribed to it, and it looks very similar to the templates we used for 2D Datacad. I was wondering if you had reviewed it as a possible alternate?
We are ready to break in a new CAD person and completely indecisive about which direction to push them. SU DCAD
Any Thoughts?
i have not yet mastered layout. i like SU 2015 a lot, but for some
reason find layout cumbersome and counterintuitive. other people do
some great things with it, so it is possible. i’m probably just not
seeing it properly and will give it another go. good luck.
Also from the great state of Florida with dual licensure in Architecture & Construction. Datacad user 2d since version 5. 3D is inevitable or I was going to lose to,revitalize users. I met a few folks leaving Revit for sketchUp and decided to check into it. I am writing this at the end of Basecamp 2016 in Steamboat springs, Co.
MInd is blown! The third party apps are like finding Evan Shu’s cheap tricks as a dead user. There are hobbyists, artisans, production driven folks all coexisting with respect for each other.
Our office is a small firm with high production focus. Our workflow pattern can stop for several months and pick the project back up with little loss of momentum.
We deal with commercial renovation for developers who have come to expect that we will go and apply for. A demo permit the same day we get a notice to proceed. We do, and then fast track the project, applying for a first inspection the same day he permit is issued.
So as much as I respect and honor the Artisians, and 80 pages of documents in a cd set is something our town will not zsupport that scope of practice at the present time.
We found MIchael Brightman’s approach to document production and workflow almost identical to ours; only smarter. HIs extension is called CONDOCS and there is not a single wasted step in his process that I have found.
We,are only a few months away from running a parallel project in both DCAD and SketchUp as our first. With a little luck in a few years there will be time and money in projects to allow the artisan approach to document production, and when that time comes there are some giants who have paved the way.
Guess you can see I’m totally sold on the future of SketchUp; research it it is owned by Trimble (3billionUSD). They are launching a web based pro version to allow Lynix and chrome book users to do the same workflow as an IOS or PC based device.
This means the .edu can now use this to inspire young minds and crank out draftsman by the score in the coming decade.
THe open source ruby script entices many brilliant minds to bring their own idea to the party to sell as an extension (many are free from generous folks), most all are ridiculous cheap because this product is reaching out to 80 countries.
Good luck in your review
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I’m doing all my construction documentation in Sketchup and Layout.
I don’t use Skalp, though I should try it again someday.
The thing with skalp is that you need to model the several layers of construction you have. Like the several layers of a wall, and this is time consuming. So, what I do is model only the finished architectural faces. The visible faces of models.
This makes for a very lightweight and fast model that can be used both in conceptual stages and construction documents production.
The model is fully textured wich is good for communication, rendering and construction documentation.
Then I use a free plugin, SectionCutFace, wich generates section faces of the building, into wich I design details as I would do in CAD but 10x faster at offsetting lines and hatching with Sketchup materials.
I then push these SectionCutFaces, Plans and Elevations to Layout as scenes/viewports and compose them at several scales, using different LOD, based on Sketchup Styles.
Layout allows me to use linestyles, dimensions and text to finish the project. Along with setting up viewports of the model in Layout, this is the slowest part of construction doc production. Most other work is as fast or much faster than CAD and results in a full 3D model as built and I don’t have to use any other software.
The main drawback is dwg/dxf export, that I need specially for consultants still working on CAD, and also dwf creation that we are required here for permits.
I’d recommend Sketchup and Layout for anyone, but there are issues that are probably going to cause a lot of frustration in both Layout and Sketchup. Overcoming them is usually hard, so you need some workarounds.
Here’s an example of a section cut face with hand drawn details…
After having a correct model, it’s much faster generate one of these, than in CAD and it’s lightweight.
Here’s an example of a set
[http://www.craigsdraftingservice.com/
@Drifter. Where?