I have been using Sketchup Make for furniture design. We are building a house and I have done the floor plans in Sketchup but am having trouble getting the dimensioned drawings to print clearly. I can’t modify font size of the dimensions in SU Make and was wondering if I would be able to produce better layouts in Pro. Does it allow for more manipulation of fonts and positions, etc?
Yes. You can make better looking dimensioned drawings using LayOut with SketchUp Pro.
Why can’t you change the font size for dimensions in SketchUp? It is possible to do it.
Thanks for the quick reply. Can you provide info on how to change the font size of the dimensions? I have never needed to with furniture and can’t seem to figure it out. Obviously I am a very novice user. Thanks.
Go to Window>Model Info>Dimensions and edit the settings. Click on Select All Dimensions and then Update All Dimensions.
You can get a much more professional looking result with LayOut, though.
Thanks. I downloaded the trial version of layout this morning and it looks like its pretty different from SU Make. Is it pretty intuitive to pick up?
SketchUp Pro is essentially the same although there are a few additional tools. LayOut is not like SketchUp but it isn’t intended to be. You can insert your SketchUp model into LayOut and use it to create the documentation you need. It would be best to start here.
Thanks Dave. Will get started right away.
When you click on a Dimension, you can open the Properties for the Dimension object (I may have the terminology wrong, but it’s something like that). In any case, among the properties are Font properties that let you choose to have fonts of fixed size (e.g. letters are 1/2 inch tall) or fixed point size. In one case, the fonts will be the same size on the screen, no matter the zoom level. In the other, the fonts will remain the same size relative to their surroundings.
I am not explaining this clearly, but if you can do it, it may help.
Thanks Dan. I found where the fonts can be changed but did not realize that there was a way to keep the size the same when zooming. That will be a big help. Thanks again. Don
By the way, you might want to look at my collection of 2D floorplan symbols at the 3D Warehouse
I made these for a course that I was assisting (NMSU Engineering Technology 365). Here’s a link to the companion site for the course, which may or may not be useful
Also helpful for design is http://www.dimensionsinfo.com/
How big is a coke can? How big can a dog be? What size should a wheelchair-accessible bathroom be? The answers are here!