I had the same problem as I have many 2d drawings of plans. I bought a High Definition screen, labelled my drawings appropriately and saved a screenshot of the drawing that could easily be printed. The result is more than acceptable.
Frankly I have tried Layout several times and the extra work involved is not worth that effort.
To get a “to scale” raster image from SketchUp without using LayOut I have used this workflow:
- Draw an empty rectangle of known dimensions around your model
- Use Parallel Projection
- Export a high-resolution image (I use PNG) so that the whole frame you drew is visible.
- Open the image in an image editor (I use an old version of Photoshop)
- Use a “Trim” function to crop the image to the frame you drew.
- Resize the image to correspond to the size of the frame at the desired scale. Usually without resampling
- If necessary, you can now do some further cropping.
- Save the image.
Now, when you insert the image into a page layout application, it should come in at the right size. Not sure if Word respects the size/resolution info embedded in an image.
SKETCHUP FOR WEB: 2D PLANS AS LAYOUT WITH DRAWING SHEETS
Although I have SU-PRO, I see SU-WEB can be limited for these users who require drawing sheets/title-blocks to present their work. I note their are workarounds, however ease of use for most is key. I guess SU-HQ want SU-WEB users to become PRO-USERS to enable use of LAYOUT, after all, they want to make money. However, they could be more generous, i.e. to provide more export file formats, DWG/DXF would be helpful, then SU-WEB users could make use of some basic free CAD programmes for drawing presentation.
I note BRICS-CAD-SHAPE, a similar free 3D programme with more architectural tools has DWG/DXF file format at its core & not restrictive on WEB use, but downloadable, this may be another thought ?
I muted on another topic that SU-LAYOUT could be separated from SU-PRO & purchased separately for those who want it. This would reduce the price point of SU-PRO, but also SU-HQ could allow SU-WEB users to use it as well.
Perhaps if SU-HQ could at some point make a SU-LAYOUT a web version for SU-WEB users, then that would be a resolve.
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Exactly. What do sketchup shop subscribers use as their layout option?
I see why they got rid of sketchup make, with all the extensions, it made it as powerful as pro, especially booltools2.
I forgot about SU-SHOP, a paid for SU version but web based only. However, I think it has far more export/import file formats than SU-WEB-FREE, so the LAYOUT side of things in terms of drawing sheets/title blocks could be exported & imported into a free CAD programme that one can draw up your own personal/business drawing sheets until SU-HQ feel more generous & make SU-LAYOUT available as a stand alone product for anyone to consider.
The import/export formats for SU-SHOP are noted as:-
Advanced (Everything Basic plus)
Import: DWG, DXF, DAE, KMZ, 3DS, DEM
Export: DWG, DXF, DAE, KMZ, 3DS, FBX, XSI, OBJ, VRML
SU-Shop also supports printing to scale.
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What free cad program do you have in mind to open the su shop files? Will they be in 3d? Or juat 2d?
Thanks
I’ve not had to experiment to find out a suitable free CAD programme in this regard, perhaps other SU-SHOP users will assist & recommend one they’ve had success with. However, in the meantime, have a look at the links below that takes you to a rundown of some free 3D/2D cad programmes on YOUTUBE including some extra links to others.
Link to free 3D/2D cad programmes = 6 Free CAD Software | Alternatives to Auto CAD - YouTube
AutoDesk Fusion-360 is free for one year for home use only, see this YOUTUBE link on a chap making a drawing sheet = Creating a Drawing Template in Autodesk Fusion 360 - YouTube
Link to: ALL3DP website, just found this, very interesting & lists more free cad programmes = https://all3dp.com/1/best-free-cad-software-2d-3d-cad-programs-design/
I am looking at FREECAD right now… pretty amazing modelling software… with FEA and CFD analysis… very impressive
teaching myself basics and hopefully will be able to take SU models into it
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Freecad is cool. Its alot like solidworks to me. I come from a cswp background and found freecad to be really nice. Though i do like su pro alot!
With your method above, by rotating the 4 objects, is it possible to add a iso view as well as a section view or detail view?
What about adding a title block?
Thanks
I have spent the last week or so trying freecad, openspace, librecad, scribus, and a various amount of other paper space or drawing programs and so far i think the way you dis it will be easiest, or PowerPoint.
Sure. I slammed this together pretty quick but it gives you an idea. The title block I made by starting with an 8.5x11 rectangle (the size of the paper I intended) then scaled it up until it fit around my drawing. I put in some 3D text, not efficient, would be easier to add after making the PDF, but doable.
An isometric view is a parallel projection camera rotated 45˚ horizontal and 35.264˚up vertical relative to the object. This makes 90˚ corners appear 120˚. In this case I cannot move the camera as it is shared with all the other views, so I rotate a copy of the object to those same angles. As you can see I copied and rotated the dimensions along with it, so they would be present on the iso version, this is optional of course.
Move to your parallel projection top view and lastly hit zoom extents to make the view fit the “paper” rectangle and title block. By playing with my browser window ratio a little I was even able to include the SketchUp watermark.
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That is awesome. Tha ks for this. I have layout, but some people i know have the shop version and have been trying to get drawings. Even exporting in dwg, dxf, freecad and other programs have a hard time opening them unless you go with autodesk, but at that price tag…
I spent 5 hours today trying to get freecsd to play nice with non native formats such as dxf, dwg, stl, obj, and dae. I was unsuccessful to say rhe least haha. PowerPoint seems to be a viable option with screenshots. Your option seems great as well. Take a screen shot and have a title block made in word or PowerPoint
Ok, now I’m just having fun. I was lying in bed last night thinking about how I would do a detail as you requested, and this is what I came up with.
First I made a small change, thanks to components it is updated on all views. Then I choose the view I wish to detail, iso in this case and made a move/copy of it. I scaled that new version by a known factor, in this case 2, scale applied to the outside of a component scales that instance only and does not break the link so this detail version will remain updatable as well. I moved this new scaled instance below my title block page and then cut a circular hole in the title page to allow it to act as a mask for the detail instance behind it, then positioned the detail version in the hole.
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Thats awesome! Thanks for taking the time to show this. This has been fun to watch all the ways to do different layouts for drawings when you only have the free or shop version.
I like this method because you can update the parts without taking a bunch of new screenshots.
This way, you cannhave your parts on their own scene and either hidden or away from the original part. Probably hidden because zoom extents will incorporate all the parts
Though i thought with components, if you scaled one of them, it scaled all of them?
Even a cross section cut with hatching wouldnt be to hard to do with this method.
If you were to open the component for editing and scale the geometry inside it will scale in all instances. If the scale is applied to the outside of the component then only that instance is scaled but it remains a linked instance, just at a different scale. You can always right click on a scaled instance and choose reset scale.
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Ok, its the outside of the component that you can scale and it keepa it unique to that one object.
Ok, one more question. What if i were to make my own title block in PowerPoint that is 8.5x11. Could i import that as the title block and still be able to do the detail view as well as the others?
Thanks
Thank you. I ended up just buying the subscription and getting Layout. 
I’ve used PowerPoint for so many things over the years. Truly versatile as long as you ignore the idea of “slides”. Ironically, I don’t think I’ve ever made an actual slide show with it!
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