I’ve been using Layout since it was first released and until version '24 I absolutely loved it, and used it extensively for all 2D work directly in layout as it was accurate and fast! '24 has destroyed that love somewhat, as my most utilised tools are broken:
The new inferencing method has made it quite cumbersome and slow to work with, and every day I get more annoyed! and
The scale tool is broken, now scaling to an inference is hit and miss (while this does to a degree, overcome the inferrencing issue). If you scale to a reference, you now have to zoom in the confirm you met the inference, and it may take 2 or more attempts to ensure it’s worked as intended, about 60% of the time it hasn’t.
If you can get a copy of '21 (I purchased outright as the last version you could) it works fine! I now do all my first round work in '21 and only work with '24 where I’m forced to eg, inserting a '24 SKP. The fun is then over as I can’t make the file backwardly compatible.
But as suggested, its a brilliant 2D tool for all kinds of work! Though the lack of running dimensions, or the ability to tailor dimensions to feel running is a real downer!
I am using SketchUp with Layout exclusively at this point. It does get a bit messy, with a billion sections in order to show the various elevations (can not use a camera view, with vector, as foreground items are visible in Layout).
If you wanted an example you could send me an email, spencer@korts.com, and I would send you an example of what I’m able to produce now (too much work to delete customer information, so I am not willing to just put it out there!).
I sell Canadian cabinets, so I REALLY miss the dual dimension feature in AutoCad, which is what I’ve used forever (2D). BUT, I also am really enjoying the 3D views, detailed interiors, etc. So certainly some tradeoffs. I decided it was worth it, and forced myself to just use SU, because the desire to flip over to AutoCad is strong when doing something complicated.
You probably know this, but medeek design has some really cool extensions for walls, floors, roofs, etc. I bought it, because I like it, but probably not necessary for me personally. But could be very helpful for a person doing the full structure.
SketchUp Pro 2024, including LayOut, has seen several improvements that may address your past concerns about its suitability for 2D drafting. Key features now include:
Line Weight Control: You can assign variable line weights through tags and scenes, allowing for more detailed and presentation-ready drawings.
Better Dimensioning & Annotation: Enhanced tools for precise dimensioning, callouts, and text editing.
Scalable Drawing in LayOut: You can create scaled 2D drawings directly in LayOut, reducing dependency on external 2D software.
Improved Performance: Faster rendering and performance improvements make handling larger files more efficient.
Considerations:
Workflow Integration: LayOut works best when paired with well-organized SketchUp models using layers/tags and scenes.
Learning Curve: If you’ve not used LayOut recently, you might need some time to get accustomed to its current workflow.
Best Use Cases: It’s particularly strong for residential projects, smaller commercial designs, and concept presentations.
Resources for Advanced LayOut Use:
SketchUp Campus: Official tutorials covering advanced LayOut techniques.
YouTube Channels: Try channels like SketchUp School or The SketchUp Essentials for in-depth videos.
SketchUp Forums: The SketchUp Community forum has many user discussions and project examples.
Given your reduced project load and desire to streamline costs, revisiting LayOut in SketchUp Pro 2024 could be worth the effort. Many professionals successfully create complete 2D plan sets using the current version. If you decide to switch, a thoughtful model organization strategy and some practice with LayOut’s tools should set you up well.
Yes I agree and I have purchased Mike brightmans book …although many years ago I purchased sonders book when I first tried layout many years ago …so yes am going to get to grips with it this time !
Been using SketchUp for planning and also for manufacturing using both 2 & 3D for about 20 years. I work in the heritage sector in the UK and a traditional feel to a drawing is important when getting a difficult project through. SketchUp lacks the line weight choices, but the drawings do have a crisper cleaner look that is a little closer to the classic drawings you’d see in a C19 book on bricklaying or joinery for example.
When producing a 2d drawing directly I’ll always work with SketchUp set to parallel projection and plan view. I also turn off shortcuts to the orbit tool. This is particularly easy in the iPad version.
As @simoncbevans points out I’ll always group items that need to have thickened edge on a face such as a recessed window on a wall elevation.
If I’ve drawn the building in 3D I will usually rotate a copied version of the entire thing to show each elevation on parallel plan view in SketchUp. This is so I don’t get other drawings appearing in the background.
Alternatively I’ll export a parallel view to a 2d dxf and reimport. The drawing being flattened to scale can be altered easily.
The choice between these two workflows depends on what kinds of versions will be needed as the project progresses. I find 3D is good for selling the project and for avoiding structural clashes and anomalies, but that 2D is how people understand what they have to build (This therefore is an area where skp loads my workflow). However what I tend to do once the job is sold with an accurate 3D is use a single version of the 3D drawing as an ongoing rough sketchpad for avoiding the structural issues, but to present everything in quickly amendable/understandable-on-a-building site 2D.
I’ll make sure each drawing has its own scene.
Once in layout I then have the option to add a third line weight. I’ll usually do the outer border of each discrete drawing part as that’s a quick job. Other line weights can also be added then if needed of course.
All annotation happens in layout where I have full control of appearance and company brand.
I’m not having been any significant problems in my workflow with inferencing – is there anything specific you can share…?
I say significant because whilst the inferencing may be hit and miss on occasion – there’s nothing about it that is regularly interrupting my workflow and wasting my time.
Tazio, you and I are in the same boat. I also use Vectorworks, but I got sick and tired of upgrading yearly, only to see that they’ve added lots of new bells and whistles that I’d never use, and they still haven’t fixed the little things that bug me. I too, have tried LO over the years, but every time have found it so frustratingly slow that I revert to 2D in VW. Anyway, bottom line is that after VW 2021, I stopped upgrading, and I can’t say I have any regrets!
It was changed to match SketchUp’s inferencing, but without acknowledging the difference in working in 3D environment versus that of a 2D page layout tool. The biggest issue for me is the broken scaling tool, it would normally allow me to bypass the inferencing required to move an object, but with it now being non-functional, you are forced into using inferencing and it’s cost!
I use AutoCAD LT - £486 /per year - when I collaborate with a friend (it makes it easier to use the same software and she payed for my seat).
I like Layout , because if’s direct link with SketchUp viewport. I think it’s brilliant when you have to modify your model.
On the other hand I am missing enormously some of the drafting tool I got used to in ArchCAD - most importantly
mirror to a centerline (as opposed to flip a copy)
fill tools (it is impossible to make a hole in a fill, I would welcome a fill tool similar to solid work tools in SketchUp which would allot to intersect fills, make a hole, easy modification and all in all make it quicker to produce fills).Gradient fill would be awesome as well as co trol over line colour and thickness of the fill. I like sketchy fill, but so sometimes try doing show in print.
I have a problem moving some drawing elements (the arrow doesn’t show up - you have to deselect and select again - and grabbing it at the right point with the target is very slow - as you have to move the target to the reference point, then mine the element…I think layout should have more similarities with SketchUp in certain tools - like have a move tool with a shortcut. And TIGs Mirror tool. I still use it with SketchUp as well as the Curic Mirror tool (even though SketchUp now has it’s own…I have never tried it my bad.
-switch between hairline and real thickness for precision.
-ghost layer - switch to make SketchUp viewports lighter (I could probably set up a style for this).
sometimes, when I dimension , it is hard to find the right reference point, the SketchUp viewport has too thick lines? Draft mode addressed this issue, but change the viewport to Hybrid or Vector dies slow the software down…
so on…I will write a comprehensive wishlist
I should probably dig deeper into Layout and use it more efficiently - will look at Mike’s videos, he seems a very straight forward no nonsense person, he probably worked out an effective way to work with SketchUp and Layout.
I used these softwares extensively in the last 2 years, I still finding myself slower when drafting from scratch - I work on different types of project, so my method is very unconventional and I change the style of my drawings depending on the subject. Which is very counterproductive, but give me more joy and motivation. Which SketchUp and Layout actually very good for - but not always fast.
Yes. I think it’s a very useful function and also, adding a few basic drafting aids would not make the software complicated, but would allow people to switch totally to the SU-LO combo, which I would love to do.
I just started to experiment with creating section cut groups and save them to a dedicated TAG.
My problem with TAGs is that if I creat a new, then I have to go back to all saves SCENEs and exclude these layers from the already saved scenes (sometimes quite a few and with different TAG combinations - e.g. I can’t always batch save them.
So I started to create TAGs like “HIDE” “SECTION CUT 01-10” and turn them off and just delete them later - which obviously adds to amount of TAGs. At the moment I am working on my laptop (my desktop has a major BLUE SCREEN melt down and although managed to save my files, I had no time to reinstall everything yet.) tiny screen with tiny icons (great idea by the way to have this option in SU) and not much space to palettes …
Are you referring to the new groups you create appearing in all your current scenes. If so there are plugins available that let you hide any selected groups in all scenes.
Geometry will show in any scene until it is assigned a tag and then the visibility will be controlled by the tags. One key is to build a template with all the tags you typically use, then create scenes with these tags on / off. It takes a few projects but you’ll get a good sense of what you need for the type of work you do. And then it’s good to have X-tra tags in your SKP template that are off in all scenes that you can use or specific circumstances. It make document control and scene control much easier to just need to toggle a few unexpected tags on or off in a few scenes, vs needing to update them all.
There is also a plugin or two ‘auto invisible layer’ or something like that which will allow you to create new tags that are default off in all scenes. Handy when needed.
I’ve played with that too. My problem so far is if you dimension to it in LO, when you delete and regenerate it, all the dimensions in LO break and turn red. Sometimes it doesn’t matter (i.e. they didn’t change) so I just ignore the red and leave it.
+1 on that. Problem is remembering whether it’s turned on or off. Also +1 on rolling what you come up with into the tags and scenes already made and set up in a template.
I haven’t read all posts here so I am not sure of what I want to ask is covered. It is kind of relevant to the topic.
One way of dealing with line weights might be to import an overlay from SU and stack it on top of the actual imported SU drawing. The problem is getting the scale right. Take a look at the attached LO drawing. It includes three representations of the same SU model. The one top left is the ported drawing and retains a link to SU (allowing it to be updated dynamically). The one to the right is simply an imported screenshot of the same drawing. The third one is a screenshot pasted inside a scaled drawing.
As you can see, both the imported screenshots are not to the same scale as the SU drawing, although (confusingly perhaps), they all “measure” the same. Clearly, if you wanted to stack these elements, it would not work.
my bad.