Learning the correct terminology to ask my questions efficiently...and not be quite so annoying

SketchUp
1

Hi All,

I am new to Sketchup and CAD in general.

No doubt there will be a multitude of questions from me, over time, and I would like to be less annoying/annoyed by using the correct language when asking questions.

For example, knowing if I can attach information to a part of a drawing, like a wall or window, and have it exported for calculations, is something I would like to know.

I just am not sure terms like “information” and “part” are the correct terms to be using to best help others understand what I am babbling about!

Is there a glossary of sorts or reference area that I can learn the language from?

Many thanks,

Ham Solo.

2

The most helpful thing you can do for yourself is get into the habit of searching, many of the beginner’s questions can be answered with a simple search on Google, YouTube or the Forum.

Since you’re starting with Sketchup, the first stop is the official page > Resources > Learn.

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There, in Campus, you will find tutorials for beginners - learn.sketchup.com.

Also in the Resources, you will find a link to Help, where you can learn the exact terminology of the program.

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3

Most excellent of you. Thank you. I am currently watching the Ipad Square One playlist, to get a feel for the basics. Right now, I can only see me using the ipad version but that perhaps changes over time.

4

Try to learn the basics of SketchUp and its logic, it will be useful to you, on the one hand, because you will be able to work with any of the versions of SketchUp (desktop, Web, iPad), but you will also find tutorials that, even if they are made in any of those versions and not necessarily in the iPad, will help you.

5

I will get there and find out if it Sketchup is suitable for my needs. It gets hard to find time researching and learning different softwares for work. I spend days of time testing software to see if it can do what I need sometimes, only to find it cant do it.

And then my other half throws a shoe at me when I spend “just another hour” on yet another one :slight_smile:

6

This can be done in SketchUp, but with some amendments:

  • depends on what you mean by ‘attach information and parts’;
  • exported to where?

In the desktop version you can do this, with native tools or extensions.

7

Thanks for your time Mihai,

I lidar scan or manually draw buildings to allow thermal calculations and designs to be carried out and each wall, floor, ceiling, window etc have different thermal properties.

An example:

One app I use scans a room (lidar) and then allows me to select a wall and label it as an external or internal wall. With that label comes a value, 0.2, for example.

That value is then multiplied by the surface area of a given wall, this is carried out for all the surfaces and added together for each room.

I have no clue, yet, if Sketchup has any calculation ability or that side would need to be performed externally, hence the export inquiry.

I hope that makes some sense. Think Room Planner but with the maths of it all being pulled into formulas and spat as as usable info.

Ham Solo

8

Have you looked at Scan to Design?

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Look at:

You’re welcome!

10

Thank you, yes, I have. It was what drew me to look into Sketchup in more detail. It is tantalizing, what I could possibly do with this, if I can attach data and perform calculations with said data.

Without the ability to give items data, I am not sure how useful I can be with it but I will spend the time learning and working out what can and can’t be done.

With help from here, I am sure I can find out.

The scan ability has so much potential for my work flow and customer interaction!

As usual, I am left with so many questions like: can multiple rooms be scanned and attached together to create an entire building or does each scan have to be a separate file?

11

truth is, so many of us here are not native english speakers. Mihai who answered below is from Romania, I’m French, and even Box speaks Australian :upside_down_face:.

while there are some specific words that you’ll learn as you go, not knowing them all is not a handicap. just be descriptive, show and explain what you need, what you mean, it’s usually enough to get started :wink:

12

Well now I feel even more stupid, thanks :slight_smile:

Apart from the Ozzie, I speak fluent Ozzie!

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13

I overlooked this somehow. Sefaira looks to carry out the same analysis as I currently do for heat losses and heating load for a building and is able to show external walls, windows, roof etc as tagged/identified.

It seems, initially, that Sketchup can do everything I want, then.

Am I correct in thinking that to have analysis/formula applied to data within the model, I need to learn how to create a plug in for such things?

Many thanks

14

Most likely @corney or @daniel_pidcock could help you with more details about Sefaira. Thanks!

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15

@HamSolo yes if you want to do data analysis on your models, you can write that as a Ruby plugin that interrogates elements in your model, then runs the calculations and displays the results.

We take a slightly different approach with Sefaira for several reasons, including that we need to support Revit as well as SketchUp, the analysis can involve significant modifications to the model, we run the analysis on cloud servers to take the heavy lifting away from users machines and have a multi-user system.

Generally, our approach is:

  1. Extract the SketchUp geometry & attributes with a Ruby Plugin
  2. Upload that to our servers in a simplified format
  3. Convert to a format suitable for server-side geometric modifications
  4. Perform model modifications as required
  5. Convert the model for the energy/daylight engines and run the calculations

Dan

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16

Thank you for taking the time to explain that Daniel, I appreciate it.

Sefaira does look to be really very good. I am not sure the pricing is something I can justify, at this time, with the amount of this type of work we currently carry out. $2k is a good amount to invest.

Could you (or anyone) point me to a resource where I can perhaps learn more about the process of adding data to an element and how it would be extracted?

Have a superb weekend

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17

I am sure your answer is to the point.
I know how this person feels. I felt that way and often do so especially
when one is 55+ and has wondered into Lumion, Twinmotion and UE 5.2
it’s like our brain needs to become a dictionary and I don’t have the space
anymore. I have a wall of post it notes to “trigger” my personal Q&A and UI
situation to resolve

I search everyday for years but must admit not being able to recall
all the “right terminology” makes it very difficult to find the correct answers,
especially when one writes in English with a German French educational
background. I am sure many here can tell.

I must give a heads up to the poster and say this Forum members are
amazing and have helped me over the years to overcome crucial questions
As close as the last days and especially yesterday several folks here have
shown me so much patience and help.

THANK YOU!

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18

You’re probably best of asking in one of the Developers Ruby forum: Ruby API - SketchUp Community, but if I understand what you are wanting to do, I think one way could be:
Make all your elements into components.
Create custom component attributes to store your data
You can now access the attribute values with the Ruby API, along these lines:

components = Sketchup.active_model.selection.grep(Sketchup::ComponentInstance)
components.each { |component|
	puts "Instance: #{component.name}"
	puts "Amazingness: #{component.attribute_dictionaries["dynamic_attributes"]["amazingness"]}"
}

Here’s the result:

Screenshot 2025-03-24 at 16.19.42
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This is only going to work if you can make all your parts into components though…
If you want to operate on any SketchUp entity, you’d need to create a UI in your plugin for setting those values (might not be a bad thing to have really anyway…). In that case you are free to use your own attribute dictionary rather than the dynamic_attributes one I used above.

19

Thank you Daniel, great food for thought

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20

All very nice, I can do that on my Android phone with the POLYcam app
that works on Apple also.

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