I’m using this extension (Sketch-Int by Mario Chabot (@mariocha / @mario_chabo) and I love it. It creates detailed doors & windows, can cut openings, etc. Very convenient and saves a ton of time & nerves.
However, like almost everything in the Sketchup ecosystem, it’s not perfect.
So first off, if anyone can recommend another extension specifically to create a variety of doors & windows (and be able to modify them after creation), that would be awesome.
Second, I would like to make the following suggestions / bug reports to Mr. Chabot.
[FEATURE REQUEST]
1.) It would be an amazing addition to add an “Inner Frame” and “Outer Frame” material option, because there are many situations where windows will have, for example, a black frame outside, and a white / unfinished frame inside (to be painted to match the room).
Right now, I have to click into each component & change the colors manually. Thankfully you have the various parts grouped “by layers”, so it’s relatively easy. But it still gets to be time-consuming on larger projects.
Also, since during the design process we generally don’t have the colors figured out at the same time as the building structure, maybe there could be an option to show “placeholder” versus “decided” colors, or highlight the windows / doors where colors have not been chosen yet?
[FEATURE REQUEST]
2.) It would also be cool AF to have a button on the toolbar that would generate a report of all the doors & windows in the document.
Yes, I know it could be done by other means, but anything that would improve reliability and save time & nerves is always welcome.
[FEATURE REQUEST]
3.) Would it be difficult from the programming perspective to allow a better selection of handles / locksets? Like, having a “socket” that the user could load in another component as the handle, and have it apply to either the currently created component (or ideally, all components of the same type / size / all in document)?
[FEATURE REQUEST]
4.) Consider the thickness of the walls + Sheetrock on the inside and siding / cladding outside - setting the “Thickness” to the exact wall size creates collisions between the frame and the claddings:
In this case, even though the wall thickness is 6", I would have to remember to input 7" in order to generate an assembly thick enough to clear the 1/2" Sheetrock on the inside and the 1/2" cladding on the outside.
It would be nice to have either a reminder that frames need extra clearance, or (ideally) a way to click on a wall with all the wallcoverings, and grab that thickness & insert it into the assembly.
[FEATURE REQUEST]
5.) The function to cut holes doesn’t really work well, especially with multiple layers (like sheetrock / cladding / tiles / etc). It would be nice to have the option to either temporarily hide the outer frame, leaving only the inner box, so the user can manually cut a hole through the layers of cladding - or have a feature that punches a hole through multiple layers. Like a “plasma-edged cube”.
[BUG REPORT]
6.) There is an occasional misalignment of the outer frame panels, it happens rarely but still often enough to mention it. Usually on the larger items.
[BUG REPORT]
7.) Not sure if bug or API limitation, but the created components have the “Glue To” function, which makes them hard to manually position - and applying “Unglue” to them breaks their relationship to the extension and they cannot be changed through the toolbar later. So it’s like, you can have fine-tune positioning, or you can have changes, but you can’t have both.
I hope this is interesting & valuable input, and I would love to see an updated & modernized version of this plugin. I would even pay for it! And/or help to find developers to assist.
Thank you!
