Measuring vectorworks files in 2d using sketchup pro

Hello
I am a Theatre technician in Australia
I am about to buy sketchup Pro but would love to hear from some one who has used it to import Vector works or autocad stage and lighting plans.
I am particularly interested in being able to measure plans drawn by my colligues in 2d.
I love Sketchup and cannot afford or justify buying vectorworks as most of my plan work involves working off lighting and set plans drawn by others (prod man and lighting designers).
Any help would be apreciated
Bob

I haven’t used Vectorworks in years, so I can’t say absolutely. I use PowerCADD for 2D instead, but the process of bringing in drawings to SU via .dwg files should be the same. All that comes into SU is just linework, but once imported you can use the tape measure tool to check distances between any of those elements. You can also use the linework to build SU models.

Yes, I use sketchup professionally in theater production environments and work with imported plots often. Works great. You will need to ask your vectorworks friends to send you files in dwg format which imports ok to sketchup. You can even do a decent job with a 2D PDF but you will need to know one true measurement from the origional to size it correctly.

Get a pro-trial version of 17 that will revert to make 17. That will handle dwg files for the first 30 days to give you a taste.

Thanks folks
Will go ahead and get it
May even finally switch to mac 1st
Thanks for the replies
Bob

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