Simpler drafting tools

I’d like to see simpler and faster drafting tools in LO:

  • Allow us to free ourselfs from the dongle by letting tools like move, rotate and scale to work like sketchup.
  • Fillet, Chamfer, Offset (distance or through point), Extend and Trim, Stretch and align and probably some others that I can’t remember now;
  • This would work for arcs and lines;
  • Single or multiple objects edition.

Otherwise right now, simple things like drawing hidden lines over our plans, are very hard to acomplish.

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+1 from me. Separate Scale, Move and Rotate tools are EXACTLY what I have in mind. Essentialy LayOut should be the equivalent of a single, flat plane SketchUp. Also, a Guide/Tape Measure tool. :thumbsup:

Definetelly… Flat plan Sketchup!

Or the drafting tool sketchup lacks.

But it is not, it’s an Adobe Illustrator inspired software with dimensioning and leader tools that architects relate to.

The way I see it it’s neither Vector Graphics app, nor CAD package so people keep away from it and keep using the other two.

I understand why Layout came from the Illustrator side… Sketchup’s main use is presentations.

The thing is, while architects hate CAD and love Sketchup for actually designing, people using Illustrator consider nothing else for their graphics achievements. Also, the tools we are lacking from CAD are just a few, while the features we are lacking from Illustrator and uncountable.

So, imho, Layout would do a great thing for Sketchup in general, if it would start by bridging the small gap, than to keep thinking in “illustrator terms” for the short run. In the long run I’d really like to have a drafting tool with some of the abilities Illustrator has, and wich Layout also features.

The other thing to solve is to adress speed, wich would also be possible with the Flat Sketchup concept if 3D was optionally replaced by 2D, speeding things up:

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I agree. If layout had a few simple improvements to its 2D linework tools the transition to a total Sketchup workflow would be a lot more viable to a lot of architects. Simple things like not having to use polar/absolute coordinates to create a line of a given length and a given direction (what is this the 90’s?). Or being able to drag the end of a line to a typed in distance.

This functionality is why I try to embed my 2D lines in the sketchup model and explode them into the layout file and then assign dashes line weights etc. as its just too hard to draw scale items in layout.

That workflow is still nuts… Layout should allow us to assign a linestyle to a viewport

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This workflow is quite quick once you set up the scenes and layers in your template correctly and model accordingly. It does require a bit of development work up front though. But I find the less I have to draw in layout the happier I am.

I’m rebuilding my sketchup/layout workflow at the moment. I use Revit at work, but am building my Sketchup system at home for side projects and when I go out on my own. A bit of trial and error but its coming along. It’s a much more enjoyable experience than the daily frustration that is autodesk.

My workflow is similar to Nick Sonder’s workflow but with a bit more complexity so the drawings are more in line with how I want them to look. When its a bit more streamlined ill post some results here for people to critique.

Everything that requires exploding is an absolute no no to me. It brakes up connection.

Skalp helps a bit with reflected ceilings, but I like to hand edit my section cut faces and my models don’t perform well under Skalp.

What I draw are really simple stuff so I can get around shortcomings Layout’s and like you I focus all I can inside Sketchup , but until either Sketchup gets line styles or Layout gets better drafting tools, I’m very limited in how I can do things with both.

What I mean is that I can do everything, but I don’t like how I have to do things in Layout as it takes all the fun out of sketchup and takes twice as long.

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I agree. A workaround is to place a copy of the view you plan to explode outside the “paper” so it will be there for re-use when the model changes.

Anssi

That’s a clever workaround, but still another workaround. Thanks though!

Someday I will make a report of all the workarounds I have to use to make layout work the way I need it to.