Anyone home builders on this forum who use SU to design, price and build complete houses, without using Revit?
If so, what plugins are you using for parametrics/ BIM/ structural analysis so that SU works as well as Revit?
Thank you.
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âMedeek BIMâ
Im not sure how you define BIM.
We just send some details over to an engineer, and he sends it back to us with a little more info about members and fasteners with his stamp on it.
To my knowledge, (correct me if Iâm wrong forum friends) there is no such tool that would structurally analyze a single thing in SketchUp.
Yet . . . @medeek
Heres a link to what I was able to do with Medeek BIM: Oklahoma House Build!
Sounds like sending to engineer addresses any structural questionsâŚ
Thanks for the tip!
Do codes department approve the build from your drawings and his/her stamp?
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Thank you.
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The âcodes departmentsâ (whoever issues required permits) approve the engineerâs drawings. The engineer would deal with your drawings first.
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Noted thanks. Sounds like Sketchup plus engineerâs stamps is enough to get approvalâŚ
Thanks again.
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I use profile builder for almost everything⌠and flextools.
I share my model in IFC format and my colleagues calculate structures with Cype Structures and MEP with Tekton
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Might be a good idea to call some structural engineers in your area and ask how they work. Ditto for city inspectors. Let them know that you want to provide what they need. Thatâll make both of your jobs easier.
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Hi Randy,
I am a custom home builder and we use SketchUp for everything. We use PDF Importer to import floor plans, like chalking walls we build on top of them using native SU tools, Profile Builder for footings, foundations, interior and exterior trim, Framer for SketchUp tor modeling parametric walls and Estimator for SketchUp to get our estimates as we model. For structural, we work with our structural engineer to model the specified beams, posts, etc. and we get our floor and roof truss vendors to send us their 3D files. We can then do clash detection when we import the trusses into our framing model. Then we work with our mechanical subs to model ductwork, etc. and look for clashes.
Full disclosure, out of necessity, I developed several of the extensions mentioned above (PDF Importer, Framer and Estimator) because I needed these tools. Profile Builder is a must-have extension and Medeek makes great framing and truss tools. Nathaniel, who created it, is a structural engineer and is always adding features and strives for engineering-centric features.
Luckily our structural engineer has SketchUp. I have a degree in engineering but not a PE, so I design/model a lot of my structural elements, but he then views my models, checks my work and has me make changes accordingly. I make the changes to the model and then we use Layout to show our Tall Wall details, etc. and he stamps the necessary pages for approval.
I have never used Revit and realize it is the âindustry standardâ but we have found that there is nothing we cannot model in SketchUp. Our only issues are performance, which always lags, and making changes! That is where a truly parametric program like Revit has it beat for sure.
Just my two centsâŚ
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Thank you for that very thorough answer sir.
Exactly what I was looking to learn, in terms of the necessity to buy and learn Revit , vs just buying more SU extensionsâŚ
Thanks again!
Profile builder and Quantifier pro are the plugins I use to model and get costs estimates, also correct use of dynamic components and sketchup generate report tool is great to have a BIM methodology inside Sketchup.