Hello SketchUp community, I am a design consultant who prepares 3D and 2D drawings for Architectural, mechanical and a little civil.
I am looking for a way to lock 2D mode in sketchup. Reason being I am trying to train others on sketchup and layout for architecture. A lot of my users get confused with the 3D platform in Sketchup.
I was wondering if there is a way to lock top view so my designers who have this issue can work in 2D until rotation is needed.
Your thoughts!
I don’t think there is currently a way to lock it as such, but if you are working in Top View and avoid incurring Orbit, you will stay in a true 2D environment. Just use Pan and Zoom to move around.
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Here’s another tip in case you don’t know it.
If you start off by creating a surface at z=0 that is larger than the plan you want to create, it makes keeping all geometry on that plane a bit easier, especially when drawing off axis. You can of course do the same for elevations by creating a vertical plane and using Front View.
…or you can try to use this:
…Other idea, set a shortcut for top view e.g. ctrl+space (or whatever) then you can easy to get back to top view after “accidental” orbit.
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This sounds more like a training need to me.
Personally I think it would be better to teach the 3D aspect of SketchUp from the start but if you are really averse to that, you could set up a default template with a scene using the standard Top view and with the camera set to Parallel Projection. Then teach the students to avoid the Orbit tool until they need to go 3D.
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I think it’s a great idea, and something that would help people working on building designs. If Sketchup was able to have a proper plan view like in other CAD softwares.
Changing geometry such as plans while in sketchup in section view, with a plugin like Skalp running in the background is fiddly. If sketchup came with a simple wall tool that you could adjust it’s thickness and height, and was able to place doors and windows in while being in a more formal 2d locked view would be great.
Modelling in 3d view is great, but sometimes doing the boring simple plan view stuff is better in plan view.
That’s what Layout is for
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Yes another idea, you could use scenes, and give them a starter document that has a top down parallel projection scene, but also has ISO and true perspective scenes as well. Then they draw what they can in the top down view, and can switch to another scene to get familiar with how it looks in 3D, without having to master orbit and pan tools right away.
I create a 2D plan in every project that I work on both residential and commercial. I use native SU tools and am not locked into any view. I think I can do this in SU just as fast, if not faster than in AutoCAD. It just takes a little while to switch the gears for how to do it - at least for me. I like not being locked into a 2D view because I can ad stairs and ramps in 3D. I think it works great!
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