Sketch-up

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:47 pm

brad_nalor wrote:Todays super high res monitors are a big help too.

Also, no plotters needed these days for the budget minded. Scale the drawings to poster size or wall size if you wish. Each sheet is number connected and you can tape them together to make full size patterns or whatever. Probably don't need it but some fellow was offering a neat program called 'Big Picture' and is great for printing full size scaled drawings.

I know that feature is there but I have not been very successful using it.

tgamel · Post by **tgamel** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:23 pm

wrmnfzy wrote:I found the old WF threads on it and the 5 lessons and have down loaded same. I'll be down loading the free version and from what I've been able to see I don't know if I'd need the pro version, it appears to be above my pay grade. Thanks for the response

Yea, I just downloaded the free version last week. The pro version is well quite expensive. Could buy a lot of stuff for the shop for that price.

emagnet · Post by **emagnet** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:12 am

emagnet wrote:I decided to try Sketchup and was disappointed that the free version would not let me import dxf files from my 2D Cad program. A bunch of google searching uncovered that I could download and install Sketchup Pro 7 on a free trial basis. Once the trial time expires, I am told that the product reverts to the free Sketchup 7. For this, there is a third party plugin that will import dxf files. I have no idea if all this will work as I'm still waiting for the trial license time to expire. If this is of interest to you, I'll provide a link to the third party plugin, if I can find it again.

The trial license for my copy of Sketchup Pro 7.1 has finally expired and I can confirm that the third party plugin does allow importing of dxf and dwg files. Here is the link for the Windows version:

http://dl.google.com/sketchup/gsu7/AllowDWGImportInSketchUp7.msi

videobear · Post by **videobear** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:25 am

Some of the best Sketchup tutorials I've seen can be found at http://www.harwoodpodcast.com You can find Harwood's videos on YouTube also.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:57 pm

OKAY, I give up. Please help.

I have a load of DWG files (from AutoCad) on a flash disk. I can open and execute these files using AutoCad but the DWGImporter referenced in this thread does not seem to recognize them. What am I doing wrong.

I have downloaded and run the import DWG installer referenced here but I cannot locate an executable for that program..

How do I initiate the import process from Sketchup. I have the free 8.0 version (recently updated).

NOTE: I posted earlier IN THIS THREAD that this can be done with the Pro version only. I now believe that.

emagnet · Post by **emagnet** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:04 pm

dusty wrote:OKAY, I give up. Please help.

I have a load of DWG files (from AutoCad) on a flash disk. I can open and execute these files using AutoCad but the DWGImporter referenced in this thread does not seem to recognize them. What am I doing wrong.

I have downloaded and run the import DWG installer referenced here but I cannot locate an executable for that program..

How do I initiate the import process from Sketchup. I have the free 8.0 version (recently updated).

NOTE: I posted earlier IN THIS THREAD that this can be done with the Pro version only. I now believe that.

Dusty,

The plugin only works for Sketchup 7 not 8. When Trimble bought Sketchup from Google, they disabled this functionality in the free version. You have to use the last version where this plugin worked which is 7. Trimble only has the Pro version of 7 available for download so I had to wait for the trial license to expire so that it would revert to the free version so I could see if the plugin worked. That's why it took so long for me to report back. Now that I know that I can import my dxf files, I've started teaching myself Sketchup. Fun program to use. It's taking some practice for me to get used to the fact that I'm in three dimensional space now but I can see this being a more powerful way to create my drawings than my 2d program.

berry · Post by **berry** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:13 pm

I have the free version SU7, unlike many others, I've never used anything other than pencil and paper before. Generally I consider myself technologically impaired. None the less I've found SU reasonably easy to use. I can assure you that if I can use it anyone can. If I'd use it more often it would be much better. But I only use every other month or something and I have to re-learn everything, agh.

I've used this guys tutorials and found them very good http://www.srww.com/blog/?p=1335

I've never figured out how to post a model here

One member even gave me some direction but I couldn't make it work.

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:25 am

Sorry I'm late jumping into this thread, but there's a pretty easy fix for you. The free versions of SketchUp USED to import/export DWG and DXF files. That being said, you can install and keep multiple versions of SketchUp on your machine at the same time. Version 7.0 of SketchUp (free) will still import DXF or DWG files. There is a plug-in available that works with 7.x that will export a SketchUp file to DXF. I keep a copy of 7 installed on my computer just for importing/exporting purposes. You should be able to Google and find a install package still out there for SketchUp 7