Tutorials, News, Book Companion Materials
We don’t always need to work in 3D. Space layout planning for interior design, event planning, facilities management, etc. is often easier and faster in 2D. As it turns out, we can do this quite effectively in SketchUp’s 3D modeling environment or on LayOut’s 2D sheets, without even creating a full 3D model.
In this tutorial video I describe various ways how you can print scaled, parallel-projection views from SketchUp for Web as well as SketchUp Pro/Desktop (where I will be using the LayOut software).
I cover all the relevant aspects and then show how you can use the PDF file format as an intermediate print file format. This video is an update to my older one on this topic. Since that video was posted, SketchUp for Web has been introduced and printing in SketchUp Pro/Desktop has changed. Hence the need for an update.
SketchUp 2024 removed the option to save files in all previous version formats, now only offering a version-less format from 2022. A Ruby script workaround lets users save to older versions.
Synchronize SketchUp extensions across multiple computers utilizing cloud storage services. By designating a specific folder, installing a file loader, and moving extensions to the cloud, users can streamline their SketchUp work.
The following is a handy little Ruby tool if you frequently need to export the current view as an image in SketchUp. It basically allows you to pre-set all of the export parameters (including an export location) and keeps all of those consistent. Of course, this is not too hard with SketchUp itself (because it remembers the last used location and image parameters), but this script allows you to keep those parameters consistent even if SketchUp “forgets” them occasionally (i.e. after you work with a file in a different location).
Just like everyone else these days I have been trying out OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing (which now also uses the same AI – artificial intelligence – engine). One of my lines of exploration (beyond “what does this thing know about me?”) was the question whether it can auto-generate SketchUp Ruby code with AI. And […]