How To Use Sketchup Free For Home Design

[Leroy Turcios]

Everyonewhat do you think of Revit, Sketchup, and Autocad? And how do you think they compare to Chief Architect for traditional conceptual home design, custom complicated modern home design, and detailed construction home drawings?

Revit...more expensive for full version, way overkill and much slower for average residential projects. More powerful though if you are doing a lot of commercial or complex/highly "modern"/free form residential.

Sketchup...cheaper, maybe slightly easier to use for some things, but requires a crapload of plugins and add-ons to do what Chief can do OOB. Also slower IMO when comparing completed 3D models and 2D output apples to apples.

AutoCAD...Really a 2D CAD app even though there's a 3D version. Kinda spendy for what you get but it still seems to be the standard for a lot of drafting shops. I think this is slowly dying though and unless you're already heavily invested in it or working for a company that requires it, I see no reason to start down that road.

A lot of us use one or more of the above in addition to Chief to either supplement capabilities or for different projects. Chief is a good program though and I personally think its probably the best software out there for average to mid range higher end residential. Especially for smaller shops. And although a lot of guys use multiple software platforms, I think Chief really can do just about all of it.

On the other hand collaboration is necessary on these other programs because I don't think you can effectively and productively work alone in these other programs seeing how much leg work goes into setting things up to be as efficient as Chief out of the box.

CONSULTANTS USED - exchange of information

For your likely building types, what degree of exchange of documentation do you

anticipate with your consultants? (Structural, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing etc)

Now consider the rapid changes that are now evolving in software and its applications to the CLOUD use

and to BIM (Built Information Modelling). Will the software you choose be able to exchange data and take

YOUR AGE DETERMINES THE USEFUL SHELF LIFE OF YOUR FIRM / PRACTICE

Depending on your age bracket and expected practice life the above factors change accordingly.

The younger you are the harder it will be to pick a winner.

The suite of SketchUp apps available to complement Chief Architect are:

1. mySketchUp - free (browser use only on the WEB)

2. SketchUp Make - free (capable of using extensions and plugins) from a selection of over 800 to do specific focused tasks.

3. SketchUp Pro.

I have Revit in the office three seats. I could write a book about the money and time wasted in leaning and implementing Revit. We used it for one project. It would have been better to buy a nice boat. I have one word to say about this. Chief... Chief Chief... oops that is three words. If you have no money go to Sketch Up Pro but be prepared for a boat load of plugins that will be more expensive than Chief.

Here is the thing I really do not get though.. this is A Chief Forum if your not a Chief Fan what are you doing here. I am not trying to be snooty but come on really. There is rivers of ink and mountains of paper expended on Revit and Sketch Up Forums. We use Sketch Up to make some models (obj) but i do not talk about it here. Just saying.

I dont think Chief is particularly strong at "conceptual design". You can save a lot of time using Chief going from concept to construction drawings, but if you had to rate Chief just on conceptual design I would say its poor.

Chief doesn't have good solid tools to do a lot of "complicated" modern homes. I'd have to rate Chief the weakest of any software i've used for this specific type. I'm sure someone is going to show off some modern home they've done in Chief, but the reality is you are asking for "Custom Complicated" modern homes - which is fairly popular style today. Revit and Sketchup is way better than Chief for this type of work.

I think Chief does a decent job here - but Chief's 2D tools are very much lacking. That said, if you model your home well you can get a lot from the model that keeps you from drawing in 2D much. I still dont see that as a "time-saver" but it is the best approach.

Chief has some very specific paradigm methods which makes it not nearly as easy free form model or draw like other apps feature. Its not very easy to place modeling items in a basic form to then plan on coming back and model more specifically later.

CAD software and computer architecture is a dynamic and rapidly changing field. What was a programming triumph years ago is now regarded as passe. Any program that now dares boast of "wireframe" views as its top graphical accomplishment is toast, and will go the way of Wordperfect and Lotus 123, as Parkwest noted.

It is becoming ever easier for programmers to write ever more intelligent algorithms that make it easy for relatively unskilled persons to perform ever more complex work in fields they were previously not adept at. So mere "builders" can now produce complete sets of competent house plans that can adequately compete with professional architects in the lower residential market. This trend will only continue ... to the point where it will become the norm that the retail client will be able to produce his own set of drawings without any external input, and shop this around to the builders and tradesmen for a quote to "produce".

If you are a builder, you surely keep an eye on what your fellow building competitors are doing in your neck of the woods. If you spot that another builder uses a neat technique for getting something done, you quickly learn to do the SAME. If your competitor is walking away with all the jobs that you also quoted for because of some smart conceptual presentation made easy by a user-friendly CAD program, then you are going to want to do the same. It is both natural. And foolish not to do so.

And if you have invested in expensive CAD software, then it is in your OWN interests that you CONSTANTLY pressure your CAD vendor of choice to DO THE SAME! The first step in doing so is to always be checking what is better in other competing programs, and INSISTING that your current program of choice incorporate those improvements also. ASAP.

The more a company actively addresses user-experienced irritations within its own programs, the better it becomes. Yes, CA can take a hint And oh yes, so can every other CAD vendor out there as well, but they can worry about that on their own forums!

There is NO reward for being loyal to any program. Loyalty only breeds vendor complacency and smugness - which NEVER works out well for EITHER the customers OR the vendors in the end (eg Wordperfect and lotus 123).

My biggest issue with CA today is the lack of 3D HVAC routing so I can easily see if my systems are designed well and integrated with structures...I watched videos of others like Archicad with library's full of duct, plumbing, electrical connectors along with easy routing & collision detection tools (the kind of collisions I don't want to be found at the job site I see often from 2D plans errors). It's not easy to even route a gutter. Is there some plug-in or way around this?

The only other import option is a GBXML (Green Building XML)....you know the "Green" buff word about 10 years old as of "today". Why is so hard and taking so long for CA to add this export? So what I have to do is recreate geometry using the energy modeling tools instead of imported CA geometry.

t is becoming ever easier for programmers to write ever more intelligent algorithms that make it easy for relatively unskilled persons to perform ever more complex work in fields they were previously not adept at. So mere "builders" can now produce complete sets of competent house plans that can adequately compete with professional architects in the lower residential market. This trend will only continue ... to the point where it will become the norm that the retail client will be able to produce his own set of drawings without any external input, and shop this around to the builders and tradesmen for a quote to "produce".

With PHIUS as of "today" rapidly growing on all the green sites 372 certified strong as of 2016, the trend or dream of any drafter, builder, or homeowner doing integrated CAD designs software retailers hope for will die. It takes alot more than drawing lines on paper to design one, some like WUFI very complex. Take a look at the design tools like WUFI and other input software for net zero designs CA does not even have a GBXML file export to? -technical-resources

I use a combination of Home Designer and AutoCAD. Home Designer is good for the 3D phase and AutoCAD is good for the thousands of architectural predrawn details that exist for doing 2D construction details.

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