3 replies to this topic

[Dennis McClendon]

I wonder if any of you have played much with SketchUp? I'd like to do some simple 3-D modeling and shadow studies by extruding upwards my building footprints drawn in FreeHand. It looks like SketchUp imports DXF and shapefiles, but I'm wondering if there's not an easier way. Could I just cut and paste PICT vector objects (I'm on Mac, remember) from FreeHand (or Illustrator or a PDF) directly into SketchUp and scale them there?

[Derek Tonn]

Dennis,

I personally just "dabble" in SketchUp myself. However, I shared your questions with Nate Logston on our design team, our resident SketchUp guru who trains users throughout the Upper Midwest for Google, and encouraged him to either post a reply in this thread or send me info that I can relay on his behalf. If anyone would know how to answer your question, it would be Nate. Consequently, I'm hoping he/we will have an answer for you ASAP.

Hope that helps! I'm still drawing basic houses, barns, silos, etc. as practice in SketchUp in my spare time. I had grand plans to learn the software cold last fall, but I've just been too busy to dedicate much of my own time. It's been easier to let an expert like Nate knock a few projects out of the park than having me spend 5-6 times longer to produce .skp files that cannot compare to his in the end.

[Derek Tonn]

Dennis,

Not the answer you were looking for, but here was Nate's reply when I relayed your initial question:

Dennis would probably be very impressed with how easily he could take his .dxf as an import into SketchUp. In fact, if wants to send us a file, i could do it for him, throw some shadows on and await the "wow" moment. Although there is no cut and paste functionality, the import functionality is extremely easy.

Nate seems to be saying that .dxf would be an easy, "ideal" way to go....although I'll keep working on him related to ideas from .eps/.ai/.pdf and see what he has to say. Have a great weekend!

[Derek Tonn]

Dennis,

A bit more info from Nate today, though still not entirely what you were looking for. I'll see if I cannot find out more about some of the new features expected with SketchUp v6.

If you bring imagery into Sketchup, it is just that, imagery. It will come very nicely, but it will remain flat. By exporting dxf, dwg, 3ds, or any other accepted drawing format, it then becomes a series of edges and or faces. This is the language Sketchup speaks fluently, so now that geometry can be easily manipulated. In terms of getting a 3d model, any of the drawing formats will be the ideal way to import. We'll need to stay tuned as SketchUp version 6 is on it's way!!!