Sketchup dock rendering - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

casey344 · 11-10-2008, 11:25 AM

This my 3rd drawing, the last drawing sold the job. Learning Sketchup has been enjoyable and helps break up the day.

I would love to hear critical or other input from some of the Sketchup veterans.

How can I add a skyline, make the water look more realistic, and represent PVC decking a little closer?

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**Cole** · 11-10-2008, 12:32 PM

Great job, you need to take it to a third party render engine, a lot of people use Kerkythea.

http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/

casey344 · 11-10-2008, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cole

Great job, you need to take it to a third party render engine, a lot of people use Kerkythea.

http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/

My sketchup standard version does not allow me to export to anything compatible with Kerkythea.

Is there away around this or do I just need to upgrade to Sketchup Pro?

baum · 11-10-2008, 12:53 PM

Nice work. So can you go from sketch-up to a autocad? or how do you you make your drawings to do the fab work?

**Cole** · 11-10-2008, 01:36 PM

Casey look here:
http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/inde...nc=select&id=7

casey344 · 11-11-2008, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baum

Nice work. So can you go from sketch-up to a autocad? or how do you you make your drawings to do the fab work?

I do all my one dimensional stuff in Visio. Probably the last program you would think to use but it has done everything I have ever needed. I have a template of standard components common to most designs and can whip out a drawing like the one you see here in about 10 minutes.

When its time to build we break down each section and include a framing layout with a materials list and give it to our guys in the field.

I use these drawings to go back and forth with the customer during the design phase. After they approve the design I draw it in Sketchup and include the 3D version with my estimate.

The reactions and comments have been mostly positive. I did just receive an email asking, "Your price is higher than the other estimates I have received, how much are you charging for these drawings?"

.

casey344 · 11-11-2008, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cole

Casey look here:
http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/inde...nc=select&id=7

Thank you for the link. I installed it and tried running but I think I'll have to do some reading to figure it out.

**Cole** · 11-11-2008, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by casey344

The reactions and comments have been mostly positive. I did just receive an email asking, "Your price is higher than the other estimates I have received, how much are you charging for these drawings?"

That's an easy one, do you want to know the total price right now in the beginning or do you want someone who is just going to build what you want on a napkin and charge you extra in the end?

copusbuilder · 11-11-2008, 03:07 PM

I messed with a dock on Sketch up a while ago and it was a disaster. I messed with it for hours and finally realized "you cant teach an old dog new tricks" At least this old dog.

I will have to try again and see what I can do. I am not sure if it's Sketch up or Vista that causes the problems.

Nice touches for the customer though

**Cole** · 11-11-2008, 10:15 PM

Casey, have you used the sandbox feature in Sketchup?

Here is something I threw together to show you how you can achieve even more detail about the site, it only took me 10 minutes.

Examples:

**Cole** · 11-11-2008, 10:29 PM

I just looked at your plans, you really need to learn how to use Sandbox expecially since you take water depths.

casey344 · 11-12-2008, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cole

I just looked at your plans, you really need to learn how to use Sandbox expecially since you take water depths.

Thank you Cole ... your example looks great. Did you use the Kerythea to get the water and sand textures? Are you using the Pro version of Sketchup?

I played with the Sandbox and watched a couple how-to videos on YouTube. I think this will work great.

casey344 · 11-14-2008, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copusbuilder

I messed with a dock on Sketch up a while ago and it was a disaster. I am not sure if it's Sketch up or Vista that causes the problems.

I had allot of problems with my first few and I am still struggling when I run up against something new.

I invested an afternoon on You Tube watching videos, pausing them all the way through and trying the teachings as I went.

You can find some really helpful videos here: http://www.aidanchopra.com/.

**Cole** · 11-15-2008, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by casey344

Thank you Cole ... your example looks great. Did you use the Kerythea to get the water and sand textures? Are you using the Pro version of Sketchup?

I played with the Sandbox and watched a couple how-to videos on YouTube. I think this will work great.

Casey,
Yes I am using pro, but you really dont need it. I will get into that a little later. I did not use Kerkythea to get the water and sand textures. It is all sketchup, I just messed with the material themselves to achieve the look I wanted.

Static Design · 12-26-2008, 12:15 AM

I believe you have to have pro to unlock the render exporters, but the sand box tools w/ give you a great landscape instead of drawing boxes and adding materials to make them look like something. If you want the drawing to look like something really professional don't render in sketch up only use it as a building block because the drawing looks like they are from a sims game: then again sketch up wasn't design for a real life appearance.

Send me the sketch up drawing to fullspool08@gmail.com and i'll try to mess with it if I get some time.

Static Design · 12-26-2008, 07:45 PM

I just played around with it and made a similar copy of your drawings using the elevation you provided. I didn't render the materials in kerkythea because I didn't want to take the time so I just imported the sketch up materials so you can see what it can do with generic sketch up materials. The drawing has no details or components just about 45 minutes of drawing.

**Cole** · 12-26-2008, 09:21 PM

Nice Work!

Once again, if you learn how to use Sketchup, it will sell you jobs!