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Sketchup dock rendering

17K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  Cole 
#1 ·
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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#6 ·
Visio



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?"


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#9 ·
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:thumbsup:
 
#13 ·
Dock

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/.
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#15 · (Edited)
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.
 
#16 ·
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.

 
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