Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Anyone know if it is possible to draw 2D in SketchUp?

course, just work in the XY plane and ignore the Z.
to make this easier, use the framed views that keep Z perpendicular to your screen.
If you rotate the image, everything will look weird but the preset framed view will revert it easily for you.

AutoCAD is a CAD program that is 3D like sketchup, but because of a few annoying nuances, I don't know a single person who uses it for anything but 2D... (barring myself )

Of course you can draw it in 3D, then save it in 2D... Just save the file, then "export to 2D"

all depends on why you only want 2D.
Mathew

KP, you are obviously an amatuer in the world of draughting and design!!
AutoCAD is a professional draughting tool, Sketchup is a toy for those not trained to be draughtsmen!!. To compare Sketch-up to Autocad is like comparing a Gogomobile Dart to a Formula one!! Don't insult the Draughting profession by even suggesting a likeness. High end draughting software such as MicroStation, Catia and AutoCad are world's apart from the likes of Sketch-Up, Turbo_cad and the ilk.

I continue to earn my living by producing 3d Architectural and Engineering models in Acad and have done for the past 20 years!! Architectural models have included Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Harley Davidson Stadium in Milwaukee, Royal Ascot Race Course in London, Ben Fica and Faro Loule Football stadiums in Portugal and the MCG. Engineering models (especially for CAD/CAM) include composite aircraft construction, bridge models for finite element analysis and Tensegrity Constructions. The professional use of 3d modelling is indispensible in Tank Farm and Pipe manifold planning for interference fitting and Facilities management. But always remember, it is only a sophisticated drawing pen! if you are not a draughtsman, then MS Paint is probably the package for you!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, it's a lot like saying that Aquaponics is crap because my gerry built auto-siphon didn't work!

As Ali G once said, " a bit of respect please!"

Cheers IanK

OK...
sketchup is a planes model free design package that doesn't truely model 3D at all cos it uses planes and faces only.
However of all the designers I know, if 3D is required, Unigraphics, Solidworks DigitalBuck, et al are the only ones to bother with.
I use autoCAD for 3D because I have access to a copy. Since I got solidworks, I have been most interested, but haven't had the time to learn it as fully as I know autoCAD.

Please be aware I was NOT suggesting Sketchup was better than autoCAD, only that autoCAD as a professional package is used extensively for 2D. Just that there are heaps of packages better than autoCAD for such things, you are the first professional I have met who uses Autocat for complex 3D modeling. Most ppl only use for 3D line drawing if that.

No disrespect to you intended, AutoCAD does do solids, and I have a basic understanding, for you to make a career from it suggests a familiarity and expertise I'm yet to have seen.

How does autodesk inventor stack up. Not a draftsman or an engineer... just a machinist.

I'm a mechanical design draughtsman by trade with over 10 years experience. Half that time using Autocad, the other half using SolidWorks and ProEngineer. I used Inventor for a day (I refused to use it longer than that ) and found it similar to SW and ProE in that it is sketch driven and relies on extrudes and cuts etc to produce solids, but was no where near as intuitive. In my experience, for mechanical 3d design and drafting Solidworks wins hands down!!!! Then ProE and then way down the pecking order would be Inventor!!!

IMO AutoCad is ideal for "2d" design and drafting, but that is as far as I would go with it, AutoDesk have their 3d add ons for Autocad and when used for their correct purpose and driven by the right operator can be very powerful tools.

Ian, I'm assuming your using Revit to produce your 3d house plans/models? and ProSteel for
BatonRouge, if you are interested in mechanical design and want to learn a new 3d package from scratch, then I suggest learning SW or ProE.

30 years ago I took drafting in high school. No puters back then. About 10 years ago I took a class with Auto desk inventor and was able to draw out a triplex plunger pump and animate it. I hadn't touched it since. The engineers where I work use Solid works for FEA's and such and also rate it highly. I don't think Autodesk was originally designed for archetecture but worked good on machinery. Autocad was a very bulky program in comparison, I guess they haven't evolved and better programs became available. I was going to try to get my boss to get me a new auto desk program hum....

No. I use "vanilla" Autocad (now Rel 2010)for everything! No add-ons, no toys and no steak knives! I had to use ADT for a while, but I showed the Principals of that firm, that basic Autocad, in the hands of an experienced draughtsman and designer, not a "CAD operator", (a term I both despise and take offence with!!!) can do everything that ADT could, as well as and better than Archicad (Macintosh pretender), Microstation (Bentley product, mainly England based) or Catia (Developed by Boeing for aircraft design, about $30,000 per annum service license! Not for the faint hearted). I design in 3d, I detail in 3D, especially for structural steel (to produce shop details and for FEA models, output via IGES.) and I render in 3D. The package I use for rendering is 3D Studio Max; for touch up: Adobe Premiere (for video or DVD output) and Photoshop for stills.
I first saw Revit when I attended Autodesk University in 2000. I was a standalone package for small housing specifically, that Autodesk was looking at for aquisition. I got to test it, along with Tablet Computer Draughting (which died gracefully, thankfully) as part of Autodesk's Beta program with the large US Architectural firm I was working for at the time, and we concluded that it would possibly fill a niche market for Speculative Builder's/Designers that had no previous draughting experience to produce basic 2D Plans and Elevations from an attributed 3D model and have attached Bills of Materials etc. etc. It hasn't changed since then.

Autocad is my platform of choice because I have been using it since day one and I'm not about to change platforms now. 99% of Draughters would use 10% of Autocad's functionality about 99% of the time. I consider full version Autocad to be overkill for most drawing offices, Autosketch would be a far better (and less expensive!) option.

Of course if you are using Autocad for commercial output, it has to be a licensed copy, doesn't it KP??? If not, then you are stealing from me and I don't like that and would possibly report any software thief to the Software Surveilance Authority here in Australia!!

But I'm sure that no self respecting Aquaponisist would ever consider using, or even critiquing, software that they don't own?
Cheers IanK

I don't think threats or innuendos are required Ian. KP did say "No disrespect to you intended". So please every one show respect on all sides.

Granted.
No more on the subject from me . . unless you would like to see some of the 3D renderings in JPG format that I have done for my little system when I was Planning it?
Sorry KP, I get carried away with my own seriousness sometimes.
Cheers IanK

Now that would be good to see....

OK get some together tonight when I get home from work.

Hello KP and All,
Just a couple of JPGs of CGI's of my proposed sysytem in situ. Modelled in Sketch_up . . Sorry , just kidding,

Modelled in Acad, rendered in 3Ds Max.



Please enjoy.

Cheers IanK

and a couple of pics for the extensions (which I have now been building for 4 years!)

View from the Pizza Pit, not yet started in reality.


An early graphic for Bank presentation to get a 'Green Loan'. (We got it!!)

And one more of the F&D system. .. .

Mini-orb Grow Beds.

Probably post a couple of pics from the same camera possies of the system in reality next if you wish?
Not quite finished yet, but it will show the likeness, or highlight the differences!!

Cheers IanK