is it worth learning Google Sketchup for laying out my kitchen?
Comments (10)
angie_diy
12 years agoI give it a mixed review. I used a different program for 2D CAD for layout, and then used Google sketchup for 3D renderings along the lines you are envisioning.
The pluses:
-Certain tasks in sketchup are MUCH more intuitive than on other CAD programs. F'rinstance, creating a 3D object is as easy as pie.
-There is a huge database of premade objects that you just download and plug into your drawing. Many manufacturers upload their wares to make it easy for you to design them in, and lots of amateurs like to show off their creations. For example, Kraftmaid has a lot of their offerings in the database. This can give you a huge leg up on producing a nice-looking drawing.
-The program is quite flexible.
-There are instructional videos from google that make it pretty easy to get started.
-It's free!The minuses:
-I found certain things that would be trivial to do with almost any conventional CAD program to be very difficult to do with sketchup. Say you want to move a cab over 2.25" to the left. Most programs would have a "move" command. I could not find a way to do this except for to create a guide that was 2.25" away from where the cab was now, then move the cab to that guide. Perhaps there is a better way, but I couldn't find it.
-Occasionally, I absolutely could not place an object in the 3D spot that I was shooting for. (As a 2D representation of 3D space, the program has to guess what depth you are aiming for.) The object kept projecting to a different spot, no matter what I tried. For me, the only solution was to delete the object and start again!
-This is not sketchup's fault, really, but I feel a bit "locked into" my previous efforts. For example, my initial drawings were off a few inches in one dimension. Totally my fault, but the effort it would take to redo this does not seem worth it to me. I would have to subsequently move everything.
-File sizes grow quickly. Mine started small, but have grown to about 40 MB as you add and subtract items. Obviously, this depends on what you download. However, I don't think a kitchen-design-specific program would have this problem.I think if I had to do it over, I would have chosen a kitchen-design-specific program. I am on a Mac, and that influenced my choice, as there are not many of those available for Mac.
Here is a rendering of my kitchen. You can also see my sketchup "development" at my original layout thread linked below.
Here is a link that might be useful: Challenging Layout Conundrum
LE
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Lessons learned from my garden
Comments (14)I usually have a few tomatoes with BER, but this year I had three times as many. All of the BER was on container plants so I feel sure it was a moisture issue. I had one raised bed with squash. I had a patty pan, a yellow straight, and several zucchini plants. The zucchini was the only thing that produced, but probably only 20 percent of the female blossoms were pollinated and the rest died on the vine. I had one patty pan squash before the vines started to look sickly. I finally just removed them. I had honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, and 20 million of those little white butterflies that were all over everything. I have had an excellent year for cucumbers, both slicing and pickling. I only did one planting of each in early Spring and they are still producing daily and are still blooming. They have not been treated with anything and nothing has bothered them. I have had lots of beans. The pole beans starting producing very early this year. I planted Blue Lake bush beans and picked them for about a month then took them out. The bean was very productive, but was hard to pick because the beans grow low on the plant. The pill bugs did some damage to the low growing beans and I should have used Sluggo there, but didn't. This long stretch of hot, hot days has slowed the beans for now, and that's a good thing, because all of the tomatoes are finishing at once. I have never seen it this dry in the 11 years that I have been here. We drove to Joplin today and noted that the grass was brown along the road. This is green country and we rarely see that. It got a little better as we got closer to Joplin, but nothing looked like it normally does. My tomato plants are only still in the garden because they are still producing tomatoes. Very soon, I plan to yank them out and plant something else. They are drying and looking dead and I plan to put them out of their misery. LOL At the end of most days, the pepper plants looks so droopy that I wonder if they will make another day, but the next day they are fine. If cooler weather doesn't happen as promised then I will probably give them shade next week. I finally pulled the last of my onions this week. That was an experiment that worked and I know now that I can grow long day onions. Although not all of them were large, some were quite large. I see great wisdom in 'putting by' two years worth of food, because in Oklahoma it seems like very few things produce a good crop every year. I would love to get a nice gentle Fall that would provide some lovely days in the garden. Yeh, right, I'm awake now!...See MoreLearning alot out here...but still have questions
Comments (90)Yes, you can pretty easily add a media filter to any furnace/heat pump - They sell sizes which match up pretty well to most units I installed everything myself - 60K/90K gas furnace, 3.5 ton 14 SEER A/C, media filter and Honeywell Vision Pro thermostat along with all associated wiring and piping. Paid a pro to evacuate and charge it along with the necessary adjustments and I have about $4K in the entire install - Not much of that was ductwork though Our 'dust factory' is slowly getting better as we make the house more and more airtight. We added $4K worth of high efficiency windows (installed them outselves) and all new entry doors (4 of them) along with 4 cases of caulk and we can now almost afford to live here - $125 to $135 electric bills so far this summer and that's for 2250 sq ft of house Every inch of plumbing and electric wiring has also been replaced along with a brand new kitchen and bathroom. 4 rooms done, 1 under construction presently and 2 more to go downstairs . . . . and then we get to start on the apartment unstairs. One year down, one more to go . . . . we hope. Our home of 28 years was washed away in Katrina and we just got moved out of a FEMA trailer and into the not yet finished house this summer, so things are LOOKING UP!! Don...See Moregoogle sketchup review - graphics for diy
Comments (6)from: online google sketchup help I've extracted the following notes: "SketchUp allows you to import 2D raster images, including JPEG and BMP, for placement within your model Import a file using the Import menu item in the File menu." "SketchUp allows you to import 3D models, such as DWG and DXF CAD files, for placement within your model." "SketchUp allows you to import 3D Studio (3DS) files. Import a file using the Import menu item in the File menu.: Me here again: Also, I see instructions in the Help file for importing DEM, KMZ/KML, and SHP formats too. I don't see anything else such as PDF or plain text or Microsoft Wod. But could be there, I just don't see it doing a quick look thru. Here is a link that might be useful: Online Google Sketchup Help...See MoreI hate my Kohler Stages sink. Learn from my mistake
Comments (56)I don’t think the Stages comes with a colander, at least it didn’t when I got it. It does come with a large wood cutting board, large white tray/cutting board, small tray/cutting board, 6 ceramic prep bowls, bottom sink grid, and under counter rack. The prep bowls are well designed to both stack and be reversible, although I mostly use them with the larger size up. I like the square design because it’s easy to use a wood spatula to scrape out the contents. The bottom grid hasn’t been a problem for me. You do have to lift it up or take it out to clean the sink, but that outweighs the advantages of being able to set things on it to drain and the fact that it protects the bottom of the sink from scratches. I do wish it was in two pieces so it would more easily fit in my dishwasher. It is so big that I have angle it to get it in and it’s hard to load other items around it....See Moreangie_diy
12 years ago
suzanne_sl
12 years agojscout
12 years agosuzanne_sl
12 years agoHydragea
9 years ago
PROJoseph Corlett, LLC
9 years agoelphaba_gw
9 years ago
schicksal