Sketchup for Units of Measurement

Units of measure around the world.

In Australia we use primarily metric for everything. Some of the old tradies will still talk in feet and inches yet when ordering, specifying and constructing metric is the only way to communicate.

As you guys probably know we are about to release PlusSpec, it is a BIM add on for Sketchup that will save any Architect and builder and tradie a lot of time. We primarily made it for Australia yet the amount of emails and correspondence I am getting to my inbox from around the globe is some what overwhelming.

I understand how the US works as it is primarily imperial so we pretty much have that sorted now but from what I understand much of Europe have a bit of a hybrid system going. EG the cars speedometer reads in miles.

No doubt your wondering why it matters as Sketchup works in many imperial or metric yet we also added an element of units into the walls, and floors to reduce the amount of work that goes into BIM.

There are nominal sizes and actual that also cause a problems. EG 2*4 in the US is actually 1.5″*3.5″. Over in the land down under if we draw the plan in nominal sizes (100mm walls) the carpenters and builders get cranky as 90mm is the actual size of them wall and when they are setting out it does not take long to get a 50mm discrepancy. So nominal sizes are important here.

Why did I decide to create the plugin? I think that Revit and Archicad are far too expensive. They are hard to use and the file sizes are not portable without using drop box. With Sketchup I can email my plans and model all in one and we use it on a tablet. Having a drawing tool and a construction tool all in one is of great benefit to my building company, my clients and my carpenters. We call it BIM (building information modelling)

BIM is a great tool when it is automated as we have. For any of you Archicad or Revit guys you will know what I mean when it comes to attributing wall types and material types it can be some what cumbersome to say the least.

With PlusSpec everything has a name, everything has an attribute and everything has a layer. There is no need to make components and groups or nest components, there is no need to cut windows though several layers, it is all done for you in a simple to use toolbar inside of Sketchup.

The walls can move and adjoining walls will move with them.

The floors are components, the walls are components and the structural elements are present and can be turned on an off to suit the application. The roofing tool constructs multiple roof types yet it allows you to change pitch, roofing materials and gutters and roof types with a single click.

for me to be able to get it out to the rest of the world I would like a bit of feedback on how you guys use Sketchup for construction and construction drawing. I would like to know what country uses a combination of imperial and metric. If anyone could send me a drawing similar to the one at this link it would be fantastic.

No doubt there are many people using Sketchup for construction that would like a bill of quantities attached to a model and that is something that PlusSpec does very very well.

your help would be much appreciated.

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Sketchup for Units of Measurement

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