Sketchup & Layout for Architecture: The Step by Step Workflow of Nick Sonder

must have for architectural and interior designers, waited for 2 years for this book to be released.

As a UK RIBA architect converting to Sketchup from Vector Works!!!! I found this book brilliant. It’s easy to follow, interesting, and has great graphics. The author (Nick Sounder) also provides all the template files for a project which saved me probably two days if I had to set them up myself. It’s also good for young architects to understand what is required to put a project package together for tender. So it covers two major topics in one book. I would recommend getting used to sketchup for a while with YouTube and a beginner book first, but you will improve very quickly to utilize Nicks book soon. I started SKetchup two months ago and I’m producing my first project with it akready, thanks to “Sketchup & Layout for Architecture”.

Really well laid out, and easy to follow. Been struggling a bit with producing really good quality drawings as well as just great images, but this books is relaxed about the whole process, enables you to have your own flexibility giving you a structure to follow.

good book, SketchUp is a great, simple visual and accurate software which gains its power from things like the thoughtful workflow management that this book provides. Struggled to download the accompanying files.

I bought it because it said ‘Layout’ in the title.. in fact only 67 pages are about producing Construction Documents in Layout, and that part of the workflow is extremely tedious and undermines the point of starting a design in Sketchup, i.e. for time saving. The example files are excellent, but the clunkiness of Layout (and the awful prints it renders) reminds me that SketchUp is only good up to a point, at which you have to move to Revit.. maybe it’s just me but I would take a lot longer in SketchUp/Layout to make a house per the authors method, than I do in Revit.

Let me say first, I'm a registered architect and wanted to move away from Autodesk products in creating my construction documents. I'd used SketchUp some in grad school, and since then to produce some basic virtual models. I had never used the Layout program, but was very excited at the prospect of creating CDs from a SketchUp model.I've followed this book step-by-step through most of my first attempt to create CDs with the SketchUp/Layout combination. It's been indispensable. I think the book will give you all the info you need on using the programs to produce construction drawings, if you have experience doing so in other formats and have some familiarity with SketchUp.If you don't know SketchUp, the basic version is available for no charge and is really quite a capable modeling program.Having said all this, the architect co-author Nick Sonders has a different way of designing & laying out documents than my firm, but that's not really a big deal. I've been able to use Mr. Sonders' & Mr. Donley's approach as a guide for using the programs, then as I've gotten more comfortable, adjusting that approach to better suit my way of working.