The workflow for the bonding between SketchUp and AutoCAD

25th June 2010

By Global Assocaites SketchUp Team

AutoCAD is a CAD (Computer Aided Design or Computer Aided Drafting) software application for 2D and 3D design and drafting. It was one of the first Computer Aided Design programs to be made available on personal computers.

Activities of AutoCAD

It is built to help people design buildings, products, or public spaces, without having to draw up plans by hand. It was released in 1982 by Autodesk, Inc., and offered a personal solution to software that was before then released only for larger workstations.

While CAD programs prior to AutoCAD required massive amounts of computing power in the form of gigantic computers, AutoCAD streamlined its operating and optimized it for the PC, allowing people to work from home or on their own work computers.

What is SketchUp

SketchUp is a 3D modeling program designed for architects, civil engineers, filmmakers, game developers, and related professions. It also includes features to facilitate the placement of models in Google Earth. It is designed to be easier to use than other 3D CAD programs.

SketchUp is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily. SketchUp was developed to combine the elegance and spontaneity of pencil sketching with the speed and flexibility of today's digital media.

SketchUp supports a dynamic, creative exploration of 3D form:

Developed for the conceptual stages of design, this powerful yet easy-to-learn software allows for quick and easy 3D form creation, the result is an interface that supports a dynamic, creative exploration of 3D form, material and light.

Difference between SketchUp & Autocad:

Sketchup is a nice CAD software program that anyone can use with little or no CAD training. You can draw a floor plan and fairly easily turn it into a 3D image. There is also a PRO version available for purchase for around $500 that gives you more features.

AutoCAD is an industry standard CAD program that architectural, engineering, fabricating and manufacturing firms use, worldwide. It pretty much corners the CAD marketplace. It is more complex to use than Sketchup, but also contains many more features that can be customized by the user.

Relation between SketchUp & Autocad:

SketchUp is an innovative 3D CAD modeling software application. As well as functioning as a stand alone tool, it works well as a companion to a 'proper' CAD drafting program such as IntelliCAD or AutoCAD because 2D CAD drawings can be imported into SketchUp and lofted to form 3D models.

Though SketchUp was developed originally by a group of professionals from the architecture and engineering disciplines, it is not yet restricted to only those fields. It is designed to let you create models of your intended design in a 3D environment.

Dynamic viewing using SketchUp:

SketchUp provides some innovative tools for visualizing the design. It is possible to cast shadow, take and X-RAY view, quickly orbit the model and view it from different directions.

Moreover, SketchUp has tools which allow the importation of geometry from CAD model.

The bonding of SketchUp & AutoCAD saves your time:

More importantly, as a conclusion we can say, to create a base-plan quickly and effectively, the relationship between AutoCAD blocks and layers with SketchUp components and layers will save all your time.