SketchUp is 3D modeling software with an emphasis on usability. SketchUp is a Trimble product.
$119
per year
SpinCar (Pulsar AI)
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
SpinCar headquartered in New York, with the acquired Pulsar AI, offers automotive dealers, wholesalers and OEMs their eponymous digital automotive merchandising platform. The company’s 360° WalkArounds® and Feature Tour® solutions aim to build trust between buyers and sellers by bringing a personalized physical showroom experience to car shoppers wherever and whenever they want. SpinCar’s proprietary shopper behavioral data and VINtelligent® Retargeting solution enable vehicle sellers to deliver…
N/A
Pricing
SketchUp
SpinCar (Pulsar AI)
Editions & Modules
Free
$0.00
per year
For Schools (free with G Suite or Microsoft education account)
Real estate is not really the most likely use for Sketchup, since it has so many choices and possibilities. But, it is an innovative way to differentiate yourself from the competition. The program is very well-suited to the myopic seller or buyer who can't visualize future changes and their effect on value.
When we have turnover in our photo taker role, this app makes training very easy. We have had trouble in the past with staff just not catching on with what features to take the photos of and what order to put them in, and the app walks them through how to do so. Our old 360 software was also a little difficult to use, and this app makes it very easy to use. Now we don't have to use several different apps to take our photos and do 360s
Quickly exploring solutions in 3D: We get a lot of "what if" and "what would that look like" questions. While hand-sketching and hand-drafting can be fairly quick, SketchUp allows me to quickly create 3D and 2D views of a detail or solution, change dimensions and materials in a flash, and show a client or installer the plan in minutes.
Creating professional design documents in LayOut: Projects of any scale need good documentation. Using a combination of SketchUp and LayOut, I can create a Design Intent Set, plans for permitting, a set for mechanical trades to mark-up, etc. Having clear, appropriately-scaled drawings with dimensions or notations is a must, and we don't always have the time or budget to get an architect involved!
Using live files to guide discussions: Not all clients are "visual" people, so opening their model and orbiting around their space in real time has been extremely helpful. Clients and trades enjoy the perspective views so much that we often include them in the full-sized drawing sets to give a good "overall" view of the project intent. For complex or tight spaces, sometimes un-rendered plans and elevations just aren't enough!
We typically wait a few years in between renewing, as even older versions are powerful tools for modeling, and we make sure the amount of feature changes are worth the re-investment.
Sketchup is so intuitive; I can't recall ever looking for official support. However, there are many user forums online that can answer more questions. The usefulness of the online forums is, however, tempered by the fact that there have been many versions of the software under different ownership and support regimes, and thus finding the right information for the right version of the software can be a challenge.
It's great to give the customer an overview of how a project will look, but it will never replace the information that a blueprint or engineering drawing can convey. SketchUp is great for the casual user or someone who is just getting started in design work. Other high powered software, such as Solidworks or Inventor is more suited for 3D modeling on a regular basis
vAuto Provision is very basic for photo taking. It doesn't walk you through what photos to take and when. It also doesn't allow for 360 photo taking. You have to buy a seperate cox auto product to do this. It also doesn't allow for photo background removal, you have to buy another product to do that if you chose to do so
SketchUp has definitely had a positive impact on the customer experience with our company. The model can be generated to give the owner a good idea of the final product before actually committing the resources to complete the project.
Having simple models created before the work gets started in the field means that issues with elevations or odd angles can be ironed out beforehand and solved with the design team. This has greatly reduced the rework on our more complex self-perform concrete structures!
