Laptop for Sketchup

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6
Location
Harrow, Ontario, Canada
Hi,
This is my first post on here, testing the waters so to speak. Anyway, I've been using AutoCAD to design projects in drafting and solid modelling but would like to take some time and play with Sketchup.
I've been thinking of buying a small laptop to do this at my leasure, with family in TV room, in bed, etc. Have you experts got any tips on hardware required without breaking the bank. Remember, the desktop is still my main tool, this is just to get acquainted with the ins and outs of this program. I have the learning DVD's but need practice drawing with the program. What should I look for?
Thanks.
 
This four year old tablet I have runs sketchup just fine. I don't think it's a very hardware intensive program. Just be sure you buy a real mouse.

Welcome to the board.
 
My older laptop runs an Intel dual core, 2gig of RAM and an Nvidia card of some decent flavor. I have no problems. My old desktop with a 3.4GHz Pentium D, 1gig of RAM and the motherboard video card will stutter or lock up if I am doing anything too aggressive (curves with lots of segments). A group select of multiple objects seems to be the main video card killer. Simple drawings are not a problem.
 
Thanks for the welcome guys. So it looks like most of the new ones will run the program, the mouse might be a problem. Now to decide what size of screen.

A personal preference is to avoid 13" displays, unless you are looking for everyday portability. I also prefer not to spend the coin on the massive displays, because if it's that big it's probably going to spend more time being stationary. And if that's the case, you're better off with an external display or a desktop. So 15" would be a sweet spot for me, if I were buying.

Where a real mouse (over say a pad or forbid, a eraser head) is is the push/pull tool. Once I figured that out, my ability took off.
 
FWIW, SketchUp will only run on a single core so dual core and quad core is overkill for that. Of course you'll run other apps as well and they may or may not be able to use multiple cores. Since SketchUp will only use one core, speed will be more important than the number of cores. SketchUp needs proper OpenGL and ideally you'll want Nvidia for your graphics handling. Lots of graphics RAM, too.

As far as the mouse goes, simple is better. An inexpensive mouse with a center mouse wheel/button will be the best. AND DON'T LOAD MOUSE DRIVER SOFTWARE.

If I were going to use a notebook as a primary machine for SketchUp, I would buy either a peripheral numeric keypad or a standard keyboard. Actually, for my Macbook, I have a blue tooth keyboard that I prefer to the onboard keys.
 
Thanks for the welcome guys. So it looks like most of the new ones will run the program, the mouse might be a problem. Now to decide what size of screen.

First, Welcome to the Family Larry! :wave:

As Chris mentioned, pickup a two button with wheel mouse, either corded or not. It's almost essential to using sketchup.

As for resources, the youtube tutorials for sketchup linked on the splash page of the program are pretty good, follow each and practice with each tool. Using those most anyone can pick up using sketchup in a few hours. I use a 15" screen and it works well for a laptop. I tend to stay with that or smaller, mostly as the battery life will be less with larger. If you want a 10 key, the 17" usually has this though.
 
Larry,
Welcome! I have an old Dell laptop with a 17" screen that works great for sketchup. If you are used to AutoCad, you know you can never have enough screen. The same laptop also runs AutoCad but you really need dual monitors to get any serious work done.
 
welcome larry! sketchup took a little time to get used to, but once done, you'll love it. can't say much about laptops, but if you have a good one, it should run ok, and if like me, you don't want to swing your arm all over the county (ok, just a slight exageration:rolleyes:), or don't have the extra space, a trackball works just fine too.:D:thumb:
 
i had to start sketchup to answer that one dave. for pan, i click on the tool, then hold the left button down, then roll the ball whichever way i want the object to move. orbit is the same, the ball rotates the object. zoom is a bit different, i click on the tool, then click on the left button, and move the ball forward to zoom in, and back to zoom out.

since most mice these days are optical, rather than the ball type, i find the trackball a little more precice in movement, and not dependent on needing a pad, or a non glass surface to read off of. one can also use the finger pad that laptops have that seem standard nowadays, but it wouldn't be half as much fun.
 
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I see. Having used a standard mouse with a center mouse wheel/button from the beginning with SketchUp, going to the toolbar for those tools would drive me nuts and be too slow for me. I guess it's what you get used to. I've never had any problems with precision in movement with my optical mice.
 
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Zoom is controlled by rolling the mouse wheel. Orbit, by holding the center mouse button/wheel down and moving the mouse. Hold the CMB/wheel down along with Shift to get Pan. You can quickly switch between the three tools without even looking at the toolbar and you don't have to re-select the tool you were using prior to navigating around the model. If you are only zooming, you still have the tool you were using. And, when you let up on the CMB/Wheel, you go back to the tool you are using.

Navigating around SketchUp is a continuous thing so those "less than a second"s add up.
 
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Yeah, I'd like to know too!

I've tried to learn the keyboard shortcuts for most things, but I tend to forget them if I don't use it for a while..
 
The only keyboard key you really need for navigating around the model is Shift to get to Pan.

The Shift and Ctrl keys are modifier keys for a number of tools. If you aren't using them, you're working too hard and your missing some capabilities. Perhaps you would find it helpful to look at Quick Reference Card. And, for the Mac Users. My left hand hovers around the Shift and Ctrl keys most of the time when I am drawing so it is no big deal to hold Shift down for panning.

So you have to pick up the tool again after you've orbited the camera or zoomed. I never let go of the tool in the first place so I don't have to click again to get it.
 
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