Saturday, December 18, 2010

Instant Roof – a wonderful aid to SketchUp




Though drawing a house in SketchUp is not at all a tedious work, but some times it becomes easier than ever getting help from other software. Instant Roof is something like that which helps you to end the 3D modeling in SketchUp faster. This cool plug in is easy to use in every sphere from installation to execution.

Instant Roof is a wonderful creation of SketchUp Ruby Script by Chuck Vali of Vali Architect. With the help of the Instant Roof, you can create various types of Roof for your models of the house instantly. When you use it, you’ll be able to easily create hips, sheds, trellises, and gables wherever you need them.

With the help of this software, drawing roof is not the only easy task – the installation, learning as well as execution all are easy enough. You just have pop one file in to your plug in folder and you set to use this plug in. The software comes with the wonderful easy to understand pdf file from where you can easily understand all the tips and tricks of Instant Roof. Along with that, a bunch of useful videos are there in their website which helps you to be a master in this tool instantly. The website help section is also very useful.

The most important attribute of the Instant Roof is the quick productivity. For a organized plug in menu, you don’t need to memorize the names of each and every small button and can do your drawing without any hassle. The input method for telling the script where to put gables and sheds couldn't be simpler.

The main attributes of the Instant Roof are:
• Create a complex roof in seconds - just select faces and edges; then run Instant Roof.
• Hip, gable, shed, dutch-gable, mansard, plantation, gambrel, open-trellis, combined, more...
• Eave types: boxed-in, exposed, soffited
• Hips and rafters with customizable ends
• Fascia, fascia-trim, ridge and hip tiles, shingles, or sheet-metal
• Complete mission tile or standing-seam roof
• Use default roof styles - or create your own
• Export and Import user defined roof styles
• Choose any unit type supported by Sketchup: Metric- angles for slope or Feet/ inches - ratio for slope
• Upgrade to Pro version for more roof slopes (The free version will only create the following roof slopes: 1/8:12 (0.6 degrees) ; 2:12 (9.5 degrees) ; 6:12 (26.6 degrees) ; 16:12 (53 degrees) or 24:12 (63 degrees).


In the Instant Roof there are a number of different roof styles that are really just preset combinations of different parameters you can play around with. That means the possibilities are endless! You can modify the preset roofs to create eaves, fascia, rafters, and slopes. Every feature is completely adjustable. In addition to that, you will also be able to select a few different roof details like shingles, standing seams, sheet metal, and tile.

There are two versions of Instant Roof; the free version and the Pro avaiulable. The Pro version gives you a bit more when it comes to roof slopes and other features, but if you’re not doing serious work, you can have a lot of fun with the free version. The Pro version will run you about $39.

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