Quote Originally Posted by Caspar Hauser View Post
how does it inform your creative process or is it just a draughting tool?

CH
The nice thing about SU once you get used to using it (just like getting skilled with a pencil!) is that it can really be used to sketch rough ideas until you get to somewhere you like. A cupboard can be little more than a box with a few areas inset and pushed to make it look faintly like a frame and panel. Dress it up with some wood textures and it starts to look like a bit of furniture. Pull on the sides and top until it has the proportions you want. Add details like handle and knobs - grabbed from the online warehouse and possibly provided by the manufacturers - and you're getting to a finished sketch.

Now, and only now, do you start to use SU as a drafting tool. It's good for that too. Precision is as easy as sketching once you've got the basic ideas. I tend to sketch and then start a new file to do the precision construction model where I model the exact components and joints and chamfers and work out the grain orientation and where hinge mortises go and make sure nothing is in that nasty 'looks nice but can't possibly fit' realm that is so easy to wander into with simple sketches. After that I usually use Layout (I have the pro version and use Layout a lot) to assemble working drawings and then print them up for the shop. A local printshop can do 36" wide prints for C$1.50 a ft so I can even print fullsize templates in many cases.

Sorry to sound like an advert but it really is that useful to me.