Sloped was born out of a real-life need. One of the founders was struggling to find freelancers accomplished in SketchUp, and especially Layout. That same founder had worked on Upwork but didn't like the way low bids downgraded the average skillset which made it more difficult to find truly skilled users.

During a phone call with another architect, the idea was put on the table to start a community and a challenge was given to pursue it before someone else did...namely that architect! Not wanting to ignore the challenge, that founder put out a call to interested parties on the Sketchup Forums, and soon the meetings began.

We are now 3 founders, one architect, one Interior Designer, and one Cabinet & Millwork Design Engineer. We also have a growing list of contributors and early approval from Sketchup itself.

Good question! How can anyone really know if they’re a SketchUp and LayOut ‘expert’? Our answer is: an exam. We’ve created our exams to have a veracity and a foundational usefulness to all the different industries that use the software.

NOTE: We are also building alliances with online and traditional schools to help train those who fail tests or want to upgrade their skill sets to get into other fields of work.

It might be easy to say that you should know Sketchup & Layout. But, to be clear, we are very focused on finding those who can use Layout to build 2D presentation and construction drawings using a Sketchup model.

In addition to that, there is certainly a place for these additional skillsets:

• Rendering

• Animation.

• Photoshop style post-processing of images.

• Report building using Sketchup's native BIM tools.

There are certainly more skills that could be added but we are trying to keep the list focused on those that directly affect the use of Sketchup and Layout.

If you have suggestions please feel free to email us those ideas!

This is not Upwork or Freelancer or even TopTal. Sloped is about nuanced connections to freelancers that you will know have passed community approved skills testing. No more worries about vetting during real projects.

Additionally, our pay structure has been designed to level the playing field for all freelancers, so the search is truly about skills and not about low bidding to get work. We want to hear about your needs so if your business has a unique situation please email us!

We have asked ourselves many times, how do we prepare freelancers to work with the varying presentation styles that each firm or employer has developed. Though, indeed, the styles are as individual as fingerprints at times, the basic functioning of Sketchup and Layout does not change, nor does the basic way to setup those styles. We test our freelancers on these types of skills as well as educating employers on best practices for templates, scrapbooks, and file management.

If you have thoughts on this topic as an employer we would very much like to hear from you, so please email us.

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