Parametric Design in SketchUp using Dynamic Components

Dynamic Components have the potential to be used for parametric design, see some experiments here.
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Taekle has been posting his experiments on parametric design using Google Sketchup's Dynamic Components. Really impressive!

I am not reposting any pictures here, just go to the Sketchucation Entry and see for yourself


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SketchUp to Maxwell Beginner Tutorials

A set of tutorials to learn how to create photorealistic images in Maxwell from Sketchup.
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I've been praising how good it is to use Maxwell Render to create photorealistic images. Aidan Chopra posted a link to the tutorials website where you can find an entire set of tutorials to learn how to work from SketchUp to Maxwell to create this images. The tutorials are listed below.

• Getting Started
• Setting Up the Camera
• Environment and Lighting
• Intro to Emitters (Lights)
• Intro to Maxwell Materials
• Render Settings

via Official Google SketchUp Blog.

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SketchUp: Creating Filled Section Cuts (Poche)

Options to show the section area with a Poche (Colored Fill)
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Just saw via the Official Google SketchUp Blog a video from Bob Pineo about creating Poches (the colored section cut fills). See the video below



This seems like a good method for its flexibility. There are other alternative methods to do something similar. One of them was already explained here at CAD Addict. It uses the SectionCutFace Plugin.

The third option is to use a default option in SketchUp. When we have created a section plane, we can select the section plane entity, right click and select "Create Group from Slice". This will create the edges of the needed Poche (Fill Section Cut). You will need to edit this newly created group to Fill it with a face manually or suing a plugin like Make Faces from lines.


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SketchUp Plugins: Slice Modeler

Create Slices of a model to easily simulate curved surfaces.
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Asteronimo has written this great script based on TIG's Slicer Plugin. The New plugin called SliceModeler.rb allows to slice the model in two directions to generate the necessary slides to build it on the real world. This is extremely useful when trying to reproduce curves surfaces (or their skeleton), and I can imagine it could be used on models of ships or to create the base for a complicated terrain.

I just created a quick overview video of this great plugin to share quickly its functionality. Be careful with the settings, the first time I used it I set it wrong and it created 200 slides on each direction crashing my computer (my fault, the plugin warned me).




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SketchUp Plugins: Face Number Reduction

Reduce the number of faces in your model using this easy to use plugin. It will speed up your working time and improve render speed.
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POLYGON REDUCER (polyreduce.rb) is a SketchUp plugin to reduce the number of faces of SketchUp objects. It is useful especially when we use high poly models imported in our model or when we simply want some surfaces to be simpler and lighter. Below you can see a simple comparison of an object created with the Torus plugin before and after using the polyreduce with the face count on the left.


Above the initial object before using the Plugin. Below the object after running the Polyreduce plugin.


As you can see above, sometimes the object will not look so smooth as before running the plugin. This has an easy solution. We run the Soften Edges function and we can control again which edges are shown and which ones are hidden achieving a better result as it can be seen below.


To use the plugin you must select the faces you want to simplify. Then right click and select "Polyreduce" from the context menu. On the dialog box, you can select the percentage of reduction you want to use. Very useful Plugin!

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SketchUp 8 is Out!

A new version of the great SketchUp is out! Version 8 with many new features and tools.
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Google has announced today the release of Sketchup 8 (Pro and Free versions). They have also posted a quick video to showcase the new features. See it below.


There is also a new page listing the new features. For me, the greatest introduction is the "Solid Tools". It is what in other Programs like Rhino or AutoCAD would be called Boolean operations. Unfortunately, it is only for the Pro version. There are also new Geo-modeling tools and context gathering that will help you get better site context and better quality terrain. Also, Layout is updated to version 3 with new features. My favourite though are definetily the new Solid Tools.

This new features will leave a couple of plugins obsolete. One, the comercial one called BoolTools. With the new Solid Tools, Pro users will be able to do this without the need of a plugin. Also, the Volume Calculator Plugin will not be needed anymore, since SketchUp pro will automatically calculate the volume for Solid entities.

Haven't seen so far any mention to Multi-Processor support which is a pity, but well, one step at a time.

via Official Google SketchUp Blog: Announcing Google SketchUp 8


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SketchUp Plugins: Modeling Twisted Torus

Model Interesting Shapes with the Torus Plugin using the twisting function.
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I recently posted about how to model basic shapes like Torus, Spheres and Ellipses with or without a Plugin. Although on the videos I showed you that the shapes can be done without plugins, I've been playing a bit more with the Torus plugin and it is quite useful.

The best fucntion is to me the possibility to model twisted torus. See with the following two images what can be done.




Te plugin can be download at the author's blog.

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SketchUp Plugins: Updated Plugins List

The list of SketchUp Plugins reveiwed at CAD Addict has reached 67, check it out.
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I had no time to update the list of plugins lately. Finally today I did it and added more than 10 plugins I had reviewed recently. The list reaches already 67 plugins. Some might be getting old but the list is pretty comprehensive.

To access it click here


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SketchUp Plugins: New version of the Joint Push Pull Plugin

A new an imporved version of the Joint Push Pull Plugin has been published. Català - Castellano - Deutsch One of the most visited posts in this blog was the one describing the Joint Push Pull Plugin. See it here. A new version (2.0) of the Joint Push Pull plugin was published by Fredo6. The New release, available here (you need to be logged in to be able to download it), has added a visual preview to the Joint Push Pull operations (see below) And the possibility to add the parameters window pop up on will by pressing Tab while running the Plugin. This is one of my favourite Sketch Up Plugins, it is great to see it improved. Remember to check this post if you don't know how to install plugins. This is an old post from 2010. you might want to check other Sketchup related posts.
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SketchUp: Drawing Torus, Spheres and Ellipses

Drawing Spheres, Torus and Ellipses is quite easy. There are some plugins though that make it even easier.
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Some basic shapes like a Sphere, a Torus or an Ellipse are not included in the default tools in SketchUp. They all can be done quite easy without the need of a Plugin, but of course anything that speeds up the modleing process is more than welcome.

Here you can see a quick video showing how to model a Sphere, a Torus and an Ellipse in SketchUp with the standard tools.


As you can see, it is a pretty simple process. Still, some of you might want to have these tools directly accessible on the Draw menu. For this, Regular Polygon has created several Plugins, simply click on the links below to access the Plugin website and to download them.

• Sphere
• Torus
• Ellipse

They also have two plugins called Superellipse and Supperellipsoid (Sort of rectangle with rounded edges, or cube with rounded edges) for this one I don't see a some way to draw it easily with the standard tools, so here comes the link to the two of them.

• Superellipse
• Superellipsoid

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My Parents House in SketchUp

This is just a post to share some work with familyCatalà - Castellano - Deutsch
Long ago I modeled my parents house in SketchUp. I used this building to learn basic and not so basic modeling technics. No one would call the building an architectural masterpiece, but its a bit illogical and random architecture made it a good bulilding to learn SketchUp (and other programs too).

I already used this same model long ago when posting about the SketchUp Web Exporter (unfortunately now the post is not working properly because of the transition from google pages to google sites)

So here come some screenshots of the building.




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SketchUp Plugins: Soft Selection Plugin

Add vertexes and perform Soft selection operations in SketchUp
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Thomthom has a very interesting plugin called Vertex Tools to perform Soft selection of vertex. It is not free (it costs $20) but if you need to perform this sort of operation it will be worth paying for it.
On a previous post about Rhino, I already explained what soft selection is and what we use it for. Below you can see a video explaining the functionality of the Vertex tools Plugin.





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SketchUp: Free Ruby Programming E-Books

Five free ebooks to learn to program in Ruby Language.
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SketchUp plugins use the Ruby programming language. There is plenty of ruby programmers out there doing a great job creating SketchUp Plugins to improve the functionality of SketchUp. If you have an idea of a Plugin that could be useful but you don't know ow to program in Ruby this post might be for you.

This is a list of 5 free ebooks to learn about the Ruby programming language.

• Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Ruby
• Learn to Program
• MacRuby: The Definitive Guide
• Programming Ruby
• Ruby Best Practices

I strongly believe we can all make technology better from a collaborative approach. Users are the ones who have the capacity to know what they really need and to create those products/applications that serve them better. It is a change in the traditional paradigm were big corporations were the only ones creating products for the end user. Nowadays, the user has the power and more importantly the knowledge to assess what is needed. The Google approach to let users create Plugins easily for SketchUp embraces this principle.

So now we have no excuse. If you think you need a Plugin that is not out there, get your hands on this free guides and start programming. The entire SketchUp community will thank you!

via citizen 428.

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Book of the Month: SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization

Learn How to get the most out of SketchUp and other free tools to achieve professional quality renderings and visualizations
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June's Book of the month goes back to th previous trend of Software related books. A few weeks ago I got a copy of this great book. "SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization. Beginners Guide" and with the brief time I had to review it I can strongly recommend it.

The book is excellent for those aiming to produce architectural visualizations without willing to spend thousands in software or training lessons. From the very beginning the book states one of its main motivs "if it is not free don't waste your time with it". Following this statement the books shows you how to work smarter using free tools like SketchUp for modeling, Kerkythea for rendering and Gimp for image processing to mention just the most relevant.

To get a copy for yourself click on any of the images below to visit the publisher's site or to buy it directly on amazon.

or or

You can also take a look to a sample chapter that is available online

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BIM and SketchUp?

Could it be? Could SketchUp be the way to have 100% open stadnard BIM?
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The friends at SketchUp Ireland Blog think so and have posted an interesting list of reasons of why Google is the best placed company to help create a true Open Standard for BIM.

Check them out here.

I think this is an interesting discussion. Not only from the open standards point of viw, but also towards spreading BIM to the 99,9% of offices. SketchUp is so easy to use, that if made 100% BIM capable it would turn the transition to BIM into a matter of few months.

Of course you might argue that if SketchUp was 100% BIM capable it would be so easy to use. But let me answer that Google has surpised us before with brilliant and unexpected apps, so if they want they can do this too. Go GOOGLE!!


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SketchUp Plugins: Could this be the Future Grasshopper for SketchUp?

I can only imagine what this Plugin could do in the future...sort of Grasshopper for SketchUp
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Udi from ModelFunction has sent me a link to a Plugin he has released. The Plugin called ModelFunction aims to simplify the modelling when modifications of the model need to be done. If I understood it properly (I couldn't get it to run on my 64bit Windows 7) it allows to use instances linked to paths to kind of work on the "explicit history" idea similar (much more simpler for now) to what Grasshopper 3D does in Rhino. As I mentioned, I couldn't get it to work still, but there is a quick video from UDI to get a first idea of the possibilities. See it below.


The Plugin can be downloaded here. To install it simply run the .exe file. Apparently for now not compatible with mac or Windows 64 bit.

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SketchUp Plugins: Model Clean-Up

An excellent plugin to remove unnecessary edges and clean-up imported geometry by Thomthom.
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CLEANUP (tt_cleanup.rb): Thomthom has an excellent Plugin to clean geometry, unnecessary coplanar edges and other features. The thread at Sketchucation has excellent pictures that explain the functionality of the Plugin, so i'll skip repeating all of it. See the thread here. Here I'll show you just a sneak peak I have from trying the plugin.



There are other Plugins useful to Clean up your model. You can find them follwing this link.


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SketchUp Plugins: 4D Construction Simulation For Free

A free Plugin to simulate the construction process
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Not so long ago I posted on a couple of commercial plugins to simulate construction. recently I came across a free option that might help in the future simulate construction using SketchUp.

The Plugin is called onTime5D. On the video below you can see a very brief preview of its functionality. The plugin seems to be in process of development, you can follow up on this on the author's website.


I am adding this Plugin on the Previous post that can serve as a reference on the available SketchUp plugins for construction simulation.


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SketchUp Plugins: Make Fur / Grass

A Plugin to generate Fur / Grass with a lot of control.
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MAKE FUR (fur_en_v1_2.rb): Is a Plugin to create Fur / Hair or Grass created by tak2hata. It is very easy to use. See the following images.




Once you have installed the Plugin. Yo can access it via Right Click. Select a Face or a set of faces, Right click and select fur_1.2!. There are two options, a web dialog and an Imput dialog box. Either of them works very similarly. You can also access teh Plugin via the Plugins Menu.

You can download the Plugin here.

Via The Daily CatchUp

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SketchUp: Free Course Certificate

Get a 3D Design certificate with SketchUp for Free.
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I just got my "3D Designing with Google SketchUp" certificate for free at AECDaily. They offer a free podcast training and an online examination for free. If you pass the test, you'll get a certificate.


To access the podcast follow this link. If you are new to SketchUp better follow the podcast, if you are an experienced user, you might be able to take the test directly. Just be sure you review the PHOTOMATCH technique since they are quite a few questions about it.

via SketchUpLinks.

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