Alex Schreyer's Blog, Projects, Books, and More
News, tips and tricks and everything else related to Trimble SketchUp. Don’t forget to also check out my book: Architectural Design with SketchUp.
I just saw on a forum post that SketchUp 7 is out! Although the Google website still only shows SU6 for download, its shop now offers the new version for purchase, too. Until the new (free) version is available on their site, do this: To already download a copy, remember the old SU download link […] Read more..
This video is actually a bit older but it illustrates a great way to visualize data in 3D – using SketchUp. Data is loaded into SketchUp from an Excel file using a Ruby plugin and then plotted in 3D. In this case, geological data is presented for a geothermal drilling operation. Links: More videos at […] Read more..
Since SketchUp is a free program, it is easy to share files. Just tell the other party to download the software and let them view your 3D model on their computer. That’s it. But what if you don’t want to share the entire file (and give your work away) or if you just want to […] Read more..
Based on a recent need, I finally gave plugin-writing for SketchUp a try. The result is a plugin that calculates the centroid and area properties of a shape drawn in SketchUp. You can find more information and download it on its project page.
Since we now have the capability to use Google’s 3D Warehouse as an online collaboration tool, it just makes sense to use this functionality for building programming, too.
Reading the latest announcement from the Google SketchUp Blog, I feel that 3D Warehouse has now ascended to a whole new level – namely the realm of collaborative 3D design. So far, 3D Warehouse has been a great addition to Google’s SketchUp software product. Designers can share 3D models, assembly plans and a whole lot […] Read more..
Joining the ranks of already available free rendering engines for SketchUp (like Kerkythea and Indigo) is the free version of IDX Renditioner Express. This is a full featured copy of the main product with the only limitations being a reduced image size (max. 600×480 versus 4096 x 4096 in the full version) and less lighting […] Read more..