Amazing SketchUp Timber Frame Modeling

[sketchfab id=”xuRi1rQTziz4iJqDkjayjOaXq86″ start=”0″ spin=”” controls=”1″] I just came across this amazing 3D model of a round barn by Mike Beganyi, a timber framer and SketchUp modeler from Vermont. I know, it’s two years old, but check it out – and do it full-screen! It is such a great example of beautiful timberframing, excellent SketchUp modeling, and […] Read more..

“Urban Timber” Exhibit at the BSA Showcases Contemporary Wood Architecture

Yesterday was the opening of the exhibit “Urban Timber: From Seed to City” at the BSA Space of the Boston Society of Architects. Located close to Boston’s waterfront, this exhibit runs through the end of September 2014. So if you are in the area, don’t forget to drop by and check it out. I was […] Read more..

SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2014 Recap

Now that the semester is winding down, I can finally look back and post about the great SketchUp 3D Basecamp conference that happened 4/14-4/16 this year in Vail, Colorado. As in years past, this was a meeting of SketchUp users, plugin authors, technology vendors, and, of course, all the makers of SketchUp. What was especially […] Read more..

I just updated all my SketchUp plugins!

While my SketchUp plugins were all working fine with the newly released SketchUp 2014, some things still irked me and so I set out to update them. As you can see above, they now also sport some neater icons. If you are interested in what has changed for a specific plugin, check out the appropriate […] Read more..

What’s New in SketchUp 2014? Better Ruby, for Example!

By now you most probably have heard that SketchUp 2014 has been released. There are quite a few great new-feature overviews and reviews out there and I’ll suggest you look at the ones linked at the end of this post to get up to speed. For now, I just wanted to show you why the […] Read more..

New SketchUp Plugin: Flatten Faces

Have you ever modeled something in SketchUp only to find you had an arbitrarily oriented face where you would have killed to have it laid flat on the ground? I was there (and so were my students), so I re-used some code I had and packaged it as a plugin. You can read about it and […] Read more..

Unwrap and Flatten Faces Extension for SketchUp

This extension allows the user to do three things: Unwraps non-coplanar faces (any shape objects, shells etc.) using an automatic (randomized) algorithm and then lays the resulting set of faces flat on the ground. This is done without creating any distortions. Lays any arbitrarily-oriented face or collection of coplanar faces flat on the ground (without distortion). Use e.g. in combination with a manual unfold tool or to make sure faces are perfectly horizontal. Projects a set of faces to one of the three main planes by smashing all faces flat. This creates distortions, of course.