Interactive 3D Visualization of Building Envelope Systems Using Infrared Thermography and SketchUp

This project explored the application of the visualization capabilities of Infrared Thermography in conjunction with three-dimensional models of buildings. Three-dimensional modeling is a powerful tool for visualizing and representing building conditions that is used by architects, builders, and contractors. Also, a three-dimensional model is better understandable than a more abstract two-dimensional representation (like a floor plan or an image).

Lose job, get CAD

This morning, Autodesk announced its Autodesk Assistance Program. This program is meant to help people that have recently been laid off to get back on their feet by providing free CAD software (AutoCAD®, Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Inventor® Professional, and/or AutoCAD® Civil 3D®) for 13 months and offering discounted training and certification classes. Overall this sounds […] Read more..

Twisted SketchUp

A few days ago, a new tool for SketchUp was released. It’s called FreeScale 2.0 and it allows to do a lot of geometry manipulations that SketchUp by itself wasn’t able to do. It should be a default plugin for any serious SU-user. The links below lead to this and other great geometry deformation tools. […] Read more..

Weekly (or so) CAD roundup

Some CAD news that landed in my inbox recently: SketchUp: This year’s SketchUp modeling competition for students has nothing to do with campuses. Google wants you to model a bridge over your favourite crossing instead. Deadline is June 15, 2009. Another competition has been announced by Dwell Magazine together with Volkswagen. For this one, you […] Read more..

Drawing a freewheeling dragonfly in the showroom – An Autodesk Labs roundup

What is it with backyard bugs and software? First there was Grasshopper and now there is Dragonfly. Add to those the big animals used by McNeel and the cover designer of the O’Reilly books and we have ourselves a veritable zoo! But I digress… Autodesk Labs has several web-based applications that look very interesting and […] Read more..

Typical Types and Others

A recent post by Smashing Magazine on free fonts made me look again at the list of fonts installed on my (Windows) machine. In particular, I was looking for fonts that would work well for CAD annotation. After all, AutoCAD’s TXT-font, Revit’s Arial and SketchUp’s Verdana can appear a bit “default” for good-looking plans. And […] Read more..