Alex Schreyer's Blog, Projects, Books, and More
The Daily CatchUp The first news about SketchUp is news itself. To be more to the point, the folks at SketchUcation.com have just launched an interesting news portal. It is called The Daily CatchUp and it was created to bring frequently updated news to us SU users. So far, posts seem to follow the major topics […] Read more..
Shells and tension structures (cable nets or fabrics) are beautiful structural elements that provide a very lightweight organic shape with a visually clear structural language. When it comes to creating these, however, specialized tools are required since the underlying math is anything but trivial. If you want to work with shells or tension structures, try […] Read more..
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..
I just released a new SketchUp plugin. Its main function is to load other plugins. Here’s a screenshot of the main menu options: You can find a detailed description (and the download link) on the project page. Here are the feature highlights: Browse the main web plugin repositories and then load any plugin into SketchUp. […] Read more..
This SketchUp extension was created out of a need for having extensions available in a “locked down” computer lab setting (similar to my solution for AutoCAD). It also provides an easy way to use extensions in SketchUp without having to install them – therefore making SketchUp start (and possibly run) faster. In addition, you can use this tool to run any external ruby code (e.g. for development purposes).
These are some interesting SketchUp links that just came across my desk: SketchUcation You most probably know this link if you are working with SketchUp regularly – mainly from their great forum. One recent change: They updated their website to now include a lot of tutorials ranging from the beginner to the advanced level. In […] Read more..
If you are into curvy, parametric, formula-generated shapes for architecture, product design or whatever, then this is for you: Andy Payne of LIFT Architects has published an introductory manual for Grasshopper, the Rhino plugin. This document should get you going faster. You can download the manual directly from their website. Enjoy!