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..
Tag: plugins/extensions
Grasshopper 0.5 released – with scripting!
Can’t wait to try out the new version of Grasshopper for Rhino. The latest major (well, a round-ish 0.5 at least) release is now available from McNeel.
SketchUp Plugin: Centroid and Area Properties
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.
Face Centroid and Area Properties Extension for SketchUp
A little while ago, I had a need for calculating centroids for planar shapes in SketchUp. To be more exact, my students had the need since I gave them an assignment that required this. Not knowing of a plugin for SketchUp that would accomplish this feat, they did it in Rhino or AutoCAD instead.
To rid SketchUp of this shortcoming, I decided to re-use some old Pascal code of mine and try my hand at writing a plugin for this. Here is the result.
Another SketchUp Renderer Available for Free: IDX Renditioner
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..
Hopping with a Rhino
Inspired by one of David Fano’s recent blog posts, I decided to give Rhino’s Grasshopper plugin (formerly called Explicit History) a try. It is pretty amazing what can be done with it and how easy it is to use. I haven’t venture too far at this point – there’ll be more to come when I […] Read more..
Most Popular SketchUp Plugins
After working a while with SketchUp, every 3D modeler will invariably find out that the best thing about this software is that it can easily be extended using free plugins. If a function is not available in plain (free) SketchUp, then chances are actually quite good that there is a plugin available on the internet […] Read more..