Featured 3D Warehouse Product: GE Appliances

Do you ever need a piece of furniture or some cabinets for an interior model? If you want to include a real-world product in your Google SketchUp model, it's nice to be able to find it in the Google 3D Warehouse. Why spend time creating it from scratch when someone else has already modeled it, right? That was our philosophy when we came up with the 3D Warehouse: create a free, online repository of components that anyone can use in their SketchUp models.

To keep you aware of the latest and greatest real-world products, we'll be blogging about featured products that are uploaded to the 3D Warehouse. Here's our first featured product:

The folks at GE Appliances have modeled their kitchen and bath appliances and created 3D Warehouse collections for the GE Monogram, GE Profile, GE Café and GE Appliances brands.


According to the GE Appliances team, the models were developed "to meet the requests we were receiving from the design community." See all of their models here.

Posted by Chris Cronin, SketchUp Sales Team

Coming Soon in Google SketchUp...

I don't often talk about new things we're building before we nudge them gently out the door, but this time I thought I'd provide some info to everyone. We've been working hard on our next release of Google SketchUp since late last year, and have cooked up a bunch of new stuff that I know you're going to like. But we're also doing a little housecleaning. More on that in a bit.

We originally designed the Free and Pro versions of Google SketchUp for pretty different groups of people. Google SketchUp was intended to be a tool that anyone in the world could learn to use. It contains every single modeling tool that we've ever developed without any restrictions on file size, rendering quality or performance. If you've got a 3D problem to solve, we want you to use Google SketchUp to solve it. That's why we give it away for free!

In addition to that, Google SketchUp Pro offers a collection of special tools to help Pros go about the daily business of design, visualization and client communication. This means all of our presentation, analysis and documentation tools along with an industrial strength set of file translators to get models in and out of the myriad of tools in a professional's workflow. Along with all those great modeling tools.

We originally assumed that our free Google SketchUp users would never really need to export models into other tools. As it turned out, folks wanted to use Google SketchUp models in all kinds of crazy ways. Things that we could never have imagined! We decided that Google SketchUp users should be able to export their models into some easy-to-read and fundamentally hackable file format to make this easier. Your models should be yours to do with as you see fit.

Our pick for that new format is COLLADA, a 3D model exchange format that is open, extensible and public. We've been using COLLADA internally for some time now for 3D buildings in Google Earth, and there's a lot to like about it. It's easy to read, easy to write, and easy to extend for new features. I hope you'll like it, too.

In our next release, we're going to make COLLADA an official first-class format for all modelers. You'll be able to import and export COLLADA models, as well as COLLADA models wrapped up in the KMZ format for Google Earth, with any version of SketchUp.

Unfortunately, this improvement won't come without a cost. Import/export capability is tough for us to maintain and tough for you to use effectively. There are just so many fiddly little settings on both sides of a file exchange that it is always a challenge to get everything working just right. Looking forward, we decided to make a trade-off.

In the next release of Google SketchUp, our free modeler, we've decided to remove the dwg/dxf importers. We know how important these importers are to our professional customers, especially those who depend on CAD products in their daily work. And for that reason we'll focus our attention on supporting them in Google SketchUp Pro, where we really understand all the nuances of your workflow and where we can provide professional support to troubleshoot your issues.

I hope you'll agree with our decision once you've had a chance to play with COLLADA, but I realize that making a change like this unannounced might disrupt projects you've already got under way. That's why I'm giving you some advanced notice so you can prepare for the change.

Our next version will be ready soon, and it will be a free upgrade if you've got a full Google SketchUp Pro 7 license (if you've got a license for an earlier version of Pro, you can still upgrade to the new version for $95). We want you to try it without any fear that our changes will upset your ongoing projects. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by many of the changes we've made. For those of you who depend on the importers we plan to remove, we'll be providing an optional download that enables them again. But remember! This installer will only be available for a limited time, and it will not be supported at all in our next major release.

If you aren't yet a Pro user and you're using SketchUp in your daily work, I hope you'll consider upgrading to Google SketchUp Pro. Just in case you're still on the fence about this, we'll give you $100 USD off a single-user license if you purchase before September 30, 2009 (enter promo code S7MPTR in our online store).

Thanks for your attention, and I look forward to sharing the next version of Google SketchUp with all of you soon!

Update on 9/22: As promised, you can download an optional installer which will give Google SketchUp 7.1 (free) an importer for DWG/DXF. You can get that installer here.

Posted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

Updates to the 3D Warehouse

If you're a regular Google 3D Warehouse user, you have may noticed a few changes today. We launched some new features and other fixes. One of the most visible (and coolest) features is the new RSS reader that Mark posted. If you have a favorite modeler and would like to keep tabs on when they're publishing new models, you'll want to give this a try. For the moment, this feature is only available in English, however, we hope to make it available in more languages in the not too distant future.

Non-English users will experience the most noticeable changes since we recently completed the translation for a host of features that were previously available on the English site only. Notable updates include:

• Right-side panel redesign
• Tell us why we're wrong' feature

The right-hand panel now has a new area where we highlight featured geo-modelers. It also will show a real-time feed to our 3D Warehouse Twitter account.


While the right-hand panel updates are largely cosmetic, the "tell us why we're wrong" link is very practical. If you've had a model that you feel that we have incorrectly judged (and we do make mistakes!) use this link to alert us to it. The "Tell us why we're wrong" link is located at the bottom of your model detail page as shown below.


We hope you enjoy these new enhancements. Happy Sketching!

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Feed me 3D

Today we added a feature to the Google 3D Warehouse that allows you to track search results and collection contents using a feed reader, like Google Reader. How is this useful? Well, suppose you wanted to keep an eye on which buildings in your town were being accepted into Google Earth.


Here's how it works:

1. Go to the Google 3D Warehouse and type in your search; in our example "near:[city] is:best-of-geo".
2. Click the "Sort by date" link under the top blue bar.
3. Click the "Subscribe to this search" link in top right corner. This allows you to subscribe to the search results using a feed reader.
4. Choose your favorite feed reader to subscribe to the feed.
5. If you're starting in SketchUp you'll need to right click on the link, select "Copy shortcut" (PC) or "Copy Link" (Mac), and past the results into your reader. Browsers may use different terminology in the right-click menu; Chrome uses "Copy link address" and Firefox uses "Copy Link Location".

When you open Google Reader, you can see the latest entries:

For now, we support subscribing to searches and collection contents, but we'll add more options over time.

Posted by Mark Limber, Google 3D Warehouse Product Manager

3D makes headline news in Belgrade

This morning, we received an email from a geo-modeler named Zexland from Belgrade, Serbia. This Industrial Design student was very proud to share that his 3D buildings in Google Earth made front page news in the local Serbian newspapers.



The newspaper article, "Three-dimensional Begrade," is translated to English or if you happen to understand Serbian, here is the original article. Good work Zeljko, we're very proud of your beautiful modeling!


Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Amazing Models in Google Earth Video

We put together a short video that showcases impressive models in Google Earth. From elaborate castles to ski resort villages we've got a little bit of everything in this video. You can even see an enormous statue carved into a mountain! I give my compliments to the 3D modelers as these are all very amazing works.



So sit back and leave the Google Earth navigation to us in this video. Hopefully it will inspire you to go and find more cool models in the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth and maybe even make one or two yourself.

For more Google Earth videos featuring great 3D content, visit our Your world in 3D YouTube channel.

Posted by Jordan Van Wyk, Google SketchUp Team

Super Modelers visit Boulder, Colorado

Nearly two weeks have passed since we held our first Super Modeler Conference in Boulder, Colorado, but we’re still talking about it as if it happened yesterday.

I’ll admit that we were initially a bit apprehensive about the idea. The thought of bringing together more than twenty modelers with nothing in common apart from their efforts to publish 3D buildings in Google Earth was, well, a little unnerving. Would the anticipated language barriers result in blank stares? Would they be a happy, enthusiastic group of SketchUp fanatics, or an angry mob of people eager to criticize our ideas, products or process? Adding to the pre-event uncertainty was the fact that the only information we had about any of them was their chosen nickname and their email address. Who were “Sittingduck” and “ArtExplorer” anyway?

As they began to trickle through our front door and find a seat in the conference room a picture began to emerge. The first surprise was that our so-called "super modelers" were all men! Are there no women modelers? Ages varied from school-aged “kids” to those well into their retirement.

We kicked-off the day with a group exercise designed to help folks learn more about each other. One of the questions that we asked in this session was, “What motivated you to start modeling buildings for Google Earth”? We consider ourselves 3D fanatics, but what drives these folks? The answers ranged from “It’s just plain fun” to “I model buildings for my work”, with lots of variation in-between. It was fascinating hear these modelers share their stories and demo their favorite work.


We structured the two-day event such that there was equal amounts of time for the super modelers to tell us what they were thinking, and for us to share product ideas that we’ve been kicking around. Throughout the event, the room was packed with Googlers who were eager to listen to what our invited guests had to say. Google Software Engineers and Product Managers soaked-up ideas and listened to pain-points that would help guide our product development in the future. We took copious notes!


By the end of the second day I found myself wishing we had more time together. We were just getting to know our new friends when it was time to say goodbye.

In the end, I think this was a great learning experience for everyone. Even the highly proficient super modelers were scribbling notes during our modeling “tips & tricks” sessions led by our internal product experts. While the outcomes are still being discussed, one thing was certain – we plan to repeat the event again next year. Time and venue TBD, but we’re already looking forward to it.


Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Where's my model in Google Earth?

Since we retooled the building pipeline, the majority of 3D models intended for submission to Google Earth have gotten feedback from us; either when the model goes live in one of our weekly releases, or when feedback for model improvement gets sent to the modeler. In either case, most models have been getting some form of feedback within a week or two.

There's been one lamentable exception, however; it's possible for models to fail processing somewhere in the pipeline, and when that happened we weren't explaining the problem to the person whose model got stuck. While it's sad that there are ever models in this state, it's even worse when you have no idea what happened, and are left "Awaiting review" forever.

We're happy to announce that this situation has now changed. If you have a model that's too complex for our systems to handle or there's some other issue preventing the model from getting reviewed or going live, you will now find a "Processing issues" icon attached to the model. In some cases this will turn out to be something we can fix on our end. Otherwise, some things you might want to check are listed here.

We're working on providing more detailed feedback to help you pinpoint the problem. Additionally, after many requests, we've started labeling all "Google Earth Ready" models with an icon. You'll be able to tell at a glance which of your models have been accepted, which are awaiting review, and whether there's any models that weren't accepted and have feedback available. This should help our prolific modelers keep track of their collections more effectively. Happy modeling!

Posted by Allison Floyd, Google 3D Warehouse Team

SU Podium contest winner announced

Nomer Adona is the 1st place winner of the Podium 4th image contest which ended earlier this summer (view all entries here.)

Nomer is an international teacher in Vietnam teaching Design and Visual Arts in Ho Chi Minh City. He is also a freelance architect and interior designer. He loves teaching because it gives him free time to pursue other personal interests, painting and art.

In a former life, Nomer worked full time for a big architectural firm in Malaysia. But after landing an international teaching job in Vietnam he swears he won't go back. From time to time he does receive architectural visualization work from various international clients.

He found using Google SketchUp and SU Podium, a photo-realistic rendering plug-in, to be good visualization tools for studying viewpoints, texture, and lighting before painting. The example below is of the winning SU Podium image and how it came to fruition.




The first image shows a model used prior to rendering in SU Podium. You can see this interior design has a lot of high resolution textures. Many of the textures were created by Nomer using a digital camera and shooting typical building scenes from Hanoi. Some of the components in the scene came from the Google 3D Warehouse as well.

The second image shows the rendering that was created by Podium. A background image is imported into the SketchUp model for the view from the door. The main source of light is Podium’s sunlight which is controlled by SketchUp’s shadow settings. Podium’s soft shadows are used in this rendering. Because Podium supports ray tracing and global illumination, faces that are not exposed to direct sunlight reflect indirect light, making the interior look realistic.

Also, large openings in the SketchUp model (not visible in the image) in the roof and back wall are used to create ambient light from Podium’s sky light. Some textures were applied to Podium’s bump maps.

Using SketchUp and Podium for oil painting studies, as opposed to architectural design concepts and presentations, may not be the most common use of these tools, but for Nomer, they worked quite well. His work shows that 3D design and photo-realistic rendering have numerous, creative applications.

Posted by Tasha Danko, Google SketchUp Team

Super Modeler Conference

Starting tomorrow, August 6th, twenty Google Earth 3D modelers will join us in Boulder, Colorado for a two-day conference. These super modelers are flying in from locations around the world; including, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, Argentina, and around the US. They have created and published hundreds of beautifully detailed 3D models in Google Earth.

They will meet with product managers and engineers to share their experiences in working with Google SketchUp, Google 3D Warehouse and Google Earth. And, of course, they're here to have some fun in sunny Boulder with the Google crew. We will be tweeting from the conference and you can follow the tweets here: @3dwh and @sketchup.

Posted by James Therrien, Google SketchUp Team

Featured Modelers: 3D Artists in Antwerp

Antwerp is the historic heart of Flanders in Northern Belgium and famous as the birthplace of two Old Masters, Rubens and Van Dyck. Today, two young masters are dedicating themselves to what they consider a "new form of art" - capturing the beauty of the city's architecture with detailed 3D models via Google Earth. Instead of layering oil paint on stretched canvases, they are using digital photographs and Google SketchUp. Nick, or SittingDuck (his Google 3D Warehouse handle) started modeling for Google Earth after seeing the amazing models created by KR= (Chris) of some of Antwerp's landmark buildings.

"I got really excited when I saw the models that Chris had done in Antwerp," Nick said. "The truth is, I was supposed to be studying for my college exams, but found modeling to be a lot more fun. Ha, it's funny that the first model I made was purely to procrastinate on cramming for my exams. Since then, it's turned into a kind of obsession. My approach to modeling has changed over time too. At first, I was putting up models as fast as I could make them, but in part because Chris' models were so carefully done, I put in more time and attention."

Nick and Chris have completed a good deal of the historic center of the Antwerp. Chris' spectacular model of the main Cathedral of Our Lady is a focal point for this area.


The Cathedral of our Lady was under construction for more than 170 years so the fact that it took Chris more than six months to photograph and model the cathedral for Google Earth may not seem like too much time. But, Chris' beautiful work speaks for itself. The cathedral is now recognized as part of the World Heritage Site and the model certainly does it justice.

Even with less majestic subject matter, the quality of the work done by Chris and Nick is remarkable. "So much depends on the photographs you take of the building facades," Nick continued. "Antwerp is tricky, the town has grown organically from the center for over a 1,000 years and it's filled with irregular narrow streets and alleys where you can often only stand about 5 meters away from the facade you want to photograph. So I'll shoot multiple pictures of the building and stitch them together with PTgui. You always want to be sure to catch the buildings in strong natural light. I will also do some color adjustments in Photoshop, but strong light is key. It's what makes the models come to life."

Detail of buildings by Sitting Duck

While Nick feels like the process of modeling is a reward unto itself, both he and Chris were recognized by the Gazet van Antwerpen for the work they are doing. Going forward, they've set a goal of modeling all of Antwerp from the city center outward. They are being guided by the historical perimeter of the city which can still be seen with Google Earth satellite imagery.

"We now have about 30% of the buildings completed that existed inside the 16th century city walls. Some other guys are modeling too. I usually will plan out which area I am doing next, take the bus into the city and set to work taking my photos. I have to say I am also indebted to Magda, my fiance, who rides her bike around town to take pictures for me as well. Depending on the building, I usually will take between 5 and 7 hours per model, it all just depends on what the actual structure is. It is going to take us about a year to finish up and then we will move on to the city limits in the 19th Century."

In the mean time, Nick has completed 100% of a smaller town in Belgium, Fort Lillo.

"It's hard to say exactly why we are doing this. But in part, I have always been into maps, geography and architecture. The process of map making has been very special and challenging, but people really have mapped almost all the world now. Google Earth and 3D are an new extension of that process. A friend once asked my why I spent all this time modeling. I thought, 'why do painters paint, why did the map makers make maps?' This is a combination of both. It's an art form. Chris's modeling work really rises to this level. It's like photorealistic painting in 3D."

Posted by James Therrien, Google SketchUp Team

Tips for dimensioning in SketchUp

I was visiting the SketchUp Community Forums the other day and noticed a few tips pertaining to dimensions. They were shared by bert and thomthom (a couple of the resident SketchUp gurus). I thought these nuggets of information were great, so I created a quick tutorial video that explains things. Here's what I cover:

1. Setting up SketchUp dimensions using the "Hide when foreshortened" option. Using this option allows you an easy way to set up your scenes with the dimensions you want to view while hiding the ones you don't. It's all done without the use of layers or individual visibility settings.
2. Adding text to the dimension string without losing the dimension's dynamic behavior.
   

Thank you bert and thomthom for supporting the SketchUp community.

Posted by Chris Dizon, Google SketchUp Guru