Fine-tuning your shadows

You can control which entities in your models cast shadows; you can also determine which ones are able to receive them. Case in point:

Recently, I needed an image of a traffic light that appeared to be lit up. I searched the 3D Warehouse and found a nice one uploaded by Manager. It appears to have been modeled by Andy Glucker and made available for free on FormFonts.com.

I used Styles to make a blue sky, set my Field of View to something wider than the default, dragged my modeling window into a long, wide rectangle, and aimed my camera up:

The green light should be lit up, so I colored it bright, light green. The red and amber lights got painted darker to increase the contrast between them and the green one:

To give it some definition and make it "pop" a little, I switched on shadows. There's a problem, though: lit-up faces shouldn't be able to receive shadows.

Uncheck Receive Shadows to tell faces not to let shadows fall on them.

No worries; I selected the green light, opened and expanded the Entity Info dialog box, and unchecked "Receive Shadows":

I also made sure the underside of the "eyebrow" over the lamp didn't receive a shadow. To make it look like it might be receiving greenish light, I painted it a green-tinted dark gray.

It's not a photo-rendering, but it works.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Two Chilean cities added to Google Building Maker

For those of you who haven’t yet tried it, Google Building Maker is our simple 3D modeling tool that allows you to construct buildings by aligning various types of blocks to photos - all from your Internet browser. The completed models are automatically geo-located and then reviewed for inclusion in the 3D Buildings layer on Google Earth. When the tool was originally released last fall, users could create buildings in 50 cities. Since then, more cities have continually been added, and the growing tally is now at 94.

As part of our latest offering, we’re excited to announce that the cities of Santiago and Valparaiso in Chile are the first South American cities available in Google Building Maker.

Modeling in Santiago, Chile with Google Building Maker

We should note, however, that geo-modeling with Google SketchUp has been steadily increasing in that region for some time now. For example, avid user gananunez has been modeling in Valparaiso for a year and has more than 50 models in the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth!

Valparaiso, Chile

Two other long-time users, GecKo StuDio. and Sergio, have been modeling Santiago since 2007 and each has more than 30 models in the 3D Buildings layer. Some users, like jgago93, are just getting started in the area.

Santiago, Chile

Now everyone can help model these two cities with Google Building Maker. Click here to start modeling, and get your buildings on the 3D map!

Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Geo Community Advocate

Great new book: SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization

My favorite thing about Robin de Jongh's excellent new SketchUp book is the clever writing; I tend to like my technical reading to be entertaining, too. My favorite chapter title: "How To Collect An Arsenal Rambo Would Be Proud Of"

SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization is a treasure trove of information about making your SketchUp models look their best. Robin emphasizes a workflow that uses powerful but affordable tools (like Kerkythea and GIMP) for photo-rendering, but he also talks about creating better animations, using other Google tools for context modeling, adding entourage, matching photos and plenty more. Every time I open the book, I get sucked into reading another incredibly useful tip. It's definitely the most productive time-passer within arm's reach of my computer.

If you're an experienced SketchUp modeler, you owe it to yourself to pick up Robin's book. Your models will thank you.

The above is to the book on Amazon; here it is on the publisher's website.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Updated energy analysis plugin from IES

Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), creators of the IES VE tools for building performance analysis and simulation, recently announced their partnership with us. We wanted to let you know a little bit about this and the features in the new version of their plugin for SketchUp.

This official partnership is in recognition of work that IES has done to their VE plugin; it links four levels of VE analysis software to SketchUp (both free and Pro).) We believe that this integration allows SketchUp modelers to more easily take sustainable building decisions into account early in the design phase. It provides options for design iterations in the areas of energy, carbon, water, climate impact, solar and daylight analysis early on. This partnership, which continues to grow and strengthen, will benefit architects and engineers by providing a low-cost, high quality solution for sustainable building.

You can visit the IES SketchUp page to learn more about (and download) the free plugin. The team at IES are now also running a special 60% discount offer on their early-stage analysis tools; the VE-Toolkits were specially designed to be accessed via the free plugin.

Take a look at the great videos the folks at IES have put together to show how their plugin works. Here’s a sample:



Posted by Steve Dapkus, Business Development Guy

3D Basecamp: Submission deadline extended

It would appear that giving folks only the weekend to submit their requests for 3D Basecamp 2010 invitations was a not-so-good idea -- my sincere apologies (and thanks) to all those who rushed. Most of the image links we've received so far are both beautiful and inspiring. This is going to be one heck of an event.

We've still got lots of space available, so please keep those submissions coming. We plan to keep the form online an extra two days -- until 09:00 MDT (15:00 GMT) Wednesday, July 29th.

Critical links:

• Original 3D Basecamp blog post | FAQ
• Invitation Request Form

Update: If you're invited to attend, you'll still receive an email from us by Friday, July 30th, 2010.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Apply for an invitation to 3D Basecamp 2010

A couple days ago, I blogged about our upcoming get-together; SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010 is set to take place during the first three days of September in Boulder, Colorado.


The form for requesting an invitation to 3D Basecamp is now live, and will be through 09:00 MDT (15:00 GMT) July 26th, 2010. If you’d like to join us, please fill out the form and submit it as soon as possible -- we plan to invite the first 150 (or so) people on the list who meet our requirement (see below).

SketchUp aficionados only, please

As I mentioned earlier this week, 3D Basecamp 2010 is for accomplished SketchUp modelers. As part of the invitation-requesting process, we’d like you to submit a link to a single image that demonstrates your SketchUp modeling prowess. Model anything and render it -- or don’t render it -- however you like. The important thing is to show us you know your way around the app.

Please take a look at the previous post and the FAQ for more info, but don’t delay; these invitations are going to go quickly. Good luck!

Go to the Invitation Request Form »

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Announcing SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2010

Back in 2005, we held our first-ever SketchUp conference here in Boulder, Colorado -- a good time was had by all. Two years ago, about 300 of you met us at Google's headquarters in California for 3D Basecamp 2008. Our guests told us they had a fantastic time, and we resolved to do it again. So here we go.


It's my pleasure to announce that 3D Basecamp 2010 will take place at the end of this summer. We're bringin' it back to Colorado, and we're changing the format a little bit. This time, we'd like to welcome SketchUp experts – ninjas, gurus, fanatics, la crème de la crème – to join us. We want to see what will happen when everyone in attendance is a SketchUp master.

In keeping with the times (and the crowd), we've decided to make this an unconference. Apart from a few "we'd like to show you a couple of things" presentations, the content of Basecamp 2010 will be decided by you. Less slide show, more discussions; that's what we're aiming for.

To recap:

3D Basecamp 2010
September 1, 2 and 3
Boulder, Colorado, USA

Who gets to come?

We're not charging a fee, but space is definitely limited. We've already stacked the deck by inviting a select group of the SketchUp faithful -- they've already heard from us. Now we're opening up the remaining slots to anyone who'd like to come. Anyone who's a SketchUp wizard who'd like to come, that is.

Here's what we've decided to do: On Friday, July 23rd at 09:00 MDT (15:00 GMT), we'll switch on the Invitation Request form. All you have to do is fill out the form. We'll ask for your name, your email address and a single link. That link is very, very important.

Your link should lead to a single image. That image should portray an example of your SketchUp mastery. Show us your best model. It doesn't matter what you've modeled; it only matters that your work clearly demonstrates your level of skill. Blow our socks off, please.

On Monday, July 26th at 09:00 MDT (15:00 GMT), we'll switch off the form and start looking at submissions, beginning with the first one we receive and working our way down the list. Once we've reached our quota of first-class modelers (probably around 150), we'll stop looking.

If you're selected, you'll receive a confirmation email on Friday, July 30th 2010. That email will contain details about what to do next.

One more thing: I'll add a "ready, set, go!" post to this blog on Friday when the form's live. That post will include a link to the form.

See you in Boulder!

Questions? Check out this FAQ.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

SketchUp Pro Case Study: Allied Container Systems

Allied Container Systems is a family-owned design firm out of the San Francisco area that specializes in the design of live urban training facilities for the Military, Law Enforcement and First Responders.

Their work includes the design and construction of projects including sleeping quarters and offices, military FOBs (Forward Operating Bases), city-scale urban training facilities (MOUT, or Military Operations Urban Terrain) for the US military, as well as a host of commercial companies.

Large-scale projects can range from 50 to 1000 buildings.

In the design of these training environments, the use of SketchUp Pro is used as a critical collaborative design tool throughout ACS’s project work flow. SketchUp allows the designers to collaborate with training specialists to produce an accurate and functional environment specific to the needs of the trainers.

How is SketchUp Pro used?

Matt Smith, a Senior Sales Designer for ACS, explains how SketchUp is used in their design process:

“We will sit with the training specialists and virtually move through the city building by building to make adjustments specific to their training needs. From setting up the logistics and site configurations for maneuvers with Humvee vehicles to standing on buildings to determine lines of site, SketchUp allows our clients to customize and set up their training facilities in a way to be most effective and visually see how the training site will look once built. They provide immediate feedback to us so we can design with their needs in mind and we can make adjustments in the model. This is all done together live.”

Line-of-sight during the design process leads to better customization and more effective facilities.

ACS has also created specialized SketchUp component libraries and taken advantage of SketchUp’s Ruby API to allow for the production of smarter models that take less time to create:

“Having our custom SketchUp library of modular pieces allows us to take the container systems and quickly stack them like Legos -- combining them into multiple configurations to produce anything from bridges, overpasses or whatever the client wants us to design.”

“Our custom Ruby scripts allow us to apply different textures and costing attributes to our models. This customization allows us to not only create our projects rapidly and visually see the them as they will exist; it also helps us produce the costs associated with the each project.”

Custom Ruby scripts let us try out different options and see the impact on the project cost.

“To utilize our project models further, we export various elements as CAD files from SketchUp and pass them on to our production department. This allows them to produce formal construction documentation that is based on the approved SketchUp model.”

Why SketchUp Pro?

“SketchUp’s speed and flexibility is what makes it so powerful. I can make SketchUp function as most any tool I need it to be. Yes, rule-based parametric modeling systems have their role in engineering work, but they have a lot of overhead that makes them very complex. It is their complexity and rule-based environment that doesn’t allow them to keep up with our iterative design process. What could take up to a week to do in a complex modeling system may only take a day with SketchUp.”

Posted by Chris Dizon, SketchUp Sales Team

Seville in 3D with Google Earth

We're pleased to announce that you can now explore the city of Seville in 3D with Google Earth. Take a virtual tour of the most symbolic buildings of the Spanish city, that range from the Roman Empire, through the Calatrava bridges to the best examples of contemporary architecture.



This is a unique opportunity to visit the Andalusian capital avoiding the summer heat. We encourage you to walk to the Torre del Oro, Plaza de España or La Real Maestranza - just using your computer mouse.

Posted by Isabel Salazar, Spain Product Marketing Team

Take the edge off: RoundCorner

Rounding off sharp corners – especially in two directions – has always been a major pain. Multiple Follow Me operations, copying, flipping, moving... Life is simply too short for such tediousness.

Enter the RoundCorner Ruby script by Fredo6. You activate the tool, pick the edges you want to round (or fillet), specify a couple of parameters, and hit Enter. Really great tools are ones that save hours of nitpicky, repetitive work; by this definition, RoundCorner is an all-star.

How it works

RoundCorner is a simple tool with a few (sort of) complicated settings. At its simplest, here’s what it does:

Click on an icon in the Round Corner toolbar to activate one of the “modes”: Round, Sharp or Bevel.

RoundCorner can make rounded edges with round or sharp corners. It can also make bevels (far right).

Pick the edges you want to round by clicking them. Click again to deselect an edge. You can also click a face to select all of its edges, or a vertex (where endpoints meet) to select its connected edges.

Pick edges, faces or vertices.

Press Tab on your keyboard to bring up the Parameters dialog box. Enter an offset distance and the number of facets (segments) your new rounded edges should have. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Use the Parameters dialog box to specify an offset and a number of sides. Using a small number of sides yields more usable models.

Increasing the number of sides on your rounded corners increases your face count exponentially.

When you're ready, click somewhere in empty space to run the script.

So many settings

There are plenty of settings in the toolbar that appears in your modeling window when you activate one of the tools; take a look at the plugin’s handy documentation to see what everything does (Tools > Fredo6 Collection > RoundCorner > Documentation...)

Details, details

• You can download RoundCorner (as well as all of Fredo6's other plugins) from the Ruby Library Depot.
• Fredo6 makes his plug-ins available as donationware, meaning that they're free to download and use, but that payment is always gladly accepted. I highly encourage you to support his efforts.
• This SketchUcation thread provides good discussion and examples.
• This Pushpull Bar post is helpful, too.
• So is this video that Fredo6 made.
• RoundCorner works on both Macs and PCs.

Installation

1. Unzip the folder you downloaded.
2. Move both things inside that folder (another folder called ROUNDCORNER_Dir_xx and a file called ZLoader_Roundcorner.rb) into your Plugins folder.
3. Make sure you have the latest version of LibFredo6 installed, too (there should be a link to it on the same download page.) It contains things that all of Fredo6’s scripts need to work. Download and unzip it, then move its contents (a folder called LIBFREDO6_Dir_xx and a file called LibFredo6.rb) into your Plugins folder.
4. Restart SketchUp.
5. Choose View > Tool Palettes > Round Corner to activate the tool.

Examples

Some things I’ve made in the short time I’ve been using RoundCorner:

I started with a boxy sofa I made awhile ago, then used RoundCorner to soften it up.

RoundCorner can handle fillets, too -- even round, uneven ones.

Rounding off the upper edges of 3D text makes it look at lot better.

I used RoundCorner an awful lot for this ship. It shoots flowers, in case you're wondering.

Thanks for another great addition to the SketchUp universe, Fredo6.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

SketchUp Pro Case Study: CLOUSTON Associates

As part of the ongoing SketchUp Pro “Down Under” series, CLOUSTON Associates have generously agreed to share some of their SketchUp magic with us. A Sydney-based Landscape Architectural practice with a staff of 35, CLOUSTON operates out of offices in Sydney, Darwin, Abu Dhabi and the Gold Coast. Associate Director Martin O’Dea explains:

"Google SketchUp provides us with an ideal tool to quickly and easily visualize complex 3D problems. We find that our clients understand our ideas far more easily when they are presented in perspective rather than simply in plan or elevation. We use Google SketchUp as part of our workflow integrated with hand drawings, Google Earth, Adobe CS4 and Bentley Microstation in the following ways:"

• As electronic butter paper to rapidly develop and visualize design ideas
• To quickly and accurately set up perspective illustrations
• For construction detailing, from simple design elements to complex structures
• To investigate visual impact assessment and review view analysis
• As a presentation and visualization tool for clients and consultants

Dragonfly Pond at The Ponds

CLOUSTON Associates has been using Google SketchUp extensively on 'The Ponds', a new 5000-resident community in Sydney’s northwestern suburbs. On this project, SketchUp has been used for design development and visualization of the parklands, signage systems, water quality control ponds, and pedestrian and vehicular bridges."

"The Dragonfly pond was designed for the community as a two-million-litre water quality control pond. It has a bold heroic blade wall on one side decorated with 12 different Corten steel dragonfly panel artworks."

View of completed Dragonfly Pond

"As one of the sustainability initiatives at the ponds, the dragonfly pond treats urban stormwater runoff by a range of means before discharging it to Second Ponds Creek. In a peak storm event, the pond receives 300 litres of water per second from the nearby residential area."

A close-up of the chute

"We used SketchUp to model the sculptural qualities of the wall, the chute into the pond, the dragonfly panels and the curved bowl behind."

The chute handles 300 L/sec of water during peak storm events

"Some of the construction documentation was prepared directly from SketchUp as 2D plans, elevations and sections, along with 3D saved views. The landscape contractor said that the 3D imagery was very useful for their form-workers in understanding the geometry of these complex concrete structures."

"Google SketchUp has been the answer to a question that I have had for some time. I've wanted a way to model in 3D but it has always been too complex to be able to do easily -- but now I can.”

Martin, thanks to you and the team for sharing your great work with us and the SketchUp community.

Posted by Chris Dizon, SketchUp Sales Team

Berlin and Stuttgart in 3D

We released two new cities in Google Earth’s 3D Buildings layer today - Berlin and Stuttgart. Both of these proud German cities contain numerous architectural masterpieces, making them ideal destinations for virtual tourism.



Having resided in Stuttgart, I was particularly excited to see many of the places that I’ve frequented appear in Google Earth. The first place I visited on my own virtual tour was Schillerplatz square a site where numerous holiday festivals and markets are held. Walking distance from there is the Schlossgarten, the large, park-like area that includes the old castle, the National Theatre, Stuttgart’s main train station, the opera, and planetarium.



Geo-modelers, peterX and tbr, have modeled many of the places of interest in Stuttgart, all of which are contained in this collection.

Before leaving Stuttgart make sure you visit the corporate headquarters of the famous Mercedes brand, as well as the massive television tower that can be seen from anywhere in the city.


Being the capital of this once divided country, Berlin boasts a plethora of famous government and cultural buildings. The Brandenburg Gate at Pariser Platz, the former location of the infamous “Berlin Wall” may well be one of the most visited places in Google Earth. If you fly there, you can explore the Tiergarten (Soviet war museum), Reichstag, Kongresshalle, and famous monuments such as the Berliner Siegessaule - all within a short walking distance.


Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager