Community Celebration in Peru

Recently, a team of Googlers traveled to Peru and celebrated the winner (and community) of the Google International Model Your Town Competition. Jorge De Albertis of Lima won through a process where people all over the world voted for one of five finalists. His ability to win so many votes was a testament to the power of a community coming together to support Jorge’s efforts. His contribution creating 3D models of many of the historical buildings in the Barranco District of Lima has garnered a lot of attention in his country, and worldwide.

There were four majors parts to the celebration:

1. As part of the winning prize, Google gave a donation to a public school of Jorge’s choice. Jorge talked to the students and staff at a ceremony in the school’s courtyard, and we presented a large check to IE 7053 Reino De Espana Public School. Googlers helped students with a hands-on paper 3D modeling project, where they constructed models of the buildings Jorge submitted for the competition. The school graciously hosted a celebration for Jorge and Google, which included a welcome by student marching bands, traditional Peruvian dances, ballerinas, theater acts, singing, and a poetry jam.


Click here to see more photos from the events.

2. Jorge and Google hosted a series of tech talks to over 80 design and architecture students and faculty at the University of Lima, explaining how others can get involved with modeling their communities. Demos were presented on Jorge’s project, SketchUp, Map Maker, and Building Maker. Watch a video of an interview of Jorge at the University of Lima.

3. The Latin America International Film Festival had a looping video of Jorge’s work running throughout the week.

4. Google held a celebration in Jorge’s honor at Picas, which was attended by designers, architects, educators, tourism officials, and the general Lima community. The fun-filled event had demo stations where people could learn more about Google Earth, Map Maker, Building Maker, and Google SketchUp. The band, Colectivo Circo played to a packed house. Jorge received a plaque and spoke to the community about his efforts. We are thrilled to have visited Jorge and to have met many people in the Lima community. Congratulations, Jorge!


Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Try some SketchUp Training this Fall

Our September and October 2010 SketchUp Authorized Training Center schedule is now available. The map below contains information on specific locations, dates, and courses provided.


View September/ October 2010 Training Schedule in a larger map

We have some great news for RIAI members in Ireland. Members can now receive CDP points for attending SketchUp Essentials One training through Viewsion, a SketchUp Authorized Training Center.

Posted by Shara Greenlee, SketchUp Training Team

Street View Imagery Available in Building Maker

If you’ve ever modeled a building in Google Building Maker, you may have found yourself wanting to use crisper, more detailed photos in addition to the aerial oblique imagery. Or, you may have had problems with poor textures caused by other buildings blocking the view of your building. In response to these issues we recently added the ability to add your own photos to Building Maker, but now you can also use imagery directly from Street View on Google Maps!

Start modeling your building using the aerial imagery. After you have constrained a block in at least two aerial images, you will be able to “Add Street View Images” from a drop down menu on the left-hand side. Capture a few images from Street View and continue modeling as normal. The following video illustrates an example of using this new feature:



We have also added 6 new cities to Building Maker (all, with the exception of Vienna, have Street View imagery!):

Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Florence, Italy
Vienna, Austria
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Santa Cruz, CA, United States
Riverside, CA, United States

Try modeling with Street View imagery in Google Building Maker now!

Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Geo Community Advocate

Last call for Sketch-a-Space entries!

In April, we announced that the Project Spectrum folks had teamed up with Easter Seals for a really inspiring design competition: Easter Seals’ Sketch-a-Space.

The competition invites design professionals, people with autism and all other SketchUp users to design an ideal space for people on the autism spectrum, and win $2,000 to make that dream space a reality.

The competition ends this Friday, Aug. 20th, so hurry up and visit the competition website to submit your entries. The judges are all excited to see your great designs!

Posted by Chris Cronin, Project Spectrum team

Stay informed about your models

Great news! In response to customer feedback, the Google 3D Warehouse now sends model updates via email, allowing you to stay informed about the status of your models as they’re being evaluated.

Now, when your model is published to Google Earth you’ll receive a congratulatory message. Likewise, we’ll also let you know if your model wasn’t accepted, or if it was replaced by another model. With these email notifications, you don’t have to check your models in the 3D Warehouse to see their status. When we have an update, we’ll send you an email.

As always, we respect your right to control how much email you get from Google. If you’d like to update your current email notification settings, please visit your preferences.

Posted by Jim Guggemos, Software Engineer