Product Connect makes it easier to design with real products

Last April, our friends (and partners) at Igloo Studios released Product Connect for Google SketchUp to help designers document the product choices made in their SketchUp models. Today, I’m happy to report a new version of Product Connect is now available for download from the Igloo Studios website. This version makes it even easier to design with real products.

This video provides a nice overview of the new release:

The new version of Product Connect features thousands of product models and these three plugin-based tools:

Get Products

Use Get Products to browse nearly 300 collections of branded and generic products

Get Products is a new tool that makes it dead simple to add pre-existing product models from the Google 3D Warehouse. Like the Get Models tool in SketchUp currently, Get Products launches the Google 3D Warehouse but directs you to a collection with nearly 300 sub-collections of branded and generic product models. You can choose products from a Product Connect enabled catalog and you'll find that product information has already been added for you. Or, choose other Building Product models and add the information yourself.

Product Editor

Product Editor being used to specify a Delta faucet

With the new Product Editor tool, you can now create your own Product Connect enabled models. Just take any SketchUp component (including materials), launch Product Editor, and add any information you need such as product type, name and description. Product Editor can also be used to add or edit info in pre-existing Product Connect enabled models such as project specific notes or price.

Report Maker

Report Maker created product schedule, pasted into a LayOut presentation

When you’ve finished your design, and filled it with Product Connect enabled components, the new and improved Report Maker tool allows you to save organized product schedules in .csv format. With just a few clicks, product lists can be included in construction document sets, edited to create pricing estimates, and even used to place and manage orders.

If you have an existing collection of SketchUp components that you’d like to enable for Product Connect, Igloo Studios offers a service for upgrading existing components. Or if you don’t already have product models created, Igloo Studios can help you with that too. Contact them for more information

Thanks again to Igloo Studios for another great launch that will help SketchUp users everywhere streamline the product selection and specification process.

Posted by Gopal Shah, SketchUp marketing