Bonnie's Blog: 3D design for K-12 and beyond

Awesome Titanic Model

2012-01-17T10:24:00.003-05:00

All weekend we were hearing about the awful cruise ship disaster off the Italian coast. Which reminded me that a few weeks ago, my friend and PC World blogger Phil Shapiro recently sent me to this YouTube video of a Titanic model in SketchUp:

What's amazing is the level of detail: you can see that the modeler (Elissandre Rogrigues) started from a set of plans, shown in the first part of the video. The ship itself, objects on board, and all of the textures and graphics - terrific details.

On the YouTube page for this video, Ellisandre is nice enough to provide a download link for the SketchUp model, which is about 43 Mb. I got it and toyed around a bit - by driving a section plane through it I saw that the bottom of the ship is hollow - if he had included all staterooms and mechanical equipment, the model could have hit 100 Mb, which would basically be unusable on a regular computer.

According to the comments, this model was completed in 25 days, over 150 hours. Great accomplishment!

And if you want some more detailed models of the ship's interior, check out the incredibly intricate models by Matthew deWinkeleer. He's done every room and feature, and even has models of entire decks. I particularly like this staircase:

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Math Forum Project: Circle Through 3 Points

2012-01-17T10:04:00.002-05:00

Geometry students learn that you can create a circle that passes through any three points, as long as the points are not colinear (do not lie on the same line).

My January project for the Math Forum (it's free!) shows how to do this in SketchUp. It's pretty simple, you just need to create some groups.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Book Review: Google SketchUp for Game Design

2012-01-13T15:46:00.004-05:00

About a year and a half ago I wrote a review for the book "SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization" by Robin de Jongh. I really enjoyed that one, and learned a lot about rendering, so when I was contacted by Robin's publisher at Packt Publishing to write another review for his new book I readily agreed.

Robin's new book is "Google SketchUp for Game Design." It's available both as an e-book and in print (and Kindle and print from Amazon).

This book actually targets two industries: game design and film / stage. Both use storyboarding to lay out scenarios, and Robin explains how to do this in SketchUp, helped by other applications. I'm not an expert (to put it generously) in either field, so the fact that this is a self-stated "Beginner's Guide" is great for me.

To be clear, this isn't a book that teaches SketchUp modeling, though there's nothing presented that requires advanced SketchUp skills. But you'll be ill-served if you pick up this book with no SketchUp experience at all. This book is really about integration - combining SketchUp skills with skills in other applications.

Like Robin's previous book, this one is quite fun to read. Robin is very funny, and while this one isn't as laugh-out-loud as his first one (maybe his editors wanted this one to be more serious), the intro to each chapter is something to look forward to. And his casual, informal, writing style makes this book a lot more fun than your typical, dry "how-to" book.

And like in his first book, Robin's passion for free stuff comes through loud and clear. He uses free software for graphic editing (GIMP), and finds places to download free models and textures (CGTextures). He demonstrates using Unity 3D for setting up the environment after importing SketchUp assets (terrain and buildings and props). He also focuses on doing things as easily as possible - such as making model changes in SketchUp, rather than in more complex app's like Unity.

There's a lot in here about textures and materials. Not just how to use them in SketchUp, but the most efficient way to use them. Game design is all about speed, and Robin goes into detail about how to reduce the size and number of graphics to keep things running well. This is an important concept for any modeler, but particularly for the target audience of this book.

He devotes a chapter to terrain modeling, which makes sense - game environments (like the real world) aren't always flat planes. By combining plan view graphics and textures with the Sandbox, Stamp, and Drape tools you can build game-worthy spaces.

The second-to-last chapter is my favorite - I've been meaning to write something like this myself for a while - how to design a realistic-looking car in SketchUp. It's a fun project that requires some patience, done with a set of easily-downloadable car plans and some car photos. The resulting model is quite rewarding.

By the end of the book, you're walking around in your own game environment, complete with assets (buildings, cars, tools) and backgrounds and lights.

The appendix demonstrates an app I hadn't heard of - MakeHuman, used for, well, making humans. This is another tough task to accomplish in SketchUp alone, and every game (or stage or movie set) needs a bunch of those pesky humans in it.

My one complaint (if that's the right word) about Robin's first book was that its black and white graphics didn't always convey very well. This new book is also printed in grayscale (I didn't see the e-book but I assume it's in color). But the pictures look much better in this new book - even in grayscale everything is crisp and easy to identify.

If you're thinking of trying your hand designing games or film sets, this book is a great place to start. I know a lot of teenagers who would go nuts trying out the book's projects. I imagine that someone who becomes really proficient in the applications shown in Robin's book would be well on their way to a cool career.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our January Projects?

2012-01-09T11:20:00.011-05:00

We have great projects coming out next week, by teacher request. If you're not a subscriber, you can sign up here.

Standard Views

You know how easy it us to use your middle mouse button to orbit around to any isometric view of a model.

Recently I've had several teachers ask how to produce standard orthographic views (front, top, etc.) of SketchUp models. This project shows how to easily produce these views, as well as how to save them for easy display.

Mixing Styles

You've probably checked out the various styles provided in SketchUp, and maybe created some of your own. This project will show you how to mix styles - combine properties of styles into one, new style.

Infinite Hexagons

This fun project is a favorite in the enrichment class I teach - it's easy and produces an interesting result - a "tunneling" animation into a set of ever-shrinking hexagons.

To get these cool projects, and 11 more sets throughout 2012, please sign up here - it's just $36 for the year!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

"No Thanks, Santa" - movie made with SketchUp

2011-12-15T12:32:00.004-05:00

3D modeler Joel Metzger has a website called Treasure Inside, where you can find several very nice movies he's made. He emailed to tell me about his latest one, which features 5 reasons he doesn't need gifts from Santa.

No Thanks, Santa! from Joel Metzger on Vimeo.

I thought I'd share this before the holidays get going, because not only does it show some nice SketchUp work, but the message is a really nice one for the season. It's important to realize how lucky we are, in the scheme of things!

Here's what Joel wrote about his process for this movie:

The backgrounds, houses, trees, and props are all SketchUp. The drawings are all hand done, often by tracing over digital photos of myself and then coloring scans of those tracings. Sometimes I insert jpgs into SketchUp layers and sometimes I overlay stills in Photoshop. The movie itself is put together with Corel VideoStudio.

A friend of mine drew all the Santas (wonderful!) and I did the tracings of the Joel character (pretty sloppy!)

It is the latest of a series of short movies I've been making for the last couple years, Treasure Inside. The website is www.treasureInside.net. They are all about the beauty of feeling the peaceful flow of life inside. Perfect for this holiday season.

I got the idea for it from an international movie maker website I discovered recently. They put out a call for 3 minute movies for an Italian TV station, in a "Top 5" format they use. I sent in my idea, but was not selected. I decided to make the movie anyway and sent it to them. This morning I got an email from them calling it "brilliant". They might use it anyway. It would be shown all over Italy!

Joel has compiled his movies into DVD's - they might make nice stocking-stuffers this year!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Math Forum Project: Dodecagon from a Circle

2011-12-15T12:20:00.006-05:00

This month's free project on the Math Forum shows how to start with a circle, add some more circles and construction lines . . .

. . . and create a dodecagon.

Once you have your dodecagon, you'll also see some cool things you can do with it:

The Student Version has a question about the number of circle "sides" needed to start with, to create a dodecagon. The Teacher Version has the answer! Enjoy.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our December Projects?

2011-12-06T10:21:00.005-05:00

We have some fun, colorful stuff for our subscribers this month! Going out on December 15 are these projects:

Christmas Ornament

Well it's not necessarily an ornament, but that's how it looks to me this time of year. It's actually an interesting geometric exercise which produces something beautiful. The Intersect Faces tool is the star of this project.

Barber Pole Spiral

One of last month's projects showed how to create a barber pole using a digital image of stripes. This time the project shows how to use physical geometry (lines) to create the spiral stripes.

Kairouan Tiling Pattern

This Islamic geometric pattern can be seen on a famous mosque in Tunisia. It's easily created in SketchUp using simple geometry, construction lines, and groups and components.

The project subscription is still just $36 for 12 months: 36 projects in all. You can sign up here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Creating a Perpendicular Plane

2011-11-17T13:32:00.004-05:00

It's been a few months since I posted on my page on the Math Forum - it was a really busy summer (and September, and October...)

I hope to post regularly again, and as a start, I just uploaded the November project: creating a plane perpendicular to a line.

It's a pretty simple concept - using the Follow Me tool to create a perpendicular face, then using that face to set the plane.

Check it out.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our November Projects?

2011-11-07T12:09:00.007-05:00

If you're a subscriber to our Projects of the Month, here's what you'll get on November 15:

Stepped Bubble Letters
This is a favorite project in the enrichment class I teach. You use the 3D Text tool to create a word, then create offsets around the letters. After some clean-up you'll get a great result in 2D:

And it looks even better when pulled up into 3D steps:

How to Work with Huge Models

Another topic that comes up often in the class I teach: someone starts with a large, complicated 3D model and then imports even more large models into it. The example used in this projects is a furnished house, with a sports car in the driveway and water slide in the backyard.

Carrying around that many megabytes can make SketchUp perform slowly. This project shows you some ways to "trim the fat" to make your models work better.

Striped Barber Pole
This project is a result of a customer request: how to model a barber pole. Well, there are two ways to do it. This month's project shows how to import an image of stripes and tilt the image so the stripes are diagonal.

The other method is to create the stripes themselves in SketchUp, which proceed in a spiral pattern. This will be one of December's projects - stay tuned!

As always, our projects are a steal at $36 for the year. They will provide hours of interesting and fun modeling time, for young and old alike! Subscribe here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

SketchUp Jack-o-Lantern

2011-10-11T13:22:00.005-04:00

Happy almost Halloween! I was just completing the write-up of one of my SketchUp projects of the month, which involves using the Intersect Faces tool to cut a window into a rocket.

You can apply this technique to almost anything. So if I want to make a jack-o-lantern, I can download a pumpkin from the 3D Warehouse (there are many), and create some prismatic objects to represent the eyes, nose, and mouth. It's easier to create these objects in blank space then move them into place. And everything should be exploded first, if needed.

Select everything, right-click on any selected face, and choose Intersect Faces / With Model. This gives you the intersection edges you need to make the cutouts. Then you can trim away all the extra edges and faces. (My cutouts go all the way through, which you might not do with a hand-held knife on a real pumpkin!)

There are already some great Halloween pumpkin models in the 3D Warehouse. These are awesome:

Now, I'd really like to see someone model this one:

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our October Projects?

2011-10-07T12:12:00.007-04:00

The projects going out next week come as a result of teacher requests and feedback. So I hope everyone can find something useful in this batch! If you haven't yet subscribed, you can sign up here.

Google Earth Tours

This project shows how to create an annotated, guided tour around some landmarks of Washington, DC, using buildings that are already in Google Earth. No programming is necessary; all you need is the free version of Google Earth.

Rocket Windows

One of last month's projects showed how to create a rocket. This time you'll learn how to add windows to the front and back, using a cylinder and the Intersect Faces tool.

Torus, and Other Round Things

I get asked all the time how to create objects like a torus, cone, or sphere. These are easy, once you get to know the Follow Me tool. In addition to creating a torus (aka, doughnut), you'll see how to create other shapes using a Follow Me path.

There's no reason not to sign up - it's just $36 for the year (3 projects each month for 12 months). You'll never be stuck for ideas again!

Subscribe here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our September Projects?

2011-09-04T19:15:00.009-04:00

I hope everyone's back from their August break well-rested and ready for school. I took a fabulous vacation with my family to Wyoming and Utah, and it made me wonder why we're living on the crowded, mountain-less, hurricane-prone East Coast. But we do love Washington, so we're staying put.

Anyway, these fun SketchUp projects should get you back to school on a great footing! Become a subscriber for just $36 for a year - that's 36 projects over 12 months.

(And in case you missed, we just released our fourth Project Bundle, 18 projects from March 2011 - August 2011, which is sale-priced during September at just $19.

Rocket Ship

First you start with the fins, then comes the cylinder body and the cone tip. Very easy, very cool!

Onion Dome
I saw this really neat technique on a YouTube video, which combines hidden edges with the very handy Scale tool. You can create just one onion-shaped dome . . .

. . . or create a whole Dr. Seuss-looking town.

Star Patterns

This geometric project shows how you can take a single hexagon and make variations on a star pattern. The seamless look comes from hidden or softened edges.

Click here to become a subscriber.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our August Projects?

2011-08-08T12:13:00.011-04:00

Even if you're spending your last weeks of summer sitting on a beach, I hope you're stilll thinking (in the back of your mind?) about fun things you can do on your computer! After all, it does rain sometimes, even in paradise...

Anyway, for our project subscribers, here's what's coming out next week:

Box of Blocks

In this project, you start with a box with a single block . . .

. . . And use array copies (first-to-last with spaces in between) to figure out how many blocks will fit in the box.

Stained Glass Window

In this project you start with a downloaded image of an arched stained glass window . . .

. . . And import it into SketchUp to use as an actual window (one that you can see through!)

Snowflake Triangles

This is a nice and simple project, based on something I saw at a local museum. You build a symmetric pattern from a set of equilateral triangles . . .

. . . And make rotated copies of that pattern to see the resulting "snowflake." It's pretty neat, since it's not always easy to tell exactly what you're going to get!

You won't regret signing up for our projects - you get 3 projects per month for a year. And it's still just $36 - $1 per project!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our July Projects?

2011-07-06T16:29:00.009-04:00

It may be summer, and maybe computer work is the last thing on your mind. But what better way to beat the heat than to sit in the comfy air conditioning working on some fun design projects? (Of course, when you're done, get outside and play in the fresh air!)

On July 15, here's what our Project of the Month subscribers will be getting:

Styles from SketchUp Artists

Displaying your models in the default SketchUp style looks decent enough:

But you can make things much more interesting by changing the style. SketchUp provides a few good ones, and you can download awesome styles for free from SketchUp Artists. This projects shows you how.

Crop Circles

Whether or not you think crop circles are man-made or alien creations, they all have very interesting geometry. This project shows how to use SketchUp to create the famous South Field Crop Circle from 2000.

Wavy Text

The 3D Text tool is quite fun, but it only creates text in a straight line. To get letters to curve, you need to project them, and a free plugin can help you make the letters 3D.

Sign up and have some fun! It's still just $36 for 12 months: that's $1 per project. Cheap thrills!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Have You Heard of Surya Murali?

2011-06-27T13:41:00.005-04:00

If you've ever looked for room models in the 3D Warehouse, you've probably heard of Surya. She's a Kuwait-based engineer who designs living spaces as a hobby in her limited spare time, and she's become quite well-known for her fabulous models and interesting, multi-themed designs.

I contacted Surya to ask her permission to use some of her models in our upcoming book on SketchUp and interior design. Happily for us, she agreed. So not only will several of her room models be used by interior design students, one of her renderings will also appear on the book's cover. "Sunshine Living" is the cover model:

We've also created projects based on "Bamboo Bedroom":

"Modern Living for Two":

"Cantania Loungs":

And several others.

Searching the 3D Warehouse for "surya room" will turn up about 30 of her designs, and these don't even include her gorgeous furniture models. Some of her most interesting models were not included in the book, since we had to keep the projects relatively simple, but if you have some time, look around the Warehouse and see what she's done.

When you download one of her room models, you'll see a rendered image, inserted into the model as a graphic. These are done in SU Podium, where Surya added lights, textures, etc.

I was a little surprised to find out Surya isn't a professional interior designer; she's an electrical engineer. It's a rare person who is both technical and creative, and while I can only assume she's a talented engineer, it seems obvious that her sense of space, lighting, color, and layout are quite amazing.

Here's what she emailed to me when I asked about her background:

This design work (including the visualization in 3D) is just some stuff I do as a hobby when I get free time or when I am in the mood for it. And free time is something I haven’t had for a long while now.

I have done a bit of free-lancing works for a few clients from UK & US… I am not a professionally qualified architect or interior designer so I haven’t really ever carried out a project from design board to construction site on my own. Being an electrical engineer, I have a good enough idea of lighting and such stuff but the civil & structural part of my designs are based on common sense and instinct.

This interest in design started quite early as I loved to make room layouts as a child, but the idea of designing whole structures (not just the interiors) came when I had made a design for a bungalow / villa for my folks in India… and they ran the design by a licensed architect and structural engineer. Those guys would not believe that the design was created by someone with no architectural or civil engineering background. Of course, I had drawn in a pillar too many to make sure the structure won't collapse but all in all it was a structurally sound & uniquely pleasing design according to them. That set me rolling though I still prefer doing the interiors of a house (requires less structural work).

I'm grateful that Surya was willing to lend her models to one of my projects, and I hope she continues to create beautiful spaces.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Sketchy Physics Catapult

2011-06-14T13:08:00.004-04:00

Last week I got an email from Geoffrey Winship, a teacher in Toronto, raving about a model created by one of his 13-year old students. I was blown away, and made this video to show what the model does.

You can download this model from the 3D Warehouse by clicking the image below.

To make the catapult work, you need the Sketchy Physics plugin. It's free and can be downloaded here. Once you get the executable file, the plugin should self-install.

Here's what Geoffrey wrote as background:

I just thought I would share another amazing project from one of my students. It is the reason I teach, to be able to watch and share when students learn these remarkable things. I know you are working on something with SketchyPhysics, so I knew you could appreciate this.

As background, I teach Science and Design and Technology in the Toronto District School board and began using SketchUp this year. I gave my grade eight students an assignment of building trebuchets or catapults that would throw small potatoes at bridge models (which were made by my grade seven students). One of the components of the assignment was to produce a set of orthographic and isometric drawings to complement the physical model submission.

Students could use pencil and paper or SketchUp to produce the drawings. A superior submission would make connections or somehow extend the project beyond the original expectations. Here is what my student submitted; a working model, including a hopper to load the balls into the catapult. She included multiple versions with different angles in the catapult for more force or accuracy. She even included text instructions to tell me how to operate it. I am thrilled that she has taken to this medium so naturally and has explored beyond what we have discovered in class.

Her first two languages are Korean and Mandarin, although now she's quite good in English. As for training, it's only what I teach in class and what she's discovered on her own. I introduced SketchUp to my students for the first time this winter, having discovered it myself, just before Christmas. I took some extra time to show her the basics of Sketchy Physics with spheres, blocks, motors, wheels and servos and also some pistons. That probably amounted to about two hours in total, focusing on Sketchy Physics. I also got into the idea of user interface being able to control the speed or strength of the device, but I did not even know the full extent of what the plug-in could do. I don't know how she figured out the keyboard control, but from speaking with her, the ideas for the sphere loader are all her own. She's quite good in all subject areas and she is the recipient of this year's Science award for our school. She was also part of a four-person team that went to the Skills Canada Technology Challenge in Waterloo, Ontario. The team took home a third place medal for Ontario, building a device (using gears, levers, pulleys and wood) that cleared rubble from a model of the shoreline of Japan's earthquake disaster zone.

On a personal note, as a female engineer, I'm so glad this model was created by a girl!

This model has lit a fire under me to get cracking on a Sketchy Physics project book, once I finish the other stuff on my plate (interior design book, updating other books). But it's high on my to-do list!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our June Projects?

2011-06-06T22:03:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the light blogging lately - the end-of-school period is always entirely too crazy for me. But I have had time to write this month's Projects of the Month, and here they are:

One-Way Window
Imagine one of those police dramas in which the suspect is interrogated in one room, and detectives are watching the interrogation from an adjacent room. From one side the police can see in . . .

. . . but from where the suspect is sitting, the window looks like a harmless travel poster.

This project demonstrates how material translucency works in SketchUp.

Spinning Circles

All you need for this project are the Circle and Rotate tools, and you can create beautiful round and spiral patterns. My favorite is the intricate-looking (but actually rather simple) red and yellow creation on the right!

DNA Part 2

Last month, Part 1 of this project showed how to create the "skeleton" of the two helixes plus the base pairs between them.

Part 2 will show how to transform the skeleton into the 3D model.

Don' worry - if you sign up this month to subscribe, you'll also get Part 1.

The subscription is still just $36 for 12 monthly sets of 3 projects. And these projects make for some great summer reading! You can sign up here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Interior Design Book

2011-05-20T11:04:00.003-04:00

No, it's not quite ready yet, but the writing is almost finished! We're covering some important ground, which frankly we've never seen in another book on the subject. Here are the chapters:

Model a Room
Furnish a Room
Basic Furniture: Straight Lines
Advanced Furniture: Curvy Lines
Using and Changing 3D Warehouse Models (includes a kitchen design!)
Working with Color and Materials
Working with Digital Images
Presenting Your Designs (layers, scenes, etc.)
Plans and Working Drawings
Third-Party Products (rendering apps, models, other resources)

My co-author, Annie Elliott, recently blogged about the book, including a model she herself has recently created.

Looks promising, no? I'll keep you posted...

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's in Our May Projects?

2011-05-06T16:18:00.008-04:00

If you're a subscriber to our Projects of the Month, here's what you'll be getting when the projects go out on May 15:

Baseball Diamond

Spring means baseball (at least for those of us in the US), and laying out a baseball field is a great exercise in geometric thinking. Once you know the distance between bases, the radii of the arcs at the bases and pitcher's mound, plus a few more measurements, you can easily create your field.

DNA Helix

A few people have requested this project, and once I got into it, I saw that it was a bit more involved than I expected (it's been a long time since I took a biology class!) So I've broken this into two projects: Part 1 is included in May and Part 2 will go out in June.

Part 1 shows how to create the "skeleton" of the two helixes plus the base pairs between them.

Part 2 will show how to transform the skeleton into the 3D model.

Painting Wallpaper
Any digital image can be used to paint a face in a tiling pattern. This project shows how to take a wallpaper swatch from the Internet or your digital camera, and use it to paint a wall. You'll also see how to handle images that don't tile seamlessly.

The subscription is a mere $36 for 12 monthly sets of 3 projects. You can sign up here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

May Math Forum Project: Pentagon from a Circle

2011-05-06T16:09:00.005-04:00

I ran across this nice animation on creating a pentagon from a circle (taken from Wikipedia):

I thought this would make a great Math Forum project, and I just posted it as this month's free project.

It's a neat exercise in 2D thought: starting with one common object, a circle, and without knowing any numbers or angles, creating all the necessary lines to make a pentagon.

The Student Version has a question at the end about the number of circle segments you need to use for this project. The Teacher Version has the answer.

Enjoy!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

New: SketchUp Robotics Project

2011-05-03T13:05:00.007-04:00

Last summer I partnered with a fantastic educational non-profit, CSTEM, and wrote several project modules for their annual robotics competition. Since last year I've gotten several requests from teachers and parents for some materials on using SketchUp for robotics; seems robotics is all the rage these days!

So CSTEM and I agreed to make one of the modules I wrote available for sale - a fun project that shows how to assemble a robot model using Lego Technics pieces.

The Technics models are available for free in the 3D Warehouse; I took models that were already there and spent many hours adding guide lines, hiding and un-hiding objects, and changing colors, so that the pieces are ready for easy import and assembly.

The last step in this project is taking the final robot and adding to a sample robotics competition field.

The project is a 39-page PDF that I'm listing for $20, on sale through May for $16.

CSTEM and I are planning on more robotics projects, which I hope to start writing over the summer. Your feedback is extremely valuable, please let me know if there is a specific robotics topic or problem you'd like to see addressed. And check out CSTEM's website for more info on physical robotics in the classroom.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Book Review: Google SketchUp for Interior Design and Space Planning

2011-04-22T15:19:00.005-04:00

As you can see from this post and the last one, I'm catching up on some overdue book reviews. In a complete turnaround from Dennis Fukai's construction modeling book, these 4 books by Adriana Granados focus on interior design.

If you've been following my blog or newsletter, you know that I'm working on an interior design book myself, to be published next year by Pearson. (Only 3 more chapters to write!) While there is some overlap between our books, they are different enough that I can let you know about Adriana's books without (hopefully) harming my own future sales :-)

Adriana is an architect and interior designer who's been using SketchUp for years to convey her design ideas. She decided to write these books because the interior design world doesn't know nearly as much about SketchUp as they should (I wholeheartedly agree - SketchUp is almost unknown among interior designers and it could revolutionize how this industry operates). You can read about interior design topics on Adriana's blog.

One thing to keep in mind is that the books are written for SketchUp 7. Since not much has changed between 7 and 8 for the topics covered in the book, you should be fine using the book if you have SketchUp 8. And Adriana let me know that updates for 8 should be ready within a week or so.

Book 1 focuses on basic drawing and editing tools, and walks you through the creation of some basic pieces of furniture and accessories (table, bookcase, lamp), as well as room.
Book 2 moves on to groups and components, intersection, and symmetry. Also covered are how to find models in the 3D Warehouse and organize your design using the Outliner.
Book 3 discusses color and material, free pins and free pins, and importing images.
Book 4 covers changing model styles, walk through tools, sectioning, scenes, text and labels, and shadow studies.

The project steps are illustrated clearly with color graphics, and throughout the book are references to videos you can get access to by emailing Adriana.

Overall I found these books useful for the beginning or intermediate SketchUp user. There are a few spots where I would have demonstrated a project using different techniques, and I always tend to prefer more graphics and less text (especially for those hyper-visual interior designers). Adriana uses a lot of introductory text and graphics before delving into a project, where I tend to go straight into "click here, move the mouse..." But there are a lot of readers out there, and many different writing styles make the world go 'round!

The prices for the printed versions vary (from $36 for 104-page Book 1 to $21 for 46-page Book 3). I can certainly relate to high color printing costs, and "boutique" books always cost more than standard trade books, but these prices still seem a bit high to me. I read the books in PDF format, so I can't speak to the print quality. At this time, one of the books has a $6.99 Kindle edition, which seems quite reasonable.

You can find all of Adriana's books on Amazon; enjoy!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Book Review: Mastering the Art of 3D Construction Modeling

2011-04-22T13:02:00.008-04:00

Dennis Fukai of Insite Builders has been writing books on SketchUp since 2004. I met him way back at SketchUp's first Base Camp in 2005, where he was showcasing his then-new book "3D Construction Modeling." Dennis is an architect who worked for 30+ years as a construction manager, and his books fulfill his other career wish: graphic design. His books consist mainly of simple and clear screen captures, annotated with comic-book style callouts. Light on text, easy to follow.

He recently sent me a copy of the latest version of his original book; this one is called Mastering the Art of 3D Construction Modeling.

This book consists of two separate things: the book itself and an accompanying CD.

The CD includes a series of short, illustrative videos, divided by chapter. Viewed in order, the videos show how to use SketchUp to accomplish each chapter's topic: site setup, excavation, floor framing, wall framing, roof framing, etc.

Here's an example of one of these videos:

(The videos are on YouTube, but they're much more useful and informative when viewed in order, in conjunction with the book.)

For each chapter, the CD also contains several "tips and tricks" videos, which show how to use a particular tool for a construction goal. (For example, the Foundations chapter has one T&T video on using the Move tool for spaced copies, and another T&T video on using the Outliner to organize foundation pieces.)

The CD also provides a completed SketchUp model for each chapter, which you can use to deconstruct and build back up according to the videos' instructions. Some chapters also have links to SketchUp models you can use as components, so that you don't always have to rely on the sometimes-unreliable 3D Warehouse. The resources chapter shows where to find shortcuts, buzzwords, checklists, templates, software downloads, and other books and tutorials.

The printed book itself a basically an illustrated index for the videos. So the best way to get the most of the whole package is to plug in the CD, play the videos one by one, and follow along in the book. If you want to get your hands dirty and REALLY learn this stuff, open the chapter's provided SketchUp model, and recreate the results of each video, one by one.

Here's a sample page from the book, which shows Dennis's graphic style:

Right from the start, Dennis gets you familiar with the tools and features that construction modelers (as opposed to architects or designers) need: layers, scenes, Outliner, guide lines, scaling and sizing, etc. The order of the book matches the order of an actual construction project, and the final result describes the building process, as opposed to product. Dennis's goal is to show you how to produce models you can use to easily convey this process to the entire construction team.

The book and CD are a bargain at $29.95, and are available on Dennis's site (free US shipping!) and Amazon. It's worthwhile to check out his other books as well, all of which use the same graphic style. (I personally like Living Small since my husband, 5 kids, and I are crammed into a pretty small house!)

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Grandma Riding Her Bike

2011-04-14T14:02:00.009-04:00

I wasn't actually searching the 3D Warehouse looking for this; I was looking for a different model created by one of my students that I wanted to blog about. (She took that model down to make some changes, but will replace it later and then I'll show it off!) But while poking around, I ran across another model that made my day.

I'm into tessellations (as anyone who's read this blog would know), and found an Escher-like tile that was created by modifying a rectangle, by a student (or a teacher?) at Nevada Middle School.

Here's how he or she decorated this tile:

And after adding one more grandma with different colors, here's the tessellation:

If you want to get this model for yourself, click the model view below to go to its 3D Warehouse page.

Once you're in the 3D Warehouse, take a minute to browse through the Related Items - more models uploaded by Nevada Middle School. There are some other great tessellations, as well as nice 3D house models.

And if you like Escher, I posted a free project on the Math Forum that shows the steps needed to create this sort of pattern. Scroll way down to October 2009.

And if you subscribe to our Projects of the Month, one of this month's projects shows how to make Escher patterns from a hexagon.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What is this Solid?

2011-04-14T12:10:00.005-04:00

For this month's project on the Math Forum, I'm demonstrating how to set up a sectioned animation like this:

It's a great student exercise in 3D thought - figuring out what an object is based on section planes moving through it in a couple of different directions.

To see how this model can be set up, please see my FREE projects page on the Math Forum: http://mathforum.org/sketchup/projects_of_the_month.html, and download the April 2011 project.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our April Projects?

2011-04-08T17:21:00.006-04:00

Next week on the 15th we'll be sending out some useful stuff! If you're a subscriber to our Projects of the Month, here's what you'll get:

Escher Hexagons

This project takes advantage of the fact that a regular hexagon can tessellate infinitely to fill a plane. By making a few changes to a single hexagon, you can make some wild tiling patterns.

Sharing Your Models

Ever notice how SketchUp models sometimes appear on websites and blogs (such as this one), or on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites? This project will show you how that's done, and how you can get your model to appear in 3D on the web.

Section Planes and Animation

One of last month's projects showed how to use section planes to help "get inside" a house to furnish it.

This project takes this idea one step further - using section planes to create an animation showing both inside and outside views. To see the animation itself, go see my blog post from earlier today (http://3dvinci.blogspot.com/2011/04/section-planes-and-animation.html).

If you want to get these projects, as well as 33 more over the course of 12 months, sign up here to subscribe (still just $36 per year).

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Section Planes and Animation

2011-04-08T17:12:00.004-04:00

One of the Projects of the Month going out next week (April 15) shows how to use section planes as part of an animation. This is useful when you want to show interior views of a house, like this:

The animation above uses just four scenes and three section planes, and took about three minutes to put together.

Want to see how it's done? Subscribe- it's just $36 per year.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our March Projects?

2011-03-06T21:19:00.007-05:00

The three projects this month range from the practical to the whimsical and rather impractical. All of them are fun, naturally! If you're not a subscriber, it's just $36 for a year's worth of projects: 3 per month for 12 months. Sign up here.

Spaceship to Mars

Based on a SketchUp model and animation by math teacher Guzman Tierno, this project shows how to "fake" an animation of a spaceship orbiting a planet, by adding in a background image and setting up a few scenes.

Here's the animation I made:

Furnishing a House

A question I hear all the time is "how do I get furniture inside this house?"

It's pretty easy when you know how to use section planes.

String Cube

This geometry project looks like 3D string art - one of those projects where you run string between pegs. But it's just a big set of SketchUp edges.

Once again, here's where you can get the Projects of the Month. Enjoy!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Spaceship Animation

2011-03-02T11:33:00.003-05:00

Two posts down I showed what teacher Guzman Tierno did with a rocket model created from a student's drawing. I loved his animation of the rocket "flying" through space, so I use this idea for one of this month's Projects of the Month.

I found a spaceship model in the 3D Warehouse and an outer space picture from Google Images. The rest is done with styles and scenes. Here's my animation:

Check back in about a week to see the other two projects!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

New Book on LayOut 3

2011-03-01T11:06:00.003-05:00

Today I'm releasing my updated book on LayOut: Google SketchUp 8 Hands-On: LayOut 3.

As most of you know, LayOut is a presentation tool included with SketchUp Pro. You can insert SketchUp models into LayOut, and use labels, text, dimensions, and all sorts of 2D drawing tools to present all the wonderful features of your model. But LayOut can do much more than that, and this book uncovers all of LayOut's useful features.

This new book is available in PDF and color-printed formats. We skipped the black and white version for this book, since color and materials plays a large role in the exercises.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Traveling Through Space in SketchUp

2011-02-09T22:34:00.003-05:00

I've posted about Guzman Tierno before - he's a middle school math teacher in Italy who does amazing things with his students in SketchUp. Last May, I posted his video of the SketchUp-modeled battle of Troy - you HAVE to see it. He's very into Sketchy Physics, and created a cool (and slightly disturbing) video of a 24-vehicle mashup.

This time it's something short and sweet - a model of spaceship, created from an 11-year old student's hand drawing, in an animation that looks like it's flying through space.

The spaceship itself was "painted" using Photo Match, and the animation was created using scenes. The background image is simply a watermark, which is defined as part of a SketchUp style. I'm going to show how it's done in one of March's Projects of the Month.

What a great way to combine technology with hand-made creativity! If all teachers were like Guzman, we'd be graduating many more future engineers and builders...

If you want to poke around the actual SketchUp model and see how this was done, click the image below to open the model's 3D Warehouse page.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Rhombic Hexacontahedron

2011-02-08T18:48:00.003-05:00

This thing with the complicated-sounded name is a 60-sided, stellated shape, in which each face is an identical rhombus.

I mentioned this solid in a previoust post, after a teacher from Taiwan pointed me toward some excellent geometric models he created.

I love a math challenge, so I wrote up a free project to show how this thing is made.

So..... if you're pretty comfortable with SketchUp's Rotate too, and you aren't scared of working with groups and components, you too can create a rhombic hexacontahedron. And here's a twist: you can paint each of the rhombic solids that comprise this solid so that no color repeats around any vertex. Each vertex is surrounded by five rhombic solids, so you only need to use five colors.

Want to try it? It's my latest project on the Math Forum (free PDF download). As usual, I've posted a Teacher Version with some extra notes and comments, and a Student Version.

Enjoy!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our February Projects?

2011-02-07T12:27:00.007-05:00

Subscribers to our Projects of the Month will learn how to make some excellent SketchUp models this month. Going out on February 15 are these projects:

Hot Air Balloon

To make this model, you start with a 2D shape made from tangent arcs. To get the stripes, you'll make use of hidden geometry, a feature many SketchUp users don't know about!

Mandala Pattern

There are many patterns that fall under the "Mandala" description, but this is one of the most beautiful:

You start with just one polygon, and take advantage of groups and components to get all of the shapes to be the exact size needed to fit rings inside of rings inside of rings.

Once you get the basic method down, you can apply it to other starter polygons.

Camping Tent

This project uses one of SketchUp's Sandbox tools - which are not just for terrain modeling. With a few 3D curves, you can make all sorts of organic shapes.

To subscribe to our Projects of the Month still costs $36 for 36 projects over 12 months. How else can you get so much brain candy for so little money?

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Cool 3D Solids

2011-01-26T11:02:00.006-05:00

I've been emailing over the last few days with a high school math teacher in Taiwan. Ho-Kai Chen, who also goes by the nickname "Joe," teaches at Jing-Ho High School, and works with 3D geometry on the computer using free software such as SketchUp (of course) and GeoGebra.

Here are two fantastic models Joe has built and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse:

Cube-10 Compound (click the "3D" button to spin and zoom the model, click the "Google 3D Warehouse" button to link to the Warehouse where you can download the model).

BTW, my book "Golden Rectangle Solids" shows how to make several cube compounds like this one.

And the next one: Rhombic Hexacontahedron (quite a mouthful!).

This model can be created from an icosahedron, and I'll be featuring the how-to in an upcoming Math Forum project (free!). As an added twist, you can color the solid rhombs using 5 different colors, so that no color is repeated at any vertex:

It's complicated, but really cool and fun (at least for me!)

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What Would You Make from a Geodesic Dome?

2011-01-18T12:47:00.006-05:00

Math teacher Willy Felton (featured here before), has done it again. One of my Projects of the Month last year showed how to make a geodesic dome:

Willy used this model is a basis for a 5-day geometry project. Not only did students make the domes themselves, but they had to use them creatively in a larger model.

Here's a video of the class's best models (my favorite is the Zombie Defense Compound):

I was wondering about the fireball-looking models used in one of the scenes (Superman vs comets), and those came from the 3D Warehouse, from a search for "explosion." It's a very neat model which will probably one of next month's projects.

Great work!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our January Projects?

2011-01-09T13:22:00.006-05:00

In between all of the updating I've been doing on my SketchUp books for Version 8, I wrote up the projects for our Projects of the Month subscribers. This month has awesome stuff:

Shark Tower!

The new SketchUp 8 interface with Google Earth makes it easy to put whatever you want wherever you want. Such as a giant shark sticking out of a "real" building:

Dragon Curve

This famous fractal looks complex, but you can create it pretty easily starting with just a single line, over many iterations of rotated copies. You'll look like a math genius!

Good Ol' Number 2 Pencil

(Well it can be a pencil of any number.) While this looks like a pretty basic object, there is actually some complexity around the bottom of the pencil. This project will show the tricks you can use to quickly make this model:

Our yearly subscription is still just $36, which gets you 3 projects each month for 12 months. You can't beat it! Sign up here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

New SketchUp 8 Books!

2011-01-03T21:58:00.004-05:00

Sorry I've been remiss in my blogging duties, but I have a good excuse - I've been VERY busy the last couple of months.

If you're on my mailing list you already know, but just before New Year's I put the finishing touches on my tutorial books for SketchUp 8. Here are the covers (created using Kerkythea for rendering, pretty nice, eh?):

The new features covered are how SketchUp interacts with Google Earth, including the new Street View and Building Maker capabilities. And I've added a whole chapter on third-party resources: plugins, tutorials, materials, rendering applications, etc.

The Student Coursebook is also updated - if you're an instructor contact me for an evaluation PDF copy.

If you already have my SketchUp 7 books, stay tuned for the Delta book, covering only what's new, hopefully within a week or so.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our December Projects?

2010-12-07T10:20:00.008-05:00

Worried that you or your kids will be twiddling their thumbs over winter break? If you're a subscriber to our Projects of the Month, you'll get some great ideas for fun winter projects!

Here's what's coming out on December 15:

Chicken Soup!

It's cold here in DC, and I've been in the mood for some hot soup. With just a digital picture and a few SketchUp tools (including Follow Me and Intersect Faces), you can make a very appetizing model:

Warm Colors, Cold Colors

This is a project my own kids have spent hours doing. You make a grid, add some text, and use two sets of colors to paint the letters and background. There are endless ways to get creative with this basic concept.

Hexagonal Pyramid

On the Math Forum, I posted a project about ways to create a hexagonal pyramid in 3D. This project creates the same pyramid, but starts with the "net" - the 2D, unfolded faces.

How far do you need to rotate the triangle above so that its tip will be in the right place? This project will show you the geometric trip to get that angle just right.

Our subscription is still just $36 for the year - that's 36 projects for $1 each! A no-brainer, really. Sign up at Projects of the Month.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Instant Roof is AWESOME

2010-11-24T11:58:00.011-05:00

I have a whole chapter about creating roofs in my Basic Exercises book, focusing mainly on using directional and geometric constraints while drawing. And while these are still great exercises for learning the concepts of constraints, there's a new plugin that can save you hours of work.

I've seen a lot of buzz about Instant Roof, a plugin by Chuck Vali of Vali Architects. So today I had a chance to try it out - I downloaded the free version which is itself simply amazing.

As with most plugins, download the RBS file and place it in your Plugins folder inside the SketchUp installation.

I started with this building, which would be rather a pain to put a roof on manually:

I selected the four flat top faces:

Then I chose Plugins/ Instant Roof / Make Roof. There are a few styles to choose from; I picked Elizabethan. You can edit the default slopes, fascias, etc, but I kept the style as is. (You also have the option to save your own roof styles. And roof styles are not to be confused with SketchUp's display styles!)

After clicking OK, here's the roof, which took about 1 second.

Each corner is handled perfectly, including the complex ones.

The default roof is hipped - sloped uniformly against all edges. But I wanted gables along front edges, so I used Undo to get rid of the roof I just made.

This time, not only did I select the top flat faces, I also selected the edges above which I wanted a gable.

Running Instant Roof with the same Elizabethan style produced this:

One thing I didn't see in any of the other write-ups was the face that several groups (not just one) are produced by Instant Roof, which you can see if you open the Outliner. (The Outliner needs to be CLOSED before running Instant Roof, however!)

Here are my three groups, in an exploded view:

Instant Roof doesn't stop there - it also enables you to add details and materials. Something to keep in mind if you want to add a material: that material needs to be added somewhere inside your model. Instant Roof won't search in your material libraries!

I wanted to add detail to the roof itself, so I opened that group for editing and selected all faces. (You can select only certain faces if you want different details).

Then I chose Plugins/ Instant Roof / Add Roof Details. I went with Mission Tiles with Materials.

The first step is applying the tiles themselves, which took maybe 20 seconds.

I was then asked which material, and the drop-down menu included all materials in my model. Beautiful results!

I then exploded the group that included the vertical roof faces, erased the dividing lines, and got seamless walls.

Here's something else neat: I tried the Ski Lodge style, and get a roof with rafters. The rafters are contained in their own group, and each identical rafter is a component. So can edit one rafter, extend or shorten it, and they all update. Love love love it!

So you can do all this with the Free version, but the Pro version (a steal at $39!) offers more styles, more customization options, etc.

Again, download this plugin here: Instant Roof. Vali's website also has detailed videos and very detailed PDF instructions.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Math Forum: Hexagonal Pyramid

2010-11-22T14:14:00.003-05:00

My November 2010 project for the Math Forum has just been posted. It's pretty simple - two different ways to create a hexagonal pyramid.

One method is to shrink the top of a hexagonal prism, and the other is creating faces by hand after setting the point at the tip.

What's always amazed me about SketchUp is how you can always come up with a few ways to complete the same project. If you do this project and come up with other methods, please let me know!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

3D Warehouse: the Wild, Wild West

2010-11-12T10:01:00.003-05:00

The 3D Warehouse is like the Wild West - a big free-for-all. Anyone can go in there and add whatever they want.

Here's a useful blog post by my friend Eric Schimelpfenig, a kitchen/bath designer and SketchUp expert. He discussed a problem we've all had - downloading a 3D Warehouse model that's HUGE (or too tiny), and you need to change its size to fit your model.

For example, he found a dinner plate that could crush not only the table, but the entire kitchen:

And a knife that could slice an entire house (or an entire neighborhood):

A simple use of the Scale tool solves the problem in most cases, and you can also use the Tape Measure for exact sizing.

Eric also lists a few kitchen/bath collections in the 3D Warehouse that are of high quality, so you won't get stuck with UFO-sized coffee cups!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Amazing Escher Patterns!

2010-11-08T23:05:00.002-05:00

I got an email recently from Steve Armstrong, a math professor at LeTourneau University. He uses my GeomeTricks books, and one of his geometry students produced some amazing Escher-like tessellations. The student's name is Garret Robbins, and I uploaded 6 of his models to the 3D Warehouse.

There are some based on rectangles (click a model's images to go to its 3D Warehouse page):

Ninjas

Babies and Monsters (the babies are upside-down)

Animals

Samurais:

One tessellation is based on a triangle:

And my favorite is based on a hexagon:

Here's what Garret had to say, on how he came up with these patterns:

I just started with a shape (a square, rectangle, triangle, etc.), and simply drew a few lines here and there on each side, copying them to the appropriate opposite side. After that, I just tried to see what kind of artistic figure I could make out of the shape that I had created. On a few, I adjusted the entire tile to fit more closely to some figure that the tile resembled. Otherwise, it was just random.

I posted a project on the Math Forum last year on how to make rectangular Escher patterns. Go here, and scroll down to October 2009. Triangular and Hexagonal patterns are similar; both involve copying lines and arcs from one polygon edge to others.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Our November Projects

2010-11-08T14:29:00.006-05:00

Next week, on Nov 15, all subscribers to our Projects of the Month will be getting some great stuff!

Rendering for Free with Kerkythea

This is the first project of (hopefully) a bunch, which will help you go beyond SketchUp and show how to make beautiful renderings of your models. Kerkythea is a free application, which can take a cartoon-like SketchUp model like this . . .

. . . and with a few settings and clicks, you'll produce this realistic-looking rendering, complete with outdoor and indoor lights, as well as correct shadows.

Hexaflake Animation

One of the October projects showed how to make a hexaflake, a 2D fractal created from a single hexagon. This project shows how to use scenes and layers to animate the hexaflake's progress.

Fireplace Mantel

This project shows how to use the fun Follow Me tool to easily make an intricate-looking mantel above a fireplace.

This is a not-to-miss month! Subscribe here.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Updated: Our Free Teacher Guide, for SketchUp 8

2010-11-02T11:10:00.003-04:00

Many readers have found 3DVinci thru our free Teacher Guide, which I've provided to give teachers some ideas about the many ways they can use SketchUp with their students.

Of the 9 projects in the Guide, only 2 needed substantial updates - these are the projects that integrate with Google Earth. In SketchUp 8, the Earth -> SketchUp interaction is much more streamlined, with less of the back-and-forth you needed in previous versions.

The Science / Geography project for Grades 1 - 5 involves finding a volcano, building a model on or inside it, and viewing that model in Google Earth. View the PDF for this project.

The Geography / History project for Grades 10-12 involves finding a site on which to build a model, choosing what model to create, and viewing that model in Google Earth. View the PDF for this project.

Other projects in the Teacher Guide are for math, art, and general 3D design. Check it out - it's sure to spark your creativity!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Kerkythea Project

2010-10-22T09:38:00.008-04:00

I'm getting a jump on November's Projects of the Month, and one of the projects is about how to use the free rendering application Kerkythea (yes, strange name, but nice application).

I learned how to quickly get started from the book SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization by Robin de Jongh (see my review).

I started with this SketchUp model:

And turned on shadows, which makes the room really dark.

In Kerkythea, I defined some lights, added some reflectivity to the windows, and made the floor shiny and blue. All by using some pretty simple options. And all for free!

There are dozens of renderers out there these days, and I plan to write about many of them in the future. I started with Kerkythea because it's free, though some others are very inexpensive (and yet others are free to educators).

Have a favorite renderer? Let me know which one and why.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Free SketchUp Styles

2010-10-19T12:03:00.009-04:00

I imagine it's a very small percentage of SketchUp users who take advantage of Styles, which control how your model is displayed. A SketchUp style can control the edge color, face colors, background colors, watermarks, etc. There are a few style included in your SketchUp download, and of course you can create your own.

SketchUp Artists is a website that provides a ton of "beyond SketchUp" information, such as tutorials on rendering applications and techniques for presentation. They also have a Styles page where you can download some beautiful styles created by talented SketchUp pros around the world.

As an example, I downloaded the first style on the page ("Style 5" by Jean-Luc Clauss):

Clicking on the image on the Styles page enables you to save the style as a ZIP file. Extract the file it contains into one of the folders wtihin the Styles folder of your SketchUp installation.

In my case, I created a "JLC" folder (for Jean-Luc Clauss) inside my Styles folder.

And the "Style05.style" file was extracted into the JLC folder.

When opening SketchUp, I located the JLC folder within the main Styles collection of the Styles window:

Opening the JLC folder shows the style I placed inside.

Here's a model I downloaded, which is shown in SketchUp's default style.

Clicking the "Style5" thumbnail transforms the model into a rather stunning non-photorealistic presentation, complete with a neat Japanese-style mountain and tree in the background.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

SketchUp vs Lego James Bond

2010-10-19T10:56:00.003-04:00

This is one of the coolest (and funniest) movies I've seen of Sketchy Physics models.

Someday, someday, someday I will learn how to do this, and write a great book showing everyone how it's done. In the meantime, I'm just blown away by people's ability and creativity!

Here's another one by the same modeler, more sinister than funny, with a Star Wars theme. A lot of stuff gets smashed and broken - awesome!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Round Corner Plugin

2010-10-14T13:20:00.022-04:00

This plugin was mentioned a while back on the Official SketchUp blog, and I hope to cover it here with a bit more specificity.

First, you can get this plugin here. Note that there are TWO downloads - you need to get both. Keep the file structure, and place the files in your SketchUp / Plugins folder.

(The author is the amazing Fredo6, who has several other amazing scripts here.)

Here's the Round Corner toolbar. (If you don't see it, choose View / Toolbars / Round Corner.)

Here's how I used this plugin:

First, I only tried the Round Corner option (the first icon on the toolbar). I'm sure the other two work just as well!

I built a basic box, and clicked Round Corner. The first thing to note is the offset distance and number of segments, which appear in the Offset field, separated by a comma. Keep in mind that high segmentation produces a smoother rounding but makes for higher file size.

I clicked one face, and its four edges highlight in red; the red edges are the ones that will be rounded. The green lines show where the rounding will start.

I wanted a larger rounding radius, so I typed 18,6. (These numbers appeared in the Offset field as 18'-6", 6s - the "6" is for segmentation.) Now the green lines are farther from the red borders.

(As always, you never have to click in the Offset field - just type. If you enter only a number, that number will replace the offset distance and the segmentation will remain unchanged. You can also press the Tab key, which invokes a window you can use to enter these values.)

I then clicked another face, which added those edges to those edges selected for rounding.

To start the rounding, just click anywhere in blank space. Here's how mine looks - there are edges everywhere because I have non-hidden edges set for both Borders and Inner Edges.

After undoing, I tried again, selecting the same two faces. This time, however, I'm unselecting the edge between the two faces (you can click a selected edge to unselect it).

Here's the result this time: the unselected edge was not rounded, the edges in the rounded portion are smoothed, and the border edges are unhidden.

One last time: this time I clicked a vertex to select all edges that end there.

And here are the results with all edges softened:

Here's another example of something you'd want to make round and not sharp edges: a chair. It's created as a set of components: two identical components for the armrests, one component for the body. (If you want to try this, you can download my very sophisticated model here.)

For the armrests, I first opened one of them for editing, then used Round Corner on all its edges. (An easy way to select all edges is to double-click on a face - this selects all contiguous faces.)

Then I did the same for the body.

Here's how you'd use Round Corner on 3D Text: you would either edit or explode the 3D text component, activate Round Corner, and click the top face of each letter:

With this very cool result:

Round Corner is great for adding drafts to mechanical parts. For the model shown below, I want to round the corner between the magenta and yellow obects. So I clicked the top yellow face to select all of its edges . . .

. . . then I clicked each outer edge of the yellow face, to unselect them.

Here's the result - excellent! This would be rather annoying to complete with the Follow Me tool.

This plugin has numerous other options, and all documentation is included. Just go to the main SketchUp main and choose Tools / Fredo6 Collection /Round Corner / Documentation. You'll also find a helpful video, plus a link to donate to support Fredo6. (If this tool ends up saving you hours of modeling time, please toss Fredo6 a few bucks so he can keep writing this stuff!)

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

SketchUp in Amharic

2010-10-13T12:19:00.005-04:00

Recently I had three wonderful visitors to my house: the Abebe family, shown below.

Left to right are Abanezer, Zelalem (the dad), and Robel. (Mom was working.) The Abebes moved to the DC area a few years from Ethiopia, and have lost no time learning all they can about computers and design.

Robel and Abanezer worked with my friend Phil Shapiro who works as the "Public Geek" at the library in Takoma Park, Maryland (in addition to his teaching work and other mentoring projects). Phil introduced the boys to SketchUp (as well as Inkscape), and once they got comfortable in SketchUp, they created a YouTube screencast in Amharic, showing how to create a house.

Not fluent in Amharic? Don't worry, here's the English version:

The screencasts were created using Screenflow, a screencasting program for the Mac.

These are super-nice kids, and I look forward to staying in touch with them and seeing how their education and careers progress. As a bonus, I also got a quick lesson in written and spoken Amharic, which is a beautiful-sounding language.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

October Math Forum Project: Pentaflake

2010-10-13T11:34:00.007-04:00

I just posted this month's Math Forum project: The Pentaflake. This is a 2D fractal created from just one simple pentagon. The only SketchUp tools needed to complete the pentaflake are Rotate and Erase - simple and elegant.

When you fill in the missing spaces with faces, you can get some beautiful patterns:

As usual, there is a Student Version which includes a few questions, and a Teacher Version that provides the answers.

It's free - check it out!

PS - I ran across the pentaflake while creating the hexaflake shown below, which is the topic of one of this month's Projects of the Month.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our October Projects?

2010-10-07T13:45:00.006-04:00

Next Friday, October 15, here's what subscribers to our Projects of the Month will be getting:

Nearby Models

This project details one of the new features of SketchUp 8. You can bring in a patch of land from Google Earth (without actually opening Google Earth), and then populate that land with 3D Warehouse models that are located nearby. No more back-and-forth between Earth, Warehouse, and SketchUp!

Dice

Learn how to start with a simple cube and add guide lines and "dot" components to make a die (the singular of dice). As a bonus you'll also see how to use a free plug-in to make rounded edges and corners!

Hexaflake

This 2D fractal is created by copying hexagons (or groups of hexagons) into a pattern of seven hexagons (or groups of hexagons).

Sign up for Projects of the Month - still just $36 gets you 3 projects per month for 12 months!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Our Second 6-Month Project Bundle

2010-09-16T15:48:00.005-04:00

If you like our Projects of the Month but have missed some months (or just like things in bigger servings), you can get our latest 6-month project bundle (March 2010 - August 2010) for just $25.

(The first six months are here.)

This bundle contains 18 projects (12 in 3D design, 6 in geometry), taking up 226 (!) pages. We send it to directly you as a PDF - no license or software locking. Color graphics, print whatever you need, or just view it on-screen.

Here are a few of the projects included in this bundle:

The full list of contents, and ordering info are on my website. Enjoy!

And keep in mind you can always get each month's set of three projects for just $5.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Math Forum Project: Esrefoglu Pattern

2010-09-13T23:18:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I took a 3-month summer break from the Math Forum, but now I'm back, ready for some great math projects for the 2010-11 school year. Remember, these projects are FREE and aren't just for math teachers!

September's project is on the Esrefoglu pattern. That's not a typo, it's the name of a mosque in Turkey that features a beautiful pattern based on hexagons. (I learned this pattern from the book Islamic Geometric Patterns by Eric Broug.)

You'll learn how to create one hexagon with all the lines inside it.

That hexagon can be tiled to make lots of interesting patterns.

As always, this project has a Student Version and a Teacher Version (both in PDF format). Try it out!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Cool Geometry Videos

2010-09-13T13:56:00.004-04:00

A math professor named Debra Borkovitz, who has the entire GeomeTricks set of books, created some YouTube videos showing some geometric concepts using SketchUp.

This video shows three intersecting cylinders:

This prompted me to write one of the projects that will be included in the September Projects of the Month, going out in a couple of days. In this project, you find the solid that results from the intersection of two or three cylinders.

The short video below shows how a section plane can slice through a cube. Note: when the plane gets halfway through, the resulting 2D shape is a hexagon.

Section planes have enormous potential in geometric projects, and I plan on writing more about them in the coming months.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in our September Projects?

2010-09-07T22:41:00.011-04:00

It's been a long summer, and I'm so glad that school has started (not just because I have 5 kids who NEED to be out of the house!) With a fresh school year in mind, here's what I came up with for our September Projects of the Month:

Photo Montage

Want a great way to show your best summer vacation photos? Bring out your inner Andy Warhol by using SketchUp to transform a single photo into a multi-color montage.

Furniture Arrangements

Imagine you have a room, a few pieces of furniture, and some paintings. But you have a few ideas about where everything should go. By using SketchUp layers and scenes, you can easily see how all of your design ideas look, and can switch between designs with just a click.

Intersecting Cylinders

Take two or three perpendicular, intersecting cylinders - can you guess what the intersection solid looks like? Imagine no more - SketchUp makes it easy to find this shape.

At still just $36 for the year (3 projects per month for 12 months), sign up at Projects of the Month.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Le SketchUp

2010-09-06T21:34:00.004-04:00

At last week's 3D Basecamp in Boulder, we were treated to the world premier of French architect "Corbusier"'s latest video. Accompanied by the usual red carpet, celebrities, etc. If you're French, please don't be offended.

Indeed, zere is no excuse for not using ze LayOut. No more dinosaurs!

That video is by the guys at Viewsion, SketchUp's Irish training center. Here's an earlier offering, equally funny:

"Corb" was last spotted relaxing at the SketchUp party last Thursday in the Google office:

Paul Lee (above, see the resemblance?) has also put together some training course material in SketchUp / LayOut for construction documents. I'll be posting more on that in the near future.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Competition: 3D Printed Lamp

2010-09-04T18:30:00.003-04:00

I can't believe I've been neglecting this blog for almost a month - sorry about that! August was a little crazy with a bit of traveling and little child care. But I have a ton of things to write about, including tidbits from last week's SketchUp user conference.

But for now, check out this cool design competition from 3D printer company i.materlialise, in which you can design a 3D lamp. Here's an example:

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our August Projects?

2010-08-08T23:04:00.006-04:00

I know that the dog days of August is not the best time to introduce anything new and academic, but school is right around the corner, and you know you can use some new project ideas. Here's what you'll get if you're a subscriber to our Projects of the Month:

Castle Turret

We had a project back in May which showed how to use the Follow Me tool to create round chess pieces. This prompted a few subscribers to ask how to create pieces with cutouts, such as a chess castle. So this project shows how it's done, using the Intersect with Model tool and cutting shapes.

Iron Fence

This is a very cool project, in which you start with just a rectangle with a few lines in it, and use mirrored copies to create a beautiful, symmetric fence complete with a frame.

Text as Graphics

SketchUp has a 3D Text tool which enables you to create words on a wall, but too many words and characters will really mushroom your file size. A better way to add lots of text is to use a graphic instead.

The yearly subscription is still just $36 for 36 projects (3 per month), so what are you waiting for? Sign up: Projects of the Month!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Feedback from a Happy Parent

2010-07-23T15:04:00.005-04:00

I exhibited a couple weeks ago at the Northern Virginia Home Educators Conference, and met lots of impressive kids (and parents). One mom bought some materials for her middle-school daugher, who got started using SketchUp that same night. Her mom wrote:

Maddy has already been online having a terrific time building. I had to set a curfew for her last night, otherwise she would stay up till 2 or 3 am just playing with the program. I dragged her away from the computer today, but only for short periods of time, and mostly for nourishment. I can tell you she will probably be your best ambassador-not only to the teachers but to her peers, who as you know have more than a little influence on parents and such.

I am already sold. Although I don't know the program itself, I can attest to usefulness to me in terms of keeping my daughter creatively stimulated and occupied (and out of my hair) :)

This made my day, of course!

Have a great weekend, and stay cool (it's supposed to hit triple digits AGAIN here in DC...)

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Triassic Period Musem, in SketchUp

2010-07-16T10:43:00.004-04:00

Last year I blogged about Peter Kluzak, a wonderful 13-year old kid with Aspergers, who spent a lot of time at our ASA booth. Both we and he were back this year, since now-14 year old Peter was helping his mom in her Everyday Autism Jewelry booth (I love her puzzle-piece charms).

We were only a few booths apart, so Peter again spent lots of time showing us what he'd done over the past year. His modeling skills are quite sophisticated now (plus he seems to be about a head taller - he towered over me, which isn't hard to do).

This is an animation of a model he did for a class project on the Triassic Period. The assignment was to create a physical diorama (i.e. a shoebox with cutouts), but Peter and his two partners opted for SketchUp instead:

Here's the actual SketchUp model - click the picture below to access its 3D Warehouse page where you can download it:

Peter's model has scenes, so don't import it into another SketchUp model; it should be opened in its own SketchUp window.

Most of the text on the walls was created outside of SketchUp (in Word, I think), saved as a graphic, then "pasted" onto the walls in SketchUp. (SketchUp does have a 3D Text tool, but creating that many characters as physical objects would have made the file size enormous.)

The 3D models of plants and birds came from the 3D Warehouse. The bird hanging from the "ceiling" is a "Shonisaurus popularis" modeled by Birdman, who's modeled dozens of prehistoric animals (among other things). Something to keep in mind for your own dinosaur-era projects!

Think of all the shoeboxes we could save if all school projects were done in SketchUp!

Good work, Peter - naturally he and his team got an "A."

Update: I heard from Heidi, Peter's proud mom, with the following comments:

This was an honors science 8th grade project. It was great because he was able to easily transport it, the group did not have to arrange work sessions outside of school, and they did not fight over who HAD to take it home. With the Smartboards in the classroom, he was able to present it so everyone could see it. What a great tool for kids who are home schooled or eschooled.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

SketchUp and Autistm: New Projects

2010-07-15T14:01:00.006-04:00

In July 2009 I attended the annual conference for the Autism Society of America, and had discussions with Google and autism experts on ways SketchUp can be used to help autistic kids and adults. (This is personal to me since I have an autistic son myself.)

Last week I attended ASA's 2010 conference, where I participated with Google in a SketchUp demo and talk. I presented two of the projects I wrote, which were enthusiastically received, and now I've placed them online. Here's the new "Project Spectrum" page on the 3DVinci website:

http://www.3dvinci.net/ccp0-display/projectspectrum.html

The two projects focus on communication, collaboration, and anxiety management. Please visit the new page, download the projects, and let me know what you think. More projects are planned for the future, and your feedback is very valuable.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

What's Coming in Our July Projects?

2010-07-12T10:31:00.007-04:00

Here's what's in store for our July projects, which will be sent out on the 15th. If you're not yet a subcriber, it's only $36 for 36 projects (3 per month for 12 months), and you can sign up here.

After July 15, you can also purchase just these 3 projects (no subscription) for just $5.

3D Buildings in Google Earth

If you've wondered how those buildings on Google Earth's "3D Buildings" layer got there, this project will show you how. You'll use a Google Earth footprint as the basis for your SketchUp model, and see how to get your own models accepted into Google Earth.

Shadow Animation

SketchUp's shadows are extremely accurate, based on the physical location of your model. Using scenes, you can produce an animation that shows how shadows will move across your model through the course of a day. You can also test your shadows inside rooms as well.

The Menger Sponge

No, it's not for cleaning your kitchen, this "sponge" is actually a 3D fractal made of cubes. You start with just one simple cube, and make use of nested components to make as many copies as your computer can handle.

There's no better way to beat the summer heat than to stay in the air conditioning and learn some new SketchUp tricks! Again, here's where you can sign up.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Heading to Austism Conference

2010-07-06T11:26:00.003-04:00

This week ASA is holding their annual conference (Dallas this time), and I'll be hanging with Google in their booth again. We'll be promoting Project Spectrum, hoping to raise awareness of SketchUp as a tool for expression, career development, even communication.

So far I've developed three projects for the Spectrum website (they're not up yet), which teachers, parents, and therapists of autistic individuals can use.

How to use Google Earth and SketchUp to create a school project that uses scenes and fly-throughs rather than oral or written words.
How to work with a group to fill an empty toy store with different categories of toys
How to design and walk through a "rehearsal" model in advance of an anxiety-producing situation (dentist visit)

More projects are planned, and ASA is a great place to get feedback and ideas. I would also love to hear from anyone who has suggestions, experiences, etc in this area, so don't be shy. So far I've mostly used my own experiences with my 8-year old autistic son, who uses SketchUp like a whiz!

Details next week when I'm back...

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Concept Cars in Google SketchUp

2010-07-04T18:08:00.003-04:00

A lot of high school teachers ask about using SketchUp to model cars. I guess that's what teenagers want to do once they've mastered modeling of houses, furniture, etc. Because cars are modeled along non-flat surfaces, and non-straight lines, it's not always an easy undertaking, but the Sandbox tools are very useful for modeling organic shapes.

Anyway, I ran across this neat video of some concept cars made in SketchUp. Some are rendered in a third-party application (I think V-ray), and some of the views show partial models, enabling you to get an idea of how the surfaces were made. Very cool.

I'm not wild about the accompanying music, but otherwise this makes me want to try out some Sandbox modeling myself. But in a little while I'm taking the kids to see July 4 fireworks instead!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Prize-Winning Eco-Park Model by a 6th Grader

2010-07-02T16:39:00.005-04:00

Last week, I got an email from rising 7th grader Gabe Coleman, whose mother has bought some of my ModelMetricks books. Apparently Gabe has read them well, and he's put his SketchUp skills to good use! Below is his prize-winning model of an eco-friendly park (clicking the model takes to its 3D Warehouse page, where you can download it).

It's a pretty neat model: lots of solar panels, some windmills, recycling bins (clearly labeled with 3D text), and the requisite popcorn and sno-cone stands. Plus it's colorful and fun, and I'd want to hang out there with my kids. Download it and take a spin around!

Gabe writes:

A couple months ago I entered in a Regional Tech Fair. I made an Eco-Park in SketchUp and presented it to the judges. I came in first place in my division and went on to the state competition. I added more to my park and once again presented it to judges. I was awarded second place. Here is a link to the Tech Fair site: http://www.alcte.org.

I love your SketchUp books! I currently am on the the second level of books. The Beginner Series helped me learn the skills to build the Eco-Park. I am currently on the Intermediate Series and have learned lots more.

In my 6th grade computer class, the teacher gave us an opportunity to compete against each other to see who could build the best SketchUp model. All the computers in the classroom have SketchUp on them. We would get a prize if we won. A friend and I made an Army Base and we won the contest!

Thank You!

Gabe Coleman

Rising 7th grader, St.Paul's Episcopal School, Mobile,Alabama

Here's a picture of Gabe winning his state trophy:

I always turn to the same thought: I wish I had software like this when I was in school.

Excellent work, Gabe, please keep me posted on other cool stuff you create!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

3DVia Scene: Walk Through a Dentist Office

2010-07-01T14:17:00.003-04:00

OK, here's my first foray into a 3D scene using a SketchUp model I created. Click "Play" below (you'll probably have to install the 3DVia player), then use your arrow keys to walk around. You can zoom in and out with the scroll wheel, look up and down by clicking and dragging the mouse. I don't know if you're supposed to be able to walk through walls, but I was able to (weird feeling!)

The controls on the right side enable you to get a first person (your own) view, or a view looking at yourself from behind. You can also take snapshots of your walk-through.

I've gotten pretty used to using SketchUp scenes to create walk-through tours, but 3DVia scenes are a lot easier to use (or at least they will be when I get the hang of it). This is just fantastic for so many markets: architects and interior designers can show clients their ideas, students can show teachers and classmates what they've come up with. Plus it's really fun.

The dentist office model in the scene above is one I created for Project Spectrum, and you can find it in the 3D Warehouse (click below).

To save it as a 3DVia model, the SketchUp model must be saved as a KMZ file using File / Export. In 3DVia, first upload the model, then create a scene. Once the scene is in your player, you can add 3D models to it, either models you've uploaded yourself, or models other 3DVia users have uploaded.

I'm going to write this up in more detail as a project sometime soon, but give it a try in the meantime.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

3DVia in the Classroom

2010-06-29T13:11:00.005-04:00

I've been in touch with Cliff Medling from 3DVia, who has some pretty cool, free tools to visualize 3D models as a walking (and running) avatar. This video is intriguing:

I'm out of town at a conference, so I've only had bits and pieces of time to play with 3DVia scenes. In my limited time so far it's been a very cool experience, but I'm having a tough time maneuvering around as smoothly as I'd like. For instance, once I get in a corner of a room, I have a hard time getting out!

Once I get a presentable scene going I'll post about it. And I'll probably write up some instructions as one of my monthly plug-ins. In the meantime, give it a try yourselves...

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Inkscape for Kids

2010-06-27T11:10:00.003-04:00

I'm going to collaborate with my friend Phil Shapiro on some educational materials for Inkscape. If you're not familiar with this cool program, it's a FREE 2D vector drawing tool. Like SketchUp, it can be easily used by kids, and kids LOVE it. I got my kids started on it today, with very little guidance, and I've been hearing "cool!" "awesome!" and "Mom, check this OUT!" from the next room. This from my 9, 8, and 6 year olds - the 3 year old twins haven't started yet.

Phil recommended a book he saw on Lulu called Ilustratus (great name!) which costs a whopping $4.76 as a PDF download. I shelled out the money and now my kids are working through the projects. It seems pretty good for ages 5-8.

Our idea is to build upon these basic concepts and come up with a book / DVD / screencast, or some combo, to show kids a bunch of fun and easy art projects in Inkscape. We'll keep you posted! In the meantime, anyone who has experience with Inkspace and kids is welcome to get in touch to share ideas, suggestions, etc.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Plug-In: PathCopy

2010-06-25T12:17:00.021-04:00

I really like this plug-in, which is available for free from Smustard. You can use it to copy a group or component along any path.

As with most plug-ins, once you download the files (in this case, a couple of RB files plus a folder with the cursor icon), place everything (unzip if needed, keep the folder structure) in the Plugins folder of your SketchUp installation folder.

Here's a couple of ways I used PathCopy:

First up is a curvy room with space for two levels of chairs that face inward. I got the folding chair from the 3D Warehouse, and it's a component in my model.

This plug-in needs a path, so I used the Offset tool to create two sets of curves parallel to the back walls. The back legs of the chair will be placed on these curves, so the curves are pretty close to the walls.

PathCopy can only take a single path. So I used the Weld plug-in to join each path's segments into a single path. So for this model, PathCopy will need to be used twice: once for each of the two paths.

Here's a very important step, and it took me a few tries before I figured this out. For the object that will be copied, its red axis will go along the path. I'm not sure how this works for a group, but for a component it's easy: just right-click on the component and choose Change Axes. My red axis goes between the two back legs, and the green axis is set so that the blue axis will be vertical (otherwise the chairs will go upside-down).

To start the plug-in, choose Plugins / Copy Along Path / Copy to Spacing. The default spacing appears in the "Distance between" field. You can enter a new spacing, or you can change it after the copies are made.

Click the path (I'm starting with the one on the upper level).

Then click the object to copy (the chair component).

Done! The back legs go along the path, with a chair spacing of 3'-6".

I want fewer chairs, so I entered 5' and got my new spacing.

Using the plug-in again for the lower level, the 5' spacing is now the default.

Once done, you could erase or hide the paths and the extra component.

The other PathCopy option is Copy to Path Nodes. I didn't have much luck with this one - the orientation of each component didn't change with respect to the path. (Every chair ended up facing the same way.) If anyone has used this option and can tell me what I'm missing, please let me know!

Here's the other model I tried, an oddly-shaped pool that needs a fence around it.

Here's the fence component, which I made 4' wide end-to-end. When creating a component, one of the options is Set Axes, and my red axis starts at the midpoint of the fence post, and proceeds in the same direction as the fence itself.

I created the fence path using the Offset tool, adding some arcs to include more of the yard, and using Weld to fuse the curves into a single path.

Using the Copy to Spacing option, with a spacing of 4', here's my fence. This would be an enormous pain to create without the PathCopy plug-in.

I tried using a 3D path - no luck. It seems that objects can orient themselves in the red-green plane, but the blue orientation does not change.

Again, here's where you can get this neat plug-in.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Book Review: Google SketchUp for Site Design

2010-06-24T21:21:00.007-04:00

It wasn't that long ago that I had the only book on SketchUp on the market (ah, the good old days). In the last few years other books have appeared, some of which are pretty darn useful. And while my books discuss using SketchUp in general, some of these new books focus on a specific SketchUp user. One example is Robin deJongh's book on Visualization, and in the near future I'll also be reviewing Bob Lang's new book for woodworkers.

But the topic of this post is Google SketchUp for Site Design, by Daniel Tal.

I've met Daniel a couple of times: I saw his presentation at the last 3D Base Camp, and attended a workshop he ran for landscape architecture students at the University of Maryland. He demonstrated ways to create incredibly detailed landscape models that you might not think could be done in SketchUp. In his book, he lets us in on the methods and techniques he uses - many of these are much easier than they look.

After some intro material on basic tools, groups, and components, the order of the book follows the typical work flow of a landscape architect. You start with a 2D site plan, making use of the 2D drawing tools (Line, Circle, Arc, Offset, etc.) There's also a bit about modeling from an image of site plan (i.e. tracing). Then you get all of your site elements into 3D, making use of layers and styles for easy control of the display.

The concepts in this book go beyond landscape architecture. There are tutorials on making a detailed park bench, planters, decorative fences. And for the architects, there are tutorials on windows, doors, moldings, curved walls, and more.

As you might expect, there is a large focus on the Sandbox tools, and this is where I had my best "aha!" moments. For example, you learn how to make sloped terrain using a set of 2D curves.

Applying the From Contours tool gets you pretty nice results:

I really liked the canopy exercise:

And for me, the coolest architectural tutorial involved using the Drape tool to superimpose a set of straight lines onto a curved wall, to easily model a complex-looking set of windows:

The last part of the book is about the interaction between SketchUp and AutoCAD: a topic that comes up all the time among design professionals.

One of the best aspects of the book is Daniel's use of Ruby scripts. With the thousands of scripts out there, it's impossible to find a single resource that explains them all. (I'm chipping away at the mountain by using this blog to talk about some of the plug-ins I like.) Daniel uses a select few extremely useful scripts, some of which are free, some cost a nominal fee. These include Randor, PathCopy, Drop, Simplify Contours, Joint Push Pull, Surface Operations - all of which are worth learning even if you're not a landscape architect.

Like with all of my books, all of the models used in the book are on the 3D Warehouse, so there's no need for an accompanying CD. And this book is printed in COLOR, which is essential - this book would be almost impossible to read in black and white.

Highly recommended!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Shadow Animation

2010-06-21T14:34:00.005-04:00

One of my projects for the July batch of Projects of the Month will show how to use scenes and shadows to get an animation like this:

It's a neat technique to see how a house or room will look on certain days at certain times of the year. Plus it's neat to watch!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

SketchUp and the Kellett School in Hong Kong

2010-06-18T15:02:00.007-04:00

This fun video contains models produced by Year 3 and 4 students at the Kellett School.

The following description was sent to me by Clive Dawes, Kellett's ICT Curriculum Leader:

Students at Kellett School in Hong Kong have been using Google Sketchup to help them investigate tessellation of shapes. Many of the ideas for the project, which was tackled by Year 3&4 students, came from the resource "Single Polygon Patterns," published by 3D Vinci.

Having spent some time trying out the activities for myself, I then created screencasts using Jing of myself demonstrating the techniques. Students were then introduced to Sketchup and spent time drawing some of the basic shapes they already knew using the polygon tool.

After seeing me tessellate squares, students then investigated which other basic shapes could tessellate. Techniques such as ‘select all’ and ‘copy & move’ were easy for the students to master, but accurate use of ‘endpoint’ was challenging for some and this resulted in some untidy attempts at tessellation. Students soon realized that not many basic shapes could be tessellated without leaving gaps but some predicted that the triangle would work if only it could be “turned upside down.” We then introduced the rotation tool and a screencast was used to reinforce the techniques as some found it tricky to master.

From there students worked at their own pace creating a variety of tessellated patterns, some extremely complex. A number of students were able to develop designs with gaps as shown in the resource.

All our Year 4 students worked on tessellating irregular quadrilaterals and the vast majority of them were able to use the component tool to add intricate designs and patterns. They used the line tool and the arc tool as well adding shapes within their tessellations. They were very creative and produced some amazing work.

We also looked at 3D shapes and investigated some of the ideas outlined in 3D Solids Book One, namely the cuboctahedron, the truncated cube and the stellated octahedron. Having learnt how to draw these myself I was impressed with how little time it took for the students to replicate these models. They were much quicker than me!

To present their work students exported their images as 2D graphics, zooming in to highlight their accurate tessellations. All of them were also able to create animations of their 3D shapes.

Students spent around five hours in total working in Sketchup and around 50% of them had downloaded it at home by the end of the work. Our work in 3D was not developed as much as I would like and I hope we can have chance to focus on this more next year. I also plan to look at other ideas such as symmetry, rotation and transformation.

As a result of the module, students are able to talk more confidently about shape and can explain clearly about tessellation. I feel that using Sketchup gives the students a much clearer understanding of the concept of tessellation.

This is the third year we have used Sketchup at Kellett, but it is the first time our work has targeted an area specifically within the Mathematics curriculum. All of our previous work had been concerned with 3D design, usually around the construction of holiday apartments, or mini-cities. The shape module has been a huge success and was noted upon in our recent OfStEd inspection, which stated;

“Older pupils are treated with notable maturity: whether in (a Kellett Tell-It editorial meeting), or a ICT lesson using Google Sketch-Up to tessellate squares, activities often feel like those of a sixth form, rather than a primary school: and the children live up to these very high expectations.”

Using 3DVinci's resources allowed us to develop ideas away from the design type activities and use Sketchup to tackle specific concepts within the wider curriculum in a stimulating and visual manner. We will definitely be returning to this and developing it next year.

Here are Clive's students working on SketchUp. Such young kids, and they're getting a great handle on complex geometry.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

New Book for Woodworkers

2010-06-14T13:56:00.005-04:00

There is a huge SketchUp following among woodworkers, and all sorts of tutorials and websites have sprung up within that community. Now there's a new book that looks like a woodworker's dream: Woodworker's Guide to SketchUp 7 by Bob Lang.

It's an e-book that comes on CD, and there are embedded videos within the text - very cool. (And something I'd love to try if I had some free time...)

Here's a review I ran across, which makes me want a copy for myself, even though I haven't done any woodworking since high school shop class...

And it looks like you can get the book for $10 off until July 1 ($29.95 instead of $39.95).

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Our June Projects

2010-06-07T10:50:00.006-04:00

Here's what's on tap for our June SketchUp projects, going out to subscribers on June 15 (why does that date sound familiar? Oh right, it's my wedding anniversary!)

And here's something new: if you just want the three projects from the current month, you can get them without committing to a full year's subscription! Here are the details.

Cheerios Box

With a few digital photos, you can easily make a realistic-looking model of a Cheerios box (or any kind of box), using SketchUp's texture positioning. You don't even have to take your own pictures for this project; the instructions will tell you how to get the ones I took.

Cordoba Tiling

I recently got a great book that shows how to make many different Islamic tiling patterns, and this is the first example from that book. Instead of using a pen, straight, edge, and protractor, I'm using a few simple SketchUp tools. When you add in the use of components, you can make some breathtaking patterns!

Linked Chain

This project will show you how to use components to make repeated objects that interact with one another.

You know you want to subscribe.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Fence Illusion, Revisted

2010-06-03T10:55:00.004-04:00

In a post last month I showed a video of an optical illusion - a fence that's not really a fence, which can be "assembled" in two different ways. I used this idea to create one of the SketchUp Projects of the Month for May.

I got the idea from a teacher named Charlie Unkeless, who recently sent me his version of the fence, which differed a bit from mine (and I like his better).

Here's the video of Charlie's fence spinning - note the "impossible" placement of the vertical fence posts:

I've placed his model in the 3D Warehouse for everyone to check out. Click the image below to get to the model's download page. Because this model has scenes, don't import it into another model - open this model in its own file. Then click the three scenes tabs across the top to see the fence spin around!

Enjoy!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

New Presentation Plug-in: 3D PDF

2010-05-27T21:54:00.012-04:00

If you don't have SketchUp Pro, and therefore you don't have LayOut, this new plug-in might solve your presentation problem. 3D PDF by Simlab Soft exports SketchUp models to an interactive PDF. It's not free ($95), but SketchUp Pro will cost you about five times that. (I used the 30-day trial version - maybe Simlab will read this and send me a free licensed copy?) Here's somethign nice: the installation runs on its own; no RB files to mess with.

I tried this out on one of my models in the 3D Warehouse that has scenes in it. (Click the image if you want to open the 3D Warehouse page.)

From SketchUp, I chose Plugins / PDF Export / Export. (The Settings option has additional features, like adding background music and setting default views and styles.) This saves the model out to a PDF file, which looks like the picture below. The four icons on the left of the toolbar control navigation. They're a little clunky to use for zooming, orbiting, etc - a SketchUp-like mouse button navigation would be nice. (Maybe this is already possible, but I didn't find a way how.)

There are also options for adding and changing lights, and setting how the model is rendered (wireframe, hidden line, etc.) A translucent view is shown below.

My SketchUp model has a few scenes, and these scenes can be accessed in the PDF. But I also wanted to display some standard plan and elevation views, and I never managed to find a way to do this, even after a lot of searching around. Maybe those have to be saved with the original SketchUp file as well? To rival LayOut, standard views will need to be included in later versions.

One very nice feature is sectioning. There's no connection to PDF sections and the ones added to the SketchUp model, however. You get a standard section plane parallel to the ground, and can access settings to change its position and orientation, color, intersection colors, etc. Again, this interface could be smoother, but it's still a cool feature that LayOut doesn't have. (But LayOut will refer to section planed defined in your SketchUp model.)

Here's something else that's neat: you can access individual parts of the model and control how they are displayed. For example, I selected the roof, and its corresponding part name was highlighted in the list.

With the context menu, I was able to hide just the roof.

Another nice feature would be the ability to change those part names. Maybe this is possible in the licensed version.

3D PDF also has a dimensioning tool, though it's not yet as sophisticated as LayOut's.

There are also options for creating text, headers, footers, adding new views, etc. There is a lot of room for improvement (including the rather unhelpful 6-page "manual" I found searching around on the help forum). But assuming future versions address these issues, this will be a fabulous addition to your SketchUp arsenal.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

New Book: SketchUp and Visualization

2010-05-27T19:19:00.004-04:00

Packt Publishing has released a new book on rendering, SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization, written by Robin de Jongh. I got a review copy about a week ago, and I've spent the last few days looking through it.

The book is an impressive piece of work, and Robin's writing style is not only informative and easy to read, but also pretty darn funny. (Note to self: humor should be used more often in tech books. Keeps readers awake!)

The book has two main focuses:

Showing the best ways to use SketchUp, with an eye out for eventual model presentation. This includes keeping poly counts low, making the most of digital images, using components, entourage, etc. This book isn't about object modeling techniques per se, but Robin does discuss a bit of that as well.
Creating the presentation itself. This includes not only "how-to's" for rendering and video apps, but also how to set up SketchUp scenes, layers, walkthroughs, and styles to ease the transition into a presentation.

The best part is that nearly all of the applications discussed in this book are FREE. There's a lot about Kerkythea for rending, and GIMP and VirtualDub for image processing and animation. It's amazing what you can do with freeware! Now that I've gotten a taste for this stuff, I hope to write up some projects for my monthly subscribers!

The book ends with a chapter on LayOut, for all you Pro users, and a very useful index comparing a bunch of SketchUp renderers.

I have only a few minor complaints:

The book title states "Beginner's Guide." This is a bit misleading because a beginning SketchUp user would have trouble making heads or tails of the modeling concepts. Logically, I know the "beginner" refers to someone looking to learn presentation methods, but that could be made clearer with a different subtitle.
The graphics are grayscale, which is short of shame in a book on "knock 'em out" presentations. My own books cost a lot to print in color, so I understand the economic issues. But my Google SketchUp Cookbook has color graphics, with a similar page count and price. Same for the new Site Design book by Daniel Tal. That said, the vast majority of the graphics come through quite clearly in black and white, but a few are a little dark. I'm sure Robin's first choice would be to publish in color, but that's usually not up to the author!
It would have been great to have more downloadable files to use alongside the book (I found only one in the 3D Warehouse). The projects are easy enough to do with your own models, but having steps applicable to specific models would be clearer than more general instructions.

Overall, this book will be extremely useful for any architect, landscaper, interior designer, engineer, even student, who needs to show someone around their models. It costs about $45 in print and $30 as e-book, but you'd be spending a heck of a lot more than than on licensed rendering and production software, which this book will help you avoid.

Highly recommended!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Dream Houses of 10th Graders

2010-05-26T13:22:00.006-04:00

I've posted before about the class projects of math teacher Willy Felton. Here's the latest video he's made from the work of his students:

Willy explains:

This was done in a 10th grade geometry class with 8 students. There was a 5 week deadline that begun with students designing 2D floor plans and land plots. The land plot must be between 2,000 and 10,000 square feet and the house had to be between 1,000 and 5,000 square feet. They were encouraged to make realistic homes that someone could live in even though a couple are questionable :)

Students worked on the computers once a week, but much of the work had to be done on their own. They needed to use layers and scenes to deal with a lot of objects, and they were required to make windows and doors to a real scale. We prepared for the project by copying some blueprints and making standard houses before they had to make their own.

I have done an architecture project every year, but this is the first year doing it on SketchUp.

I especially like the round kitchen (though it may be a little hard to find appliances for it). I'm also impressed by the changing styles, use of shadows, and presentations of both exterior and interior views. Beautiful job by the students, and congratulations to Willy for coming up with this neat project!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Islamic Geometric Patterns

2010-05-17T10:24:00.007-04:00

Usually I ignore Amazon's "Recommended for You" picks, but last week I perked up when I saw "Islamic Geometric Patterns" by Eric Broug.

If you saw my Math Forum project on Girih Tiles (Feb 2010), you know I'm into this stuff. But how did Amazon know? I guess I order more geometry books than I thought.

So the book arrived this weekend, and last night I cracked it open. It's written in three levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced, and is geared toward hand drawing with compass and straight-edge, pencil and ink. The steps are quite easy to follow, and of course, each project can easily be done in SketchUp. The book includes a CD, which I haven't opened yet.

Here's the first construction project (Level 1 - Easy), showing tiles found on the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The lines are constructed with the Polygon, Circle, and Tape Measure tools:

The Line tool traces over the lines needed for the pattern:

Then you color and repeat. Groups and components make this quite easy.

There are 19 constructions in all, so expect to see these detailed on the Math Forum, and also included in my Projects of the Month. Teachers of math, art, and even history: your students will LOVE this!

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

Sketchy Physics: So Much to Learn

2010-05-12T21:52:00.004-04:00

I found this nice video that compiles a whole bunch of Sketchy Physics SketchUp models. All of the models can be found in the 3D Warehouse (so I understand), and the video shows snippets of how each model moves, interacts, etc.

Here's another one:

There is almost no documentation on how to use Sketchy Physics - a few very smart people figured it out on their own and are using it brilliantly. I'm hoping I can produce a Sketchy Physics book that makes this accessible to everyone.

Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/