Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Google Sketchup related websites

Some useful links found via pushpullbar for sketchup related websites for your reference here.
::Five Most Recent Entries::
Ruby Scripts - The SCF Power Toolbar at Quarr-IT One of most well-thought toolbars for SketchUp. Go to "Ruby" section and don't forget to watch "Tutorials".
Blog - Ronen Bekerman A pushpullbar veteran bakbek's blog is about SketchUP, 3d Studio Max, V-Ray, Maxwell Render, Fryrender, Photoshop and more.
Exporters + Importers - skp_to_dxf.rb Convert Sketchup SKP files to DXF or STL for FREE!
Renderer - Twilight Render it's now possible to render photo-realistic images inside Google Sketc
Forum - Land8 Land8 is landscape architects' premier social network. Although it is not specifically SU-related website, there are full of SU in it.
Tutorials - SketchUp Artists The name says it all. Lots of tutorials on image creation.

::Forums and UserGroups::

The following groups have closed but will be available for archival review

SketchUcation Home of the SketchUp Community


::Tutorials and FAQs::
3D Basecamp 2008 video recordings of the event.
Google SketchUp For Dummies Videos to accompany the book (of the same name) by Aidan Chopra.
Google SketchUp Paradise in Japanese only
Google SketchUp Sage A user-created companion source to many frequently asked questions from Google SketchUp Groups and beyond.
Learn to Program A Place to Start for the Future Ruby Programmer. In Japanese, French, Russian, Danish and Portuguese.
SketchUp Artists NEW! The name says it all. Lots of tutorials on image creation.
The Sketchup Show Tutorials in Web2.0. Now at YouTube too.
SU Tutorials-Tips-Links20.zip A famous (and enormous) file containing all the information you need.
SUWiki Another important resource of information run by Chris Fullmer aka clf23, a ppb member.
Tutorials by SketchUpVideo in Youtube Many more useful tips from Google.
Tutorials Index of SketchUcation Tutorials by SketchUcation members.

::Rendering and Animation::
3DPaintBrush 3DPaintBrush provides near photo-realistic rendering in real time, with no learning curve and zero programming skills. (PC)
Antics 3D Development Stopped YouTube Video.
Artlantis Easy radiosity - even in preview (Mac + PC)
Cheetah 3D Powerful 3D modelling, rendering and animation solution (Mac)
CubicPanoOut.rb 6-sided cube panorama exporter. Use it with GoCubic to create QuickTime panoramas. (Mac + PC)
Deep Exploration Standard Convert, render, animate and publish .skp files to 40 different 3D formats including .3ds, .obj, .u3d, Flash, HTML, etc. (PC)
HyperShot Photo-realistic images in stunningly simple interface. (PC)
iClone is a film studio that lives in your HDD. iClone is used for pre-visualization for live action work and as a standalone animation package. With 3DXchange utility, you can combine iClone with SketchUp models. YouTube Video.
IDX Renditioner Photorealistic rendering that’s easy enough for novices, powerful enough for professionals. (Mac + PC)
Indigo Renderer A physically-based, unbiased render engine. SkIndigo is an exporter for SU. Tutorials here. (PC)
Kerkythea "Simply Powerful (and free!)" (Mac + PC)
LightUP LightUp is a SketchUp plugin that adds realistic, realtime lighting to your sketchup models (Mac + PC)
Maxwell Render A physically correct, unbiased rendering engine (Mac + PC + Linux)
modo 3D modeling, painting, rendering and animation in a single integrated package (Mac + PC)
Photoshop For some people, SketchUp and Photoshop (or GIMP) are all they need to render. Examples: 1 2 3 (Mac + PC)
Piranesi Render like you sketch. Free exporter is available for both SU pro and free. (Mac + PC)
SU Animate SU Animate works inside SU and creates scenes that you can play as an animation in SU or export to an AVI or MOV. (Mac + PC)
SU Podium Photo-realistic rendering for SketchUp by a single click (Mac + PC)
POV-Ray The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free renderer. There is SU2POV, a SU exporter. (Mac + PC + Linux)
Thea Render NEW! a new physically-based renderer with the unique ability of producing both biased and unbiased photorealistic renders (Mac + PC)
Twilight Render NEW! it's now possible to render photo-realistic images inside Google SketchUp! (PC)
V-Ray The benchmark (PC)
Vue6 Offers solutions for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments. SOLO’s place has some good examples. (Mac + PC)

::Components and Materials::
3D Warehouse 3D content created by Google SketchUp users.
Cadyou a free resource for digital designers that work with 2d and 3d models in architecture, engineering, interior design, game design and more.
Designconnected.com Well-known furniture components in various formats including .skp.
Designer Components Depot Hidden deep inside of pushpullbar
Digital Nursery Tree images and components, palm trees, 3D landscape images.
Entourage Arts Non Photorealistic Entourage Elements for architects. (Mac + PC)
Engineering ToolBox provides a tool for layout planning and design of techical applications. Easily creates flange beams, hollow sections, piping bends and elbows.
Form Fonts 3D Sells quality SU components
Hand Drawn Images by Scowcroft Studios Libraries of hand drawn backgrounds, trees, shrubs, flowers that work seamlessly with SketchUp. Precise alpha channels included.
Sweets3D Collection Sweets is building the largest collection of professional grade SketchUp 3D building product models.

::Notable Extensions and Ruby Repositories::
Extensions and Tools
1001bit tools NEW! is a collection of Ruby scripts that are dedicated for architectural works. It create 3d models of staircases, spiral staircase, escalators, walls, doors and windows, and self-generated roof rafters. The toolset has very sophisticated UI, but no toolbar.
CADspan Plugin allows generation of solid, 3D printable STL files directly from a SketchUp model. The plugin provides several tools to ease the process of preparing a model for 3D printing:
DoubleCAD If you are a Google SketchUp user wanting to go from concept-to-construction drawings, DoubleCAD XT is an invaluable companion to SketchUp and AutoCAD LT, too. (PC)
GML texturizer This plugin simplifies creation of textured 3D models of urban buildings for Google Earth. Related thread. (PC)
HouseBuilder Tools and classes to support building a house. (Mac + PC)
Moment of Inspiration MoI is a complementary NURBS tool for a polygon-based CAD like SU. Its SU export generates clean N-Gon polygon meshes from NURBS models. (PC)
Pepakura Designer Unfolds 3D models into papercrafts. Compatible with OBJ,
DXF, MQO, 3DS, LWO, STL, KML, KMZ. Some amazing examples.
SketchUp Custom Toolbars Who doesn’t need a set of meticulously-handpicked-by-you-and-none-other tools?.
Sketchyphysics You just have to see what it does!
Synchro Project Constructor is specifically designed to work with SketchUp models. It's a scheduling tool for visualizing how construction phases will occur. (PC)
Tensile Structures A tool collection for the Design of mechanical and pneumatically strained surfaces.
Waybe Unfolds Google SketchUp models into papercrafts. Demo video on YouTube (Mac + PC)

::Exporters + Importers::
eDrawings generates a self-executable file out of SKP. The .exe file contains the viewer as well as the design data. You can also convert it to HTML format and the models can be viewed in the browser. (PC)
EnergyPlus plugin The plugin allows you to launch EnergyPlus simulations and view the results without leaving SketchUp. (PC)
IES plugin toolbar Enables Environmental Performance Analysis directly from SketchUp Model (PC)
IFC2SKP Beta The plugin lets SU to load IFC data from popular BIM apps such as ArchiCAD, Revit and Microstation. (PC)
SketchUp Web Exporter Beta Exports your 3D model for webpages that are viewable without plugins (Mac + PC)
skp_to_dxf.rb Convert Sketchup SKP files to DXF or STL for FREE!
SYCODE Plugins SketchUp data exchange plug-ins that cover 3DM, 3DS, DWG, DXF, IGES, OBJ, STEP, STL, VTK. SYCODE also released SKP file import and export plug-ins for a variety of CAD software - Adobe Acrobat, Alibre Design, AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, Inventor, IRONCAD, INOVATE, Solid Edge, SolidWorks and SpaceClaim.
WalkAbout3d(Beta) WalkAbout3d allows SketchUp users to explore their designs as a full screen real-time walkthrough - all at the press of a button. WalkAbout3d has anaglyph stereoscopic support as standard. YouTube videos
Simmetry 3d Symmetry3D is an enhanced version of WalkAbout3d, and it will allow you to work with 3D terrain, load multiple 3D models, and create animations/simulations. YouTube videos

::Ruby Repositories::
Archsymb_Ruby Library Another place for ruby scripts
Jan Sandström Yet another place for Rubies.
OhYeahCAD Free Software Download Worth a visit.
The SCF Power Toolbar at Quarr-IT NEW! One of most well-thought toolbars for SketchUp. Go to "Ruby" section and don't forget to watch "Tutorials".
Ruby Library Depot THE place for ruby scripts
Smustard.com Brilliant scripts

::Blogs, Forums and Miscellaneous::
Ronen Bekerman A pushpullbar veteran bakbek's blog is about SketchUP, 3d Studio Max, V-Ray, Maxwell Render, Fryrender, Photoshop and more.
Land8 NEW! Land8 is landscape architects' premier social network. Although it is not specifically SU-related website, there are full of SU in it.
Running Sketchup on Wine You may have to jump through some hoops to get it working, and here are how.
John Bacus Interview @Architosh John Bacus, Google’s SketchUp Product Manager, talks about new SketchUp 7 (+Pro 7) and why they didn't go for multi-threading.
SketchUp on Linux How to install SU on Linux via Wine.
SketchUp on Linux with Ruby Scripts Yes, they actually do work.
GraphicConverter An image browser that converts almost any image file format. Skp preview support added to ver.6.2. (Mac)
XnView XnView is an efficient multimedia viewer, browser and converter. A good company with SketchUp. (PC)
Google Earth What? You need an explanation for Google Earth?
Google Great SketchUp Resources Probably the largest depository of links related to SU. Extensive, but not selective.
The Official Google SketchUp Blog That’s what this is.
SketchUp Plugins A blog by Jim Foltz, a SketchUp and Ruby enthusiast.
Design. Click. Build. Learn the art and science of designing furniture in SketchUp, by Dave Richards and Tim Killen.
3D construction modeling A blog by Dennis Fukai. Yes, of course it is about 3D construction models.
Swamp Road Wood Working A blog by Joe Zeh, a cabinetmaker in Massachusetts. There are some SU tutorials and knowledgeable posts on SU and CutList.
Viz.arch A blog by ppb member Tim Danaher. SketchUp in its extreme.

Links via
http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/sketchup/6604-list-sketchup-related-websites.html

Ronen Bekerman 3d architectural visualization

Some quality work by Ronen bekerman.
"RonenBekerman.com is a blog about 3d architectural visualization. If you are interested in modeling and rendering architectural subject matter using software such as SketchUP, 3d Studio Max, V-Ray, Maxwell Render, Fryrender, Photoshop and more, then this is written for you." to find out more...Publish Post

Image via http://www.polytown.co.il/

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Architectural Fantasies

“Architectural fantasy stimulates the architect’s activity, it arouses creative thought not only for the artist but it also educates and arouses all those who come in contact with him; it produces new directions, new quests, and opens new horizons. Architectural fantasy in all cases propels the culture of architectural problems, and with the freshness of new thoughts, with the transition to new phases of architectural creativity, it serves as the best aid in real design work. We also use the help of architectural fantasy in finding a form for presenting architectural representations, in finding images of architecture, in finding the basics with whose help architectural style of our epoch is crystallized." to find out more...
Passage & Image from http://www.icif.ru/Engl/cyc/101/