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::

Google SketchUp Help Group

•SketchUp General

•Using SketchUp

•SketchUp Issues

•SketchUp Pro

•LayOut

•StyleBuilder

•3D Warehouse General

•Feature Suggestions

•Ruby Ideas

•Gallery

•LayOut (beta)

•Files

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

•SketchUp How-To

•Deutschsprachiges Anwendergroup

•Ruby API

•GIS and SketchUp

•Materials/Components/Styles

•Corner Bar

•Pro Gallery

•Files

SketchUcation Home of the SketchUp Community

•Newbies

•SketchUp Discussions

•Layout

•Tutorials

•Components, Materials & Styles

•Gallery

•Ruby Discussions

•Extensions & Applications Discussions

•Woodworking Discussions

•Corner Bar

•Other Languages

pushpullbar.com

•Design Studio

•Architecture+Design Bar

•Orbit Lounge

•Media Room

•Techincal Department

List of Sketchup UserGroups (go-2-school.com)

::Tutorials and FAQs::

3D Basecamp 2008 video recordings of the event.

Google Video Tutorials

Google Self Paced Tutorials

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

SketchUp Plugins Ruby Scripts by Jim Foltz.

Smustard.com Brilliant scripts

Visual Index of Ruby Scripts Please contribute.

::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.

Other Useful Websites (SUWiki)

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/

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/

bonzai3d 1.2 new release

Really hope google sketchup can be enhanced with some of bonzai3d's modelling features. Although Bonzai3d do not consist of animations or walkthrough functions, with it's powerful tools and user friendly interface, it is definitely worth an invest of time in it. It's NURBs modelling and flexible modification tools are truely making our life easier.

Image from http://www.bonzai3d.com/bonzai3d_homeN.html

AT 103 + BGP ARCHITECTURE / ‘AVE FENIX’ FIRE STATION

An interesting collaboration work of a Fire Station by AT103 and BGP Architecture.
A video via http://www.0300tv.com/2009/10/at-103-bgp-architecture-ave-fenix-fire-station/ for your browsing pleasure. to find out more...
Image via http://archleague.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/at103-1.jpg

Sustainability Tracking, Assesment & Rating System

"Three years ago, many of you called for a campus sustainability rating system so we could have a consistent way of measuring sustainability in higher education. After three years of research, a pilot program with nearly 70 participants and plenty of collaboration with you, AASHE is pleased to announce the early release of AASHE's Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) 1.0. STARS is a voluntary self-reporting framework for gauging relative progress toward sustainability for colleges and universities. It awards points for engaging in sustainability practices in each of 3 major categories: education and research, operations, and planning, administration and engagement. STARS provides a standard, comprehensive way to compare the sustainability performance of higher education institutions and to measure a single institution's progress over time. Institutions are now able to register to become a STARS Charter Participant at www.aashe.org/stars! STARS Charter Participants will be among the first to receive a STARS rating after submitting the required documentation. Any school can participate in STARS and there is a discounted fee for AASHE members. In addition, fees to participate are significantly reduced until the end of the year. The process for participating in STARS and details about the credits and submission information are included in the STARS 1.0 Early Release Technical Manual that is available on the STARS webpage."

to find out more...

Passage & Image from Paul Rowland

AASHE Executive Director

Sketchup 7.1

Ramblings on Design Rationality

During school days, architectural designs are cool, reflecting style, revealing thoughts and even treated as a form of art. Later years, structural issues comes in, we need columns, beams and feasibility studies adding a sense of realism. It can be built.

At work, modulation is the basis of building things.300mm, is the figure, to be able to divide or a multiplication of it. Elevations, plans, steps, stairs, tiles, window openings, door openings, storey height works well with modulation. Most importantly modulation reduces cost and manufacturing processes require a minimum number of 100 moles to be an effective process with cost incurred. With floor to wall ratio, we even now succumbed to flat elevations, to reach the most cost effective way of building things.

Flat is what we want. We design it flat, for cost saving, for modulation, for effectiveness, for energy studies, for clean surfaces.

This as industrial design for highly effective industrial manufacturing purposes, it works well and feed the purposes for cost issues.

Imagination succumbed to realism.

Bread and butter job is an industrial process, gaining the most cost effective way, yet as a designer, we opted some spice through the colors, the layout, the treatment and so on with constrains of cost.

For those who complained so much about constrains and feasibilities studies, my advice is - learn to have appreciation for it. Only effective designs are to be built and developed. I hope people nowadays would appreciate more than making complains for their daily work and I am learning to appreciate too most of the time.

Change your angle of view and there would be a different side of world opening up for you.

MiesArch European Prize 2009

"MiesArch European Prize is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe. The principal objectives are to recognise and commend excellence in the field of architecture and to draw attention to the important contribution of European professionals in the development of new concepts and technologies. The Prize also sets out to promote the profession by encouraging architects working throughout the entire European Union and by supporting young architects as they set off on their careers." to find out more...

Image featuring Mountain Dwellings by BIG ARCHITECTS
downloaded from http://www.miesarch.com/press
by Jens Lindhe

DALLAS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DEE AND CHARLES WYLY THEATRE

"Dallas Theater Center (DTC) is recognized as one of the country’s few innovative theater companies located outside the triumvirate of New York, Chicago, and Seattle. Ironically, the company’s artistic success can be attributed largely to its provisional accommodations in a dilapidated, galvanized metal shed. Free of the need to respect its architectural surroundings, the group regularly challenged its art’s physical conventions. The company’s makeshift residence also allowed it to be multi-form: throughout its season, DTC routinely reconfigured its stage. Imagining a new home for DTC posed two distinct challenges. First, like a restaurant renovation which polishes out the character that made the original establishment successful, the creation of a pristine venue threatened to stultify the environment that had facilitated the company’s originality." to find out more...

Image & Passage from http://www.rex-ny.com/work/wyly-theatre/

11th International Bauhaus-Colloquium 2009 - Call for Papers

"An acephalous power has superseded imperialism, if we can believe Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. This new world order that they call ‘Empire’ transgresses all the inherited divisions of political thought, such as state and society, war and peace, control and freedom, core and periphery. It is a diffuse Foucauldian network of economic, military, political, cultural and social power, “in a permanent state of emergency and exception justified by the appeal to essential values [...].” The decentered and deterritorializing Empire rules through biopolitics, a form of power that regulates social life from within, directly affecting the minds and bodies of the citizens via media, machines and social practices.

The 11th International Bauhaus Colloquium in April 2009 in Weimar asks how architecture responds to the Empire.

The Bauhaus Colloquia are the oldest and most esteemed conferences on architectural theory in the German speaking world. The last five meetings – Power (1993), Technofiction (1996), Global Village (1999), Medium Architecture (2003) and The Reality of the Imaginary (2007) – have focused on the effect of changing social and technological conditions on the practice of architecture. The next colloquium will take on the political challenges of our world." to find out more...

Passage from http://www.uni-weimar.de/cms/en/university/faculty-of-architecture/lecturers/

entwerfen-und-architekturtheorie/atheo/bauhaus-kolloquium/bhk2009/cfp2009.html

Teaching Architecture Learning Architecture

"Young people go to university with the aim of becoming architects, of finding out if they have got what it takes. What is the first thing we should teach them?

First of all, we must explain that the person standing in front of them is not someone who asks questions whose answers he already knows. Practicing architecture is asking oneself questions, finding one's own answers with the help of the teacher, whittling down, finding solutions. Over and over again.

The strength of a good design lies in ourselves and in our ability to perceive the world with both emotion and reason. A good architectural design is sensuous. A good architectural design is intelligent.

We all experience architecture before we have even heard the word. The roots of architectural understanding lie in our architectural experience: our room, our house, our street, our village, our town, our landscape - we experience them all early on, unconsciously, and we subsequently compare them with the countryside, towns and houses that we experience later on. The roots of our understanding of architecture lie in our childhood, in our youth; they lie in our biography. Students have to learn to work consciously with their personal biographical experiences of architecture. Their allotted tasks are devised to set this process in motion." to find out more...

Passage from http://www.archidose.org/Jun99/061499a.htm by Lars Muller

Commentary from Kevin Mark Low

Apart from the interesting work, what stands behind is more appealing.

"All architects seek frame of reference in design.

Some seek it in style and others in theory, it comes down to personal choice and our instinctive need for reference and context. Mostly, we are moved by and drawn to originality, the expression of singular thought.

Originality is quite commonly found in published work. Due primarily to the speed and proliferation of published architectural material, architects have begun to gauge and be gauged themselves with reference to the publishing eye; we to ooften aspire to an international fraternity of the avant garde, to design staples of a western paradigm. Being drawn to what has been deemed good by virtue of inclusion, we often relive the strength of that originality in our work; we subtly duplicate the aesthetics of design already realized, believing it to be our own.

Unintentionality is no absolution.

Plagiarism is the act of engaging in the context of duplicating originality.

There is a deeper frame of reference for style and theory called place specificity: it is the context of our own originality. When one chooses to draw from place or site specificity, the search for meaning in what we do comes to resolution since nothing inspires greater meaning than the uniqueness of context.

In design one constantly finds oneself treading the fine line between repeating oneself (or another) and being spontaneous in creativity. The originality of an outcome depends almost entirely on its response to its specific context." to find out more...

Passage featuring plagiarism from http://www.small-projects.com/short/commentary.html

Image featuring steel on steal and board form house from http://www.small-projects.com/short/w08.html and http://www.small-projects.com/short/w24.html

Estudio Carme Pinos

Interesting projects from Estudio Carme Pinos Architects you cannot miss! to find out more...
Images featuring Cube Tower in Guadalajara in Mexico from http://www.cpinos.com/english/home-eng.html#inferior

Vicente Guallart Architect

"With all the respect that assumes building in the frontline of the sea, this buildings, of squared plan, Project themselves according to new space organizations and functions with the objective of profiting the maximum the sea location of the site. One of the differential factors has been the relation between the rooms and the big terrace that surrounds them, conceived literally to enhance and enlarge each apartment. By folding doors and curtains we can have terraces follow essential elements for the circulation in the terraces. The kitchen and bathrooms look over exterior. The sea can be seen from the bathrooms. Another remarkable condition: the water elements are placed in the façade, reflect the surroundings and generate a relation between the interior skin and the exterior of colored glasses. " to find out more...

Image & Passage featuring 34 APARTMENTS CAMBRILS from http://www.guallart.com/01projects/Cambrils/default.htm