SimLab Android / iPad exporter for SketchUp

Simlab Soft has developed SimLab Android / iPad exporter for SketchUp. This newest sketchup extension is compatible with SketchUp 8, SketchUp 2013, SketchUp 2014, SketchUp 2015, SketchUp 2016, SketchUp 2017, SketchUp 2018.

The plugin is available in different languages like English, French, German, Japanese etc.

The plugin is suitable for various industries which range from Architecture, Construction, Education, Engineering, Film & Stage, Gaming, Heavy Civil, Interior Design, Kitchen & Bath, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Woodworking.

The plugin allows the users to export SketchUp 3D models, in *.zim file format which can be viewed on iPad/iPhone and Android devises.

With the use of SimLab CAD Viewer for iPad/iPhone/Android, it is possible to read the produced *.zim files.

One can send request for a trial license to utilize this plugin. With the trial license, the user will be able to apply the plugin for 30 times (trial license will be expired automatically after completion of one month).

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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.sketchup4architect.com
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SketchUp Extension Review: TrueBend

Arguably the most popular 3D modeling and design software on earth, Trimble SketchUp gathers its immense following and customer base due to the user-friendliness and flexibility of the application. The flexibility comes from the enabling of adding external code, called “extensions” or “plugins”, into SketchUp. These extensions enhance the way SketchUp tools behave, add new tools or new content to enrich and ease your usage of the software.

One of the points to remember while intending to use SketchUp extensions is that only the SketchUp Pro version or above allows the users to import extensions within it. The Free, Make or Shop versions do not have this ability.

Most extensions for SketchUp are found in the Extension Warehouse from Trimble, which has released the 2.0 version of it recently with new and improved features. Other third-party web sites also host SketchUp extensions. One of these Extensions is called TrueBend, and it is that of which we will talk about today.

What is TrueBend

TrueBend from Thom Thom is a quite popular Trimble SketchUp extension found in the Extension Warehouse. When integrated with SketchUp, it enables the user to bend a given object for a certain degree. It will retain the original length of the object instance. The plugin uses the bottom front of the bounding box edge, therefore the user needs to line up the instant axis line up with the bend.

How TrueBend Works

The TrueBend plugin helps the user in bending an object within SketchUp for a given radius. It will also help you to bend the instance while maintaining the length of the object. Let us take an example to understand this better. Consider that the user wishes to bow a shape 60 inches long and the curvature of the bend is 180 degrees. To do this, the user needs to select ‘TrueBend’ in the menus or toolbar, and then click and drag the red bar on the SketchUp design screen to bend the object. Alternatively, you can click the red bar and enter the curvature value in degrees in the VCB for a precise manual curving. After finishing the dragging, or hitting enter after giving the value, you will see that the object instance has bowed to form the expected shape yet it still retains the original length.
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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.sketchup4architect.com
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"Breaking SketchUp model into Parts for 3D Printing"

SketchUp specialists Aidan Chopra has discussed a process which is simple enough for users who want to break their SketchUp models into parts for 3D printing.

While doing 3D printing in SktechUp, users need to run into the need to spilt the model into parts. There are though some ideas are big to fit into the 3D printer’s build volume but other ideas want to be 3D printed in a rainbow of colored plastic or sometimes needs to be split to make it easy to print.

Almost everything can designed in 3D with SketchUp and who have splattered in 3D drawing or are interested to learn the basics of design, SketchUp for Dummies has made it faster and easier to learn the ropes of a powerful, user-friendly tool that bring life into the design ideas. Users can get guidance here from creating a basic 3D model to showcase their work through 3D print or animation, literally everything in SketchUp that can help in anywhere like from redesigning the house to mocking up the future great invention. More than that, SketchUp’s vast usability has gotten very wide success as a tool that even non-designers can also make basic drawings; there are also many expert tips from former SketchUp product director Aidan Chopra and co-author Rebecca Huehls that help to draw and access SketchUp.

Aidan has described a process which will help users to cut the SketchUp model in the right time and right way.

Place to cut the SketchUp model:

while subdividing a SketchUp model into printable parts, always users need to find the right place to start and to think what to do with the seams. Like if users want to go to sand, paint and finish the model then can do it and cut at any place but sanding and finishing is a huge work to do while it will become much easier if anyone make cuts and seams look like they are international parts of model. Another good place to hide a cut is at a change in elevation, curvature or color; if users place a seam where the surface of a part is interrupted already, it will not be noticeable enough.

It is a good idea to pick something around us that is made of plastic and find the seams where the parts can combine together, and if that type of seam can be imitated people will notice and accept it faster. It will be seen as a realistic one and people will think that the 3D printed part came from a factory. If the constructions are large, then the only option may be to establish a grid and cut into build-volume-size blocks.

Process to cut the SketchUp model:

• elect the group and make a new group around it where the original one will become a subgroup.
• Then work inside the new group, create geometry in the shape of the cut.
• After that, make new geometry into its own group.
• Select Cutter Object> choose Edit> Intersect Faces with Context.
• Inside each group, use Explode to stick the intersection lines, cutting object and base object.
• Move back out to the master group and make copies.
• In each copy, open the group for editing and erase unnecessary parts.
• Run CleanUp3 on the new parts and use Solid Inspector2 to check accidental holes.
• Place the parts back together as lines should be

Source: wwww.dummies.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"Turning 2D Typography or a Survey to 3D Terrain in SketchUp"

SketchUp professionals have found many ways to make the work of SketchUp users easy and faster, turning a 2D topography into 3D terrain has become easier with some simple steps.

Creating a SketchUp Topography or topographic map can be a huge painful work, but here we are going to discuss the process of creating topography in SketchUp through some simple steps.

• At first users need to import Google map into the project but before that the terrain must be toggled on.
• Then users have to create a grouped rectangle that covers the total site, next they can copy this rectangle up as per required increment or can copy all the rectangles and lastly group them together.
• Next users need to move their rectangles off to the side or can hide them so that the imported Google earth terrain can be seen. Then unlock and explode the imported terrain.
• After that, the grouped rectangles need to move over the terrain again or can unhide it.
• Users have to press Ctrl+A to select all, R-click on one of the groups; then they have to scroll down to Intersect Faces and Select with Selection.
• Hide or delete the slicing planes and the topographic map will be created.

From a survey to 3D people are facing a little difficulty while transforming a 2D topography into a 3D terrain in SketchUp, this article is just going to focus on the problem and describing few steps to clear this matter.

Importing the Image:

• File > Import is the first step is to import the image that Users want to convert from a 2D survey to 3D terrain or topography. The following steps are: 1) select “import” from the file tab from the lower right dropdown menu and then select “supported image type”. 2) Image should be in a graphic scale so can it can be scald in SketchUp properly, at last select the right image and click “import”.
• Next the image should be placed and roughly scaled to the correct size, for accurate scale select the tape measure tool and click from one end of the graphic scale to the other.
• Next a message will appear on the screen asking if users want to resize the model with a pop-up named “ yes” it must be clicked before begin modeling of anything.
• After that, users can change the view from perspective by navigating to “camera” and selecting “parallel projection”. Then select the follow path- camera > standard view > top which will give a top view to trace easily.

Tracing Topography:

• The first step starts with Tracing the perimeter property line and then tracing the topographic contour lines within the boundary with the help of Line tool.
• Next delete faces using following path: click on “select” > “all with same material” and hit delete.

Converting Survey to 3D model:

press ‘ctrl’, click and drag mouse to select the property boundary lines, now click on “edit” and click make group option. Now move the 2D contour lines by selecting one and pressing the “up arrow” and type the needed height. Next highlight all the lines and deselect the property line from the following path: draw > sandbox > and select from contours. Now draw some additional contour lines beyond the property line replicating other contours, next select each line and change the height to correspond with the decreasing increments of the original contour lines and follow the steps again.

Source: 

www.designerhacks.com/

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"It is easier to discover New Favorite models in SketchUp"

Google SketchUp team has been improving their tools and models continuously, at first they have released the new updated SketchUp Pro 2019 and then they released new 3D Warehouse.

The whole SketchUp team has been discussing to bring SketchUp lovers the newest development in the life of their products; they proudly announced a brand new way to purchase all the SketchUp products which is the SketchUp Subscription. They have offered the best value so that users and SketchUp lovers can easily choose the perfect combination of SketchUp for every project, workflow or creative concept.

About Extension Warehouse: It is an online resource with various plug-ins developed made especially for SketchUp and these extensions help to add some special tools and features to SketchUp. These extensions can be found for any particular application like drawing or 3D printing and some industry specified tools for architecture, interior design, construction and many more. So basically in this Extension Warehouse people can do the following things:

• Users can search extensions by name or as per the functionality.
• They can also install various extensions with a single click of a button.
• Or users can also control all the extensions from easy-to-use location in the My Extension page.

But there are millions of models and 17 languages in the 3D warehouse of SketchUp Pro 2019 tht makes it difficult to find the right one that can be used on the tools. SketchUp users have been facing this difficulty from a very long time so the SketchUp team has done something to fix this problem as they don’t want that their customers may miss their perfect model and they want to help in discovering som hidden gems in SketchUp 3D Warehouse. SketchUp team proudly announced the release of Categories on 3D Warehouse; these categories will help the users to easily search and browse in the world’s largest 3D model library. Here are the most improved features and the categories discussed that will help to figure the things out:

• Better browsing: The new updated 3D Warehouse has come with better browsing experience to do the heavy lifting through the following steps- 1. At first users need to start with an “empty search”, 2. Then they have to select a Category, 3. There, they can watch the search results update and 4. Can get inspired.
• Refining the search: The quality of search based as per the text of the author that uses to describe their model and if description doesn’t match with model the Selecting a Category will help to filter out the models that aren’t relate to the description.
• Sorting by Subcategory: There will be millions of categories from which users can get their own models but if they want any specific one the Subcategory option will help to select the exact model.
• Filtering by real-world products: Users can now search their needed buyable 3D models from the Manufacturer Model filter option where they can easily find and buy models.
• Categorizing the models: Categorization option in SketchUp 3D Warehouse has just begun which can be made better with the help of users like users can themselves categorize models as their own need. Actually categories make it easier to find right great content on 3D Warehouse, even there is no title or description or it can be in different language

Source: www.blog.sketchup.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"New features about SketchUp Pro 2019"

The whole team of SketchUp Headquarters has proudly announced the newest SketchUp subscription of SketchUp Pro 2019 where users can get all the favorite products to work.

According to the developers, SketchUp Free is the simplest, consistent 3D modeling till date that will help the user to access, learn and share the models with others easily. It has been more than a year at SKetchUp Headquarters with huge amounts of coffee consumed and after a long wait, SketchUp HQ finally released SketchUp Pro’s new version SketchUp Pro 2019.

The whole SketchUp team has been discussing to bring SketchUp lovers the newest development in the life of their products; they proudly announced a brand new way to purchase all the SketchUp products which is the SketchUp Subscription. They have offered the best value so that users and SketchUp lovers can easily choose the perfect combination of SketchUp for every project, workflow or creative concept.

This is a real opportunity to challenge the team itself to earn users’ business every single day by continuously improving the tools which are needed and loved whole year. The new ways to buy SketchUp is on their website; still the team has been working to bring subscriptions for years as according them it is the best way to deliver more value to the users in a single package. Their shift in new business will make it easier for new users to buy SketchUp and for current users; even more SketchUp products can be easily available. Besides that, this shift in business will help to keep them accountable to run business by releasing new features as often as possible; this is a challenge for them which they have taken proudly and moved process from an annual update cycle to a continuous cycle.

The new version has become faster and more powerful than ever before with bug fixes, system improvements and some wonderful new features. Here are a few of the highlighted features:

SketchUp Pro 2019 for Desktop: Just need to Sign in and modeling will be started; everything in SketchUp-iverse is now combined together with one single account to make modeling, viewing, account management and many more. In SketchUp Pro & LayOut 2019, Layers now come with dashed lines which can allow simplifying drawings with effective drawing communications. While the Tape Measure tool can help to see measurement info in the modeling.

LayOut: It will help the users to know which files are ready to open; in both SketchUp and LayOut there are many improvements t the .dwg import and export feature. There is also the ability to import and export with materials for better BIM interoperability and workflows. An “ Export for SketchUp” feature between SketchUp and LayOut feature .dwg exporter will send all LayOut entitles along with any SketchUp viewport data to the model space.

Trimble Connect: It will welcome users to a new world of efficient workflows and cloud collaboration; their 3D modeling sharing and document management tool is fully focused on projects related to building design and construction.

SketchUp for Web: The team has added a ‘live preview’ for image exports; after signing in to SketchUp for Web when users open a model and go to File>Export>PNG, it will recompose model as taking a snapshot at the desired image ratio.

SketchUp Viewer for AR/VR: SketchUp Viewer is now also available on more VR headsets than earlier, just need to access to every single one with a SketchUp Pro subscription. Oculus, Windows Mixed Reality, VIVE and Hololens are all running SketchUp Viewer.

SketchUp Campus: SketchUp’s official learning hub is known as SketchUp Campus where SketchUp-built courses all created by their in-house team that make SketchUp convenient abd simple in 104 languages.

3D Warehouse: The 3D Warehouse has millions of models and 17 languages from where it is difficult to find the right thing on time so new version has come with categories which boasts better browsing, search refinement, subcategories and filtering by real products etc. that helps fast searching in less time.

Sefaira: Those who are working in a firm that has a focus on performance-based design, SketchUp’s Safaira is like a subscription through SketchUp Radio.

Source: www.blog.sketchup.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"An extension ecosystem with Christina Eneroth”

SketchUp is a most loved extension all over the world with lot of extensions of work on 3D models; Christina Eneroth has added some new extensions which are lacking in it.

The SketchUp extension is full of wonderful tools or commands that make the 3D modeling in SketchUp much easier; users can download all these tools or extensions and upload their models in the warehouse for others. It is an online resource with various plug-ins developed made especially for SketchUp and these extensions help to add some special tools and features to SketchUp. These extensions can be found for any particular application like drawing or 3D printing and some industry specified tools for architecture, interior design, construction and many more.

But there are some tools which are still not found in SketchUp Extension there Julia Christina Eneroth starts here work. She builds those tools or commands for users and she has been doing it since a long time. She is a designer and developer in SketchUp and till now has published about 66 extensions and plugins to Extension Warehouse; she also has created virtually her very own 3D modeling ecosystem.

First experience with SketchUp: Julia Christina Eneroth was first introduced to SketchUp while working on shadowing an architect in elementary school; she downloaded the free version and worked at home. In those earlier days, SketchUp download took a very long time and 3D Warehouse had a 10 MB file size limit so there wasn’t much space to publish models.

First extensions in SketchUp: Her first script was for assigning layers to geometry called Scholss Eneburg, a castle with many levels with different ceiling heights and floors. It became impossible to look inside the model with SketchUp’s native section cut tool so she thought to write her first ever SketchUp Ruby script. But as the quality of the code was not that strong so she abandoned some projects, made some small changes and there she learned about code readability, decoupling and organization the hard way. According to here, while developing an extension anyone must think about its intended scope; as adding an extra feature in extension is easy but adding it without a scope will make it messy.

The Castle Project: Julia is always been fascinated by castles and once she started a high school project on castle which took a long time, her lots of hard work and skills on SketchUp. Though it was a single project, but actually it was a combination of all her previous works and made her learn about SketchUp.

Her new ideas about new extensions: All of her new extensions are created as her own need of modeling workflow and these extensions at first start as a few lines of code or a single line which she writes in the Ruby console to make it easier. After that, she builds a proper UI, designs the icons, writes documentation and creates images to describe it.

Julia’s five favorite extensions:

• Swift Layer Visibility Control: It makes layer visibility control more flowing; she created it as a shortcut for hiding the selected layers. Another shortcut shows all layers and another one re-hides all layers that were last shown and created by Eneroth herself.
• Selection Toys: It is made by Thom Thom and a must-have product that allows users to select existence by a certain criteria often based on the previous selected to make modeling more efficient.
• Tool Memory: Designed by Eneroth, it helps to swap back and forth between tools without having to move fingers to the different shortcuts.
• Solid Tools
• Solid Inspector

Native extensions to SketchUp: Though according to her, very few extensions are native to SktechUp, but Weld should be a native command.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"Classical Architectural Modelers talked about nine Workflow tips”

Classical Architectural modelers of Holygon have been working on 3D models since a long time and they apply some kind of tips for perfect models.

Holygon is a Swedish Company that specializes in making historically-precise digital models for visual and 3D printing applications. At 3D Basecamp 2018, Founders Andres Lyhagen and Felix Heuman have presented how to accurately model urban spaces for 3D printing; they also shared their top workflow tips with the whole SketchUp community.

It combines deep knowledge of traditional design principles with command of recent digital technology to create state-of-art digital and physical 3D models of cities, architecture and other bespoke forms. They specialized in accuracy-modeling large urban cityscapes and individual buildings ready for true-to-life full-color 3D printing. Besides, they also program custom 3D tools, teach the art of 3D and visualize 3D models.

3D Basecamp 2018: 3D Basecamp is a much awaited place for all types of SketchUppers where they meet to teach, learn and inspire each other and this time 3D basecamp is going to held in Palm Springs at California from September 24th to 28th 2018. It is the program of a full week which most probably will be the best week for all the SketchUp lovers as they can develop their 3D modeling skills, increase the social circle by connecting with more people and can view the beauty of California.

The first two days will only be focused on SketchUp Bootcamp training track where the bootcamp meetings will be hands-on workshops that are exact for learning SketchUp or just simple upgrading the industrial workflows. After that there will be a 3 day conference which is the most popular 3D basecamp ticket which includes the main Basecamp conference track with a set of bootcamp training workshops for both novice and medium SketchUp users. The total 5 days conference and training both can be attained by the specified ticket. By signing up for the 3D basecamp Conference and Essential Training ticket, SketchUppers can get the chance to take SketchUp 102 and 201 courses, a basic training for architectural design, design/build and interior design. Besides that, there is an important agenda of presentations like details and estimates, drones and scanning, VR and Visualization, 3D printing and CNC, concept art and prop making, low-poly and many more.

• Here are workflow tips to follow while modeling in SketchUp:
• Control the expression: Their initial drafts are fully hand-drawn as they follow traditional principles and use traditional elements like pedestals, columns, entablature etc.
• Quality references: They always search the highest quality measured drawings of a certain order; with quality they never take a risk.
• Know your form: Seeing a thing in a way matters while working on it.
• Know the tools: SketchUp has always multiple solutions for every challenge, like there are lots of tools to work. Before working on any design, it is important to know the exact tools to use as it will add perfection.
• Draw contours: Drawing in 2D may take longer than finishing 3D volumes but using shortcuts will help to make the exact layers.
• Solid: modeling in all solids needs discipline and solid modeling principle is a fierce teacher but also a better option.
• Components: It helps both performance and model management as it applies at multiple abstraction levels.
• Combining independent parts: Always make separate parts of a design and then combine them it will give the sharp edged model.
• Finalizing model: They finalize models after completing all other parts.

Sourcewww.blog.sketchup.com/article

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"Adobe Dimension 2.0 is 3D for Graphic Designers”

Trimble Navigation is very excited to join with Adobe in announcing that native SketchUp interoperability has been added to Adobe Dimension 2.0.

Trimble Navigation is so excited and happy to share their announcement with everyone about their new ways of working with Adobe with using it. Here are some information about Adobe Max and Adobe Dimension 2.0.

Adobe Max: With Adobe everything is about the design process and their designs are being published at their annual creative conference called Adobe MAX. This year they have made it more impressive as the software giant is currently at its most improved with a focus on virtual reality, artificial intelligence and accommodating new programs to encourage the current generation of creative people. This huge seminar includes about 12000 creatives including influencers, guests, designers and developers from all over the world, for what was the biggest output the conference has ever seen. It was a grand opportunity to explore ideas, learn from experienced persons and influencers; besides that it became a new discussion platform to start a new era of art and technology for starting something fresh and new.

Adobe Dimension 2.0.: This New Year has been a wild ride like aggressively expel new features and abilities, engaging with Adobe’s user base and hearing peoples’ stories of exploring the new Dimension and upgrading new partnerships for Adobe across the wider 3D ecosystem. All of this has been included in this year’s Adobe MAX where they are launching the biggest update of Dimension so far which is Dimension v2.0 in front of the world’s creators, storytellers and our best friends.

Adobe Dimension v1.0 had come in the market a year before and it showed the world a new type of creative space, it is the one that brought the macrocosms of 2D graphic design and 3D modeling together into one simple tool. Dimension became an important tool for traditional Illustrator and Photoshop users as it gave a spatial context to classic graphic design work such as product packaging, product photo shoots and apparel design. For architects and interior designs, Adobe Dimension offered a new method to work with presentation renderings while for artists it helped them by blurring the line between 2D and 3D.

After releasing of the new version Dimension v2.0 the whole Adobe become very busy; they have improved the interoperability between Dimension and the rest of Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications. Now this new release can natively reads SketchUp models with 100% fidelity so all the designs will now become more lively and beautiful than ever. 3D working will add more vibrant in the designs in every field, users now can create more new and creative designs for their clients and customers. People who are already subscriber of Adobe Creative Cloud can have the full release of Dimension to use and can also share their Dimension projects on the SketchUp 3D Warehouse with the #dimension for further share and use.

Sourcewww.blog.sketchup.com/article



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Published By
Rajib Dey
www.sketchup4architect.com
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"Using images for Scaling and Geometry patterns in SketchUp”

SketchUp 2018 has added a new class in ruby, the ImageRep which goes further and allows the users to look at the images on a pixel by pixel basis.

The new version of SketchUp, SketchUp 2018 has included a new class in ruby which is called the ImageRep. It is like the opposite of the regular Image class which users use to work while working with images as entities in SketchUp; this ImageRep class goes further and allows the users to look at the images on a pixel by pixel basis.

Overall, ImageRep is a referenced image representation object.

Instance Method Summary:

• #bits_per_pixel: this method gets the number of bits per pixel in the image.
• #color_at_uv: this method returns a color corresponding to the UV texture coordinates.
• #colors: this method returns an array of Color for each pixel in the image.
• #data: this method gets the pixel data for an image in a string of bytes.
• #height: this method returns the height of an image.
• #initialize: this method creates a new image object.
• #load-file: this method loads images data from the specified file.
• #row_padding: this method returns the size of the row padding of an image in bytes.
• #save_file: this method saves an image data object to an image file specified by a path.
• #set_data: this method sets the pixel data of the ImageRep.
• #size: this method gets the total size of the image data in bytes.
• #width: this method returns the width of an image.

The model is done by Alexander Schreyer; he is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Building and Construction Technology program at the University of Massachusetts. He is also the author of “Architectural Design with SketchUp” and of various SketchUp plugins, including the Sketchfab uploader. Alexander has created a code snippet also to make understand the users about the making of the 3D model and he also created a demonstrative video link is: https://bit.ly/2B1MHZM ; this code is reasonably straightforward once one figures out the basic geometry behavior.

The code also stretches the image by the dimensions of the selected geometry; the code applies the image data as a scaling in 2 to objects; so users can rather move things round then need to replace that with a translation. The line below demonstrates about the look; he made two changes in this new version; one is that he is inverting the effect simply by including (1- scale) and the other is that he didn’t want fraction values for the scale but rather only zeroes and ones. This is made by rounding the scale with .round.

Though the color information in an image is needed to resolve that contained red, green and blue data, as it is not very useful here, since a single scaling factor is needed. So he added a small routine to convert those to grayscale at values from white to black.

Almost everything can designed in 3D with SketchUp and who have splattered in 3D drawing or are interested to learn the basics of design, SketchUp for Dummies has made it faster and easier to learn the ropes of a powerful, user-friendly tool that bring life into the design ideas. Users can get guidance here from creating a basic 3D model to showcase their work through 3D print or animation, literally everything in SketchUp that can help in anywhere like from redesigning the house to mocking up the future great invention. More than that, SketchUp’s vast usability has gotten very wide success as a tool that even non-designers can also make basic drawings; there are also many expert tips from former SketchUp product director Aidan Chopra and co-author Rebecca Huehls that help to draw and access SketchUp.

So, this is basically what the SketchUp users need to be able to read pixel color values and then use those to create or modify geometry.

Sourcewww.sketchupfordesign.com/tutorials/scripting/

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"FredoCorner is the new SketchUp extension”

Fredo6 has released their new extension named FredoCorner which is an upgrade version of previous RoundCorner that become now a paid version to work in the corners and splits.

Justin Geis: Justin Geis is the founder of The SketchUp Essentials and started using SketchUp while he was working as a general contractor in 2008 and after using it he found that SketchUp is extremely powerful that he just started to use it in his personal works also. Then he started The SketchUp Essentials as a place where he could share his ideas of using SketchUp easily through some tutorials and tips to help other users controlling the power of 3D Modeling in everyday lives.

About Extension Warehouse: It is an online resource with various plug-ins developed made especially for SketchUp and these extensions help to add some special tools and features to SketchUp. These extensions can be found for any particular application like drawing or 3D printing and some industry specified tools for architecture, interior design, construction and many more. So basically in this Extension Warehouse people can do the following things:

• Users can search extensions by name or as per the functionality.
• They can also install various extensions with a single click of a button.
• Or users can also control all the extensions from easy-to-use location in the My Extension page.

FredoCorner is a new extension from Fredo6 designed to help the users in generating rounded corners or edges within SketchUp; this extension is as similar as the old RoundCorner extension, but it creates rounded edges with an improved algorithm and also has added some new tools. It works in stripping of edges and corners of 3D shapes, in 3D modes: Round, Bevel and Subdivision Mesh; this tool also has a Repair tool to undo any kind of generated shape rounding. But it doesn’t exchange the old RoundCorner extension and remains supported as it will become a paid plugin after a 2-3 month free period.

FredoCorner is placed on a different algorithm and has many additional features, like:

• Handling more difficult shapes with triangulation at vertices
• Subdivision mesh
• Repair/ Undo/ Redo
• Preview mode
• Asymmetrical offset
• Variable offset with borders
• Works across boundaries of groups and Components
• Corners are symmetrical
• Edible corner profiles with Squrcles and Bezier
• More types of corner geometrics are supported

New functions of FredoCorner:

• It is may be the biggest change within FedoCorner as it is opposed to RoundCorner where the corners are all balanced and they can be edited with the Profile Rounding Function; this tool allows users to adjust the way of creating rounded curves with FredoCorner.
• This new upgraded tool also offers the ability for reversing the curves that allow creating corners which move both inward and outward.
• This extension can also handle much more difficult corners now than previous did in RoundCorner.
• There is a new preview button added which helps users to quickly view the created geometry with the look without creating it.
• Besides that, it also allows live editing the curves by clicking and dragging with preview mode active.
• The offset line lengths can also be edited now by clicking on them and adding a new value; users can offset individual lines or full offset by double clicking.
• The major thing is that users can now select a group or component and active FredoCorner without editing the raw geometry.
• There is also a subdivide function that allows to split object into squads that allows users to use an extension like SubD or Artisan to subdivide the shapes without any deformation.

SketchUp or Google SketchUp is mainly a3D modeling computer program that is used for a broad range of drawing applications used by architects, interior designer, landscape architects, civil and mechanical engineers, film and video game designers also. SketchUp can be getting as a freeware version named SketchUp Make and a paid version with many more extra benefits called SketchUp Pro. SketchUp is software from Trimble Company and there is an online library of free model congregations and 3D Warehouse to which users can add other models; besides that, the program has drawing layout functionality with variable ‘styles’, supports third-party ‘plug-in’ programs hosted on the Extension Warehouse to supply other abilities and enables placement of its models in Google Earth. As SketchUp users are most of architects, designers, builders, makers and engineers etc. who works hard to give a nice shape to our physical world, they need great tools to do the work. SketchUp is in mission to bring their best to produce some great tools for drawing as drawing is the key thing of the SketchUp users. They draw to search ideas, to identify the things and to show other people their work that they do with love and love to build; SketchUp understands it truly and trying to improve their software day by day. SketchUp is a worth useful software for its ease of use, it can be downloaded or installed o computer and right after that user can work on it. Though SketchUp can easily handle but still there are some sides where people will find some difficulties and lots of solve also are there like YouTube tutorials upon SketchUp or visiting SketchUp website or search Google etc. But people will get confused to have lots of information from different places upon one thing so there should a proper place or website where all the answers can be found.

Source:www.thesketchupessentials.com/fredocorner/

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"Downloading free Textures from Poliigon and using them in SketchUp/VRAY Renderings”

Textures add the realistic look in any model and Poliigon’s website is full of different textures which will increase the rendering view in SketchUp 3D models or in Vray.

Justin Geis: Justin Geis is the founder of The SketchUp Essentials and started using SketchUp while he was working as a general contractor in 2008 and after using it he found that SketchUp is extremely powerful that he just started to use it in his personal works also. Then he started The SketchUp Essentials as a place where he could share his ideas of using SketchUp easily through some tutorials and tips to help other users controlling the power of 3D Modeling in everyday lives.

In today’s article we will discuss about an online source that is contained of textures which can be used in any 3D models and renderings. There are many different websites which can also be used to download textures to use both in the SketchUp models, as well as for some programs like Vray, Unreal Engine and many more. This is a guidance to help the users in downloading and importing materials from Polligon.com into every SketchUp model, besides that there are some tips for setting the materials up within Vray for really creating more realistic renderings.

These free textures can get from www.poliigon.com , where users need to go on the top of the page to click the Sign Up button and it is absolutely free of cost website. After signing up, users can find there premium textures that can be purchased access to, as well as there are some great free textures that can be downloaded. Next they will find the texture stab, from where they have to go down to click on “Free textures” option; after clicking on this it will show a list of all the free textures available through Polligon where are list of wonderful materials to work.

Here is an example of texture-

SketchUp or Google SketchUp is mainly a3D modeling computer program that is used for a broad range of drawing applications used by architects, interior designer, landscape architects, civil and mechanical engineers, film and video game designers also. SketchUp can be getting as a freeware version named SketchUp Make and a paid version with many more extra benefits called SketchUp Pro. SketchUp is software from Trimble Company and there is an online library of free model congregations and 3D Warehouse to which users can add other models; besides that, the program has drawing layout functionality with variable ‘styles’, supports third-party ‘plug-in’ programs hosted on the Extension Warehouse to supply other abilities and enables placement of its models in Google Earth. As SketchUp users are most of architects, designers, builders, makers and engineers etc. who works hard to give a nice shape to our physical world, they need great tools to do the work. SketchUp is in mission to bring their best to produce some great tools for drawing as drawing is the key thing of the SketchUp users. They draw to search ideas, to identify the things and to show other people their work that they do with love and love to build; SketchUp understands it truly and trying to improve their software day by day. SketchUp is a worth useful software for its ease of use, it can be downloaded or installed o computer and right after that user can work on it. Though SketchUp can easily handle but still there are some sides where people will find some difficulties and lots of solve also are there like YouTube tutorials upon SketchUp or visiting SketchUp website or search Google etc. But people will get confused to have lots of information from different places upon one thing so there should a proper place or website where all the answers can be found.

Plaster 17: When users will select this texture they will get a preview window that will show the material and its look while rendering. It also shows a list of different maps that can be downloaded such as normal maps, reflections etc. They also have a pretty worthy set of free textures and one of the nice things about them is that they have different maps which users may need to link up various things like normal maps to coarsen the surface or reflection maps to make the rendered reflections look better and more. Users can select very high resolutions also but it should keep in mind that though higher resolutions look more realistic but SketchUp may face some trouble with working them. After downloading the file, users can unzip it and place the materials in their file; next it need to bring into Vray by opening up the Asset Editor, then go to the Material List and click the “Add Material” button at the bottom of the page and select “Generic”. From here, users can add the maps into Vray material, clicking on the right arrow button will help to expand the window off to the right where they can add texture to this material by selecting the little box next to “Diffuse” and finding the color map. This option will add the texture image to the material and going in the material section, the size of the material can adjust; also adding different maps from the material it become more realistic.

Source:www.thesketchupessentials.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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"Design parts in SketchUp to connect for 3D printing”

SketchUp models are suitable for 3D printing but it only can happen when the parts of any model are assembled together, there are different ways to assemble those parts.

In the previous tutorials of Sketch Up, Aidan and Rebecca have shown us the way to cut Sketch Up model into parts but the matter is now to assemble them in a way for printing them. There are many other strategies and features in SketchUp like mechanical or else to help in building into the model to assemble the parts together. Aidan and Rebecca are going to show the users through different processes and here is a brief discussion on it.

Tolerance in SketchUp: It is the difference between the sizes of users’ part in SketchUp and the size of the part produced by their 3D printer. Suppose a user has drawn a 10mm cube in SketchUp and printed it, none of the sizes of the printed cube will be shown exactly 10mm; though these are very small differences like a few tenths of a millimeter more r less. But they can create problems if their 3D printed parts have to connect with the parts that already exist in the real world. That’s why the manufacturer of the 3D printers gives a unique number for the machine’s tolerance which may be in either plus or minus value. This value is called the Maximum variation for that machine and users both need to be aware while working.

Tolerance in SketchUp: Clearance is like an extra space for parts to slide past one another but users may face a little difficulty while installing similar size peg in a similar sized hole as they will not go together. The peg and the hole will not fit properly with each other in SketchUp but in real world they will not react like this as there the peg needs to connect with friction. The exterior of the peg is similar as the exterior of the hole that the friction between them will keep the peg from veer going in if the fit is too perfect for them. In that case, users need to add a small amount of space called clearance which will help the two parts to slide past each other; the amount of clearance depends on the exact movement of the part.

Glue in SketchUp: Glue is the universal way to stick things but it is also the weakest and most unreliable way as it has very little strength o keep the things tighter for long.

• The plastics which are used in 3D prints defined by the names ABS, PLA, PVA, nylon and PETT; all these plastics need a special glue to stick and the glues have to order online.
• Biodegradable starch plastics consists a crystalline structure that doesn’t go well with liquid superglue which stays liquid and move unexpectedly across the surface of the part.
• Instead of glue, users can use epoxy which is though a messy stuff but will stick to anything.
• No glue can stick to the flexible materials for 3D printers so to attach parts, a process called thermal welding.

Snap fittings in SketchUp: These are properly designed to pop the models together after the parts come off the printer and as these are removable so users can change out many parts of the model as per design. In SketchUp, snap fittings are created by two general steps: 1) creating the tongue with the Line and Push/Pull tools; 2) creating a matching capture point on the opposing part.

Press Fit in SketchUp: A press fit is the very little clearance between the two parts while designing and when the parts are pressed together forcibly, friction keeps the joint together without any extra hardware or glue. To make a press fit, the Offset tool is used to create an outer lip on one side of the connection and an inner lip on other side.

Bolts, Screws and Hardware in SketchUp: The strongest connection between 3D printed parts is holding together with metal hardware and these connections are great for things that are more than just prototypes. While integrating hardware into the design, include hardware in the SketchUp model as it will take measurements of the parts users need to use and model them in SketchUp. Then save the components in the component library for using them in further models.

Source:www.sketchuphub.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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