The 10 best Sketchup Plugins in 2015

SketchUp is a 3D modelling program possessed by Trimble Navigation and utilized by designers in engineering and architecture. Plugins or scripts are broadly added to SketchUp for strengthening the 3D experience capability. Most of them are free of charge and can be redrafted by anybody inspired enough to fill the gap of increasing easy to use plugin.

All of these ten plugins are precious to a SketchUp user and enthusiasts in gaining photo realistic 3D model. Some of the best are Instant Roof, Purge All, Fur, 1001 Bit Tools and Curviloft SketckUp plugins. This is an excerpt of the article published by computeraideddesignguide.com with reference to Tak2hata, Goh Chun Hee, Chuck Vali, TIG, Fredo6, sdmitch, Fredo6 and Chaos Group

1. Fur Plugin: This plugin is utilized by different SketchUp enthusiasts in making grass, greenery, carpet and in various other creative lines. In fact the cleverness of SketchUp users are remarkable.

This is used in making “fur” on a created face by inputting certain type and figures in the fur settings. This will deliver a blade of grass and greenery in general. This would permit the designer a chance to adapt how tall and thick the greenery will be to his/her mental fulfillment.

A trouble-free, speedy and easy to use and once the surface have selected, the user can utilized the plugin, imputing the coveted setting and viola. You have added grass to your design.

2. 1001 bit Tools: This contains 39 different tools which are supportive for a budding SketchUp user. This plugin is a “one stop shop tools” for the cause that it has wide uses from drawing a line on a surface, making window frame, to setting up a hip roof. What is preferable in this plugin is the formation of a hip roof, walls, opening frames, stairs and extruding profiles along a chosen path without twisting even if the path is sloping. 1001 bit tools will build life easier for SketchUp users.

3. Instant Roof: This is used for creation of a roof quickly. Once the face is selected, you only have to decide the type of roof you want. The choices of roofs include gambrel, mansard, ranch, craftsman, Elizabethan, new roof style, plantation, prarie, santa barbara, ski lodge and trellis. Additionally, user can create your own style through having your own roof, eaves, hip, and rafter parameters. Editing the slope, eaves, fascia, hip, and rafter settings can adapt the roof style. Furthermore, the user can import or export roof styles.

4. Mirror: At first it was discovered by Frank Wiesner and rewritten by TIG from version 3.1 up to the newest version to date. This is complete by selecting the object to be mirrored and then picking points to describe a line, points or a surface. You would then be asked to decide to delete or keep the original object. This plugin is used to mirror groups, components or raw geometry thus making it easier to manufacture multiple objects in a file without making them again from scratch.

5. Purge All: Purge all plugin for sketchupPurge, purge, purge as they always says. This important plugin helps you eliminate idle and unutilized components, layers, materials and styles. This is different from using Model Info because you have the option of what to purge on and also have a log or report made on what was removed. This will absolutely make your SketchUp file less in size thus adding speed in your drawing and rendering.

6. Round Corner: Just like all the plugins made by fredo6, the sketchup enthusiasts require to download first the latest version of libfredo6 to be able to use all his other plugins. Round corner is made of 3 tools, which are for making corners round, sharp and bevel. You have to pick the corner(s), which the user wants to be round, sharp or bevel then click the corresponding tool and modify the palette according to your preferred outcome. Then, click the check mark to preview the result and strike enter to exit the plugin. This is one of the best SketchUp plugins for making 3D object with softer edges.

7. Component Array: This plugin though named like the collection in AutoCAD should not be flawed as such because component array is still limited in comparison to that. However, scripts are rewritten often that the opportunity of being like the other or exceeding its ability is not possible. This plugin generates array on a chosen face and the output is controlled through user input on grid spacing, angle, type and orientation. This is good to use for rectangular array just like in AutoCAD.

8. Curviloft: Curviloft included 3 tools, which are loft by spine, loft along path, and skinning. The first tool, which is loft by spline, makes contours between surfaces based on spline curves. Next is the loft along path, which works just like the follow-me-tool however this has the ability to unite two different shapes. The last tool is the skinning, which produces contours from two or more paths. This plugin is cooperative specially in making objects, which have irregular sides and faces.

9. JointPushPull: The newest version to date has a total of 6 tools, which are joint, round, vector, and normal, extrude, and follow. The joint push pull is use to push, pull or thicken a surface. The round tool can thicken a surface with the prospect of rounding sharp corners. Next, is vector, which can expand an object along a direction. The fourth tool can push or pull multiple faces independently. Extrude tool works to push or pull in an average direction while keeping faces jointed. The last is the follow push pull tool, which has the capacity to extend along the direction of their adjacent edges.

10. Vray: Vray is a rendering plugin, which works very fine with SketchUp. It has material editor, which you can employ to apply and edit martials to your drawing. The option editor of Vray is used to manage how the render output will be. It has also the ability to batch render, export and import proxies. This plugin is absolutely one of the most popular amongst SketchUp users who want to have realistic 3D model rendering.

Reference: - computeraideddesignguide.com and Tak2hata, Goh Chun Hee, Chuck Vali, TIG, Fredo6, sdmitch, Fredo6 and Chaos Group

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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LumenRT 2015 - The Communication Platform for Architecture and GeoDesign

In the rapidly growing field of 3D design visualization and rendering, there are many tools that can produce pretty pictures and videos. Whether creating output to win a project bid, sharing design intent with colleagues and contractors, or creating consumer oriented advertising, the need for high-fidelity, photorealistic 3D is clearly a mainstream requirement across the entire design-build-manage process. However, the tools and applications serving this important market suffer from a number of chronic deficiencies:

• Difficult to use with long learning curves
• Require specialized CG knowledge
• Are not well integrated into CAD/BIM/GIS design applications
• Have limited ability to render designs in a complete environmental context (e.g. trees, people, vehicles, water, terrains)
• Create static output that must be “re-rendered” if new points of view are required or if changing the lighting/time-of-day
• Do not handle large-scale scenes very well

Enter e-on software, the world’s leader in natural scenery rendering. The company has recently introduced a major upgrade to its real-time immersive nature solution -- LumenRT 2015. LumenRT solves traditional rendering tool shortcomings in a very feature-rich, attractively priced offering that allows architects, designers, engineers, and GIS professionals to convey their designs in a much more compelling and engaging fashion.

Screen capture of LumenRT Real-Time LiveCube™

LumenRT 2015 – What’s New

LumenRT 2015 contains many new capabilities for creating vivid images, videos, and immersive experiences. Outlined below is a brief description of the major new features and enhancements:

Dynamic Immersive Visualization Engine DIVE ™- Dynamic Immersive Visualization Engine (DIVE™) combines E-On Software’s industry leading software for digital nature. 3D atmospheres, sculptable terrains, and PlantFactory™ vegetation combined form a powerful solution that delivers higher levels of natural realism with cutting-edge real-time rendering.

LumenRT Live: Share LiveCubes™- With LumenRT Live, your LiveCubes™ can be shared with everyone using any web browser. This revolutionary new technology enables interactive 3D LiveCubes™ to be explored and navigated on any web connected device (e.g. PC or tablet) with performance that rivals high-end gaming PC’s.

Interactive Authoring and Editing- Authoring and edit directly inside the LiveCube™. Add plants, vehicles and characters as easily as painting with a brush. Edit individual material properties or load pre-made materials from the LumenRT material library.

Sculptable Terrains- A variety of terrains are now available to start off all LumenRT scenes. Easily customize each terrain by scultping the land and painting with your choice of several material presets by just a swipe of the brush tool.

Seasonal Plant Factory™ Vegetation- Move the date slider and watch the foliage turn from spring to fall. LumenRT 2015 utilizes e-on’s industry leading Plant Factory™ technology and allows users to create their own custom plants and trees with the optional Plant Factory Add-on.

Graphisoft ArchiCAD Integration- E-on software is pleased to announce support for Graphisoft ArchiCAD, one of leading BIM systems in use today. The ArchiCAD LumenRT plugin exports all ArchiCAD models and BIM information and includes a complete LumenRT content library. Supports ArchiCAD 17 and 18.

BIM “In-A-Box"- LumenRT 2015 incorporates a much richer set of BIM information and capabilities including attributes, layers and section planes.

Animation Paths- Any object in LumenRT can be fully animated using the innovative animation path painter. Simply select an object and paint the desired animation path by clicking waypoints anywhere in the scene.

Advanced Vehicle Traffic Animation Support- Included in LumenRT GeoDesign is the ability to import MicroStation Traffic and VISSIM animation paths for large scale traffic simulations. Additionally, LumenRT 2015 contains enhanced support for jitter-free pavement markings.

Animated 3D Skies and Water- LumenRT 2015 contains fully animated 3D skies with adjustable cloud densities and patterns. A more life-like sea water generator has been added with adjustable wave patterns and shore foam.

Enhanced Content Library- The new LumenRT 2015 content library features a huge array of indoor and outdoor objects and many new fully animated characters, animals, vehicles. Vehicles now have moving wheels and lights.

Simple Workflow – Zero Learning Curve
One of the defining features of LumenRT is that it allows full scene authoring inside the source CAD/BIM/GIS system making it much easier to learn the system and maintain a single “source of truth” for all objects added to the model. The LumenRT export plugins include a full proxy library of plants, people, animals, and vehicles which are added directly to the scene using the familiar tools available in the CAD/BIM/GIS system. In SketchUp for example, trees are added using a SketchUp component library that allow users to simply drag and drop objects into the scene and adjust the size and position using the standard SketchUp tools. The components are low-polygon object “proxies” which are automatically converted to their full fidelity, full motion counterparts in LumenRT.

A LumenRT tree added to the model by dragging and dropping a SketchUp component

To transform the model into a LumenRT LiveCube™, the user invokes a very simple interface directly inside their CAD/BIM/GIS system which transfers geometries, materials, lights, layers, and BIM information directly into LumenRT.

The Simple LumenRT Export Interface

Deep Integration with all the leading CAD/BIM/GIS Systems
LumenRT is compatible with all 3D applications and directly plugs into Autodesk Revit, Bentley MicroStation, E-on Software VUE, Esri CityEngine, Graphisoft ArchiCAD, and Trimble Sketchup. LumenRT’s deep integration allows the export of all geometry, materials, layers, lighting, sections, cameras, and BIM attributes. In addition, LumenRT’s smart integration allows CAD/BIM/GIS models to be re-exported into LumenRT and will retain all material and scene changes, thus providing complete associativity with the source model.

LumenRT Supported Integrations

Interactive Editing
LumenRT 2015 provides a complete set of tools for editing scenes directly inside the LumenRT LiveCube. Users can move, scale, and rotate objects, edit materials, import objects, change lighting, adjust the season and weather, and of course add content such as trees, characters, and vehicles.

Moving an object using the object manipulation tool

Content Galore
LumenRT contains an extensive content library (LumenRT Content Library) with hundreds of plants, characters, animals, vehicles, and a variety of indoor and outdoor objects. All content is conveniently accessed from the LumenRT content browser and placed using either the individual object placement tool or brushed on in groups using the object brush tool.

Adding a flower garden using the brush tool

Change the Season Interactively
Using the new seasonality slider, plants and groundcover change color according to the season – spring, summer, fall, and winter. The seasonality slider is fully animatable allowing the creation of seasonal time-lapse videos.

Interactive Seasonality

Terrain Sculpting and Painting
Terrains are fully editable with the new LumenRT 2015 terrain sculpting and painting tools. Terrains can be raised, lowered, flattened, or molded to the height of surrounding objects such as roads. Using the terrain painter, users can brush on materials using a wide selection of ground covers such as 3D grasses, rocks, soil, and snow.

Sculpting a terrain using the flatten brush

Seas and Water Bodies
High fidelity water with adjustable waves and foam can be added to any LumenRT scene. Water objects also contain caustics for added realism.

Water body with agitation and foam

Lighting and Time-Of-Day
LumenRT supports an impressive array of lighting and illumination capabilities. Light and shadow studies can be performed using LumenRT’s dynamically adjustable sun. Sun location is accurately set using NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) qualified solar positioning algorithms. Artificial point and spot lights with IES (Illumination Engineering Society) profiles are supported and are fully adjustable and animatable. Finally, LumenRT supports luminous materials which create a glow-like effect. This is useful for lighting exterior building windows.

LumenRT Lighting – Street Lights and Luminous Windows

Advanced MicroStation and VISSIM Traffic Simulation Support
MicroStation and VISSIM traffic simulations can be imported directly into LumenRT. Transportation users now have a fully immersive capability to present interactive simulations of any traffic pattern imaginable.

Mobile River Bridge Traffic Simulation

Layers and Sections
New in LumenRT 2015 is the ability to use layers and sections to present and highlight various parts of the scene. Layers and sections are fully animatable allowing users to create more engaging presentations such as progressive display of features or examining cross section details.

LumenRT Dynamic Section

Making Video Clips and Images
LumenRT allows users to quickly create custom video clips and guided walkthroughs using the animation editor. The animation editor provides a very simple, easy-use timeline for creating camera keyframes. A keyframe is created by simply pressing the F6 key which captures the current camera position and time of day. Repeating the process while moving the camera will add subsequent keyframes to the timeline. Movies and images can be exported in a variety of formats such mpeg and avi.

LumenRT Animation Editor

Sharing LiveCubes™
One of LumenRT’s most compelling features is its ability to publish and share LiveCubes™. It’s a fantastic way to share 3D data with clients, colleagues, contractors and consumers, allowing them to walk-through and explore designs in a secure and engaging manner.

The LumenRT Publisher packages the LiveCube™ into a self-extracting executable similar to a zip file and runs without the use of any special software or viewer on PC and Mac platforms. The LiveCube™ file size ranges from 50MB to 150MB so the use of an ftp file sharing service (e.g. MediaFire, Dropbox) is probably the best way to share the physical LiveCubes™.

LiveCube authors can add custom logos and splash screens to the LiveCube to give it a more personalized feel.

Creating LumenRT LiveCubes™ with the LumenRT Publisher

LumenRT Live!
During 2015, e-on will be offering a new breakthrough service that allows users to share their 3D LumenRT Immersive LiveCubes™ on any device (tablets, smartphones, laptops), with anyone across the web, at speeds that rival the fastest graphics cards. Called LumenRT Live, this revolutionary technology allows users to upload their 3D LiveCubes to an e-on software hosted server where they can be viewed in any full- featured web-browser capable device (e.g. PC, Mac, iPad, Tablets, etc). Essentially, the user experience in terms of interactivity and performance is equivalent to running the LiveCube on a local high-end computer.

What Others Are Saying About LumenRT

	“LumenRT is our communication tool of choice. It lets us easily produce professional videos and interactive experiences that empower the audience and provide in-depth understanding of our projects.” Kurt Stiles, Project Manager - Visual Engineering Resource Group, WS Dept of Transportation
	“LumenRT's impressive ability to quickly construct large scale interactive visualizations from any CAD or GIS source helps us efficiently present the design intent and environmental impact to a wide variety of audiences.” J.D. D'Arville, GIS Administrator - Alabama Dept of Transportation
	“LumenRT lets us create great looking videos, screenshots and interactive scenes of our CityEngine and SketchUp models, quickly and easily.” Elliot Hartley, Director - Garsdale Design Limitedn
	“LumenRT is possibly the best thing that happened to BIM since BIM itself, by allowing the exploration of BIM scenes in real-time with a true-to-life environment.” Ivo Venkov, Architect & Founder - PAA Studio
	“LumenRT allows clients and contractors to understand my designs in a way that drawings and CAD models never could!” Nick Sonder, Architect

Pricing and Packaging
Image Courtesy: LumenRT is attractively priced at $995 for the Studio version and $1,995 for the GeoDesign version. For more detailed pricing information, please visitwww.lumenrt.com/store

Trial Version
30-day trial versions of the product are available at www.lumenrt.com/download

The trial is a fully functional version of LumenRT and includes a small selection of the content that ships with the full product.

Bottom Line
LumenRT delivers outstanding value and capabilities for users seeking to add high-fidelity 3D viewing and Immersive Nature to their design-build-manage pipeline. While there are a number of competing products in the real-time 3D viewing/authoring market, none offer the robust combination of LumenRT’s rich feature set, large natural scenery content library, LiveCube™ publishing, and simple, straightforward CAD/BIM/GIS integration.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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The best Sketchup Plugins to improve designing skills

Image Courtesy: landarchs.com

Are you sketchup enthusiasts? Are you looking for some exciting sketchup plugins? This is your turn to get some of them. Ever since sketchup has made the entry in the market, it has become the most used, user friendly 3D modeling software. It has been widely cherished by the students, architect, landscape, animation and videogame specialist. However there are some complexities which cannot be sorted out easily. So, here comes the necessity of rendering plugins. The professionals generally use those plugins. http://landarchs.com/ presents an excellent article of plugins. We bring the excerpt of writer Sha Sulaiman.

Plugins for Sketchup:-

1. Curviloft (free): This is one of the most effective tools among all plugins. It is generally works loft and skinning though sketchup. This is normally used to prepare surface from the curve. There are two methods lofting: firstly, by spline and secondly, by loft alongside with path.

2. Bezier Curve (free): How to make polyline, Bezier, spline curve? This tool will help the user make curves standing on control points. This control point can easily be manipulated. Sometime it defines the pre-defined curves.

3. Shape Bender (free): This plug-in assists curving and helps to make curvy roads.

4. Joint Push/Pull (free): One of the draw back of the sketchup is it do not assist extruding (push/pull) curved surfaces. But it can be sorted out, by Joint push/pull tool. But undoubtedly, this is the best tool for making volumetric solids and multiple axes (curved-in) and different building elements.

5. Unfold (free): It is a converter. It converts 3D models or objects into a 2D plane or orthographic projection. It is most user friendly and need to unfold only.

6. Round Corner (free): It is very useful for edge correction – especially to decrease and smoothing 3D objects.

Render Plugins for SketchUp:

7. V-Ray Render (paid, trial pack available): V-Ray is the rendering engine used by more design artists than any other. V-Ray was made by Chaos Group. It uses some of most proceed and sophisticated practice. Such as global illumination (GI), algorithms, path tracing, photon mapping and irradiance mapping.

8. Maxwell Render (free demo version available): It is a rendering engine. This Raytracer-type rendering engine is impartial 3D render. It utilizes Global illumination (GI) and algorithms based on metropolis light transport difference.

9. Kerkythea (free): It is a unique and impartial rendering tool. It works to create raytracing and Metropolis light transport. It is to be used in clay rendering. One of the famous feagure of this trade is Alex Hogrefe.

10. Raylectron (paid, free trial available): This is another rendering engine generally devoid of approximation and/or emulation and ready to produce animation.

11. SU Podium (paid, free trial available): It is photorealistic rendering image of sketchup model. It uses objects like: texture, colour, shadow, group or background. SU Podium uses ray tracing and global illumination (GI).

Reference:- landarchs.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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Digital modeling programs & new open source tools are streamlining 3d printing process

Hello I am Claudio Cosentino, I am a production designer, a professor of Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro.

In an age where it is increasingly necessary to use digital modeling programs, and new open source tools are developed ever faster, the 3D modeling also invades other sectors in addition to those of the graphics, such as industrial, medical, building and space, through the use of 3D printers. Natural evolution of printing in two dimensions, 3D printing allows you to have a real reproduction of a digital model, created with a 3D modeling software.

scenography created by art director Marco Trentini for the film "The Decameron" directorDavid Leland 2005

model 3d whit Sketchup 8. by Paolo Daniele. student of 3rd year of Production Design. Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro, Italy.

we started a few years ago, the courses in 3d with the use of sketchup. so in addition to modeling, rendering and animation, we became interested in 3D printing, producing a plugin stl files, compatible with a 3D printer trade. This process for the preparation of files, we realized that: the way we design our models in sketchup had to follow the strict rules imposed by 3d printing. do not let double lines, no double intersected faces that are not continuous and connected between them. and a great cleaning of the models, very often all this attention is not enough, how do we know where we have made a mistake? Fortunately for us, helps us a very interesting plugin, which saves us a lot of time to research the error. but the most important thing is to acquire a new design method with sketchup, with models that do not have to submit internal faces hidden, or lines in excess beyond that necessary, and all models must have filled the voids and coincident, in the end you have to consider that the molded object must be closed, like a box, that is, must have a minimum thickness, that the printer interprets as a part to be printed to give a real thickness.

To get our solid printable, consider a design method different from the traditional modeling, through these simple steps:

• Make sure that the 3D model that has no point or line unrelated to his geometry.
• Combine and intersect any faces or lines for the purpose of cleaning the model.
• The correct model for any errors will be recognized as solid from SketchUp plugin and software slicing needed for 3D printing.
• Check that the model is internally empty, uniform and closed, their faces clear turned outward.
• Install within Sketchup plugins needed for export .stl format recognizable by other printing software.

Here are some examples for the creation of a solid:

A plugin that helps a lot to detect problems inside and outside of the solid is "Solid Inspector." by ThomThom

You can download the plugin at this link. http://extensions.sketchup.com/it/content/solid-inspector

in case of errors you will notice a red circle on the element to be corrected.

After checking that all the faces are closed and there are no errors proceed exporting the model in STL format

(SketchUp STL)

If you have been working properly, the model will be suitable to be printed in any program slicing and 3D printing, then opening it in other programs there will be no negative checkmarks or errors.

The end result is considerable comparing it with the digital model

3d printing made by the student Vitaliano Gallo 3nd year of the school of scenography Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro.

for printing the models must consider that the plate of our 3d printer may contain a model of 20 centimeters x 20 centimeters. then in the planning stage with sketchup must make the pieces that do not exceed these measures, then you can pasting or predispose before with the slots suitable for assembly.

for printing of the models must consider that the plate of our 3d printer may contain a model of 20 centimeters x 20 centimeters. then in the planning stage with sketchup must make the pieces that do not exceed these measures, then you can pasting or predispose before with the slots suitable for assembly.

model 3d whit Sketchup 8. by Paolo Daniele. student of 3rd year of Production Design. Academy of Fine Arts of Catanzaro, Italy.

example print medium resolution 3d printing times are acceptable

all these pieces will be printed individually and then hand assembled.

example Print Low Resolution 3d printing times are much faster.

if you do not need many details on your model you can use a print with a detail very low, with a significant printing speed, useful for example for testing.

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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