How to optimize scale tool of sketchup – Some handy tips by Daniel Tal

Daniel Tal, a professional speaker and a registered landscape architect as well as a 3D modeling and visualization expert, has written an exclusive article on scale tool of sketchup. In this useful sketchup article, he introduces some sketchup tricks to optimize the functionalities of scale tool.

Sketchup’s scale tool facilitates the users to modify the size or proportions of any object.

Sometimes, it become difficult for the sketchup users to maintain the scaling reasonableness and this article will help the users to resolve the issue.

When the users try to resize geometry inside their model and preserve its proportions, they either apply the Tape Measure tool or the Scale tool.

If you face problem for handling the scale direction, the best method is to rearrange the drawing axes to your selection. To execute this, choose Tools > Axes from the menu bar. Using the Axes tool cursor, click corner as per your choice to line up the drawing axes. Then change the cursor in order that it snaps the edge to which your inferred axis will be lined up and click to approve the change. (The inference is red, green, or blue on the basis of the direction, the cursor is changed).

In this exclusive article, Daniel Tal mainly focuses on Back Edge, Modifying the Camera View, Scaling Single Surface.

To get the complete article, go through this link

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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Effectiveness of Always Face Camera in Sketchup

Sketchup Team has presented this sketchup video that evaluates the always face camera option useful for developing any component. Always Face Camera facilitates the users to produce their own scale figures and enhance the work quality through rendering a 2D form of the component.

SketchUp consists of various 2D people components and these illustrate 2D forms which always face the camera. This sketchup tutorial is the part of sketchup skill builder series.

Go through the reference article alias how to create a basic component help.sketchup.com

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup4architect.com

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Designing for Speed, How I used SketchUp to design racing car

The Khamsin Virtual Racecar Challenge (KVRC) is a virtual design competition in which participants design the bodywork of a virtual Formula One racing car in compliance with a subset of current FIA rules. The aerodynamic performance of the design are assessed using Computational Fluid Dynamics to evaluate the proposed design drag, downforce and distribution of forces. The aerodynamic performances are then used in a virtual laptime calculator that uses standardised engine performances and track data to evaluate the lap-time associated with the proposed design. The fastest design wins the race.

Jacopo, an Aerospace Engineering student at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, took part in the KVRC 2013 and 2014 challenge. He won the Magny-Cours race and finished overall second in the KVRC 2014 challenge, which demonstrate his high level of skills in 3D modelling in SketchUp and understanding of vehicle aerodynamic. Now, lets him share some of his design philosophy and practical tips and tools that he refined and used routinely during the challenge.

Designing an F1 car using SketchUp (or any other software) is quite a task. Curved surfaces, unusual geometries and functional complexity is what you must deal with as these have a large impact on the overall design perforrmance. Experience using SketchUp and modeling complex curved geometries is of great help, but practice and experimenting with SketchUp make designing a F1 car a job that everybody can do.

First steps

As mentioned before, complexity is one of the main obstacles that any F1 car designer faces. As a first step it is necessary to reduce the system to its basic and schematic components: top and side projections of the car.

This is a key step as it will enable you to foresee tedious geometric problems that you would otherwise detect only once the car is complete. And by then it's too late to fix easily... Nothing else but imagination and experience can help.

Naval techniques

The following step is to convert the 2D projections into a 3D realization of the car, starting with its “skeleton”. The best approach is using cross sections, which is just how it is done with some old school wooden vessel.

When the skeleton is completed, it needs to be covered by the“skin”, which will form the actual car's bodywork. Now, there's a bad way and a good way to do that. The bad one involves constructing the skin by hand, by joining the polygons (i.e. the sections) of the skeleton through triangles. The good one consists in using appropriate plug-in, such as “Curviloft” - my recommendation. This second way allows for a a faster and more detailed skin. It has, however, downsides that I will detail later on.

Some parts of the car, particularly small details, do require the use of more conventional methods, such as combination of extrude tool, and intersect tool...

The model is now pretty much constructed. Still, there are other aspects to take into consideration...

Organising design elements in groups

In order to reduce complexity, it's recommended to build the car part by part . For example, the sidepod part will be constructed separately from the underfloor, the front and rear wings parts, etc... Once each part is constructed, it's a good idea to create a group to store the part geometry by selecting the geometry, and select menu Edit>Create group. Once all parts are constructed, the entire car is assembled by matching the parts.. An advantage of “grouping” parts is that you will be able to easily modify the part itself even after the car is completed without compromising other parts.

Dealing with plug-in(s)

Curviloft is a very useful plugin, but it's more difficult to use properly than it first appear. Problems occur when it is applied to join a long sequence of polygons: it's not rare to observe (small) holes being accidentally created on the surface we want to create. This issue can be either solved manually modifying the conjunction lines between the polygons (a feature that Curviloft itself offers), or designing polygons more “wisely”. This may means\, for example, designing polygons with similar number of segments and comparable geometry, or placing the polygons at a constant distance each other. I also noticed that using more polygons yielded better results.

While it may seem that I am drawing too much attention to surface smoothness and accuracy, these aspects are essential when it comes to meeting competitive requirements for vehicle aerodynamic such as the one required in the CFD based KVRC Challenge. Attention to details was one of the key elements that allowed me to win one of the races and scoring an overall second place during the KVRC 2014 Challenge.

A more technical note

If you intent to construct a model just an aesthetics exercise, you can ignore this last note. But for those who are interested in challenging themselves through a Challenge such as KVRC and trying to emulate F1 engineers, I advise to pay a significant attention to the design of the wings, airfoils, underfloor and diffuser: those are areas where attention to details is a key factor. Keep in mind that you should always relate your SketchUp design work to the settings used in the CFD solver, particularly meshing. If those settings can't realistically capture and model your proposed design details, it's better not to overdesign your car.

Useful Links

KVRC: www.khamsinvirtualracecarchallenge.com
Khamsin, a SketchUp Plugin for CFD Modelling: www.hibouscientificsoftware.com.au
Virtual Stopwatch: www.competition-car-engineering.com
Curviloft: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28586

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Published By

Rajib Dey

www.sketchup-ur-space.com

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Introduction to Interior Design and SketchUp

London school of Design will be going to conduct a course on sketchup. The course details are as follows:-

SketchUp (Advanced) : This is a 3 week course/ 1 Day per week, Wednesdays (10.00 – 17.00),1 hour lunch break (13.00 – 14.00).

Course 1: February 12 – March 5, 2014

(there will be no classes on February 19)

Course 2: April 2 – April 30, 2014

(there will be no classes on April 9 and 16)

Course 3: June 4 – June 18, 2014

All the participating students must join before 10 minutes of commencing the classes.

The course is useful for intermediate as well as advanced users. The attendees can learn the following from these classes:-

Day 1: In first day, the sketchup users will gather knowledge on components which involve axes, swapping components, dynamic components, reprocessing accessible geometry, libraries. Special focus will be give on Staircase. Learn to produce a smart staircase by applying dynamic components as well as straight flight, dog-leg stair with landing, spirals.

Day 2: In 2nd day, there will be brief demonstration on Plugins. Learn the basic of plugin and its various applications. Also learn how plugins can save huge time for sketchup users. Get acquainted with the top ten most recognized plugins for sketchup users.

Day 3: In 3rd day, the attendee will gather knowledge on scenes, layers, styles, outliner, texture. Also learn how to categorize SketchUp model for presentation or exports as well as how to maneuver exported images in Photoshop.

• Importing/Exporting JPEG, DXF to be utilized as reference/concepts.
• Moving forward with SketchUp – gadgets, 3D mouse, tablets, 3D scanners, 3D printing.

Go through the following tutorial which will facilitate the attendees to get some useful ideas on what sketch can perform and what one can discover from the Beginners class through to the Advanced tutorials.

What the attendees should fetch with them?

• Bring your personal laptop/powerbook in each day of the SketchUp course. One can also pre-load the free SketchUp software before participating the course. One can also download their copy direct from http://www.sketchup.com/. Also confirm that your laptop is configured for Internet connections.
• A 3-button mouse having left click, right click and central scroll.
• A USB flash drive that contains minimum 4Gb memory.
• An A4 or A5 size notebook and pen/pencil.

Please note - The course is useful for both Windows and Mac users. One can also bring their own Mac or Windows laptop to this skills class.

For more information, send mail to info@londonschoolofdesign.org or give a call at 020-3036-0657

In order to get the perfect specifications recommended by the SketchUp helpdesk, go through the following link - www.help.sketchup.com

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Published by Tuhin Maity

Sketchup Designer

http://www.sketchup4architect.com/

A Paper House Kits – using by Google SketchUp

Google SketchUp 3D graphic software is one of the popular tools which you can get free and easily draw 3D models of anything by helping of Google SketchUp. Paper House Kits is just part of starting.

At the beginning, just download the free Google SketchUp three-dimension graphic software. It is very easy to downloading the software. At first open Google page in browser & key the word “sketchup”. Then agree to a licensing agreement and the software will be downloaded for using. Installation was as fast as possible.

For the designer who has not used 3D software in earlier, it may be little bit difficult to use it. There is 3D lady standing at the intersection of 3 different lines in opening the SketchUp application. There are three lines of three different colors red, green and blue for representing length, width and height or depth. The red & green lines are perpendicular to each other to form X-Y axis of height & width. The blue line which is perpendicular to the other two lines (red & green) makes Google SketchUp more powerful. This blue line creates the design from being a flat 2D into a powerful 3D model.

To create a house at first, need to drag the pencil tool down the red line (for length) until create a wall length which to be needed and draw a shorter line (for width) from the end of the wall line along the green axis. After that, return back to the starting point at which the lady was standing and create one more line along the green axis which will be perpendicular to the end of the longer wall. The SketchUp graphic application shows a dotted reference line automatically to inform when the 2 green axis lines have the same length. Then just connect the ends of both green axis lines to create the fourth wall.

There is a “push-pull” tool in SketchUp software which can use on any plane surface to convert a model from rectangle into a square box. It is very simple to use. Just click the tool on the flat surface and “lift” the plane by mouse. The simple flat 2D rectangle is now turning to a four-walled 3D House. To find the midpoint of the top line of all walls, just moving the pencil tool along the edge of those lines and automatically it shows the mid point with a light blue icon. Placing the pencil tool at the mid point drawing up the blue axis perhaps one-fourth height of the wall below gives the pitch of a roof. To create the entire roof need to repeat the same process at the other ends of the house.

Now back to the origin point. The house on the left side has the end walls gabled to create pitched roof. This result would be a relatively easy to build house in the world of paper kits or the real world. Placing a gable in each wall, creates more complex roofline that looks like a California tract house or Japanese structure.

Virtually there is no difference between the two roofs and complex designed in the world of paper house kits. The single roof is create with a single fold-line down the center and the second roof is little bit larger than the first and is drawn with four fold lines: centerlines in both directions and connecting the two sets of corners.

Celebrating the first Birthday of Sketchup ur Space

Sketchup urSpace is celebrating its first birthday all along the September. In September 2010, two things happened in the SketchUp world. The first was the launch of SketchUp 8 in the Google 3D Basecamp and the other was the birth of the first ever SketchUp magazine, SketchUp ur Space. The first look of Sketchup ur Space created a wave in the SketchUp Community. Many appreciated and some criticizes the follies. We always adore the appreciation as well as the criticism because criticism is the only way to get polished to the perfection. We learned from our follies.

September issue of Sketchup ur Space

On the way to our success we got guidance of many learned SketchUp artists like James Hannigan, James Ogston, Nomer Adona, Jim Leggitt, Bonnie Roskes and many more people. We want to thank everyone for liking, disliking, appreciating or criticizing us. To celebrate our special time we organized a Sketchup Competition called Sketchup ur Space: SketchUp Competition. In this Competition we got entries from all over the world. The entry of Gerbe Dumahil got the first prize, the license of V-Ray for SketchUp. In the magazine of Sketchup ur Space, we take a look back to our past editions. Apart from this we have a live chit chat show with SketchUp writer and architect, Daniel Tal. In another interview with Glen Taylor, Siear Waizy and Dave Wortley helps you to get knowledge on how customer will get success with the help of V-Ray. Bonnie Roskes, Gerbe Dumahil, Jean Luc Clause, Jim Leggitt and Nomer Adona give their learned opinion about SketchUp. Hope that we will celebrate more anniversary of Sketchup ur Space.     

Sketchup ur Space: The Journey begins…

The name Sketchup ur Space has become quite famous in this these days. First started in September 2010, this magazine has come a long way. From a 14 page flash book to a website it is really a long long journey. In this journey, Sketchup ur Space has not only overcome all its obstacle but also made a mark in the sphere of SketchUp and everybody starts to recognize it.

In its starting days, there were only a few topics like cover story, guest articles but in the later edition many new subject like top up article, news room, showcase images and many more. Sketchup ur Space not only enhance its volume but also upgrade its quality. In this magazine, the cooperation of the legend SketchUp artists like Jim Leggitt, James Hanningan, Dennis Fukai, David Pillsberry and many more. The newly added interview section will help you to know the 3D designers in live conversation. In this way, Sketchup ur Space has become one of the best available resource on net on SketchUp. The magazine is already critically acclaimed and praise by many SketchUp well known artists. The showcase images section has become a platform for all the budding SketchUp artist of all over the world to show his or her work to the world.

Sketchup ur Space has become a piazza for the familiar and new SketchUp designers. All the masters of their tricks share their experience, feelings with the new designers whose knowledge bank is getting enriched by the magazine. But this is not enough. Sketchup ur Space more way to go. This is only the dawn in this 3D world. Hope that this magazine will have some more terrific issue for us.

Sketchup ur Space has completed six months

The Coverpage of Sketchup ur Space

The one and only SketchUp magazine Sketchup ur Space is celebrating its six month anniversary with the February release of the magazine. After its first release in September 2010, this flash really achieves a great height in just few days. From a 14 pages magazine, the February issue of Sketchup ur Space has now 52 pages which is quite a great achievement for it. It has become a great platform for SketchUp service providers and Plugin developers all over the world. With a huge number of subscriptions, a large number of followers in Twitter and Facebook, Sketchup ur Space has come a long way. But this is only the beginning. It has more cards in its hand for future.

The Huge List of Contents of the SketchUp magazine

The February version of Sketchup ur Space specially deals with SketchUp 8. In September, Google launched the 8^th version of SketchUp. In the magazine you will find various information, updates and added features of SketchUp 8. There are three articles on SketchUp style, photo editing and landscape designing by various eminent SketchUp artist like James Hanningan and Hussain Fadlallah. In the blog section apart from the general blog post about 3D printing, there are extracts from the Jim Leggitt plug in blog. Various updates on SketchUp industry are available at News Room. There are also the Tips and Tricks and Top Up articles in the magazine.

The design and concept of the magazine is quite attractive. From the links of the magazine you can reach various other pages instantly. From this magazine the reader will get all the information about SketchUp and its plug ins from one place.

Sketchup ur Space – an one of a kind magazine on SketchUp

SketchUp ur Space is a unique flash magazine though you can have the pdf version also. Since September, 2010 this magazine have come out with lots of informative feature articles, blog, review, tips and tricks article and many more things. The image quality of the SketchUp models is also good. Here you can have a through discussion on the SketchUp and its plug ins. It helps you to keep yourself updated on various SketchUp related issues.

Since its first edition, you can get lot of useful information on SketchUp. In the first issue of Sketchup ur Space, they welcome all in the 3D world and introduced to the SketchUp. After the introduction we came to know various features and benefits of SketchUp in the second issue. Now days SketchUp is almost incomplete without its plug ins. Plug ins have become the integral part of SketchUp now. It not only enhances the functionality of the SketchUp but also gives the users freedom to spread the wings of their creativity. That’s why in the November issue of SketchUp ur Space, there is a details description of various SketchUp plug ins.

This SketchUp magazine already has become quite well known in the SketchUp community. Different SketchUp artist of all over the world are providing write ups on SketchUp in this magazine. We find promotional write ups on various plug ins by the plug in developers here. Sketchup ur Space proves to be very useful for the SketchUp users. In the cover story of every edition there are discussions on the main theme of the issue. There is a section where we find the valuable write ups by eminent SketchUp users like Albert Hart, Eike Theile, Justin Anderson, Kendall Wayland and many more. Apart from the blog from the editor herself, there are the extracts of various blog posting by SketchUp blogger Dennis Fukai and Jim Leggitt on the Sketchup ur Space. The Tips and Tricks articles are also of great assist to the new SketchUp users for providing guidance. In the Review section, you find reviews of plug ins which help you in time of taking purchasing decision.

In the December edition they come out with a Christmas Special issue. In this edition the theme of Sketchup ur Space is render plugins. Render plug ins are the most important and popular plug ins in SketchUp. There is also a new section called Press Room, where you will get to know new releases of various plug ins and SketchUp products. Hope that you will love to read this issue. If you want the regular issues free of cost then just subscribe it by clicking here.