What’s New in v8

Model geo-location with Google Maps. It’s now much simpler to geographically reference your models inside SketchUp, and the best part is you don’t need Google Earth open either, saving your system resources.

Color imagery and more accurate terrain. So there is no need to save images inside Google Earth anymore and then replacing the greyscale with the colour copy, its all done first time to speed up efficiency. The level of accuracy has been improved as well, so I will be looking forward to put this to the test.

Match Photo improvements. Some new features have been incorporated to enhance the already powerful tool.

SketchUp, meet Building Maker. When it comes to modeling existing buildings, it’s hard to beat Building Maker for speed and efficiency. We are still waiting for the city of London to be added to the list of cities to choose from, but for what’s its worth it is a brilliant tool and extremely versatile.

More great things about SketchUp 8

I have just discovered what I think is one of the best enhancements, SAVE TOOLBAR POSITION. This allows users to turn on and of toolbars keeping them locked in the same position

Meet the Solid Tools (PRO). SketchUp Pro 8 includes a powerful new set of tools for additive and subtractive modeling:

Union adds together two or more shapes.

Intersect makes a new shape out of the bits that overlap [parts that are common] – while deleting everything else.

Subtract turns a shape into a 3D cookie cutter. Use it to slice and dice any other solid.

Trim tells one shape to take a bite out of the other – without deleting the first shape.

Split makes a new shape out of the bits that overlap – while keeping everything else.

Scene Thumbnails.

Now that you can see the scene’s created it will make walkthroughs a whole lot easier to manage and track changes visually.

Back Edges.

Turn these on to see your model’s obscured edges as dashed lines. A great alternative to Wireframe or X-Ray mode when you need to be able to see through your model.

Angular Dimensions in LayOut (PRO).

Some enhancements have been added and its now also possible to add angular dimensions.

Push/Pull pre-selected faces.

Select a face, then push/pull; it works just like the rest of SketchUp’s modification tools. Super handy when you don’t want to change your point of view.

Calculate volumes.

Entity Info now displays the volume of any solid in your model. Volumes are also included in reports you generate with SketchUp Pro.

Outer Shell.

Automatically generate a shape that completely encloses two or more solids in your model. It’s a little like shrink-wrapping your geometry. Did someone say 3D printing?

DWG/DXF 2010 (PRO).

SketchUp Pro 8 supports the DWG/DXF 2010 format for importing and exporting vector data for your models.

DWG/DXF export in LayOut (PRO).

Like to draft in LayOut? With this version, you can share your LayOut 3 drawings as files that any CAD system or 3D modeler (including SketchUp Pro) can open.

Dashed lines are configurable in LayOut (PRO).

Not finding what you need in LayOut’s library of dashed line styles? Now you can adjust things to make your own.

Precise Move in LayOut (PRO).

This new features will make aligning objects a whole lot easier. The rotation grip now acts like a temporary tracking point to assist in moving and aligning viewports.

To download your copy of SketchUp 8 Free or PRO simply follow this link: http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/download/index.html

I have recently had to help one of my clients figure out why after Importing Google Earth Image and Surface, he was not able to view the draped image in object viewer and also create a rendered image for visualisation. On further investigation it seemed that he was not the only one and I have come up with a couple of ways to work-around this issue and will discuss this in a way that I would approach it.

ALWAYS ENSURE HARDWARE ACCELERATION IS TURNED OFF

I have found some unwanted results when viewing draped images, and this seems to resolve it every time.

So if you have not yet imported Google Earth images and surfaces, here is a quick run through to get you started…

Before Importing Google Earth images into Civil 3D you should ensure you assign the correct coordinate system first using the Settings Tab from Toolspace.

Once the coordinate system has been assigned, the next step would be to ensure the drawing UNITS are set up.

Type UNITS in the command line and ensure the measurements are meters.

Next we need to import the Google Earth surface and Image. This is done from the Insert TAB from the RIBBON. Ensure you have Google Earth open in the background. If the Image is tilted in Google earth you will get problems, so always ensure you type the letter “R” in Google Earth to re-orient your view North and have it fly to an orthographic TOP view.

In Civil 3D, pick Google Earth drop down and choose Google Earth Image and Surface.

You are prompted on the command line to choose a coordinate system or use the coordinate system assigned to the drawing.

Click Enter to accept the drawing coordinate system.

Select the Surface from the drawing and then choose to Drape image from the Context sensitive Ribbon.

Next you will switch to a SW Isometric view using the Viewcube.

With the surface still selected > right-click and choose Object viewer to see if the surface has draped successfully. (ensure you have turned of Hardware acceleration)

Close Object viewer.

The Greyscale Image that has been imported can easily be replaced with a colour image by pointing to it from the xref manager. It will help if you save the image first in Google Earth to a location on your computer. Choose the screen size option (if you have the Pro version of Google Earth installed you will have Premium options to increase the amount of pixels, however this does not match the screen size, so some external editing to match the size will be required if you go with the premium option)

Rendering the Image (1)

Type Render in the command line

If you get a scenario where the surface you are rendering appears Black you need to do the following.

Right click the View Cube.

Change from Parallel to Perspective, then zoom extents. You might find switching between these three options (a couple of times) will sort it out as this is a workaround and not a fixed solution. Using the Navigation Wheel you will need to navigate to your surface. The navigation wheel has a center button that will allow you to create a new center point overriding the current perspective point in your model. Using the zoom button from the navigation wheel makes zooming allot easier than using the middle mouse button. This will take some getting use to but I encourage you to get the hang of it to help in future.

Use ZOOMFACTOR System variable and choose between 3 – 300 for zoom sensitivity if you are using the middle mouse button.

Center the image, then using the zoom from the navigation wheel resize the image to fit your screen.

If you type render now you should have a rendered image appear.

Use the System Variable RPREF to access the advanced render settings tab to be able to render in a viewport rather than a window.

The finished result should look something like this.

Rendering the Image (2)

Type Render in the command line

If you get a drawing where the Image appears very small in the bottom left corner or you just get a grey surface rather than the image. When draping the Image from Google Earth, a new render material is created from the image, and the render material is applied to the surface (so you want to check that this is correctly applied) another reason this may happen is because the units were not assigned before importing the Image (discussed earlier in this Blog)

To fix this do the following;

First type MATERIALS to open the materials browser in Civil 3D, double click the appropriate material assigned to the surface.

This will open the materials editor. Choose to edit the image.

Using the Scale option, replace Width and Height to read 39.370. This conversion results from a simple conversion factor (1m = 39.37inches)

This should cover most of the issues that I have stumbled on, however I will keep an eye out for any further issues that may arise.

To find out more about any of the Google related products for conceptual design you should visit our website and follow the link to our training courses.

http://www.excitech.co.uk/training/training_courses.asp

Autodesk have released the second Hot Fix for the 2011 versions of 3ds Max Design and 3ds Max.

Links to each are below…….

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 - Download HF2 here

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 - Download HF2 here

This Hot Fix covers many important areas including Viewports, Biped, CAT, and FBX from Revit issues, so make sure you keep up to date!

CAD Skills assessment (or CAD Testing) is clearly a subject where opinions are often divided – you either believe in it or dismiss it as being too blunt an instrument to have any real merit. I thought I would share with you some of the opinions from a discussion forum where the original post was asking if anyone had used CAD Tests to assess potential job candidates.

The post had attracted a lot of responses - which I found interesting considering the simple nature of the question. But there were some very strong opinions as to the usefulness, or not, of testing as part of the interview process.

Reading the threads, there were points made, supporting both sides of the debate. Those against made the point that the critical thing is to ensure that the potential candidate has the relevant industry experience, as any required CAD skills can easily be taught. Those against also mentioned that so many CAD tests were too generic, and lacking the ability to test the specific ways in which their own company used the design systems. Most of these comments were made by the CAD managers and those hiring. Anecdotal experience also came from those being hired and taking tests, where a common theme was that it was hard taking a test without their usual customisations and shortcuts being available.

Some contributors made the point that any such testing should allow the use of reference materials, etc, as this would always be available in the working environment. The point being that good users are not just good at using the CAD, but are good at quickly finding the answers when they get stuck – a pretty valid point I guess.

But there were also those very much for testing as part of an interview process, both from an employer and employee perspective. The employee side of the argument was mostly from those that landed a job having done well in a test – for them, there was some sense of them being valued for their ability to use the tools of their trade. Equally there were posts from the employers using CAD testing to help assess new staff, where it was a quick way to spot those who were clearly useless and taking a flyer on being able to bluff the interview process.

I guess that whatever the argument, the important point is to understand the difference between “Testing” and “Assessment” the point being that testing is often a black or white, pass/fail situation, whereas the assessment process takes a more balanced view, looking at many potential factors. Use Skills Testing as just one part of your overall toolkit in order to find out more about an employee (or potential employee) Use it in conjunction with interviews, reviews, whatever your staff assessment process normally is. In this way you ensure that a balanced assessment is made, and your chances of making the right choices and decisions about people should certainly be improved.

Excitech’s HQ, the Design Technology Centre, is now on Google Earth in 3D, using a mixture of photography and visualisation.

How we achieved this and the tools which we used may be of value to you as you seek to increase the profile of your organisation and its design projects as well as communicate your design intent to project partners, clients and maybe even planners.

Imagine building a 3D model of your company or better yet your own home and then having the ability to post this 3D model to Google Earth for the entire world to see. This service is available through Google Earth and SketchUp. This blog entry will step through the process I followed to create a 3D Textured model of Excitech Ltd.  which was then added to the Google Earth Layer for everyone to see.

Image 1  -  Excitech Ltd. offices inside the Design Technology Centre found in Google Earth (just search for “Excitech”)

How it was achieved:

I started my project and used Google SketchUp to model the building based on photographs taken from our company (Design Technology Centre) I did not have a great camera so I decided to involve my training manager to see if he could capture some shots of our building for me to use.  The process followed is called “Photo Matching”. This technique requires a couple of images of existing buildings.  Sketchup has the ability to match the perspective view from your  photos and you simply model over it. Similar to tracing on a piece of paper, except your end result being a 3D model  (see Image 2 of a typical example) Alternatively you could use rendered images of your building if you have modelled it up in other software applications such as AutoCAD, 3DS MAX and Revit to mention a few. Photo matching is a great way to quickly model surroundings without having to get too caught up with the aesthetics or overcomplicating the process.

Now it gets a little more interesting, I took the photographs and started using Gimp to edit out all the vehicles that was parked in front of our building that blocked my view of the windows, on the day the photos were taken. I soon realised that my photo editing techniques were a bit rusty and decided to call in the 3DS Max expert from our Consultancy department. He had previously created our building in 3D with allot more detail than I had expected but the part I was interested in was the Rendered images he produced inside 3DS MAX. I Imported these rendered images as Textures for my 3D model as seen in Image 1. You will notice how I used the satellite imagery for the roof texture to make the terrain blend a little more seamlessly, when viewed in Google Earth.

Image 2  - Typical Matched Photo used to create a 3D model from

Loading the model to the Google Earth Layer was the next step. This “Layer” I refer to is controlled by Google and you can add to this layer in a number of different ways. Allot of Non Profit organisations use this Layer and I have recently seen some content posted that covers the Haiti Earthquake devastation, but that’s another discussion all together. Back to the project, inside Google SketchUp you have the ability to import Geographically referenced satellite images from Google Earth. Let me explain this a little further. Lets imagine you download Google Earth (Free of Pro Version) you type your postal address in the Google Earth search bar. Google Earth flies to your address and shows you a plan view satellite image of your site.  You then download Google SketchUp and press the “Get current view” icon form the available toolbars  This automatically imports the geographically referenced satellite image from Google Earth into SketchUP as well as the terrain data. So if you live on a mountain you will see a mountain in SketchUp after importing your view. It’s that easy! Use this Satellite image as the base for your model. Trace over your building outlines, draw a couple of shapes and before you know it you have a 3D model ready to upload. It’s that simple! Now all you do is click the “Share models” icon from the available toolbars, to load your model to the 3D Warehouse, which is a free online storage location for users to access and share 3D models. (see http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/)

You first need to sign in using your GMAIL account, if you do not have an account create a GMAIL account  and create a user profile, then start the review process. There are a couple of things you should be aware of though.

Google reviews every model that is placed on the Google Earth Layer to verify the building exist in the real world. So you will need to meet some criteria which are all covered in my Geo-modelling training course. I share tips on getting your model grounded which is absolutely essential and also ways to improve your models file size as there are some restrictions to file size. Excitech is an Authorized Training Centre of Google Sketchup and Google Earth so I suggest you find out which courses are available and start to leave your digital footprint on the Virtual Planet called Google Earth. The review procedure takes roughly 7 working days and you will be awarded a Blue Ribbon status for you model when accepted by the 3D Warehouse team. (See image 3 for a view of the 3D Warehouse Blue Ribbon status) As you start to create these 3D models people will start to recognise your work through the on line profile you created and may start to use your buildings as entourage in projects they are busy with. I can honestly say that you will find almost anything imaginable under the sun inside the 3D warehouse and is a great online resource for things like trees, buildings, people, vehicles etc.

Image 3 - Blue Ribbon status verified for 3D Model

Some other features that you will find very useful is marketing yourself in Google Earth, so to help with this you will notice when you hover over the 3D building inside Google Earth it highlights blue. When you left  click on it a “Pop up Balloon” appears. This Balloon can be populated with specific information about your organization as well  as contact details and many other key features. If you are using the Google Earth Plug-in inside your company website you can use HTML, You tube videos, Images and many other great features inside these customizable “Pop up balloons” but that is a whole other chapter waiting to be discussed.

Feel free to visit our company website to take advantage of our Google Accredited Training courses by simply following this link: Google Earth Story - http://www.excitech.co.uk/news/geomodelling_with_google_earth.asp then simply click on the Sketchup and Google Earth training courses tab to find out more about each course.

Well it’s looking very wintery here in the South East and the Christmas break is nearly upon us. I awoke to the following scene outside my window so thought I’d share it with you and also take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope for a prosperous 2010 all round.

See you all next year!

Paul

This is it folks! The new 7.1 Release is out and available for download. You would have noticed this when you opened SketchUp over the last couple of days. Remember if you download and Install the new version it will OVERWRITE your version 7, that means you now have lost the ability to IMPORT .DWG files. As discussed in my previous post you will see that SketchUP now supports .KMZ and .DAE file formats. So if you need to import .DWG you will now need to upgrade to the PRO version. There are some downloads that are available to help you import .dwg files but will only exist for a short period of time. 

Lets look at some of the benefits for upgrading to the new release!

SketchUP 7.1 Free version

Improved support for large models

Crossing lines break automatically

Photo Textures

Use Google Street View imagery to add real-world photo textures to your geo-located SketchUp models.

Custom Templates
You can include all of your organization’s proprietary Styles, Watermarks and components in a custom Template so that every member of your team has everything they need, right from the start. In SketchUp 7, saving custom templates is a breeze.

And that’s not all!

Improved inference locking to make them more visible and easier to use. There’s a new area of the Status bar that tells you more about your model. The VCB is now called Measurements, and you can change its location on your screen. You can make textures unique, and choose to edit them in the photo-editor of your choice. You can apply anti-aliasing to textures to make them look better from a distance.

SketchUP 7.1 PRO

Build components that know what they are

Custom attributes

Generate reports

LayOut 2: Create professional presentation documents, fast

Dimensions

Yes you can now add dimensions to your Layout models. Don’t forget to customize your workspace to see the DIMENSION STYLE TRAY. Lets take a closer look together.

To add the Dimension Style Tray simply go to the Layout menu bar,

expand Window and click on the Dimensions Style box.

This should dock the Dimension Style Tray.

You should pre-configure the dimension style before dimensioning, but with the added benefit of Grip editing and using the ALT key to constrain while doing dimensioning you will now be able to quickly create Engineering type drawings in no-time!

I would have loved to see a Diameter or Radius dimension tool added to this dimension style but it will have to do for the moment.

Snap to SketchUp model

Improved Freehand tool

Lists

Improved Grids

To get the full story simply click on the link below, this will also give you access to some videos and in depth discussions:

http://sketchup.google.com/product/newin7.html

If you are using the FREE Google SketchUP version on a daily basis and and you do consider yourself a PRO user then you should perhaps consider upgrading to PRO. That is if you depend on CAD products in your daily work and currently use the Free version to import .DWG/.DXF files. Google has decided to make the trade off as there are just too many fiddly settings on both sides of the file exchange to get  everything working just right.

Google SketchUP have announced the new release will not support the .DWG/.DXF Import facility within the FREE version. Their Pick for the new format is COLLADA. COLLADA is a COLLAborative Design Activity for establishing an open standard digital asset schema for interactive 3D applications. You can read more on this topic if you follow this link: https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/COLLADA 

I have been following the blog since their announcement and there are many that disagree with their move, but equally as many that agree and seem to think they are heading in the right direction. I suspect we will see SketchUp move into some areas like GAMING as COLLADA supports Kinematics that allot of 3DS MAX and MAYA users already use.

To read the full Google SketchUp article you can follow this link: http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2009/08/coming-soon-in-google-sketchup.html