Making an element appear on every page in LayOut

As you know, LayOut is a great application for creating presentation documents from your SketchUp models. Using LayOut is relatively simple, but there are a few things about it that aren’t obvious. One of these relates to creating elements (such as project titles and logos) that need to appear in the same spot on more than one page. Doing so requires that you understand something called shared layers in LayOut. Elements that you place on shared layers appear on every page that’s set to display that shared layer. Here’s how it works:

the Layers dialog box

1. In LayOut, choose Window > Layers from the menu bar to open the Layers dialog box.
2. Create a new layer by clicking the “Add a new layer button at the top of the Layers dialog box. It looks like a little plus sign.
3. Name your new layer “Multi-Page Elements” or “Same On Every Page”, or something like that.
4. Make your new layer a shared layer by clicking its “shared” icon. It looks like a little piece of paper, and it appears all the way to the right of the layer name in the Layers dialog box. When a layer is shared, its icon looks like a stack of pages.
5. Be sure your new layer is active by clicking to select it (the selected layer has a little pencil icon next to its name) and create or add the element you’d like to appear on every page. Because the layer you’re drawing on is now shared, anything on it will appear on all the pages in your document.

But what if there are some pages on which you don’t want shared layer content to appear? Here’s what you need to do:

the Pages dialog box

1. Choose Window > Pages from the menu bar to open the Pages dialog box.
2. Click any page’s “show/hide shared layers” icon (it looks like a little stack of papers) to set that page to show – or not show – elements which are on shared layers. When the icon looks “blacked out”, that page won’t show the contents of shared layers.

Posted by Matt Lowrie, QA Engineer

Thinking in Pictures

A number of us from the Boulder and Kirkland Google offices recently attended the Autism Society of America‘s 2008 National Conference in Orlando, Florida. What a great experience!

On the first day of the conference, we gave a presentation about Project Spectrum (program that introduces people on the autism spectrum to Google SketchUp) to the ASA Chapter Presidents.

The rest of our time was spent in the exhibit hall introducing SketchUp to the conference attendees, including parents, educators and people with autism. One attendee, Cole, created a java-fied remodel of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. I think he’s still waiting to hear whether or not it was approved!

Our fellow Coloradan, Temple Grandin, delivered the keynote speech. Temple touched on two themes we think are at the core of Project Spectrum: taking advantage of special gifts, like visual and spatial skills, and using those gifts to develop a life skill or career.

A special thanks goes out to our vendors, Sparks and Eagle Management, for building our Project Spectrum booth and providing set-up and tear-down services at no charge. It’s wonderful to see others excited by our program, and it helped to make this a great event.

Posted by Chris Cronin, Project Spectrum Team

Design your Dwelling (and maybe win a trip to San Francisco)

Posted by Tasha Danko, Marketing Functionary

It’s my pleasure to announce the launch of the Design Your Dwelling Competition. We’re co-hosting this design challenge with Dwell Magazine, a stylish and modern publication that focuses on good design as a means to better living. We’re asking SketchUp users – and readers of Dwell – to think about what it means to feel “at home in the modern world” (the Dwell mantra). We challenge you to think about your idea of a comfortable and sustainable dwelling, and to share it with the world.

The building site has already been selected by the Dwell editors; it’s in San Francisco, overlooking the Golden Gate bridge. If the judges consider your entry to be the best, you’ll win a weekend trip to San Francisco to attend the Dwell/AIA home tours and be treated to lunch by the editors of Dwell magazine and the SketchUp team. If you need an excuse to spend some time having fun in SketchUp, this could be just what you’re looking for. Be sure to submit your dream dwelling by August 31, 2008.

Visit the competition website for all the rules, prize information, design parameters and submission guidelines. Good luck, and we look forward to seeing your submissions.

SketchUp books for kids

Posted by Tasha Danko, Marketing Functionary

Our long-time friend Bonnie Roskes, who’s written books on SketchUp, is now writing SketchUp books for kids (which only makes sense, since she has a bunch of kids herself). Children learn SketchUp pretty quickly, but there isn’t much educational material out there just for them. Bonnie’s new “ModelMetricks” series includes 11 books with lots of fun and colorful projects that kids will love. Parents and teachers love them, too – how often do kids log quality hours on the computer? Bonnie’s site also has some free kids’ activities – great for keeping your kids off the streets during summer vacation.

For you K-12 educators out there (or if you happen to know any), Bonnie also has a Free Teacher Guide. It’s full of suggested SketchUp projects for all ages in a variety of subjects. They make it easy for you to introduce SketchUp to your classes.

The camera adds ten pounds

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

As people who already know what SketchUp is, I doubt anything in the video we made recently will be groundbreaking news. Nonetheless, we’re proud of it, and we thought you might be interested.

Some notes before you watch it: This was my first time “acting” in a non-training video – I know I won’t be winning an Oscar anytime soon. Also (in the interest of full disclosure), I did design the DVD coffee table in real life, but my good buddy and coworker Tyson Kartchner built it in his garage. This is a good thing, as power tools and I don’t always get along.

The table will soon be residing in a member of the SketchUp team’s dwelling, but if you’d like to build something like it, I’ve posted the model to the 3D Warehouse.

I used SketchUp to design the “set” for the video, and LayOut to create the storyboard we used to plan it out and shoot it. As you can see, we stuck to it pretty closely:

(click the image to see it bigger)

"Sportables" design challenge winners announced

Posted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

As many of you may remember, we kicked off a design challenge with Architecture for Humanity at SketchUp 3D Basecamp several weeks ago. The challenge was to design a “Sportable”: a portable sports product library, product development studio, and futsal (soccer) play area. This Sportable is for deployment into the community of Capao Redondo in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Once deployed, it uses sports to inspire change for youth of both genders, and to provide income generation opportunities for others.

We had a great crowd of folks at the 3D Basecamp charrette, and some of them went back home and kept right on working. After Basecamp, AfH opened up the challenge to their entire Open Architecture Network, and a bunch more folks joined in from there. Last Friday, we called a collective “pencils down!” and took a look at what people had been able to do in the short time available. After long deliberation, the “Sportables” jury is pleased to announce the following winners:

First Place
Futebol em toda parte! Mobile Sports Unit – Toby R. Keeton
This brilliant and carefully thought-out compact module is easy to transport and deploy, but also provides incentives for the participants to take ownership in this great community resource, and utilizes simple, available materials. -AfH

Second Place
Glowing Linesmen – Joseph Ng Tino Chow
A compact cart creatively organizes, dispenses and collects supplies and but also harnesses solar power to define the field through a series of sensors -AfH

Third Place
Flex Modular Kiosk – ChunSheh Teo
The flexible, adaptable system provides many configurations for various retail, educational and community events, and closes down to a lantern. – AfH

An additional special mention from AfH goes out to:

AfH Founders’ Award
[s]table – Jonathan Stahl
We commend this for strong income generation strategies, and creative canopies, but not the shipping containers which are difficult to transport! -AfH

Thanks to everyone who entered, your projects were all great. I’ve always known that the SketchUp user community includes some of the best and most inventive designers around, and you guys proved it. Please add a comment to this post if you think we should do a competition like this again.

Announcing the winners of the 2008 Model Your Campus Competition

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

We’re happy to announce the winners for the Google 2008 International Model Your Campus Competition! Congratulations to the talented students who took on such a challenging project. The winning schools are (in no particular order):

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
China

Nicolas Copernicus University

Department of Biology and Earth Sciences
Poland

Johns Hopkins University
Student Technology Services & Digital Media Center
USA

Stockholm University and KTH
Department of Computer and Systems Sciences
Sweden

Missouri University of Science and Technology
Department of Physical Facilities
USA

Cardiff University
Department of Information Services
UK

University of Wisconsin – Madison
Department of Engineering
USA

Bournemouth University
The Business School
UK

Peking University
School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science
China

See their amazing models in Google Earth or check out their individual collections in the 3D Warehouse. Check out the competition website for more details about the judges, the rules, the winners and what they won. Congratulations to the winning teams, and a big thank you to everyone who participated.

Shining a spotlight

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

We here at World Headquarters think it’s high time that we did a better job of highlighting some of the terrific work that folks are doing with SketchUp. Plenty of people post the fruits of their 3D labors all over the Internet, and starting today, we’re going to be linking to some of them. If there’s something you think this blog’s readers should see, please use this form to let us know about it.

Chris Picciano built a nifty website to showcase some of the models he’s made, as well as a number of useful resources and other information pertaining to SketchUp. Nice job Chris!

3D Basecamp videos now available

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2008 was a blast, but only a little over 300 people were able to attend in person. Luckily, we recorded almost all of the sessions, so now anyone with a computer and an internet connection can partake in the joy of learning a little more about SketchUp. We built a special site to host the session videos and handouts:

Check out the 3D Basecamp 2008 Session Videos Site

Here’s a sampling of some of the sessions from the event:

Modeling Smart
An introduction to techniques you can use to create well-organized, low-poly and otherwise-efficient SketchUp files. You’ll end up with models that are easier to work with and perform better on your computer, no matter how powerful your hardware is (or isn’t). Presented by Aidan Chopra.

Working with Large Models
Expands on the techniques demonstrated in the “Modeling Smart” session, with an emphasis on using SketchUp’s extensive organizational tools to manage very large models. Learn how to use Layers, Groups, Components and the Outliner together to maintain your sanity. Presented by Mitchel Stangl.

Follow Me: Adding Details with Ease
Follow along as we explore the ins, outs, and all-abouts of the Follow Me tool. We cover the basics of what you can do with the tool, then show you how to work quickly and share some tips to produce the best results. Presented by Tyson Kartchner.

Building spiral stairs

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

The key to modeling spiral stairs, I’ve found, is to think in terms of components. If each stair tread is an instance of the same component (a single stair tread), you can build relatively complex—and flexible—spiral stairs fairly easily. As with most things, it just takes a little bit of planning. Click on the image below to download a SketchUp model that takes you through my favorite method for constructing spiral stairs (explaining it here would be exhausting for both of us).