3D Warehouse models available in COLLADA file format

We’re happy to announce that we’re changing the way we serve COLLADA and Google Earth files from the Google 3D Warehouse. Currently, Google Earth files in the 3D Warehouse are simple ‘wrappers’ around COLLADA 3D model files, and up until now, we’ve simply provided the COLLADA (and consequently, the Google Earth) files that SketchUp has produced. Unfortunately, this meant that any problems that existed in SketchUp’s exported files persisted and caused everyone some major headaches.

As a result, we’ve changed things so that soon after upload, we generate the COLLADA/Google Earth file on the server using the provided SketchUp file. What does this mean? First, you’ll find more models that do load properly when you follow the “View on a 3D map” link. Next, every model in the 3D Warehouse will now be available in the COLLADA format. Finally, you’ll find that the COLLADA and Google Earth files are more compatible with Google Earth, the Google Earth plugin, and other 3D applications that are COLLADA-compatible (like Photoshop). You’ll have to wait until our systems can convert your SketchUp file before you’ll find the Google Earth and COLLADA files available for download, but this process shouldn’t take more than a few hours. Please let us know if there are questions or comments about this change.

Posted by Mark Limber, 3D Warehouse Product Manager

More 3D buildings in Google Earth

Late last week we updated the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. The emphasis of this release was user-contributed data; photo-textured 3D models created using Google SketchUp and published to the Google 3D Warehouse.

This release was significantly larger than previous releases. Thousands of user-generated models were pushed live and we hope yours was included! The reason for the increase is that we’ve been working hard to identify and review 3D building models that may have been overlooked. Many thanks to our loyal modelers who have helped to identify these deserving models, and been patient while we work out some kinks in the process.

If you’re a geo-modeler and have been waiting for your model to be reviewed, have a look to see if it made it in this release. If not, then stay-tuned. We’ve already started the process of re-reviewing each and every “Google Earth ready” model submitted to the Google 3D Warehouse. It’s no small undertaking but we’re committed to having this completed very soon.

In the meantime, hats-off to the many modelers whose models were included. To highlight a couple….check out the Chrysler building in New York modeled by Kevin Girard, or Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square in Vatican City by Antonino Grasso Cristaudo. Awesome work guys!

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Sr. Business Product Manager

SketchUp is now available in Chinese (Simplified)

In the past few weeks, we’ve added new language support to Google SketchUp, making ‘3D for Everyone’ available to people who speak French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Korean, Turkish and Czech. I said we weren’t done yet, and there’s still more to come. Today, we’re adding support for speakers of Chinese (Simplified) – the language spoken by the approximately 1,330,044,544 people who live in China. On behalf of the Google SketchUp development team, I’d like to say “喂” to all of you, and welcome you to the SketchUp user community.

Posted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

SketchUp 7 For Dummies book

Our friends over at Wiley Publishing have just released the popular Google SketchUp For Dummies book in a new edition that covers SketchUp 7 – both free and Pro! You can find the book online and at brick-and-mortar booksellers. The new edition is fully updated and includes:

• a brand new section on the Sandbox tools
• a brand new section on modeling organic shapes with the Scale, Push/Pull, and Follow Me tools
• a brand new section on Dynamic Components, including how to use them and how to create them
• coverage of the new photomodeling tools
• a revised chapter on LayOut 2

Posted by James Therrien, Training Simian

Help model the world – one bridge at a time

Are you in awe of the engineering that goes into designing a bridge? Do you have a favorite local, famous, or historical bridge you’d like to see in Google Earth? I’m pleased to announce the launch of the Google SketchUp 2009 International Student Bridge Modeling Competition. Now you have a chance to show off your modeling skills and make that dream a reality by entering the competition anytime before June 15, 2009.

Simply model your bridge in Google SketchUp, geo-reference it in Google Earth, and submit the bridge by uploading to the Google 3D Warehouse to earn eternal online glory and, if you win, a handsome prize. You can enter this competition if you’re a student at a higher education institution almost anywhere in the world. Take a look at this 3D Warehouse collection to get inspired, and good luck!

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Ecce Triumphatores!

Congratulations to the winners of the Google Ancient Rome in 3D Curriculum Competition!

Our panel of educational thought leaders included Bernard Frischer, Director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia, Roberta Johnson, Executive Director of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, and Michael H. Levine, Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. They chose to recognize the following teachers for their excellent lessons — and all these lessons can be found on the Google for Educators website for other teachers to adapt them for their own classrooms:

Grades 9-12

• Benjamin Johnson of Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine for his lesson, Walking in the Footsteps of the Romans (he even created a great video of his lesson, available on YouTube).
• Amy Rechtiene of Lake Norman High School in Mooresville, North Carolina for her lesson, A tour of Rome Fit for an Emperor
• Sarah Ellery of Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee for her lesson, Walking with the Emperors

Grades K-8

• Cheryl Davis of Acalanes Union High School District in Lafayette, California for her lesson, Roman Holiday with the Ancients
• Jennifer Wagner of Calvary School in Wildomar, California and Kathy Shields of Creek View Elementary in Alpharetta, Georgia for their lesson, Archy-the-Arch
• Ingrid Gustafson and Carol Alcusky of Sarah Gibbons Middle School in Westborough, Massachusetts for their lesson, The Roman Record

Honorable Mentions

• Ivan Nieves and Sally Hatcher of Winsor School in Boston, Massachusetts for their lesson, Ecce Rome
• Mijana Lockard and Craig Hilgenberg of Lincoln Avenue Academy in Lakeland, FL for their lesson, What can we Learn from Ancient Societies?

Our judges had this to say about the competition: “We’ve had the privilege to read lesson plans and classroom activities from teachers all across the country that incorporate both the challenging pedagogy and breakthrough technologies that are required to prepare children in a global age. We’ve been impressed and delighted by the level of expertise shown across a wide range of grade levels and subject areas, from architecture, design, and theater to history, world languages, and environmental engineering. The teachers recognized as prize winners displayed both their keen eye for what works in the classroom to engage today’s students, as well as a mastery of 21st century technologies, including Google Earth and the new Ancient Rome 3D layer. We are confident that their work will inspire educators everywhere!”

Posted by Anna Bishop, Google Earth Education Team

Design competition announced by Dwell

Our friends over at Dwell Magazine just announced an exciting new product redesign competition sponsored by the all-new Volkswagen CC: Innovate it!

Their spring competition seeks to improve the design of everyday objects (towel racks, toothbrushes, transit vehicles) and is split into two phases. In phase one, you submit your suggestions for everyday objects that need re-imagining and then the Dwell editors will choose the three best ideas from all entries. Enter the first phase by March 31st. In phase two, you will submit a design proposal for one or all three most tragically-designed objects from phase one. They’re inviting products designed using Google SketchUp. You can also use LayOut to put together your proposal. Enter your ideas today.

Posted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Product Marketing

Live from Mars!

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Lat Long Blog)

Just last month, we released Mars in Google Earth 5.0 and finally satisfied the long-standing demands of our Martian userbase. However, much to our delight, Mars has also proven popular among Earthlings, so today we’re pleased to announce several new features for Mars in Google Earth designed specifically for our human users. Together they highlight humanity’s newest and oldest views of the red planet: Live from Mars, Historical Maps, and Guided Tours.

	Live from Mars: NASA’s typical release process for Mars satellite imagery requires months, and involves numerous stages of calibration. But thanks to the THEMIS camera team at Arizona State University, you could turn on the new ‘Live from Mars’ layer and become one of the very first people to lay eyes on images taken just days or even hours ago! This feature represents the first public continuous stream of fresh high-resolution satellite imagery in the solar system, and can display new images from the THEMIS camera just hours after NASA receives them. You can also see live satellite orbital tracks, or check out where the HiRISE camera plans to image next.
	Historical Maps: In the late 1800s, Giovanni Schiaparelli created many of the earliest detailed maps of Mars. He famously saw, recorded, and named numerous linear features on the surface, some of which he termed cannali (Italian for channel). His contemporary, Percival Lowell, re-imagined and misunderstood these features to be artificial canals, sparking a media frenzy back on Earth and captivating the public with the idea of abundant water and an alien civilization on Mars. The Historical Globes layer lets you see these and other antique maps of Mars as virtual spinning globes.
	Guided Tours: If you’re not sure where to go on Mars, let Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ira Flatow of Public Radio’s Science Friday show you around. Simply go to the Mars Gallery layer, and double-click either of their tours for a narrated trip around the Martian surface. This is a great way to introduce yourself to some of the most interesting spots on the planet – just sit back, and enjoy the ride. If something catches your eye, you can pause these tours at any time and explore on your own, then hit play to resume your journey. These tours were created with the new Touring feature in Google Earth 5.0.

Mars in Google Earth also contains several other layers with useful information about the Red Planet. There’s a browsable layer of our favorite satellite images, visible and infrared global views, geo-located excerpts from A Traveler’s Guide to Mars, and others. We’ve also included 3D models of NASA rovers and, if you follow their tracks, the 360-degree panoramic photos they captured from the surface. Just like browsing on Earth, you can use the search box to locate famous sites like the face on Mars. Who knows, you might just find a new Martian friend to chat with…

To enter Mars in Google Earth, click the planets button in the main toolbar and select ‘Mars’:

We hope you enjoy these latest additions. They’re made possible by Google’s Space Act Agreement with NASA, which enabled NASA Ames researchers to develop much of this content. You can visit earth.google.com/mars to learn more about Mars in Google Earth.

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, Martian Product Manager

Announcing the OpenStudio Plugin

The OpenStudio plugin is a geometry editor for EnergyPlus, the Whole Building Energy Simulation Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. This free, open source plugin (currently only available for Windows) enables Google SketchUp users to create building geometry from scratch, open and edit existing EnergyPlus input files, or run EnergyPlus and view the results, all without ever leaving SketchUp. For more information and to download the plugin, visit their website.

Also, keep an eye out for a joint SketchUp and EnergyPlus training session at this year’s AIA Conference (American Institute of Architects) in San Francisco. If you’re a developer and would like to contribute to this open source project, please visit the OpenStudio SourceForge website.

Posted by Chris Cronin, SketchUp Sales Team

Cool technologies to help visualize your models

To shake things up a bit, I want to talk about a few technologies that are simply jaw droppingly, eye poppingly cool – their “professional” use cases aside. Get your “techy” hat on and be ready to geek out. I hope you find them as fun and exciting as I do.

1) The first cool integration comes from Inglobe Technologies. Born from individuals in the Scientific Research and Design communities, their technology revolves around the creation of “Augmented Reality“. What the heck is “Augmented Reality”? In short, it is the concept of combining reality with virtual reality.

Their new “ARplugin” for SketchUp will combine what you see through a standard computer video camera (reality) with your SketchUp model (virtual reality). With a simple click of their ARplugin tool and your model will export into the world of AR and you will be able to handle the model as if it is in you hand!

Just as we at Google SketchUp have preached “3D for Everyone”, I was told that Inglobe too are evangelizing AR for anyone. So give it a try. They have a free download so you can try it out.

Sorry Mac lovers, but currently the ARplugin is Windows only but I have been informed that a Mac version is in the works.

Be sure to check out some of Inglobe’s augmented reality videos on YouTube as well as others pertaining to the world of Augmented Reality.

2) The second cool integration is from a company called Deliverance Software out of the UK. Evolving from a terrain editing application for game developers and their work with the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield, their product line allows you to insert your SketchUp model into a game like environment for you to do real-time walk throughs, fly overs and animations with your SketchUp designs. And if you have those 3D glasses, you can even set it for stereo view to get the 3D effect you see in 3D Movies.

The WalkAbout3D is their most basic product and it will allow you to load your SketchUp model into the engine directly while in SketchUp. Their enhanced product is called Symmetry3D and it will allow you to work with 3D terrain, load multiple 3D models, and create animations/simulations. They have posted multiple videos on YouTube showing both applications in action.

Posted by Chris Dizon, SketchUp Guru