3D printing from SketchUp just got a little easier

i.materialise is a web-based 3D printing service provider. You give them a computer model and some money, and they send you a physical model in return. Pretty simple, really.

Except that 3D printing is usually anything but simple. Printing SketchUp models involves file conversion, scale conversion and quite a bit of checking for mysterious things like “watertightness”. With demand for rapid prototyping on the rise, companies like Materialise (and a few others) are doing their best to make the SketchUp-to-object printing process easier than ever.

How it works

The new SketchUp plugin from i.materialise is essentially a wizard: After installing it, you open a model, launch the plugin and go through the steps. You scale your model to make it fit on the printing “plate”, indicate areas of glazing (transparency), and even add ready-made elements (like trees) from a collection of “guaranteed-to-print” objects supplied by i.materialise. When you’re ready, the plugin lets you one-click-upload your prepared model for printing.

A model printed from a SketchUp file using the i.materialise plugin

Here are some more facts:

• The i.materialise SketchUp plugin is free to download and use
• Printed models can be either monochrome or full-color; fixed prices start around €300/$350
• Models can be as big as 150 mm by 230 mm by 140 mm high (about 6 x 9 x 5.5 inches high)
• For now, the i.materialise SketchUp plugin is Windows-only
• There’s a terrific PDF Manual that you can download — it answered all my questions

Enter the Design Challenge

To kick things off, the folks at i.materialise have even sponsored a little competition. The World of Houses SketchUp Design Challenge invites anyone to submit a SketchUp model for consideration. A jury (of which I am a part) will pick their three favorite models; the winners will receive a printed model as a prize. Take a look at the challenge website for all the details, but do it soon — the deadline for submissions is May 24, 2010.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

SketchUp training for kitchen & bath designers

If you’re a kitchen & bath designer who’s interested in learning more about using SketchUp in your workflow, this one’s for you. Our SketchUp Authorized Training Center friends at School are planning a Designer Bootcamp for late May. You’ll learn how to use SketchUp Pro, LayOut and the 3D Warehouse to make your process easier, more efficient and more fun.

WHEN: May 26, 27 and 28
, 2010
WHERE: Orlando, Florida, USA
HOW MUCH: $699 for the 3-day event (18 hours of hands-on training)

For more information, check out School’s blog post about the event.

Posted by Shara Greenlee, SketchUp ATC Program Manager

Up close and personal

We’re happy to announce that Nashville, Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Dallas are the newest additions to the family of Google Earth cities with high-quality 3D imagery. Exploring some of America’s most well-known cities from the comfort of your own computer just got even easier, and it also got more fun!

Whether exploring Nashville’s music venues along 2nd and Broadway, Indy’s Monument Circle in the heart of downtown, Charlotte’s diverse and numerous museums, or Dallas’s architecturally rich historic districts, the updated high quality 3D imagery will make you feel like you’re really there.

Give it a go in Google Earth or watch the video below for an up close tour!

Posted by Catherine Moats, 3D Modeling Specialist

Last call to cast your vote!

April is coming to a close, and you can still add your vote (if you haven’t already done so) for the best town in the Google Model Your Town Competition. On May 1, 2010 at midnight PST the voting page will be closed. We’ll announce the winner on May 14th. The winner will be one of the following five finalists:

• Barranco (Lima, Peru)
• Braunschweig (Niedersachsen, Germany)
• Donostia – San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa, Spain)
• Dursley (Gloucestershire, United Kingdom)
• West Palm Beach (Florida, United States)

Voice your opinion. Vote now!

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp Team

Case Study: McCarthy Building Company

McCarthy Building Companies uses SketchUp Pro to streamline and enhance current processes which increase collaboration, improve quality, and reduce cost. Below is an excerpt of a case study we received from McCarthy. Visit our website to read the complete case study (and see more models).

McCarthy serves its clients with the latest technologies to solve their toughest construction challenges. We’re true builders who utilize technology to augment our hands-on experience. That combination ensures clients get greater control—from preconstruction to completion. On-time scheduling, higher quality, safer projects, and better costs are just a few of the ways customers benefit from this unique approach. McCarthy also has a nationwide network of builder specialists, yet we maintain permanent offices in local markets too. That means we deliver expert solutions leveraging national best practices, plus strong sub-contractor relationships locally to help lower client cost and drive better results. It also means we have adeeply-felt obligation to give back to the community in every city we work in from coast to coast.

Challenge
Buildings and jobsites are becoming more and more congested and difficult to envision from just a set of 2D drawings. Designers and Engineers are creating structures in a 3D environment for placement in a 3D world. Building systems are rapidly evolving to implement new technologies that have not yet been implemented into construction before; resulting in challenging interfaces. It is no longer acceptable to go into a meeting with an owner with a hand-drawn site logistics plan. As a result of these challenges, McCarthy has instituted the use of Google SketchUp as a virtual construction tool to adapt and overcome to the challenges of the ever-evolving construction environment of the 21st century.

While working in conjunction with BSA LifeStructures this model, presented through LayOut,
was used to communicate the site logistics during construction.

Solution

McCarthy is committed to continuous innovative improvements to our building process. Utilizing SketchUp, our teams have been able to convey critical information in all phases from pre-construction to close-out, enhancing our Virtual Design and Construction services.

Site logistics – We have found that by creating a site logistics plan utilizing SketchUp, we can now show owners where we will be, and how it will impact their employees and clients.

RFIs and Virtual Mock-Ups – Our field staff is now finding solutions virtually, using SketchUp for RFI’s, mock-ups, self-perform concrete, and other details.

Virtual Construction Visualization – SketchUp has also been used to create concrete lift drawings to help the trades visualize the task from start to finish – potentially catching any accidental omissions before starting actual construction.

Results
By modeling our RFI’s, site logistics plans, building mock-ups, self-perform concrete, and many other details, we have found increased efficiency, better quality, and reduced costs. The aforementioned products have allowed us to improve our relationships with Owners, Architects and Subcontractors creating a collaborative environment that is beneficial to all parties.

As a leader in BIM technology, our vision is clear and we have been able to reduce cost by utilizing SketchUp to pass those savings onto our owners. One of the reasons Google SketchUp is such a powerful tool at McCarthy is the small learning curve and low cost. Most of the BIM systems out there have a larger learning curve and higher price. SketchUp’s ease of use and the availability of extensive online training, has allowed our teams to remain on-site and implement their new tools faster. SketchUp has allowed our quality department to standardize and visualize our best practices for our Building Enclosure Program, allowing these models to be used as a baseline for future projects. McCarthy holds an annual SketchUp contest throughout the company to enhance SketchUp’s use. Google SketchUp is now being utilized in almost every department from owner presentations to RFI’s. SketchUp has allowed us to continue to have the hands-on approach we need to be the best builder in America.

Posted by Chris Dizon, SketchUp Pro Team

New Earth view highlights 3D buildings

Earlier this week Google announced the new Earth view in Google Maps. Earth view uses the Google Earth plugin to show 3D buildings, imagery, and terrain in the browser on Google Maps.

The Google Boulder office (where Google SketchUp and Google Building Maker are developed) is particularly excited how 3D buildings modeled by the Google SketchUp community are used to demonstrate the new Earth view feature.

By clicking on the “Use Earth view” link in Google Maps, you can see a tour of 36 famous places and landmarks around the world — 24 of those are 3D buildings created with Google SketchUp.

You can see who created the models by clicking on the author link next to the thumbnail image. This will open a new browser window that displays all of the 3D models created by that author.

Congratulations to all the geo-modelers whose 3D models were featured in the launch!

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Announcing the Sketch-a-Space design competition

We’ve collaborated with our friends at Easter Seals on a unique design competition that launched yesterday: Sketch-a-Space invites both pros and amateurs to use Google SketchUp to design spaces for people with autism. Our own Project Spectrum was started specifically with this community of people in mind.

Qualities of light, color, pattern, sound and other factors are critical to all good design; when it comes to design for people on the autism spectrum, this is doubly true. Some folks who are on the autism spectrum have environmental sensitivities that can have a profound effect on their ability to make use of a space. Understanding these sensitivities and creating spaces that accommodate them is what Sketch-a-Space is all about.

The design competition is open to people in the United States; you can enter in any one of four categories:

• Youth with Autism: individuals with autism age 13-17
• Adult with Autism: individuals with autism age 18 and over
• Youth: individuals without autism age 13-17
• Adult: individuals without autism age 18 and over

For complete details, including information about entering the competition, prizes, deadlines, judging (hint: I’m one of them) and official rules, visit the Sketch-a-Space website.

Good luck!

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

More sharing options in the 3D Warehouse

When we recently added some sharing options to the Google 3D Warehouse there was one we were itching to add (the support wasn’t yet public so we couldn’t): Google Buzz. Two weeks later, the Buzz team did its job (you may have seen their recent blog post) and we’re pleased to support sharing with Google Buzz on the 3D Warehouse. As an added bonus, we also added support for MySpace (found under the “Share” dropdown).

Here’s a tip for those of you who like to share our “swivel view” of your 3D model: If you add Google Reader as a connected site to Google Buzz, you get swivel view in Buzz. Open Google Buzz and look for the “connected sites” link:

Click the link and make sure Google Reader is added. Then, share a model you find in the 3D Warehouse with Reader (it’s the 2nd icon in the list). You’ll see your Reader share now appears in Buzz – complete with swivel!

Posted by Mark Limber, Product Manager

Earth view comes to Google Maps

Five years ago, shortly after Google’s acquisition of Keyhole, we introduced the first integration of Keyhole technology into Google Maps — Satellite view. Suddenly, you could see what places actually looked like from the air, and easily switch between this view and the map view. Mapping has never been the same. A few months later, the desktop Google Earth application was released, and now we have over 600 million downloads. Today we are proud to announce the next major step in the marriage between Google Earth and Google Maps — Earth view.

Those of you who aren’t as familiar with Google Earth might be wondering how Earth view differs from the satellite view that’s currently available in Maps. First of all, Earth view offers a true three-dimensional perspective, which lets you experience mountains in full detail, 3D buildings, and first-person dives beneath the ocean. The motion is fluid, and you can see the world from any viewpoint. Because Earth view is built right into Maps, you can switch back to cartographic view simply by clicking on the “Map” button. The view will even adjust automatically to a top-down, north-heading perspective as you transition. In essence, you now have all the best mapping tools at your fingertips, all in one place.

New to 3D? We’ve collected some cool places around the world for you to explore with a single click. Ever been to the Taj Mahal? How about the Sydney Opera house, or South Africa’s Table Mountain? You can even dive under the ocean and check out the wreckage of the Titanic. Just click one of the icons in the left panel and you’ll be flown from space down to your chosen location, which you can explore further by clicking and dragging the map or by using the navigation controls in the top of the view. We have 36 places set aside for you to explore, and you can cycle through them by clicking the “More places” link. We’ve also included a short video introduction to Earth view.

Earth view uses the same technology that powers the Google Earth desktop application. It allows you to view the same high-resolution imagery, terrain, and 3D cityscapes, all from right within your browser. We built the new Earth view on the Google Earth API and browser plugin, which make it easy for web developers to include Google Earth in their own websites. If you’ve already installed Google Earth, you can start using Earth view right away. Otherwise, with one click you can download and install the browser plugin and you’ll be ready to start exploring in 3D. The Earth plugin is currently supported on most Windows and Mac web browsers.

Get started today by going to maps.google.com/earthview, and explore your world in 3D.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager

Bend it like Fullmer: All about Shape Bender

Ever wish that you could warp and bend stuff more easily in SketchUp? You can — with the right plug-in. Ruby scripts for deforming your geometry abound; I wrote about FredoScale just recently. This time, I thought I’d mention Shape Bender by Chris Fullmer. You’ll wonder how you got along without it.

What Shape Bender does is actually pretty straightforward: It takes any 3D object in your model and bends/stretches it along a pre-drawn path that you select. Simple, but unbelievably powerful. Take a look at the following examples.

The straight, blue text is what I started with. The bent, yellow text is the result of my Shape Bender operation.

The bending path (above left) is a 3D spiral.

The possibilities are endless.

Shape Bender should be called Mind Bender. For a longtime SketchUpper like me, it’s like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. But enough giddiness; here are the facts:

• Visit the Shape Bender thread at SketchUcation to learn about and download the script for free
• SB works on PCs and Macs, just like most SketchUp Ruby scripts
• SB is currently available with English and French UI (user interface)
• After you download the script, put both the Ruby file (it ends in “.rb”) and the folder in your SketchUp 7 Plugins folder

Here’s my best attempt at a basic, getting-started set of Shape Bender instructions:

1. Make sure the thing you want to bend is either a group or a component.
2. Rotate it (if necessary) so it’s lined up lengthwise along the red axis.
3. Use the Line tool to draw a straight edge parallel to the length of the thing you want to bend. Make sure it’s parallel to the red axis.
4. Draw a curved edge that represents the bending path (that’s my term, not Chris’) for your forthcoming bent shape.
5. Select the group or component to be bent.
6. Choose Plugins > Chris Fullmer Tools > Shape Bender to activate the tool.
7. Click once on the straight edge you drew in Step 3 (make sure it’s highlighted before you click on it).
8. Click once on the curve you created in Step 4.
9. Wait for SketchUp to think. Depending on how zippy your computer is, maybe get some coffee.
10. Take a look at the green preview to see what you’re about to get. If it looks backwards, press the Up Arrow key on your keyboard to reverse the direction of the bending path. You can also press the Down Arrow key to reverse the direction of the straight edge you created in Step 3.
11. When the preview looks the way you want it to, press Enter to finish the transformation.

Chris’ video (below) does a great job of explaining the process:

Having spent some time with Shape Bender, here are some things I think it’s helpful to know:

Location matters. Pay attention to the location of the straight, red axis-aligned edge you draw relative to the thing you’re planning to bend. It basically acts as the “axis of bendation” (again, not Chris’ term) for the operation. If you want your bent object’s center line to follow the bending path precisely, draw the straight edge right through the center of the original object. Take a look at the following images to see what I’m talking about:

Note the different position of the red line relative to the original blue cone in each of the above three examples. Where you position the straight line has an effect on the result of your bending operation.

The length of your straight line matters. I’m referring to the one you drew in Step 3, above. Its length affects how the thing you’re trying to bend stretches (or squishes) when you bend it. If you want it to stretch, make your straight line shorter than your curved one. If you want it to squish, reverse that. To keep things from stretching or squishing, make both lines about the same length.

Beginnings and endings matter. Draw your curved bending path so its beginning and end points are at different places along the red axis. Otherwise, Shape Bender gets confused and freaks out.

Weld your bending path. The edge you designate as a bending path needs to be continuous; it can’t be made up of more than one segment. To glue multiple segments together, use the Weld script. It’s available for free at Smustard.com.

Congratulations on a great script, Chris. The SketchUp world owes you one.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, Product Evangelist