Browsing: Sketchup

Hasbro, the makers of the Monopoly game, have officially announced a competition that gives Monopoly-lovers the chance to design a building that will be included in the new interactive game Monopoly City Streets.

To enter this competition, you need to design a 3D building using Google SketchUp and upload it to the Google 3D Warehouse. The deadline to submit entries is Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 11:59pm, EST. Visit the Monopoly City Streets blog for the Official Rules, prizes, and more information.

For more information on how it works, click here.

This morning Google announced Google SketchUp 7.1. This new version will be a  free upgrade for existing Pro users, and has emphasis on three important aspects of this easy-to-use (yet powerful and extensible) software: performance, an improved version of LayOut (2.1) and collaboration.

As for performance, the engine has been improved and you will notice that orbiting, zooming and drawing can be quicker and smoother in 7.1, for both PC and Mac editions.

LayOut 2.1, the SU componente that enables you to create presentation boards and design documents straight from your model, has now the ability to apply dimensions to scaled SU models and vector graphics. Based on my personal experience, LayOut is very good to deliver quick construction documents and has helped me a lot working with furniture manufacturers. The new dimension tool is something I was waiting for.

LayOut 2.1 also includes snap to the model, an improveed Freehand tool, lists (bullet or numbered, very useful) in the text area, improved grids and improved copy/paste, making it easier to work with other design softwares. You can see more on the video and images below.

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This year we not only celebrate the 142nd birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright, but also the 50 years of the Guggenheim, one of his master pieces (completed the year he passed away). These dates are not only commemorated with Lego Kits and exhibitions, but also with a very interesting competition held by the Guggenheim Museum and Google Sketchup.

The interesting part of the Design It: Shelter Competition is that it invites people from around the world to do pretty much what Wright made his apprentices at Taliesin: If you wanted to study to be an architect with Wright, you had to design and build a shelter in the desert outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Then you had to live and study in it, as it have been for the past 7 decades (you can see more of this at the Learn by Doing exhibition).

So, the competition invites people to design a small structure where someone might sleep and work. Your shelter should be created for a specific site anywhere in the world and geo-located in Google Earth. It also should conform to size constraints and must not include running water, gas or electricity. Then it must be submitted to Google 3D Warehouse, as described on the video (more details on how to enter here).

You can submit your shelter until August 23. After that, Taliesin students will pick 10 shelters for the People´s Choice Prize, and a jury will pick a shelter for the Juried Prize. You can read more about the prize and the jury here.

I like that this competition is not aimed to architects only, but to anyone who has a good idea for a shelter. As Frank Lloyd Wright, you don´t need formal architectural training, just a good idea and a pen. Or in this case, a 3d modeling tool easy and powerful as a pen.

Bonus: Architecture for Humanity decided to “hack” the competition, by adding a social component to it: The Purpose Prize. Instead of designing your shelter anywhere, do it for a specific community that can use your design to improve their living standard. So after submitting your entry to Google 3D Warehouse, submit it to the Open Architecture Network following these guidelines and you will be running for the Purpose Prize (US$500 + 10th Anniversary AFH Moleskine Folio). But the most important, you will be helping a community with your design skills, even if you don´t get awarded.

During the AIA Convention 2009 we had the chance to talk to different AEC software companies, to learn how they are helping architects. We decided to keep the conversation on the same interview format we have been using, so you can hear it straight from the developers.

Our first interview was with John Bacus, Product Manager for Google Sketchup. We focused our interview on how SketchUp is helping architects by providing a cost efficient tool, both in price and time, that is also extendable via powerful plugins.

Also, we talked on how this product is being used by communities around the world to populate Google Earth with 3D models of their cities. You can see examples of these communities here and here.

Stay tuned for more interviews.

As an architect, I have been involved/consulted on historic preservation proyects. Most of them never materialized, even after spending a lot of time/money between interested parties (government, institutions, communities). It´s Not that it was a waste of time, but after seeing what some communities are doing with almost no official support/money and just driven by their passion, it´s pretty much clear that it can be done in another way.

Let me show you an example: a group of architecture students from Universidad de Talca, in the south of Chile, decided to spend their summer working with a community in Lebu, an old city that was very active at the beginning of the last century thanks to coal mines nearby. Beautiful wooden buildings were erected during the bonanza, but once the coal mines started to shut down, the city lost its economic base and entered into recession until today. All of this beautiful buildings were endangered because of lack of maintenance, and as of today some of them have even been demolished.

So, these students decided to teach the community how to use Google SketchUp as a way to help them preserve their historic buildings. Being a free tool, all they had to go was to get a space and some computers. The local authorities helped them by providing a space for the workshops, and lots of people got interested on this program. They gathered old plans from the city hall and some historic archives, and each one of the 24 assistants to the workshop started to learn how to model in 3D using one of these historic buildings as a case study.

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While walking around the booths at the AIA 2009 Convention, I stopped by Google, who are not only presenting Sketchup 7 but also showing architects how to market their firms using AdWords and YouTube.

Also, they have a very good discount for those of you who want to buy Google Sketchup Pro 7: a $100 off (retails at $495).

So, if you were looking to buy the latest version of one of the most easy (yet powerful) modeling tools just head to their store and use promo code SUAIA9, valid until May 15, 2009 on single-user licenses only.

You can also download the basic version for free.

A few days ago we featured an interview with Alejandro Aravena and his project for a villa in ORDOS 100, with more than 70 images. In order to further extend the possibilities of understanding this project, Alejandro shared with us a very detailed Sketchup model that is now availabe on Google Warehouse for you to download, explore, explode, modify, share back with us and all the possibilities that Google Sketchup offers.

Let us know what you think, what you found out by exploring this model, what you modified, etc. Next month we will feature the model for the new building at the Vitra Campus, and St Edwards later on.

Sketchup is, by far, the easiest tool for modeling. Google acquired this software in order to crowd-source the 3D modeling of the earth, since anyone can use it to model their house, school or favourite building. But being simple and fast doesn’t mean it lacks on features.

You can enable several options available on the free standard version, or go pro for more. Also, you can extend it via plugins. Below, two plugins I have found very useful, and also available for free.

The first one is Soap Skin & Bubbles, a plugin designed by german engineer Josef Leibinger, designed to help you in the study of mechanically and pneumatically strained surfaces. The author has also been developing a plugin for tensile structures, but it hasn’t been released yet. But you can still play around with tensile structures on this plugin. You can download Soap Skin & Bubbles for free on their website, and also watch a video tutorial on The Sketchup Show.

The second plugin was developed by Integrated Enviromental Solutions, which lets you assign important sustainable design information like location, building and room type, construction types and HVAC systems to your Sketchup model. From there you can do energy, carbon, daylight and solar analysis, or take this model with all this info to your favourite BIM software. It also allows you to  More info and download a the IES Sketchup plugin website. Complete video tutorial on YouTube.

Two very helpful tools for your design pocess, with the ease of use of Sketchup.

Please share with us any other Sketchup plugins you find useful on the comments below.