Today, we introduced two new 3D cities: Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Indianapolis, Indiana. Take a tour (download kml) of these new cities in Google Earth 5.
Milwaukee and Indianapolis in 3D!
Friday, November 6, 2009 4:55 AM
Geo-Modelers: We want to feature you!
Thursday, November 5, 2009 1:00 PM
You may have noticed that we frequently add stories about 3D modelers to our Google Earth Featured Modeler section on the Google SketchUp Blog and the Google 3D Warehouse (here's our last Featured Modeler story). These modelers have done extraordinary work and created fantastic 3D buildings for Google Earth.
If you've been geo-modeling for a while, maybe you wondered how we choose who gets featured. The honest truth is that we have a very unscientific method: we browse the 3D Warehouse, just like you. That's why we want to reach out to our blog readers to ask if you would like be considered as a Featured Google Earth Modeler. We want to hear from you, share your 3D models, and tell your story to the world! Also, if you have a friend who's a terrific modeler but may be too humble to share, poke them with a stick and get them to submit their story.
There is a simple form to get the process started. If we select your story, we will contact you, draft the story for your approval, then put it on the SketchUp Blog. Submit your story here!
Join the Building Maker community
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 11:28 AM
If you'd like to connect with fellow Building Maker modelers, check out the additions we introduced to the product today. Click on the "Join the discussion" link to get to the Google Group for geo-modelers. We created this discussion group for people who model 3D buildings for Google Earth. It's a great source for tips, tricks, and other product support.
For example, someone else might be modeling buildings close to the ones you're modeling. In fact, they may be modeling the exact same building! You could use the Discussion Group to reach out to other users and find out if someone else is modeling nearby. With this tool, you can connect with some of the world's most enthusiastic and experienced modelers.
We also added a link, "Follow us on Twitter", which will take you to our Building Maker Twitter page. Follow us to get up-to-the-minute news about when new cities are introduced, new product features, new 3D buildings in Google Earth, featured modelers, and other news.
Google SketchUp 7 is now available in Japanese
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 8:37 AM
Google SketchUp 7 の日本語版がついに登場。バージョン 7 の新機能については、[このウェブページ]をご覧ください。
For version 7, we decided to focus on three main areas: making SketchUp easier for new modelers, simplifying the process of model sharing and collaboration and adding more tools for SketchUp Pro customers. We made changes that make everyone's life easier, and launched LayOut 2, a separate program that lets Pro users create detailed multi-page documents and presentations. Download a copy of Google SketchUp 7 in Japanese and give it a try. Happy sketching!
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Google Earth, SketchUp, and Honey did!
Monday, November 2, 2009 11:42 AM
Recently, my wife and I realized that the plywood retaining wall keeping our backyard from sliding into the pasture behind our house had to go. She kept reminding me that I work with Google modeling tools everyday and should come up with a plan to build a replacement wall.
Honeydew (read "honey, do") turns out to be more than a melon. But she was right. Using Google Earth, I was able to get a very accurate view of the construction area and with Google SketchUp, I created a model that guided the design and construction by our contractors. The challenge was to replace the plywood with something that would last a long time and give us access to the pasture. Time, water and gravity take their toll for, sure, as you can see from the "before" picture.
An overhead view in Google Earth provided an accurate measurement of the total fence width. But I had some concerns about the actual property line because the pasture is privately owned. A very cool thing you can do with Google Earth (works great in free version or Pro) is to import electronic parcel data. Many cities and county governments provide their survey and parcel data online as a public service. Google Earth makes it easy to use. My city had my house's parcel data - which I found and loaded.
I brought the Google Earth view into SketchUp and did some initial design to get scale and sense for what was possible in the actual space. Of course, my design comps had to go through review and approval with the boss (I'll leave you to guess who that might be). Then, we worked together using SketchUp to plan the look of the fence. We wanted a nice gate to give us access to the pasture. There are some beautiful custom fences available online, but they would have cost half our budget! So instead, we "drew inspiration", a nice way of putting it, from some Google image-search results.
With the model in context, we were easily able to communicate with the contractors who bid the job. The only question they had was about the gate, since they had to have their carpenter create it. No problem, as I had constructed the gate in SketchUp to scale by simply array-copying the 2x2's and 2x5's. But, because I have the Pro version of SketchUp with LayOut, I was able to provide the carpenter with a PDF that had not only the dimensioned gate, but images of the hardware we wanted to use an an outline view of the assembly. No muss no fuss. The resulting gate was cool to see!
The contractors were great and got the job done under budget and on schedule. I may have even created some SketchUp converts. Final results are below.
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Featured Modeler: Arrigo Silva
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:00 PM
In the West, some of the longest-standing architecture is found in churches and cathedrals. As cities grow and evolve over time, structures come and go with the requirements of society. Through changes over centuries, though, major cities in Europe can still be recognized by their large churches. Enrico Dalbosco (Arrigo Silva, as he is known in the Google 3D Warehouse), a resident of Padua, Italy, understands why churches last and has taken up the cause of showing them off in 3D on Google Earth.
"I have devoted myself to modeling churches because I really like ancient and modern art. Through many, varied periods of time, churches have brought together the highest expressions of artistic skill and their construction has brought together the most renowned architects, sculptors and painters. I think for this reason I am not the only person who is interested in modeling churches for Google Earth and there are still a profusion of beautiful sites of all religions awaiting a modeler!"
Enrico is a retired electronic engineer and has many hobbies including music and photography. He's played classical piano since childhood and is also a fine artist working in watercolor and with ceramics (check out his ceramic buildings and landscapes). In 2007 when, surfing the Internet, he came across Google Earth and was excited to see everything there: sky, fields, roads, houses of Padova, Italy...the whole world, as he describes it.
"What was even more exciting was discovering that here and there on the Earth's surface there sprouted cities, towns, several buildings, monuments, and churches. I wondered, who made them? Was it something I could do too? So I came to discover Google SketchUp. Before that I had never used a 3D package."
Initially, Enrico thought it was necessary to fix all the edges, one by one, entering exact length but quickly discovered that SketchUp took care of scale on its own.
"SketchUp had additional surprises in store for me: in addition to being free (which is a good starting point!), the product has a completely intuitive interface that seems to anticipate what I am trying to do (split surfaces at midpoints, rotation, array-copy, group, create named groups etc.). I must say that I have a thorough knowledge of software usability because of my professional background and SketchUp has one of the best user interfaces I've seen."
In an ironic twist of fate, it was actually Enrico's work with a non-geo-located model, a bust of Beethoven, that most impacted his workflow for creating Google Earth buildings.
"A key learning for me was discovering the power of projecting textures: you can take a flat image and project it onto a complex form. I found a beautiful 3D bust of Ludwig van Beethoven in Google 3D Warehouse, and I sensed that I could 'paint' him, so I found a portrait of Beethoven. I was able to import the portrait as a texture and mold it to the contours in one fell swoop! It was a little miracle, to paint with a single command, and within seconds the countless shapes that made up the face of great musician!"
His first creations were the churches of in neighborhood and the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, which proved a challenge because of the complexity of its structure. To address the challenge, "I adopted the old method of the Roman emperors ( "divide and conquer": if you want to solve a problem, split it in several parts...) subdividing the structure into simple elements: the façade, the transept, the church towers, the domes ..." For the photo textures, Enrico searched the web and found lots of photos taken on the ground from all possible view-points. The divided (and conquered!) structural elements can be seen in the graphic below.
Modeling Western religious architecture requires an understanding of the structure of vaults and domes - the "onion dome" characteristic of Orthodox Churches can be particularly daunting.
"Indeed," says Enrico, "the primary challenge that the Cathedral of St. Basil in Moscow posed was its domes: due to their incredible variety of shapes and colors, I couldn't find a single formula to cover all of them, and so I had to adopt different strategies - smooth and relieved domes, colored and textured domes ... it took some experimenting, trial and error, but in the end I was able to create all the varied dome shapes, including the most twisted, of course, always using the well-tested Beethoven method to project textures!"
Enrico expanded his dome-modeling techniques in working on the domes of the Church of the Nativity in Suzdal.
"In this case, I adopted a more complicated strategy: I initially prepared, with SketchUp, a geometric model of each dome (onion with and stars) and then I created a screen-shot which I then projected (once more using the Beethoven method) these texture on the sectors of the “real” domes. I worked really well."
Clearly, Enrico is pushing the boundaries of what is possible and how ornate and beautiful models for Google Earth can be. It's a revelation!
We're awash in Building Maker models!
Friday, October 23, 2009 11:30 AM
We didn't know what to expect when we released Google Building Maker last week. Would we hear crickets? Would we be hit by a tidal wave? Somewhere in-between? Well, the headline of this post says it all! We've been trying to find dry land in the sea of models you've created! So I guess you like the app!? Seriously, we're doing our very best to review and process these models into Google Earth as quickly as we can. Thousands of models are included in the first wave which will be visible in today's 3D buildings release, so look for yours!
If you don't see your model in the 3D Buildings layer of Google Earth, there are two possibilities: It either needs some additional work on your part to meet our acceptance criteria, or, it's still in our processing pipeline. You can check the status of your models by visiting the Google 3D Warehouse, logging into your account, and looking at the bottom of the model details page. If it's been accepted, it will look like this:
We may have been overwhelmed with the volume of models but that doesn't mean that we haven't taken notice of the incredible models that have been created. We're very impressed! In fact, we've created a new Best of Building Maker collection in the 3D Warehouse to showcase your work, like this cathedral by geo-modeler chrischibuilder.
If you'd like to stay informed on the latest Building Maker news you can follow us on Twitter. We'll be posting updates when new cities are available for modeling, tips & tricks, and other product news.
Happy modeling!
Bright idea: a LayOut case study
9:30 AM
Clear communication of ideas and plans is an important part of the design and/or building process, regardless of the scope of the project. Mike Brightman, of See Before Building and Bright Ideas Consulting, has provided a few examples of how he used the presentation and documentation capabilities of Google SketchUp Pro to communicate with contractors, design with a client, and submit permit drawings for approval.
See his case study for more information on the problems he was trying to solve, and what he did to solve them.
"SketchUp Pro and LayOut are extremely efficient in all phases of the design process. I can generate a concept, thoroughly explore and revise my design, create design documents, generate permit drawings, and then export from SketchUp Pro to a 3D .dwg model or 2D .dwg snapshots. This work-flow gives me all of the speed and freedom of SketchUp Pro and the ability to move into the construction document phase in CAD."
Design It Shelter Competition: The Winners
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:39 PM
Earlier this year, we teamed up with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to launch the Design It: Shelter Competition. People all over the world were invited to use Google SketchUp to design small buildings and submit them for consideration. We received over 600 entries from 68 countries – the level of participation was astounding. You can check out all the entries on the Guggenheim website.
Two prizes were offered: the People's Prize and the Juried Prize. To determine the winner of the People's Prize, students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture winnowed down the entries to a list of ten finalists. Visitors to the Guggenheim website could vote for their favorite; the shelter with the most votes won. A jury of seven experts selected the winner of the Juried Prize.
Here's a video that announces the winners and talks a little bit about them:
The People's Prize
The winner of the People's Prize is the CBS – Cork Block Shelter
by David Mares of Setúbal, Portugal
The winner of the People's Prize is the CBS – Cork Block Shelter
by David Mares of Setúbal, Portugal
Each of the winners will receive transportation to New York City for two people, accommodation for two nights, "backstage" tours of both the Guggenheim Museum and our New York Google office, and free admission to a number of other NYC museums. The Juried Prize winner will also receive a check for one thousand dollars.
Congratulations to the finalists and to the winners. Thank you to everyone who submitted a design, and thanks to everyone who voted.
Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist
It's design competition season
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 8:45 AM
If you're like me, you enter competitions to win cool stuff, to challenge your brain a little, or to try new tools. Well, some friends of SketchUp have told us about a few design competitions they're hosting this Fall to keep you busy (warning: these might have an impact on your day job). Have fun and good luck!
Pumpkin Carving Contest
Hosted by: SketchUp Island Blog
Deadline to enter: October 24, 2009
Website
Furniture Design Competition
Hosted by: Vaughan Benz
Deadline to enter: November 15, 2009
Website
Parkitecture: Designing the Garage of the Future
Hosted by: Dwell
Deadline to enter: November 20, 2009
Website
Putting Mexico on the Map
Hosted by: Google team in Mexico
Deadline to enter: November 30, 2009
Website (Spanish only)
