Keep tabs on the 3D Warehouse

Posted by Tom Stamm, 3D Warehouse Team

If you're looking for an easy way to check out the latest models in 3D Warehouse, iGoogle gadgets lets you add 3D Warehouse content to your personalized iGoogle homepage. We've created three gadgets you can add:

• Google 3D Model Map - a rotating view of the latest geo-located models in the 3D Warehouse on a map
• 3D Warehouse Models - the latest and most popular models in the 3D Warehouse
• 3D Warehouse Search - a quick way to search the 3D Warehouse without leaving your homepage

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Check out our Ruby API

Posted by Sang Ahn, SketchUp Software Engineer

I'm happy to announce that SketchUp finally has its own little corner on Google Code. Do you fancy yourself an enlightened Rubyist? Do you love SketchUp, but wish it could do even more? With the SketchUp Ruby API, anyone can write tools that extend SketchUp's capabilities. In fact, we have an entire Ruby Group populated by people who do exactly that, and a whole SketchUp Ruby API blog to which you can subscribe. The brand-new SketchUp Ruby API section of the Google Code site includes plenty of documentation, as well as examples of what you can create. Have fun!

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3D Warehouse gets a makeover

Posted by Mark Limber, Product Manager


The 3D Warehouse team is excited to announce that we've revamped our user interface. What's new? It's all about networking: We now show you other models you might like, based on the model you're viewing. This makes it much easier to find and explore other models by the same author, as well as collections that contain the models you're interested in. Our new map view (click on the "Map" tab above the model image preview) shows models that are geographically close to the one you're considering. The Tower Bridge in London, this Venetian Bridge and (of course) the MX-38 LEVIATHAN are great examples of models that benefit from the new features.

Update The 3D Warehouse's new look is only visible to folks who are viewing the web in English -- we're working on the Warehouse's other twelve languages now.

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Make your own custom styles with Style Builder

Posted by Bryce Stout, Product Manager


Ever wanted to create your own sketchy-edge Style that you can use to make your SketchUp models look hand-drawn? Now you can! It's my pleasure to announce Style Builder (Beta) for SketchUp Pro 6. With this version, you can use Style Builder to build sketchy-edge Styles from scratch. To get started, you create a template of strokes in any image editor (like Adobe Photoshop), then you import that template into Style Builder. You can use anything to make strokes: scanned charcoal, graphite, gouache -- if you can get it into your computer, you can turn it into a stroke for Style Builder.

The application itself is a plug-in for SketchUp Pro 6, and it's available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It's in beta, which means we'd appreciate your help to get it ready for general release. It's also only available in English for now. For more information about putting Style Builder through its paces, check out the Style Builder information page in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish. Also, the SketchUp Help Center has how-to information, and this Help Group is dedicated to discussions about the newest member of the SketchUp family. Take a look at this video to see Style Builder in action:



Update Added links to information pages in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

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Gold in them thar hills

Posted by Aidan Chopra, Product Evangelist

Many moons ago, while working as an in-house graphic designer for a mining company in Vancouver, I was paid to make exploratory drilling results look compelling to investors. Not an easy task, to be sure. The drilling process involves taking samples from deep, deep, underground, analyzing their precious metal content, and having geologists figure out if the area is worth turning into a mine. The more drilling you do, the better your information gets as you build a 3D model of the results.

Wits Basin Precious Minerals, a mining company based in Minneapolis, built this SketchUp model of their results from an area in Colorado. The file is kind of big (almost 24 MB), but it's awfully innovative -- I never produced anything half this interesting. If you're really into mining, check out the full Bates-Hunter Project press release.

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Santa needs a sleigh

Posted by Aidan Chopra, Product Evangelist


Last week, I spent the better part of three days obsessing about modeling curvy, lumpy things in SketchUp. Given the time of year, I started with Saint Nick himself. That model was successful, so I worked on some reindeer next. (Did I mention that I love my job?)

Having modeled Santa and his magical herd, I'm opening up the next part of the project to the rest of the world: Santa needs a sleigh. Anyone (young, old, young at heart) is invited to design a sleigh for Santa. I've created a collection in the 3D Warehouse to host the designs. Feel free to use the Santa and reindeer models that I built to dress up your sleigh -- it'll provide me with a legitimate reason for having spent so much time creating them.

To submit your sleigh, here's what you need to do:

1. Upload it to the 3D Warehouse using your own account. Take a look at the second half of this Help Center article for instructions.
2. Make sure to include the following tag: santa2007 (check out the following image to see what I mean)

Every couple of days until December 31st, I'll add all the models in the 3D Warehouse that are labeled with the above tag to the Model Santa's Sleigh collection. Even if you're not submitting anything, you can check out the collection and comment on the models that folks have uploaded. Sometime early in January, I'll post to this blog with a sampling of sleighs from modelers around the world, and the crème de la crème will get top billing in January's SketchUpdate newsletter.

One more thing: Feel free not to stick within the bounds of what most people would consider a "traditional" design. Santa's sleigh is magical, after all. It's possible that it doesn't look anything like any of these.

Update Changed the deadline for submission of sleighs to December 31st.

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3D mousing comes to town

Posted by Aidan Chopra, Product Evangelist

As more and more of what folks do on the computer involves interacting with a 3D environment, I predict we'll see a whole pile of new input devices coming onto the market. Mice were invented for a 2D digital experience; the mouse I use now is basically the same as the one I was using ten years ago.

There's a relatively new company called Sandio Technology that's come up with a way for makers of mice and other input devices (like keyboards and trackballs) to incorporate 3D interaction into their products. A few months ago, Sandio launched a new mouse, the Sandio 3D Game O2, that showcases its technology. It's a snazzy-looking little object, and it works with SketchUp, Google Earth, Second Life and a host of other applications and games. Here's some of what Sandio says about their mouse with respect to SketchUp:

• The 3D mouse is an input device that acts as a regular 2D mouse but also provides 6 degrees of freedom in 3D environments.
• The included software is very easy to use and includes a plug-in autoloading driver to run with Google Sketchup. When you open Google SketchUp, the driver automatically opens and, using the 3D buttons of the 3D mouse, you can manipulate the camera or an object in different directions. By default, the driver begins in Camera Mode.
• In Camera Mode, you are able to shift the camera any direction, left or right, up or down, and zoom in and out using only the 3D buttons on the mouse. You can even rotate or roll the camera, and pitch it different ways. The driver has a toolbar with 6 icons in Google Sketchup that will allow the user to turn on or off different degrees of movement or decide on what axis they are rotating on.
• In Object Mode, the user has even more options. If you highlight a cube, for example, and do not make it a Group, you can twist or pull the object in different directions. Making it a group will let you slide an object left to right, pull it towards you or push it away from you, move it up or down, and again, with the different options on the toolbar, either rotate, roll, or pitch the object around the axis or else rotate, roll, and pitch the object on its own axis.
  

I haven't tried Sandio's mouse yet, but I thought it looked interesting enough to mention here. If you have one, please comment below to let us know what you think.

Update The folks at Sandio have just informed me that if you use the promo code "sketchup" on their web store, you'll save $20 on their device.

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