SketchUp - 3d for the rest of us

[Ross Macintosh]

I just thought I'd do a little evangelism. The thought was that some might not be familiar with SketchUp and that this thread might introduce you.

SketchUp is a unique, user-friendly 3d modeling program that is easy to learn. View some of these introductory/training videos and you'll quickly get a good sense of how it works. The first section is a great overview. I think you'll see that SketchUp really is a unique and fun program.

Here's a gallery of images to show what others do with it. Although there are lots of buildings in the gallery, SketchUp really is a general purpose modeller. It can be used for quick visualizations or for ambitious modelling programs. The gallery shows mostly the ambitious sort.

Also checkout FormFonts.Com which is an inexpensive subscription-based service that provides SketchUp components for download. I thought I'd include it here to give you a good idea of what you can do besides buildings. It also illustrates the quality that you can achieved.

For me, my two primary graphics programs are SketchUp and Xara X1. I find the two work well together. My hope is more people will discover for themselves how great these software programs are. At both sites you can download demos -- view those videos linked above before trying SketchUp and you'll find the demo a blast!

Regards, Ross

[gidgit]

Wow, they have continued to really bring along this little gem SketchUp...

I can see how this would fit right into game mod/level building for sure, and with the latest new format additions for exporting, this is looking very nice indeed...

I still think that price is a tad high @ 500. bucks, but hey... power tools are just that, and given the speed one is able to generate for decent concept design work, I would imagine this little app would pay for it's self over and over again, and in short order at that...

Seriously, at first I thought to myself, like most any fairly smug Wings3D, C4D user... " Gee, why would I buy that when I already have two of the best modeling sets on the planet..."

but... upon digging a bit deeper into the white pages, it became very apparent on just how fantastic this would be to fit into the ole pipeline for game mod/level designing... like ye haaaaw...

The potential uses are outside of the box...

Thanks for posting this Ross

[Ross Macintosh]

The $500 cost does make it impractical for many hobiest -- unless they've seen it demonstrated and then the see it really is a bargin! For anyone for whom modelling time is money SketchUp's price is very easy to justify.

It is the fastest growing 3d modeling program out there and part of the reason is it works quite well with other modelling programs. @Last, the developers of SketchUp, don't aim to have existing 3d users switch from their programs over to SketchUp. Instead, they are trying to have them discover how SketchUp can work with their programs to created a more productive workflow. Word is getting out. It is getting used by some game development companies for game level planning.

One of the more interesting uses is for the Hollywood types. Apparently even Steven Spielberg has used SketchUp. It is useful in storyboarding and in planning productions. The tv series 24 with Kiefer Sutherland uses sketchup to plan every shot. Much of that series is shot with just two cameras and through modelling they can accurately plan all the shots efficiently. Looking through the SketchUp camera they can know ahead of time just what they'll see. It speeds up production and reduces costs.

Regards, Ross

[Klaus Nordby]

Yes, Ross, I quite agree -- SketchUp is great. And I am a man who genererally hates ALL 3D apps! The only exception I make is to Xara 3D, which is also easy and pleasant for us 2D-folks.

However, the anti-aliasing of exported images from SketchUp is totally crappy, alas. I can only get decent 2D graphics out of it by grabbing screenshots, which of course severally limits the image sizes. Do you know any workarounds for this?

[Ross Macintosh]

Version5 anti-aliasing is much improved. It is hardware dependent though and so you must go into the program's preferences and choose from options related to your graphics card.

On image export many people export large and then downsize in other programs. This has the effect similar to anti-aliasing. In the program they may need to turn on 'profiles' if they want the downsized lines to not get too thin.

Some users export eps files very effectively. I've had trouble with that. Xara won't recognize the SketchUp eps. I don't know what the problem is. We need someone who really understands the eps format to figure out the problem. Maybe its something simple that could be edited out.

SketchUp's pdf export is also a vector format. I've brought them into Coreldraw and then can get from Coreldraw to Xara.

Regards, Ross

[Klaus Nordby]

Version5 anti-aliasing is much improved. It is hardware dependent though and so you must go into the program's preferences and choose from options related to your graphics card.

I know, Ross, I know -- that's why my screengrabs work.

On image export many people export large and then downsize in other programs. This has the effect similar to anti-aliasing.

Bah, it is a dumb, crude solution -- and I refuse to use it.

Some users export eps files very effectively.

OK, thanks -- will try that, and the PDF. Still, for such a great program that it cannot export decently anti-aliased bitmaps is a crime.

[jclements]

In addition to what Ross has mentioned, the folks at @Last (makers of SU5) have an "Alpha" version of a plugin for SU which will enable simple 3D structures to be swapped back and forth between SU5 and Google Earth.

I was able to place a 3D version of my house precisely onto the Google Globe.

I you want further details go to:
http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=408