Keeping your model on the straight and narrow.

Have you ever been frustrated with SketchUp enough to call it all sorts of names you couldn't repeat in polite company? Go on, admit it... We've all been there.

One of the biggest problems people come across is when you are doing a model that needs to be straight, right angled (orthogonal) like a building or product etc. It is so easy to draw a line out of place and end up with a model that looks right but the push-pull tool just won't work for you. SketchUp is quite unforgiving when the lines are not straight or co-planar.

A great way of pre-empting this problem is to use the "colour by axis" line setting in the Styles browser.

From SketchUp Tips

Save this setting in a Style (call it "axis" style and save this in your drawing template- better again, save this style into a scene called "axis" that has the "include in animation" button switched off.... This turns the scene button into a kind of reset button for the axis.)

SketchUp for Construction Drawings

A few weeks ago, we achieved geek world fame by being featured on SketchUpdate blog in relation to construction drawings in SketchUp. Now we have uploaded the second of two videos about the topic. This second one illustrates more the technique of creating construction information in the SketchUp model.



We hope to start getting more active with useful and interesting videos this year. Stay tuned!..

Open Architecture Training Resources Comes to the InterWeb

Nicole Adams of Construction Management Degree sent us a link to their "50 Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts" blog entry. What an eye opener, with MIT Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts, which includes an "Introduction to Building Technology"

This is just the kind of thing we need to happen more and more- opening up of information to students and the public. Good job!

MIT Open Course Ware

Problems Explaining Scale

It can often be difficult to explain scale to clients. This Father Ted clip does the job.



Sheer brilliance...

Are Builders showing Architects how to do their job?

Kimon G. Onuma, AIA has written a very interesting article about how architects as a profession are in danger of making themselves more irrelevant by ignoring the very real development of Building Information Modelling (BIM) as the new paradigm for delivering buildings. Kimon argues that the opportunity is there now to take the initiative to regain control of the building process. Some of the things that need to be done to take on this challenge:

• Take control of the emerging technologies- i.e  tell the technologies "This is what I want from you." rather than asking them "What can I have? (like we did for years with CAD)
• Not waiting for the software companies to feed us with new technologies.
• Leveraging the new technologies to organise the various parties involved in the building process .(before those parties organise the architects.)

Master Builder: William Burges Architect of St. Finbarre's Cathedral, Cork

Kimon rightly argues in my view, that BIM is not about depending on one piece of software or another or even treating the smart 3D digital model as the definition of BIM, but its about grappling with the various Information Technologies as they are now and how they will be in the future so that we are in step with them. He finishes with a blackly humorous quotation by Stuart Brand: “Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road. “

Common Mistakes in SketchUp

This site has some great little tutorials about avoiding problems in SketchUp especially with the early stages (I must admit to having learned some new stuff from this also, but that's to be expected really.) Also included are some tutorials about creating a football and others. Thanks to J-man for this!

Paracloud Gem Software: Awesome and Groovy

Few things can be referred to as "awesome" and "groovy" at the same time. Gem Paracloud, a 3D multi-component generator is just such a product. Viewsion spoke with Eyal Nir, founder last week and he took us through a test-drive of the software. The possibilities that Gem produces are endless: from artwork and jewellery (yes, jewellery) to building cladding systems to lattice structures.




Gem exports neatly to SketchUp and other formats such as Maya, 3DSmax, Rhino and any CAD supporting OBJ, STL and DXF. There is a free trial download available