DesignerDojo, 3D Printing, Minecraft

Update to the original 2015 Post : I want to thank all those who've supported DesignerDojo over the past 4 years. We've done some great work together. We're back from the Christmas break this Sunday 14th January 2018 with our first Dojo of the new year.

We recently got a nice email from Charles Gray of Lyncconf.com who wanted to spread the word about "Rapid Modelling for Minecraft" Make sure to check out their website that reviews all kinds of cool games! Thanks Charles.

Check out the video below showing how to port any virtual model into Minecraft using SketchUp and Tinkercad...

We have a shiny new DesignerDojo website.

Check it out and let us know what you think : )

3D Printing takes off in Ireland

Cork City became the first City in Ireland to host a public 3D printing course (as far as we're aware..). The participants who come from a wide range of backgrounds conceived and printed their own designs guided by instructors from Viewsion Virtual Environments.

 

The Course poster depicts the transformation from a classical sculpture into a digital matrix

L-R Participants Sue Aylwin, Michelle Kiely, Laura Maye, Scott Carey, Paul (Me), Donal O'Donohoe, (Terry O'Brien- not in photo) showing their work from the course.

The Tiger's Head designed and prepared for print by Michelle Kiely


The course which started May 1st ran for four Wednesdays and finished with students reviewing their own 3D prints. There were discussions about patenting, manufacturing, marketing and model optimisation. Participants are invited to keep the discussion about their own exploits in 3D printing. We look forward to their wonderful work!

If you or someone you know is interested in finding out about our course, please check our descriptor page

Prints were supplied by C-CAD, a local CAD provider and the collaboration of Jim Barrett for which we are most grateful. 

SketchUp to Minecraft: Guest Post by Tadhg Murphy

After following the tutorial found on the Designer Dojo website here. I managed to successfully export a .skp file from SketchUp and then convert it into a schematic file which I was then able to import to Minecraft. After spending a little while texturing the model I felt that the transfer of the model from SketchUp to Minecraft was very fast and far more efficient than just building the model in Minecraft itself. Below is an image of my work.

Cork City plays host to San Francisco Mayor on Saint Patrick's Day 2013. Edwin Lee receives a 3D printed model of the Castle!

Mayor Edwin Lee visited Blackrock Castle Observatory Coderdojo on Saint Patrick's Day where he was presented with a 3D printed model of the Castle.

Mayor of SF Edwin Lee receives a 3D printed model of Blackrock Castle from Blackrock Castle Observatory Coderdojo participant.

This is what Blackrock Castle would look like if it was floating in space.... A preview of the BCO model before it gets uploaded to  Google Earth.

Thanks to Jim Barrett of C-CAD for his unwavering support and assistance in preparing the excellent detailed 3D model of the castle.

The first ever 3D physical representation of Blackrock Castle Cork, Ireland. This model was printed by Jim Barrett of C-CAD assisted by Viewsion Virtual Environments.

SketchUp to Minecraft Export

Minecraft is a compelling, creative 3D gaming environment for kids (and those who still have a kid's imagination.) At Coderdojo I see a lot of the kids interacting with it. Having tried it I can see why- It is immersive and very enjoyable. I have introduced it to my 5 year old son and he is now hooked (in a good way... I think!)

I had been told about a means of exporting from SketchUp to Minecraft and I wanted to find out more.. Having procrastinated for ages I eventually purchased a Minecraft subscription and then did a bit of eh... "research". After a bit of digging around I put together a post on how to export your SketchUp model into Minecraft (Google Doc) Thanks to all the individual contributors who are all linked there.

I still have some tweaking to do to get it working the way I want but it certainly looks very promising so far. Let us know how you get on with your SU>MC experiments and we will be delighted to publish your efforts: info@viewsion.ie

Enjoy!

SketchUp Activity Explosion in Ireland (TEDxTallght, 3DBasecamp, DesignerDojo & more..)

We literally can't keep up with the stuff that is going on with SketchUp in Ireland, but here's a quick run-through.

Last month I attended 3D Basecamp where we got to meet Bre Pettis of Makerbot fame, Trimble VP Bryn Fosburgh, all the great SketchUp people and discuss our new upcoming initiative: DesignerDojo which will be coming to a CoderDojo near you next year.

The cool retro cinema location in downtown Boulder
where the initial day's Basecamp presentations took place.

Last Thursday I presented SketchUp to a 150 person audience at TEDxTallaght. Thanks to Patricia Fitzgerald and all the great people at South Dublin Libraries for their help. It was a great evening and I was humbled to be amongst such great speakers as Jo Verrent, Maureen Gaffney, PRSmith, Michael Rossney, Catriona Crowe, and my good friend and fellow Nexus Cork Member, Cathal Garvey, Biohacker par excellence. It was great to meet our MCs Darragh Doyle social media guru and celebrated magician Shane Gillen

Paul going on and on and on about-
Guess what?... SketchUp.. at TEDx Tallaght...
....Blah blah blah blah blah...

 Here's the presentation I gave:

Be a 3D Superhero: Click here for the presentation.

What's next?? DesignerDojo.... Our new international initiative FREE SKETCHUP TRAINING FOR KIDS!!..... We will keep you posted....

The DesignerDojo skateboard: First project... of many.

Front Page News: SketchUpdate.

For a SketchUp Geek, this is the equivalent of seeing one's name in bright lights on Broadway. SketchUpdate has gracefully received my humble offering of a tutorial about creating a plan in SketchUp Pro. and given me a platform for my new book (See previous blogpost)

Image: Aligning the section view in SketchUp to be visible in LayOut.

Construction Documents in SketchUp Pro!

Why not maximise return from your hard work in SketchUp?

This step-by-step manual guides you through the processes of creating construction documents using LayOut (included with SketchUp Pro Software). This course is a great one for professionals who want to understand SketchUp more completely- specifically how Groups, Layers, Scenes, and Styles all come together to produce a supercharged 2D construction document. This course will be useful to any SU Pro users as they will usually need to show their 3D work as a conventional drawing.

Many thanks are due to Mike Lucey of SketchUcation, along with advice from Aidan Chopra, Mike Tadros, and inspiration from Bonnie Roskes and Daniel Tal

You can purchase my new book here or go to the library at SketchUcation.com

Please comment below or email me for more information.

How to support businesses/ venues with SketchUp & Youtube

SketchUp is good at so many things it can often be difficult to decide what awesome things to do with it. With little building going on, there is little demand for proposals.... but what about existing businesses and venues that want to increase their impact and show people more about what they do?

Here is an example of a SketchUp visualisation we just completed of Camden Palace Hotel, Cork City, Ireland

If you enjoy this video, please click the like button and pass it on!

Irish School uses SketchUp to supercharge their learning experience..

Saint Gerald's College, Castlebar, Co. Mayo participated in our pilot scheme with SketchUp Pro, and the results were extraordinary....

One very notable piece of feedback was where SketchUp was a deciding factor for a student to actually take up a particular subject.  Does your school have good experiences with SketchUp? Why not share them with us?

Cork Star Pupil appears on Google Earth

One bright spark student from St. Angela's College Cork has become the first person to challenge our position as most prolific Google Earth Modellers in Cork City, Ireland. Niamh Shanahan, (who received minimal training from us as part of a work experience week) has produced 3 excellent models (so far) of old shop buildings in Cork. We love the competition. Keep it up Niamh! Check her models out on 3D Warehouse and Google Earth... (Make sure the "3D buildings Layer" is switched on in the left hand side panel.) Learn about the 3D building layer here

Check out the full Cork City & County 3D buildings collection here

Black Tie Building, St. Patrick's Street, Cork City.

Falvey's Chemist, Bridge Street, Cork City. 

Music Store, St. Patrick's Street, Cork City. 

Switching on the 3D Buildings Layer
in Google Earth

Good Move Trimble!

This is a good thing- it needed to happen. SketchUp is foremost an AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) tool. Though Google is not an AEC company, it is understandable why Google wanted to buy it and turn it into a Google Earth-model-making-machine, and with SketchUp 8 integrating not only Google Earth and 3D Warehouse but also Streetview they have done awesome work.

But Google Earth modelling is only one tiny part of SketchUp's capabilities. There is so much more potential for this platform. Google was not the right company to take it to the next step.

(Note: Lovers of free software need not be alarmed as free SketchUp will remain free.)

Authorised Training Centres hope to get a lot of support to spread the goodness that is SketchUp in their own countries/ regions. I get the feeling that Trimble, with an understanding the AEC market, knows the importance of this. We are very curious to see how interaction with Tekla, their BIM (Building Information Modelling) platform will play out. This could be very very big....

SketchUp is a great brand. The people who work there are awesome and we hope they will grow in strength with their new owners. We are behind you!

This is a great day for Irish schools...

Google SketchUp Pro is now available for free to all primary and secondary schools in Ireland!! 

This could be a huge boost to education in Ireland and even help contribute to the struggling Irish economy in years to come, by preparing students to geomodel, 3D print, plan buildings, cities, create games and who knows what else?

Above: Map showing locations worldwide where
Google SketchUp Pro has been made available to schools.

Schools can obtain licenses for Google SketchUp Pro
from the Galway Education Centre (click here)

This initiative was organised by Allyson MacDuffie in Google and Bernard Kirk of the Galway Education Centre. Hats off to both of them!

Check out our Irish Schools SketchUp Training Portal for great free resources for learning this deadly sofware.

Coder Dojo- Above all: Be cool

James Whelton is cool.

James Whelton, a programming enthusiast, started a programming club in school. Inspired by the interest he received regarding all things code, James came up with the idea of providing a club for kids to learn coding skills... for free. Hats off, James.

With the support of Bill Liao, a gifted Social Entrepreneur an incredible new concept was born: Coder Dojo

Bill Liao is cool.

I have attended the CD workshops on two occasions* and both were mobbed with enthusiastic kids. Last time, I even gave a hand to someone who need a little help with HTML... I never thought of myself as being able to teach that subject, but it was just the basics so I was able to be of assistance... Just goes to show that its always worth just turning up at events like these.

*December 17th last, I gave a demonstration of SketchUp and the MakerBot to the kids of CoderDojo. We printed off a model of Shandon, a landmark building in Cork City, in the Rebel County Colour: Red

Coder Dojo was an idea waiting to happen. If you wish to contribute, there might just be one near you. There are now Coder Dojos in London and San Francisco!

Below are some images of the model as printed at Coder Dojo

Is SketchUp BIM coming of age?

In June 2010 I published an article on this blog entitled SketchUp: A Natural BIM platform This was an expression of desire to see BIM produced using a low cost/ free resource. The high costs of many software systems makes them a perfect target for low-cost clones/ replacements.

Earlier this year I gave a presentation to a Group of Learned Gentlemen (and Learned GentleWomen) entitled "SketchUp to BIM". The Group seemed not to grasp entirely the point of the presentation,  some instead preferring to question whether I should be giving it in the first place*.... Not a great place to start, but as Le Corb would say: "What are you doing????!!... You are an XXXX!!!" (Words blanked out for the sake of propriety.)

However, even since the presentation I have discovered other equally aberrant souls who would also like to see SketchUp perform some BIM functions.

To find out what I have learned, please check out my website SketchUp2BIM for links and resources. If you have any suggestions for further inclusion, I will be delighted to have them.

Here is a user video for a new plugin I have been testing from D-E-X called SketchUpBIM:

Enjoy!

*Perhaps an alternative talk should have been scheduled for the people who didn't get the presentation. Please send your suggestions for topics to info@viewsion.ie

3D Navigator- Doing the Business

In my extensive experience with the Nav I find that this little device is great for getting around large models.*

The Navigator is easy to install and relatively intuitive to use. The control panel does require a bit of fine-tuning out of the box but that is to be expected- even welcome- with a powerful piece of equipment such as the Nav. (e.g. I have to reverse most of the zoom/ orbit actions to imitate the orientation of the mouse.) The speed of orbit/ zoom is astonishingly fast and one of the great features is that the Nav doesn't require you to "knock on the door" to get through a wall like the mouse scroll-wheel does**. It just whizzes on through like a ghost on speed.

Overall, as far as I'm concerned the Navigator is a definite buy for professionals, especially for those working on large models***

* More so than small models/ details as the speed of zoom is not always suitable for the particular task- sometimes the mouse scroll-wheel is required to provide fine zooming and orbiting.
** I understand that this is so for a good reason and am not saying it is "bad"!
*** No enticements were offered to say this- Not my style.  Just note that when a SketchUp upgrade comes out it usually takes a while before a driver is produced for the Nav : ( but its just about worth waiting for.)

Using SketchUp and Makerbot to Model my Home Town.

I recently experienced how Professor Frankenstein must have felt* when he brought his creation to life. I basked in glory (just for a minute) when I realised that, having mastered SketchUp I now had control over a Makerbot and I could make them talk to each other!

Doctor Evil, eat your heart out! (Check out his evil laugh right now on YooChoob. Its great.)

However, when you think about the fact that we have been replicating documents at lightning speeds for decades, it makes you wonder why this has taken us so long! Anyway it's here now and its awesome. Thanks to my buddy Cathal for use of his wonderful machine.

Below are some photos of my first purpose-built model of Shandon, Cork City.

"Watch zis space" as Le Corb would put it...



*I know he's fictional. What do you think I am? Some kind of raving lunatic....? Just go with it willya?

Exporting STL Files from SketchUp

We are getting excited about 3D Printing. Recently we joined up with Cork Hackerspace who are a bunch of technology enthusiasts in Cork. I hadn't seen any examples of printed objects but one member has a 3D printer.

Below is a great new development published on the Ponoko blog that will make 3D Printing easier.

I also have a plugin called Sculpteo. Its a 3D printing service that plugs right in to SketchUp.

I haven't used their service yet but hope to give it a go soon.. 3D printing is so beautifully geeky its bound to become the norm.

Making humans (virtually)

Cool!

Making humans is now easier than getting agreement from a consenting adult.... Except these humans are virtual. This is an intriguing blog post by Johnj about an open-source body-generating system called "Makehuman". If you happen to have Blender installed (to export to .3ds) you can import your humans to SU.

Making "paintings" of humans is about to get really interesting. Carravagio eat your heart out!

Excellent online magazine for SketchUp Enthusiasts!

Just in case you hadn't downloaded any issues yet of SketchUp Ur Space, you can download the latest issues here

This is a great magazine full of features. The May issue introduces all the Authorised Training Centres around the world.

May 2011 Magazine

SketchUp4Architect (who create the magazine) do some great models on their website also...

Its great to see this initiative from the SketchUp4Architect team in West Bengal, India. It reminds me how small the world has become! We hope to contribute soon with some articles..