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.

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!

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

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

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.

Cork City Ireland Welcomes The Queen of England

Today, SketchUpIreland's home City of Cork is welcoming Queen Elizabeth.

Today she will be visiting the English Market and the Tyndall Institute before flying back to England.

We would like to congratulate Queen Elisabeth and her husband Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh for rising to the occasion of what has been a complicated few days of difficult speeches and acts of reconciliation between our two great nations. The Queen has been a shining example of respect and dignity during her visit to Ireland.

Go n-eirí an bothar leat, Ma'am, agus go raibh míle maith agaibh!

Irish Architect's SketchUp collection now online...

I have been beavering away on a collection of images of my work in SketchUp along with some photos of the resulting buildings. I will be adding to this collection over time and reorganising, adding captions etc.

The image below is from a model of the Glucksman Art Museum in University College Cork designed by O'Donnell & Tuomey Architects, a Dublin practise that is producing some very important work. I have placed the model on Google 3D Warehouse (many thanks to José Manuel who has mentored me on modelling for Google Earth) I submitted it to Google Earth in the hope that it will be selected for the 3D layer, and so milluns and milluns of people from all around the world will gasp in awe at their computer screens when they visit Cork in GE.... OK so maybe I exaggerate a bit... Thanks also to Josh Reilly in Google for his assistance behind the scenes.

From viewsion aspire architecture portfolio drawings

Above: The Glucksman Museum UCC, Cork, Ireland.

 Below is a presentation of a recent project- an energy efficient dwelling in North Cork. I have found that SketchUp representation of a building is a great way to deliver exactly what you design, rather than leaving things to interpretation by the builder (or the client...)

Below is a sample of a an energy efficient dwelling project run entirely on SketchUp without the "aid" of CAD

From viewsion aspire architecture portfolio drawings

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