SketchUp: Creating Filled Section Cuts (Poche)

Options to show the section area with a Poche (Colored Fill)
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Just saw via the Official Google SketchUp Blog a video from Bob Pineo about creating Poches (the colored section cut fills). See the video below



This seems like a good method for its flexibility. There are other alternative methods to do something similar. One of them was already explained here at CAD Addict. It uses the SectionCutFace Plugin.

The third option is to use a default option in SketchUp. When we have created a section plane, we can select the section plane entity, right click and select "Create Group from Slice". This will create the edges of the needed Poche (Fill Section Cut). You will need to edit this newly created group to Fill it with a face manually or suing a plugin like Make Faces from lines.


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Indigo Renderer 2.4 is out!

New release of Indigo Render is out.
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Glare Technologies has announced the release of Indigo Renderer 2.4.

A page outlining the new features and improvements can be viewed here

Some High resolution images are available here and here.


Haven't tried Indigo Renderer myself, but the image results seem promising. See the video above.For those who did try it, I'd like to ask you: Is it easy to use? Is it easy to achieve photorealistic results? How is the render speed? Could you compare its performance with other render engines like V-RAY or Maxwell Render?


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Google Acquires Quicksee

Soon Streetview could include walkthroughs inside buildings thanks to this new Acquisition by Google.
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Quicksee has been acquired by Google as it can be seen on their website (Click on image).


This might mean that soon we will find "street view" features reaching the inside of the buildings and not just the streets. You can see a sample of the Quicksee idea on their website.

via Techcrunch.


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AutoCAD 2011 Fundamentals Video Training Tutorials

Learn AutoCAD or discover the new features using these video tutorials.
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Our friends at Infiniteskills have sent us these links to some of their Video Tutorials for AutoCAD 2011 Fundamentals.

These are some of the available tutorials.

01 Getting Started

• What You Will Learn
• Introduction To AutoCAD
• Installation
• Turning On AutoCAD For The First Time
• Initial Setup
• Quick Run Thru

02 New Features in AutoCAD 2011

• New Interface Features Part 1
• New Interface Features Part 2
• New Documentation Tools
• Documentation Tool Enhancements
• New 3D Modeling and Rendering Tools

03 Interfacing With AutoCAD

• AutoCADs Drawing Area - The Crosshairs And Your Mouse
• Using The Application Menu And The QAT
• Interfacing With The Ribbon
• Taking Advantage Of The Command Line And Dynamic Input
• Toolbars And The Menubar
• Pallets And Short Cut Menus
• Using Function Keys And Command Aliases
• Workspaces Set Things The Way You Want Them
• The Status Bar - A Busy Place
• An Introduction To Model Space And Paper Space
• Quickview Layouts And Drawings

There are more Tutorials on the InfiniteSkills website.


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SketchUp Plugins: Slice Modeler

Create Slices of a model to easily simulate curved surfaces.
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Asteronimo has written this great script based on TIG's Slicer Plugin. The New plugin called SliceModeler.rb allows to slice the model in two directions to generate the necessary slides to build it on the real world. This is extremely useful when trying to reproduce curves surfaces (or their skeleton), and I can imagine it could be used on models of ships or to create the base for a complicated terrain.

I just created a quick overview video of this great plugin to share quickly its functionality. Be careful with the settings, the first time I used it I set it wrong and it created 200 slides on each direction crashing my computer (my fault, the plugin warned me).




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Is the Architect's Profession Dead?

So it seems reading the letter of a Spanish Architect to a Newspaper. How is it where you live?
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I was reading today in La Vanguardia a heartbreaking letter of a Spanish Architect talking about what it means to be an architect today in Spain. The original one can be read here, I will translate it below.

You are lucky, Mies van der Rohe. You never had to see this. Sert, Coderch, Sota, I envy you. You left thinking that architecture was an exciting and possible effort. Oíza, Solà, Miralles, I envy all of you who died when this profession still existed. Today it is no longer so. Today I see my friends, I see myself, wandering around comfortless, ashamed to be architects, scared, wishing not to be an architect, to be something else, anything else.

"¿Do you have something for me? I can work doing anything you want". Who was going to tell us that we would see the end of our passion, of our work, of everything. "Anything, please" Aalto, Jacobsen, who coould tell it to us.

There is nothing left. Nothing at all.

BENITO CERENO

It is heartbreaking...I am curious, how is the reality in your own country. What do young architects do? Is it easy to find a job, a decent job, any job? Please, share below on the comments section. We will all benefit from it.


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SketchUp Plugins: Face Number Reduction

Reduce the number of faces in your model using this easy to use plugin. It will speed up your working time and improve render speed.
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POLYGON REDUCER (polyreduce.rb) is a SketchUp plugin to reduce the number of faces of SketchUp objects. It is useful especially when we use high poly models imported in our model or when we simply want some surfaces to be simpler and lighter. Below you can see a simple comparison of an object created with the Torus plugin before and after using the polyreduce with the face count on the left.


Above the initial object before using the Plugin. Below the object after running the Polyreduce plugin.


As you can see above, sometimes the object will not look so smooth as before running the plugin. This has an easy solution. We run the Soften Edges function and we can control again which edges are shown and which ones are hidden achieving a better result as it can be seen below.


To use the plugin you must select the faces you want to simplify. Then right click and select "Polyreduce" from the context menu. On the dialog box, you can select the percentage of reduction you want to use. Very useful Plugin!

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SketchUp 8 is Out!

A new version of the great SketchUp is out! Version 8 with many new features and tools.
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Google has announced today the release of Sketchup 8 (Pro and Free versions). They have also posted a quick video to showcase the new features. See it below.


There is also a new page listing the new features. For me, the greatest introduction is the "Solid Tools". It is what in other Programs like Rhino or AutoCAD would be called Boolean operations. Unfortunately, it is only for the Pro version. There are also new Geo-modeling tools and context gathering that will help you get better site context and better quality terrain. Also, Layout is updated to version 3 with new features. My favourite though are definetily the new Solid Tools.

This new features will leave a couple of plugins obsolete. One, the comercial one called BoolTools. With the new Solid Tools, Pro users will be able to do this without the need of a plugin. Also, the Volume Calculator Plugin will not be needed anymore, since SketchUp pro will automatically calculate the volume for Solid entities.

Haven't seen so far any mention to Multi-Processor support which is a pity, but well, one step at a time.

via Official Google SketchUp Blog: Announcing Google SketchUp 8


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AutoCAD comes back to Mac

Autodesk to announce support for Mac of their star product AutoCAD. It's been almost 20 years...
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On a recent article at the New York Times it was announced that Autodesk is finnally planning to release an AutoCAD version for MAC. Autodesk stopped producing AutoCAD for Mac in 1992, in recent years users were able to use it by installing Bootcamp or Parallel desktops to run windows on their Macs. Not so long ago, Autodesk announced they would provide support for Bootcamp users, which it was already seen as a first step into accepting that more and more Architecture, Construction and Design professionals have switch to Mac but still wanted to use AutoCAD (or had to).

All Mac users should be happy with this, and definitely Steve Jobs will be too, for not supporting AutoCAD was probably one of the last barriers to allow Macs to enter the professional/company world.


The same article also announced that there will be some free versions of AutoCAD for iPad, iPhone and iTouch, making it possible to visualize drawings or models from you Apple device. Not sure about how useful this would be on a small device, but it could definetily be useful on the iPad to visualize drawings on site without the need of a laptop.

We will follow up on this, release is announced for October this year, but it seems you will be able to run AutoCAD on a Mac soon without Bootcamp or Parallel Desktops.


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New Buildings App for iPhone

A new iPhone Application for Architecture lovers is out there, and it is free.
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Finally there is an application for Architecture lovers to use on the iPhone. It is called "Buildings" and it uses the database from the open source wiki style website called OpenBuildings.com. Below you can find an excerpt from the app's page.

FIND, LEARN ABOUT & SHARE the ARCHITECTURE around you! Buildings is a wikipedia for architecture at your finger tips; it allows you to find and learn about architecture nearby and from around the world. A global directory of buildings with vast amounts of high quality media and information.
Using Buildings, you can read information, look at images, watch videos and find directions to architecture using the iPhone. There, you can join our online community by sharing to Facebook & Twitter, uploading new photos & videos and checking in with your location.
With a rapidly growing, user-generated database of architecture, Buildings offers a very rich source of architectural information to professionals, architecture-lovers, tourists & students alike

An here also a couple of screenshots of the app.



I do not own an iPhone myself (yet) but this seems extremely useful, especially when visiting other cities. Get the app on the itunes store. It is free.

via Archinect.

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AutoCAD: Select objects before running the Command

This is a common problem after having FATAL ERROR crashed. The settings go wrong and you can't select the object first. No worries, it has an easy solution
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Norman asked me recently the following question:

My CAD had a fatal error.
Where I used to click on a command then an object (eg: select block then copy)
I now have to click on the button then select object (eg: click on copy then select the block)
Can anyone help me change this back?

This is a common problem that occurs after crashed. For some reason there is a system variable that goes nuts after the fatal errors.

This system variable is called PICKFIRST. It controls what is called the "noun-verb" behavior of AutoCAD. This is the logic behind the variable.

0 - Turns OFF PICKFIRST. Select objects after a command is invoked.
1 - Turns ON PICKFIRST. Select objects before or after a command is invoked.

I can't tell you why this happens, but at least now you know how to solve it.


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SketchUp Plugins: Modeling Twisted Torus

Model Interesting Shapes with the Torus Plugin using the twisting function.
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I recently posted about how to model basic shapes like Torus, Spheres and Ellipses with or without a Plugin. Although on the videos I showed you that the shapes can be done without plugins, I've been playing a bit more with the Torus plugin and it is quite useful.

The best fucntion is to me the possibility to model twisted torus. See with the following two images what can be done.




Te plugin can be download at the author's blog.

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