SketcUp Plugins: TGI3D Free Form Organic Modelling Plugin

A new Plugin for SketchUp has been released. It allows great new free-form organic modelling features like never seen before in SketchUp
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A new plugin has been recently released. It is called TGI3D Amorph, and it allows you to do what you will see on the videos below.





On the TGI3D website you can find both the full version of the Plugin ($149) as well as a a free trianing version that will allow you to test the plugin with a limited number of vertex. Looks really promising.

via The Daily CatchUp.

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Portuguese partnership

If you are a portuguese speaker, you want to check this blogCatalà - Castellano - Deutsch
New found blogging friends at Barsaglini e Amigos. For all Portuguese speakers these is a great website that just in half of 2010 has posted over 150 potst related to Architecture, CAD, SketchUp, etc. Looks prmomising and probably it might become a reference blog for the portuguese speaking community soon.

Follow them on their blog or using twitter at @barsaglini. You can also find the link to this great blog on my blog roll.

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Augmented and Diminished Reality

Incredible things are happening in the video industry, see two that might blow your mind
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I was recently reading about the possibilities open with the concept called Augmented Reality. This is already something pretty awesome (see some videos here)

What i found even more awesome is what I just saw about what it has been named "Diminished Reality". Software that is able to eliminate in real time objects from videos. See the video below. Endless possibilities! Even probably to retouch animations that have taken forever to render. Now you do not need to re-render them, probably just need some sort of software like the one used on the video below.




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Master Thesis Questionnaires

Help me complete my Master Thesis by answering just a few questionsCatalà - Castellano - Deutsch
As some of you already know, I am in the process of writing my Master Thesis, an essential part of this is the collection of Data to be later on analysed. It would be very helpful if you could complete the form attached to this message below and forward this page to any colleagues of yours who work in any field related to Architcture, engineering, Construction or Development (Owners, Banks, Insurance Companies, etc).

The topic of the Master Thesis goes around establishing the role of Project Managers in relationship with Biulding Information Modelling. Thanks a lot for your help. You can answer directly on the embedded for below or go to the Form Page here.




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RhinoBIM 1.0 now available

Version 1.0 of this set of tools for Rhino is out now
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I posted some months ago about the work in progress to turn Rhino3D into a BIM capable program. The guys at Virtual Build Technologies have recently announced that RhinoBIM 1.0 is available for download.

So what is RhinoBIM? Here is an excerpt from the RhinoBIM website:

RhinoBIM is a focused development effort by Virtual Build Technologies to create software tools within Rhino for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries.

This is also an effort to more clearly define tools, procedures and techniques that are incorporated in the Virtual Build Process. The definition of which is:

The methodology of using BIM data, integrated with all procedures necessary for a thorough process, from design through construction.

You can also read the AECBytes article about RhinoBIM from the AIA Convention.

Visit the RhinoBIM website for more information.


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Is BIM like Ice Cream?

A great article about the relationship between BIM and IWMS that questions IFC and other assumptions we make about BIM.
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Just got a link to an article on Javaknight about BIM and IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management Systems). I have personally no idea about IWMS so far, but the article is very interesting and critical on matters about interoperability an IFC (Industry Foundation Classes).

IFCs are regarded as the Holy Grail that is suposed to allow users to inter-operate despite using different BIM platforms. The article poises some doubts about the role of IFCs, putting them at the level of what DXF is to the DWG format. Definitely a very interesting read.

For the full article click here.


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AutoCAD for MAC Free Download

Get your free copy of AutoCAD for MAC.
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The new version of AutoCAD for Mac is now available for free at the Autodesk Education Community. If you are a student or education professional (with a valid University email address) you can join the Autodesk Education Community and download for free the new AutoCAD for MAC version.


My parents own a 20+ year old "Apple Macintosh SE 1/20" that still works, but unfortunately will not be able to handle a trial of AutoCAD. So you, MAC freaks, will have to give it a try yourself. Hope it works great, this has been for a long time one of the reasons I never went back to using MACs. Maybe my next laptop will be one now that it seems there are less and less reasons not to get one. What do you think?

Oh! I forgot! If you are not a student you can still try AutoCAD for mac here.


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Autodesk Education Community: Free student licenses for 3 years

The programs offered for free at the AEC have now a 36 month license.
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On a previous post we mentioned the Autodesk Education Community, where students and teachers could get free versions of Autodesk Software with a license for 1 year for free.

Autodesk has changed this policy and extended the license periods to 36 months for all software packages offered at the AEC website. Now students can download free versions of Revit, AutoCAD, Inventor, Map 3D, etc and use it for 36 months without having to update their license.



A great way to learn to use Autodesk Products without having to spend any money. You have to register at the AEC community with a university email address to be able to download the products. Great initiative Autodesk!
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Sketchup plugins: Boolean Tools for Free SU Versions

A Plugin to get the Boolean Tools of the Sketchup 8 Pro version on SketchUp Free Version
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Oscarlok has been working on a great plugin that mimics the capabilities of the Boolean Tools recently introduced on SketchUp 8 Pro version. These tools are not available in the Free versions of SketchUp.

OSCoolean.rbs is a Plugin for SketchUp 8 Free that allows you to use Boolean Tools in the free version. Below there is a sample video of it.


For easier use it includes a Toolbar for the five operations availabel. Union, Substract, Intersect, Split and Cut.

You can download the Plugin at Sketchucation.

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Parametric Design in SketchUp using Dynamic Components

Dynamic Components have the potential to be used for parametric design, see some experiments here.
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Taekle has been posting his experiments on parametric design using Google Sketchup's Dynamic Components. Really impressive!

I am not reposting any pictures here, just go to the Sketchucation Entry and see for yourself


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The evolution of rendering

A quick overview to the evolution of rendering
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Just saw this quick video about the evolution of rendering. Thought i'd share.



via Infostudio-gr Blog.

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Installing Express Tools in AutoCAD Architecture 2011

Check that you are installing the express tools before running your ACA 2011 installation. They are important.
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We have seen in several posts how useful Express Tools are (both in AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture). It is important to know that in some versions, installing these tools is not set as default on the installation programs. So let's go quickly into how to install these awesome tools from the very beginning.

This post applies to AutoCAD Architecture 2011 which I had to reinstall in one computer recently. But I assume for other versions it might be quite similar. When you run the set up program and after entering you serial number and product key, you'll come to the following screen.


Press on configure and you will be able to modify some of the installation parameters. On the first screen you'll choose Network or Stand-Alone license, on the second one is where you'll have to choose to select the express tools. See below.


First you need to press "Custom" and then browse till you see the express tools on the list and select them to be installed. On the image above you see the default status, where the Express Tools would not be installed.

That's it, now your AutoCAD Architecture 2011 Installation will include the Express Tools


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