provelo.co.uk

Since I seem to be just about the only person in the UK to have a new amazon kindle to show you, I’m going to try and get on the first page of Google search and keep you updated on how I get on. Currently there’s 45 million results for new amazon kindle so you might be forgiven for laughing me off the pitch! Anyway, here’s some images I took yesterday:

The new amazon kindle, Wi-Fi is available in the UK for pre-order for the first time. Pre ordered items are due for delivery from the end of August.

When I get round to it I’ll post up a review then give away this kindle for free. Shout up in the comments field below if you want the opportunity to get it.

Update 09:55 August 5th

So here I am on the first page of Google just seconds after posting. I searched for “new amazon kindle” and clicked “latest”. Not bad, but this will disappear as soon as it’s replaced by more recent posts.

Update 10:04 August 5th

This post is on 3rd page of google.co.uk out of 6 million results. Let’s try for the the 1st page with both the amazon kindle and the new kindle wi-fi.

Breaking news 10:52 August 6th

Amazon have just announced the launch of their brand new UK Amazon Kindle Store. It already stocks 84 out of the top 100 UK bestsellers, and boasts at being “the biggest selection and lowest prices of any e-bookstore in the UK”.

Update 21:55 August 7th

You may already have guessed – this being a CAD and 3D Visualisation website – that I don’t actually have a kindle. The images above are rendered with Shaderlight, the new renderer for SketchUp due for release soon by ArtVPS. I modelled the Kindle completely in SketchUp and rendering just takes a few minutes.

Modelling the sketchup version from photos

So what does this have to do with search engine rankings? Well, the render has already helped by giving us images of the product to display before it’s been released. These will appear on Google’s image search, and if popular enough, the first page of the main search page. This might not be that relevant for a product like the Kindle which already has lots of marketing hype surrounding it, but could be a vital tool for any other less known products you were trying to sell from your web page. Even if your website didn’t come up in the main Google search, it would still come up in the image search.

The next step is to use this SketchUp model to gain a presence in another of Google’s popular content sites…

As a promotion for the new book on architectural rendering and visualization, asgviz and a whole bunch of other software vendors have agreed to discount their professional rendering software for readers of the book. The software discounts currently on offer are:

• V-ray for SketchUp
• V-ray for Rhino
• Maxwell Render
• Daz studio advanced
• Carrara Pro
• Bryce
• Piranesi
• Live Interior 3D

A comparison of how these software work with your SketchUp work-flow can be seen in the tabulated render software tables at the back of the book, where you will also find out how to claim your discount. If you’re thinking of buying any of the above software and simply can’t wait – don’t worry because we’ll email you details of the offers even before the book arrives! Buy SketchUp for Architectural Visualization here.

A few years ago I posted that Google SketchUp could, should and would become the BIM standard platform. It looks like other opinions are now catching up on the idea. See this article at Sketchup Ireland. In the end cost and widespread availability (amounts to the same thing) will be the deciding factor for adopting SketchUp over other platforms.

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. True. And they can be worth millions of pounds too. Increasingly when bringing products to market the marketing begins long before the first product drops off the production line. And it’s the CGI visual that makes the sale.

Take a look at the following article to see how computer generated visuals are selling the the £17m Strand Craft SC122 luxury yacht… which incidentally comes with a free supercar.

Click the image to see the clues that give it away

So how did I know the images were computer generated? If you click to see a full size version of the image, you’ll see (top left) a standard CGI sky which appears on most rendering applications if you don’t set the sky to anything else. In the middle you can see the ground texture is just too uniform. And on the right, the bollard has uniform reflections which don’t occur in real life.

But really, who else would notice, and who cares anyway? The moral is: make use of CGI visuals and you can sell the products you haven’t even developed yet. Then use that money to develop the product you just sold…

My book is released and full details are on the publishers website!

SketchUp for architectural visualization is for those of us who love SketchUp’s ease of use, and just want to take the next steps to produce the visuals our SketchUp models deserve. I took the view that most readers would already be familiar with the basics of SketchUp, and that these are already covered really well in other books, like Aidan Chopra’s SketchUp for Dummies. My book explains the next steps in terms of SketchUp modelling, Photo manipulation software, and rendering software. It’s a Beginners Guide because it’s accessible to all beginners in computer visualization – though I felt able to go into quite some depth with the 400 pages I had. I also go into some of the simple theory and psychology behind creating an effective visual.

How steep is the learning curve with this book?

For those who have been using SketchUp for a while, the learning curve in the book will be easy to negotiate. It’s a program style book, which means you start at chapter one and work through, learning as you go. I particularly enjoyed writing in Packt’s beginners guide style because it makes learning almost automatic – you don’t realise it’s going on! I hate those books that just set out each software function and explain it. It’s much more fun (and effective) in my view to be led through examples, using a few of each “function” in each so that you learn them as you go along.

For those who haven’t picked up SketchUp before, this is not a Beginners Guide to SketchUp! I recommend viewing Google’s excellent video tutorials before you get the book.

Chapter overview

Here is a brief summary of what each chapter covers: Read the rest of this entry »

Alibre Design Standard is on offer for just £150 until December 31st. That’s a jaw dropping £450 off! Alibre Design is parametric 3D design and 2D drafting software. Check out Alibre’s website for a free trial or to take advantage of this special offer.

I’m really excited to inform you my book’s just been announced on Packt Publishing’s website! SketchUp for Architectural Visualization is for anyone who’d like to output great rendered or artistic visuals from SketchUp models. It’s been a labour of love over the last year, and there’s still a lot of editing to do, so I’d better get back to it. You can find out all about it here.

Turbosquid, a popular storehouse of 3D content have just announced an exclusive deal to host user generated content for Autodesk’s CAD products. It sounds reminiscent of Google SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse which was launched in 2006. So three years later, Autodesk has decided that shared content, downloaded straight into the users CAD program, might be a desirable feature after all. So why the long wait?

Analysing the above graph of search terms Turbosquid and 3D Warehouse reveals that whilst Google’s 3D Warehouse set off from a standing start, Autodesk’s won’t have to. Turbosquid already has roughly a third of the interest 3DW has. This appears to be the reasoning behind Autodesk’s deal with Turbosquid, rather than going with their own technology. However, this appears to be a rather late attempt at copying something Google has been doing successfully for years and was able to launch to immediate popularity. Will Turbosquid’s blue line jump drastically upwards like 3D Warehouse did in 2006, or is it a case of too little too late?

After a very, very long wait, SketchUp dimensioning has come of age. Not only does SketchUp Pro 7.1 have dimensioning tools as part of its bundled 2D presentation software (Layout), but a free 2D CAD package has emerged firm favourite for SketchUp interoperability.

DoubleCAD XT is based on the familiar style of Autocad and Autocad Lt, but has SketchUp users very much in mind. SketchUp (skp) files can be directly imported into DoubleCAD with Layers, Scenes and Components all selectable. To see what this functionality looks like check out this link to the SketchUp import showcase.

Google have just announced their release of SketchUp Pro 7.1. So what does that mean to me? Surely a “point release” as opposed to a full release won’t change much?

You might be a long way off the mark there. Here’s my quick analysis of the changes:

Dimensioning

Ever since SketchUp was born Architects and Engineers have been crying out – nay screaming for dimensioning of 2D views. We’ve been ignored and ignored for five years. Suddenly it’s here. I’m mind-boggled and reeling from this I must say. We always thought the reason for Google not releasing dimensioning tools was because they had a secret little agreement with you-know-who so that designers still had to buy 2D CAD. This appears to have been un-founded, especially in view of the next paragraph…

Collada in. DWG out

Google have announced their intention to support Collada as their main open file format (the one you can use to transfer CAD files from one app to another). This is a major blow for dwg and dxf (AutoCAD’s file formats) especially when you consider SketchUp Free won’t be supporting them any more. Anyone for Autodesk shares? Anyone?

Handling large models

Along with dimensioning and flickering shadows in animations, handling large models has been at the top of the wish-list for years. Thank you Google. Thankyou!

Get Photo Texture / Nearby Models

Driving ever forward the integration of Google Earth with SketchUp, these two functions are a major, major leap. It means that SketchUp is the only 3D Modelling application with full 2-way sharing between Google Earth at the click of a button.

Analysis of Google’s intentions

What seems clear from this release is that Google wants there to be a larger distinction between Free and Pro versions. This would be to drive up sales of Pro from an already massive Free user base. They are doing this by offering further enhancements to Pro, especially in terms of CAD dimensioning capability within Layout 7.1. Furthermore, closing down DWG/DXF capability in Free and moving to Collada breaks Autodesk’s hold on the CAD market, allowing other CAD applications to jump into the breach.