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Import SketchUp into Vue

Once in a blue moon e-on software comes up with an outstanding offer. This is one of them. Vue 7 Pro studio is half price. How good an offer is that? Well, put it this way, Pro Studio contains all the Vue Esprit expansion packs (seven of them) and they cost between $39 and $129 each. Pro studio is just $199, the same price as Esprit…

Check out the offer and further details on the e-on website.

Didn’t think SketchUp was up to much compared to 3dMax?

To find out how to do this within SketchUp, head over to www.twilightrender.com and purchase a copy before the trial price expires!

twilight sketchyphysics

Working as a freelance consultant I’ve come accross lots of time sheet software. All of it bad. Some of it badder. Sometimes it took so long to fill in what I’d done with my time, I had to allocate an hour in my time sheet for time-sheet time…

Now that I run my own business I can choose what software I use. I did a search on Google for “free time tracking tool” and came accross Cratchit.org TimeTool. It’s just a window with jobs listed in it. You select the one you’re working on. At the end of the week you save a report. Done.

Simple CAD standards will be followed

When setting up CAD standards for your team, don’t fall into the complexity trap. Complexity does not equal quality. Often the more you write the less will be understood. The more you stipulate and legislate the less will be willingly implemented. On the other hand, if you succeed in writing a simple, easy to follow, short manual for your team, you may actually find it increases productivity.

SketchUp has topped a poll beating nearest rival 3dsMax by twice as many votes. The poll was taken on the website for new rendering software, Thea Render, the forthcoming “pay-for” version of the popular Kerkythea software.

The poll asked the question “I would like to see a Thea Render plugin for:”

Out of 1787 responses, 617 went to SketchUp, 268 to 3dsMax and 213 for Blender. Surprisingly, CAD offerings such as Revit and ArchiCAD both obtained under 5% of votes.

Information about the forthcoming release of Thea Render can be found on their website www.thearender.com

I’ve just read yet another article pushing BIM, immersive environments, multimedia and 3D printing in the AEC industries. What’s with this continuous obsession with complex and expensive technology? We’re in the grip of a massive worldwide recession, but we’re constantly hearing solutions reasoned like this:

1. Spend more money on complex technology
2. You’ll work faster and more efficiently
3. So you’ll make more money

Am I born yesterday, or is this type of marketing actually based on a falacy? In business, increasing efficiency only ever helps when we’ve got a full order book. When we’re already working at full capacity we can free up resources to do even more work, and bring in even more money. If, however, our workforce are already standing around, how will it help to increase efficiency?

TurboCAD Deluxe 16 is being sold for just $69 until the end of June, and if you order the DVD version they’re including a $50 value training too. See the offer here.

What were you doing when you were 16? Designing space stations? Well, obviously. Who didn’t? But which CAD software would you choose for such an undertaking? CATIA, ProEngineer, Autocad, Bentley? SketchUp anyone? Eric Yam, joint winner of the NASA Space Settlement Contest used SketchUp to produce a whole range of detailed illustrations and visualisations in a 96 page document!

Now, while Eric probably isn’t the typical 16 year old, he does represent a growing trend regarding the IT literacy of school leavers, which now also extends to 3D design with SketchUp. What this means to you and me is that the generation behind us is born 3D CAD literate. They have tools in their hands we could only dream of. Software companies such as PTC in the past tried to become the de-facto CAD standard by giving away free versions to schools, but these attempts proved fruitless. Indeed, PTC’s ProEngineer has lost much of its market share. It’s too hard to use and too expensive for the mainstream.

What CAD vendors don’t appear to appreciate is that we’re all children when it comes to learning new things. We all start at nothing and work from there. So if software is not useable by children it’s not useable by mainstream adults. Conversely, what works on children will work on adults too.

Worried CAD vendors

Anyone who profits from CAD in any way, either as a user or seller, has a lot to be worried about right now. SketchUp is growing in its user base (and edu base) at an unprecedented level. I was recently at an Autodesk Revit training event where more of the audience questions revolved around SketchUp than the actual product we were there to learn about. And the industry is worried for one very simple reason. They’re starting to lose customer loyalty, and with it their market share. “If you can design a NASA space station with $400 SketchUp Pro, why can’t I use it for my project too?”

Yesterday Urbs company announced the initial release of Modelur application, which makes the design of urban space rapid and simple. This new application is based on Google SketchUp and is available for testing to all participants of a Pre-beta partner program until the first release. Participation in Pre-beta partner program is free of charge.

What are the advantages of Modelur?

The main advantage of the program Modelur – in comparison with existing computer aided design applications – is its specialization for use in urban design and planning, which makes it a great time saver comparing to traditional tools. Beside special tools for parametric urban design of buildings, it also offers real-time survey over achieved urban control values and warnings when some limitations, such as minimal distance of two buildings, are not fulfilled.
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Some time ago I undertook to test the most popular rendering applications used with SketchUp. It took far longer than I’d anticipated! So I didn’t get any further than Kerkythea, Blender, Podium, Irender, Truespace and Vue. What I can tell you, for what it’s worth, is my conclusion on that small group.

Best overall renderer for SketchUp

My best buy recommendation for 2008 based on SketchUp integration, power and quality, and the ease of obtaining help, goes to Kerkythea. It can be downloaded for free at www.kerkythea.net/joomla

Best buy for external renders

When doing any amount of outdoor Architectural Visualization work it becomes painfully apparent that we are at the mercy of the “entourage” creators. A great render can be utterly spoiled in a moment by placing a dodgy tree in the scene. So when thinking about what render engine to use, you need to spend a lot of time weighing up how easily, cheaply, and render time efficiently you can put foliage into your scenes. My search ended with Vue Esprit. It’s simply a wonderful piece of sofware.

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A new book is due to be released by 3DATS entitled 3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization – Advanced to Expert. It’s 700 pages long, and it better be because of the massive $119.95 price tag! But if you get your credit card out straight away you might just be able to get the pre-order discount of $40. Offer ends May 7th 2009. If anyone gets a copy and wishes to post a review here, please get in touch.