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.
Archive for the “News and comment” CategoryGoogle 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. 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?”
May
14
2009
 
New SketchUp application for urban designPosted by Rob D in News and comment, tags: modelur, sketchup plugin, urban design
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.
May
06
2009
3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization BookPosted by Rob D in News and comment, Rendering
Apr
28
2009
Web designers could be left behind with 3D browserPosted by Rob D in News and comment, tags: 3d browser, Google, web design
The single most important announcement in the development of the internet this millenium has just been made. Did you miss it? Ok then, for those who did, here it is again: Google puts 3d on the web I must say, I feel more than a little vindicated by this announcement. For several years my family, friends and colleagues have put up with me raving about how the web will go 3D, and do so hand-in-hand with SketchUp. But have they taken me seriously? And my web designer friends have largely ignored my plea that they go and get 3D educated or at least 3D aware. So yes, I feel a little better now:) But let me put these portends in plain English. Google is 100% behind a 3D internet experience. A 3D enabled Chrome is now being advertised on the front page of Google, coincidental with the release of the O3D programming interface (Open 3D). Every web designer and developer now needs to ask themselves “can I afford to ignore this?” or a more pertinent “how long have I got to exploit this before I’m left behind?” There’s just 15 days to go if you want to submit an entry for the 2009 CGarchitect.com Architectural 3D Awards. Award categories are split up into moving image, still image, and real-time entries: Architectural Film/Animation
Architectural Image
Real-Time Presentation
To give you an idea of the quality of entry you’re likely to come up against, check out this link for last years finalists. I think you’ll also love this animated entry by Uniform (UK) which is a superb example of how you can mix 2D and 3D to engage the viewer in a storyline.
This is a novel approach to rendering software sales and is done in the hope that users will buy content from the cornucopia content library. A similar approach has been tried by DAZ 3D which has previously released their DAZ Studio software for free. Daz also sells the Bryce landscape generation software, Vue’s main competitor. This video introduces the 3D printing plugin for SketchUp. It also explains what 3d printing is - so it’s a good starting point for those of us who’ve never looked into it. If you’re thinking of actually using this technology, my advice is to get in touch with your local university first. Many of them have rapid-prototyping machines sitting around doing nothing for 11 months of the year, and will be only too happy to have a “real life” project to get to grips with. Other sources of info: |
|
Entries (RSS)