provelo.co.uk

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:

Business Week: Printing in 3D Gets Practical

Wikipedea: 3D printing

Announcing: Fourth Podium Rendering contest

Cadalog inc have just announced their 4th podium render contest. The contest is open to any one with access to a full version of SU Podium. Any kind of photo-realistic renderings of a Google SketchUp model will be acceptable. The submitted images will be judged on creativity, originality and the ability of the designer to inspire.

Prizes are: 1st Prize, a Nikon SLR Digital Camera Model D60. 2nd Prize, an Apple iPod Touch 16GB. 3rd Prize, a Western Digital My Passport 500 GB portable hard drive.

Images must be rendered with SU Podium from a SketchUp model. Post processing with image editors such as Photoshop/GIMP is allowed. However, contestants are required to send the “raw” Podium generated image with the post processed image.

Deadline for submission is March 15, 2009 and winners will be announced on April 2, 2009

For more detail about prizes and rules, please visit this web page

There’s moves afoot to get a European SketchUp event organised, but it won’t work without your opinion or support! Please take this quick (and I mean quick) questionaire and let us know your views:

Click Here to take the survey

SketchUp version 7 has just been released! Check out the following link for full details:

http://sketchup.google.com/product/newin7.html

When the dust settles we’ll have a look at some of the new features.

Revit Architecture 2009 is the latest release of Autodesk’s BIM application for architectural design that integrates elements, views, and annotations into a single, coordinated building information model.

Pros: New mental ray rendering engine and extensive library of predefined materials allows high-quality renderings to be generated within Revit Architecture; additional rendering aids include photometric lights and expanded library of RPC content; new Swept Blend massing tool allows more complex forms to be modeled; macros capability gives users direct access to the Revit API for developing useful aids and shortcuts; new navigation tools make it easier to view the model from any desired angle; ability to apply color fills to sections; many other enhancements in modeling, interface, display, document creation, and interoperability; continues to remain very intuitive and easy to use.

Cons: Interface for conceptual modeling lacks the fluidity of other 3D modeling applications; complex building elements still relatively difficult to model; the potential for better inferencing and smarts to cut down on modeling steps remains largely unexploited.

See the full review at the AECbytes website:

http://www.aecbytes.com/review/2008/RevitArch2009.html

Get the PDF brochure from Autodesk here

We’ve been having some problems with the RSS feed function of the site. This will hopefully be resolved soon, but in the meantime RSS will remain inactive. Apologies to anyone who received spam feeds recently!

We’ve added an RSS feed to the site. The button’s at the bottom of the page, or you can copy and paste this link into your news feed aggregator.

http://provelo.co.uk/?feed=rss2

If you, like me, don’t have a clue what RSS is all about, check out the following screen-cast by Alex at SmallBizPod.co.uk. Here he takes us through step by step instructions on how to set up a news feed.

http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/screencasts/blogsub/Blog%20Sub.html

The Association for Consulting Engineers has just published the results of a survey into engineering recruitment. The report can be downloaded at the following link:

http://www.acenet.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&item=515&page=4

Not surprisingly, there is still a large skills shortage in consultancy. This is presumably also the case accross the Architectural and Construction sectors. There are currently 20,000 unfilled vacancies in the Engineering and Consultancy sector. So how do we address this important issue?

Recruiting the right graduates

If we look at the spread of degree subjects being studied in the UK, we find that almost twice as many students are studying creative arts and design subjects compared with Engineering and Technology. Also there is growth in the numbers of creative degree students of 6% per year. Yet when we look at the types of degree within this category, increasing numbers are taking media studies or product design type degrees, which all have an element of Computer Aided Design in them!

Wouldn’t it therefore be adviseable to begin tapping this growing resource? After all, students who begin as CAD technicians are likely to want to progress to Engineers once they see the amount of jobs available out there. Or am I being naive?

Cadalog has released SU Animate, a very simple animation plug-in for SketchUp Pro 6 Windows (Mac version coming soon). This simple application works inside SketchUp and automatically creates scenes that you can play or export to an AVI video file. You can create animations where SketchUp objects move along a path.  You can also create walk thru type animations where the camera moves along a path.  Read about it here -
 http://www.ohyeahcad.com/suanimate/

 

Get it while it’s hot! E-on software and e-frontier have teamed up to bring us this bundle worth $478 for just $299. It’s a “time limited offer so you’ll have to be quick. I’ve never used Poser, but I know Vue Esprit is a great addon for SketchUp, especially for easily creating natural settings to put your architectural creations in. If you’re looking for a low priced, high spec renderer for animations and flythroughs this might be for you. For the Brits that’s just £150 and you’re away…

 http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/bundles/PoserBundle/Vue6Poser7.php