CatchUp Edition 13 - Vertex Tools by Rich O Brien

SketchUp goes vertical We have a bumper edition this

from Adriana granados and

iPhone app for floorplans and

month with some great articles

Eric Lay.

there’s a mammoth article on

for your pleasure.

Indigo Renderer 3 gets put

the Versailles3D project from Bertier Luyt.

Our headline act is Thomthom’s

through the wringer and new

new Vertex Tools, an awesome

BIM plugin from BuildEdge is

new tool for SketchUp.

finally getting and airing.

We also have some great articles

Mike is back with a great

animated wall

vertex tools

boulder to. . . . .

04 Learn to use Layers and Scenes in animations. Adriana Granados’ guide to animation.

10 Review of Vertex Tools v1.1. Indepth look at Thomthom’s newest update to Vertex Tools.

16 Bertier Luyt’s account of how Versailles got on the map. An inspiring tale of luck, skill and passion.

feel the squeeze

indigo review

BIM at Last

33 Artisan expert Eric Lay returns. Step by step tutorial in character modeling.

42 Photo to Photon. A indepth look at Glare Tech’s unbiased rednering solution.

56 BIM plugin gets reviewed. Stuart Mitch shows why BuildEdge are leading the pack.

Happy reading!

ANIMATIONS WITHIN ANIMATIONS by adriana granados

New SketchUp users with a CAD background

The design looked bulky and industrial and

often use layers just as they would do in

the displays usually were placed against a wall

other CAD applications. In my opinion, since

making them look even less attractive when the

the concept of layers in SketchUp is more

TVs were turned off. One of the components of

oriented to a way of controlling visibility

the display was a sound system and I thought

that at the same time can be combined with

that sound waves could be projected on a wall

scenes, this is the wrong approach. The layers

giving a more dynamic appearance to the whole

can be used to show different alternatives

and attract the visitors.

of a project, control the display of certain geometry in a particular scene or as I will show here, to simulate an animation inside another animation. This is a small project I had in my hands a couple of years ago. The company had a free standing TV displays to sell both the display and content.

In this tutorial I will show you in a few steps how I achieved the result you will see in the video.

Step 1: Create the space Create the 3D model of the space where the display would show.

Step 2: Create the texture Create a texture with an image of sound waves that is tileable.

Step 3: Apply the texture Apply the texture tiled 1x1 so there was no repetition on the wall

Step 4: Create the layers Create the number of layers necessary to repeat the same wall in different positions to complete the wave moving. This is an image with all layers visibles where you can see that each wall is displaced from the previous 2â&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Step 5: Create the scenes Then I created a scene for each combination: the layer 0 and the corresponding layer in order of visibility, thus allowing to simulate an animation running every scene.

Step 6: Create the layers As the TV displays should also display content at the same time I saved different images on different layers so they could appear or disappear when running scenes.

Finally I created an animation for my client so he could discuss my ideas with the board. This is a draft of the video in the conceptual stage.

Ve Ve rr tteexx Tools Tools 1.1 1.1

‘SketchUp’s newest ‘must have’ plugin. . . . .just amazing!’

plugin review: vertex tools 1.1 by rich o’brien

If you read CatchUp Edition #9 you may have noticed the review of Vertex Tools v1.0. It is worth reading this to get familiar with the majority of the tools on offer. In this review I will be concentrating on the new features that Thomas Thomassen has introduced. These new tools have turned an already powerful toolset into SketchUp’s newest ‘must have’ plugin. So what’s new? The toolbar hides alot of the secrets that lie within with only one extra icon from v1.0. It is not until you activate Vertex Mode that you begin to see the overhaul Vertex Tools has undergone. What is immediately noticeable is the Gizmo.

These type of manipulators are common in other 3D applications and I think SketchUp has sorely missed this feature for a long time. What this delivers in SketchUp is precision control over your vertices. Natively SketchUp heavily relies on it’s inferencing system to move, scale and rotate endpoints, edges and faces. This inferencing system plays a major part in SketchUp’s ease of use but also has certain limitations when it come to off-axis translations. What Thomas has done with Vertex Tools is redefine what it means to work within SketchUp. The Gizmo itself is packed with extra features that are all accessible via the context-menu and modifier keys. Not only that, Thomas has tightly integrated his work with ‘psuedo-quads’ to allow a fresh approach to managing your mesh. But first we need to look at what exactly the Gizmo is capable of.

The Gizmo itself has 3 primary features - Move, Scale and Rotate - that are all persistently available while in Vertex Mode. The advantage of this is that you no longer need to swap between tools . You have immediate access to everything and it boosts workflow by a factor of 10.

All translations can be controlled by the VCB so it is all very familiar with the standard tools in SketchUp. The Gizmo also has various modifier key features. For example if you hold CTRL (Option) while moving vertices it turn into a extrusion tool.

As you can see above the selected vertices were extruded to form edges and faces. For those familiar with other modeling apps like 3DS Max or Blender you will immediately identify with this type of workflow. When you add this extrusion method to the rotate and scale commands you have a very robust tool on it’s own. Previously, you would have used several tools to achieve this result but with Vertex Tools it is just a couple of clicks away. As mentioned earlier most of the Gizmo trickery is accessed via the context menu. This gives you a myriad of options for how the Gizmo itself acts.

‘. . .a fresh approach to managing your mesh. . .’

There are 4 Gizmo align options View: aligns the Gizmo’s Blue axis to the camera meaning you can move your vetices perpendicular to the camera World: align the Gizmo to the world axis Local: align the Gizmo to the current open component/group Custom: algns the Gizmo to a custom axis Orientation Lock: locks the Gizmo The flexibility this offers cannot be overstated. Throughout my time with Vertex Tools it was this that I found one of the standout additions. Normally troublesome movement with the default Move tool are rendered obsolete here. There are no other tools currently available that offer this level of control . Another great addition is the Lock UV Mapping feature. This means that meshes with textures applied and mapped will keep the mapping intact after manipulation. Below you can see a simple ‘From Scratch’ grid which was moved, rotated and scaled without any UV distortion occuring.

‘. . .as a total package it is very impressive’

Earlier I mentioned that the toolbar had only one extra tool from the previous version. The tool is Merge Vertices and it does exactly what is says. If you make a selection of vertices it will merge them into one vertex that is the average position of the selection.

There’s an added feature that merges vertices based on a set distance. So you can only merge vertices fall within that distance while the remaing selection remains intact. A nice addition to have and Thomas has some planned updates that will mean more control over how you want the merge to occur. The Move tool in Vertex Tools has also being given an overhaul. Previously it required you to select the vertices before you could move. This still applies but it also has a select on hover and snapping feature. Overall, Vertex Tools is an awesome addition

the

SketchUp

Plugin

ecosystem. The attention paid to each tool is just awesome. It is a massive improvement over the original and when you consider the amount of features Vertex Tools has bundled in it is very competitively priced at $20 with a free upgrade for those who purchased v1.0. On the opposite page you can watch a YouTube video showing the full set of functions as well as a screen capture where I model an Alien’s head based on some Glen Southern reference images. To grab your copy of Vertex Tools you can head over to Thomthom’s site.

‘...i

Photos by Aloest 3D Models by le FabShop ‘Making of’ by Aloest

found SketchUp i fell in love...’

and

from boulder to versailles by bertier luyt

During summer of 2005, my wife and I founded our first company; Celine is a woodworker, I think I am creative. We wanted to decorate shops, mainly bars and restaurants; we needed a powertool to show our clients what we intended to do for them, I found SketchUp and fell in love with it. In 2009 I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t attend the 2nd SketchUp 3D Base Camp in Boulder; I was probably not ready yet. I had sent already a few mails to the SketchUp team and ordered Aidan Chopraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first book, I knew there was more than just the brilliant software to discover in Boulder; of course it was a Google company, and you know it means fun and smart. In 2010, I was very excited when I heard there was another Base Camp to be organised, and that invitations were open to enthusiasts, I sent a couple of pictures of my drawings and kept my fingers crossed; this time I had to be a part of it !

Since 2005, SketchUp had gave me the opportunity to show and share my ideas, from the very early concept to the wood workshop, to our clients; allowing me to sell our work and make a living for our business; I then upgraded to SketchUp Pro. I think at some point, Celine was jealous of the time I’d sit in front of my computer, of course, I always had a good reason. I had spent a lot of time modeling days and nights, SketchUp not only being a tool, but also a game, a training class, a community, at some point : a way of life. There were those who knew, and those who didn’t. Most people around me didn’t. At the beginning of 2010, we decided to slow on shop fitting and move to what Celine wanted to do : stage and props fabrication for the entertainment industry. Late July that year, I finally received an email, an invitation, to attend Base Camp 2010; I couldn’t be happier, I would spend five days in Colorado with like minded people, sharing the same interest for the best thing that happened to me in a long time, it had to be awesome. I had the feeling it would change my life again, I knew it was a great opportunity.

And it has been, it was a brilliant moment. The first night at the Pub by the hotel, I met people I already knew from their nickname on SketchUcation, they were all there for a good reason, coming from overseas to gather in Boulder, Colorado, the center of our world. During the next 3 days, we were shown the new SketchUp 8, introducing Solid Tools (hello Boolean operations), better integration with Google Earth, better working with LayOut. Right there the highly skilled audience was already listing a wish list for SketchUp 9 !! You think demanding, I say passionate ! What was I doing there ? I was the average French user. . . But I was there, and like every other in the room I was asked what I would like to see as improvements, and I was offered the opportunity to discuss any SketchUp related topic in an Un-conference. I was already thinking about digital fabrication, from SketchUp to workshop, and I went for “SketchUp for 3D milling, printing, etc. . .”. At the end of the week, I had met incredible SketchUp users and the team behind it. I spent an extra day hanging out in the mountains, with crazy Italians, visiting the area. I wished I’d be back there soon. Flying back to France, I had made a lot of contacts to broaden my horizon, I knew it was the best thing I had done in a long time.

6 months later, in May 2011, I was in Paris at a friend’s when I heard the sound of an incoming mail on my phone. It was Aidan Chopra asking me to contact ASAP, someone at the Google Office in Paris, there was something they wanted to talk about. It was already too late that day, I spent the night wondering what it could be all about. The next day, I was invited to a meeting with Google Marketing team in Paris; for a special project, they were looking for a SketchUp “expert” who could help them out understanding SketchUp and taking the best out of it. Would I be interested ? YES ! To be honest, I didn’t think much about it. The following day another meeting was set up with the mystery client who had to give his approval on my submission. I was introduced to Laurent, head of New Medias at Versailles Palace. The idea was to model Versailles and it’s surroundings to produce animated movies, and export the all thing to Google Earth later, using SketchUp Why SketchUp ? It was a Google project and the Marketing team insisted into using Google’s products. Nobody at the production company, the 3d modeling agency, Google Paris or Versailles had ever used SketchUp. Would that be possible ? We proved it is, but it’s been a long journey!

‘...the idea was to model Versailles its surroundings using SketchUp... ...would that be possible? We proved it was!’ For the next 6 months, my first mission was to answer any issue the modeling team was facing, help the production company collect the best images for textures, liaise with the SketchUp team and open my address book. Every Wednesday the production company reported to the Palace on progress and issues. They launched a 3d laser scan campaign of the interiors and of the many statues, captive balloons took aerial photographs to complete Google Earth’s imagery, films were shot. The data piled up very quickly, so did problems. The modelling team under estimated SketchUp, because, you know : it’s free, and on their very powerful computers they can run heavy models in other expensive programs, finally they didn’t really want to question their modelling habits. Then the 3d scanning company failed at completing their goal and proved unable to export their point of clouds into SKP files.

The model was so big it would freeze any computer for the day. . . Things were looking pretty bad when I decided it was time to ask for help and decided to take the models with me to Boulder and seek for help. I flew to Colorado in September, where I had a 2 hours slot to discuss the issues we were facing. Showing the team the work in progress was very exciting, and disappointing when the computer froze … Yet the Versailles project was not just another project on a pile of projects, and received great support from everybody around the table : Aidan, John, Nichole, Mason, Mark just to name a few. The next move was exporting all this to Google Earth, Nicole invited me to join the Geo User Summit the next month in Barcelona to understand better the other issues we’ll face with GE, and meet who we know as Geo-modellers. Again, this was a great experience, and a great opportunity to meet people using SketchUp for something else than what I’d been using it for the last years. When in Boulder for BC2010, I met with Stéphane from Abvent, he was showing the beta of Render-In a real time render engine for SketchUp. The production company needed to chose a render engine to animate the movies, I introduced them to the team. My point was, they are software developers, they know SketchUp, their render engines are SketchUp compatible, they are in Paris. When we first exposed them the project, they asked why we were not using more powerful solutions ? Again, it was a Google project, SketchUp was then a Google company. After considering their options, the production company finally decided to partner with Abvent for producing the animated movies. The deal was we’d use Artlantis Studio in their office to render and animate the movies. For this job, Aloest, the production company, hired the best triggers in France : Manuel, Nicolas and Stéphane. Those are CG Supervisors and 3d artists, their work includes movies, commercials, video games. They had never heard of SketchUp, never heard of Artlantis.

During 4 weeks between December 2011 and January 2012, in the attic at Abvent, we started putting together the models and the cameras, the shaders, the lights and textures to produce the movies. Everyday we crashed the program, and everyday weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d install an updated version of Artlantis the engineers team programmed for the project overnight. Beta testing ? not quite, more of a stress test for the machines and the people. But one could tell, it was going to look good. 8 computers with 8 cores each batched the datas overnight for weeks, and crashed the program again an again. Artlantis Studio 4.1, has benefited a lot from this experience, and the forthcoming new release should really take rendering for SketchUp a step further based on what was learned during this past winter. After 4 weeks in the attic, I had to go back to the schedule and start uploading to the 3d Warehouse and Google Earth the 100 + models ready for export. First, we had to make those ready, downsizing models to 10 Mb max each, turning hi-res film ready models into Google Earth friendly files. For this, I team worked with a Spanish Super Modeler I had met in Barcelona a few months before : Eneka, is work is world class, and despite he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t speak English or French, and barely Spanish since he is Basque; we understand each other really well on the standard and quality such clients as Google and Versailles were expecting from us. We never could have done that without the extended support of the Google Earth team in Boulder : Mason Thrall and Craig D. By the end of March, we were pretty much done, the last thing we worked on were the previous stage of construction : 1624, 1668, 1670 and 1715 to be available for Google Earth.

In the mean time, French company Les 84 started layed out the website www.versailles3d.com where all the work is compiled. They added there own creations : Chaos

Perfection,

an interactive WebGL experiment

with

soundtrack by French band Phoenix (they are from Versailles), and a game for kids to play with. On

June

the

Versailles

History

13th

2012, Palace

Gallery

and

www.versailles3d.com officially opened to the public.

There,

among

pieces of the Palace’s collection,

between

paintings,

sculptures

and engravings are 3 animated movies based on SketchUp models, those explain the history of the construction of this never ending worksite, and help visitors visualise the context and the surroundings of the Palace. In Versailles, everything is kept for the record, from the first plans and maps drawn in the early 17th century, to the 3d models we’ve produced in the early 21st century. Hopefully, it’s just history beginning between Versailles and SketchUp. Long live the King !

I’d like to thank for the trust and confidence, and the good days : Aidan and John @ Sketchup Nicole and Mason @ Google Earth Raphaël, Julie & Chloé @ Google France

Ariane, Laurent & Maité @ Château de Versailles François-Hugues & Caroline @ Aloest Stéphane & Gérard @ Abvent

Beatrix Saule, Head of Versailles and Trianon Museums Opening the Palace History Gallery had three objectives: - First, give geographic landmarks to visitors - historical landmarks, explain why the castle was transformed - the third need is to encourage broadening the visit. What we want is that there is a much more complete picture of all the riches of the site. Out of eleven rooms, there are seven rooms presenting the museum’s collections, paintings, and sculptures; these collections need to be explained by words that are very powerful, and often make references to missing states to understand all the changes. Only the multi-media could offer us all these possibilities.

Frédéric Lacaille, Curator of Versailles From the time of Louis Philippe, these galleries are rooms of the museum, they have experienced different museographies and there was there museography 70-80 years a little dated. We launched an architectural competition which was won by a young Parisian agency called Project-Iles. We entered into a partnership with Google that allowed us to consider how we could show the stages of construction of the Palace with digital technologies. This is a collaboration which involved a hundred people, the services of the Palace, the Google engineers who contributed their expertise, and a series of major companies coordinated by the company Aloest which has supported the work of supervizing the realization of all 3d models. 3d models have achieved three things: - 3 short films that are screened in the rooms of the Palace History Gallery, that visitors can see during the visit, - a Google Earth model allows the viewers to visit the current Palace, but also to see the main stages of construction, previous states of Versailles. - a website: www.versailles3d.com that meets all the work, an online and digital experience, and games for children to play with Versailles. Finally, the 3D models were used by Abvent, to create an application for tablet and smartphone, which allows the visitor is Versailles in front of the monument to see augmented reality previous states of the Palace.

Reza Azar, Founder, CEO Project-Iles Architecture We had to tell the history of the Palace through 11 rooms for 10,000 visitors per day, we had to be very fast, very synthetic, the idea was to be very minimalist to offer the entire chronology of the history of the Palace. The interior design is based on three things: - the lower stratum, which is the educational stratum, in the Louis-Philippe panels at the bottom of the walls, the rectangles are extruded (push-pulled) to create a distance with the art pieces, and create light tables to serve as teaching aids. - Stratum medium, a Corian skin, this material is very dense and can bring a design very specific; it forms a gradient from the top to the bottom of the room. We are facing a wall that can be stucco or plaster, we do not know what material it is, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what brings the questioning. -the high stratum, which is a chandelier suspendied as a solid block in the middle of each room, allowing both direct illumination on the frames and bring both homogeneous light and subtle in all rooms.

Raphael Goumain, Product Marketing Manager, Google France The Google Cultural Institute aims to harness new technologies for the promotion and dissemination of heritage and culture. It is natural that the Google Cultural Institute and Versailles teams worked together to trace the history of the Palace, via physical, but also online galeries and the later accessible to all online.

Gerard Bomer, Abvent We worked with the Palace and Aloest to offer a virtual tour on digital tablet. We use a technology that is unique to Artlantis : iVisit3d, that allows to create panoramas, and from a perspective, 360 degrees view of the previous states of Palace, wich allows a comparison with the present day.

FranĂ§ois-Hugues de Vaumas, producer and director of the movies, ALOEST We first modeled the entire current domain. To be as accurate as possible, we used the 3D laser scanning technology to model some statues and decorations that required more details. This is huge, exciting, but colossal, modeling groves, ponds, the Palace, the buildings, the estate of Marie-Antoinette, the Grand and Petit Trianon, the Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hamlet. . . All this as closely and accurately as possible. We took pictures outside of all the buildings, a maximum number of elements to texturize 3D models in order to obtain the greatest photo-realistic effect as possible. We built five models of the Palace at different times: from Louis XIIIth to Louis XVIth, from the French Revolution until now. The Curators have assisted us in this work by entrusting us with documents, texts, engravings, paintings, which allowed us to visualize architectural elements now missing. In collaboration with companies West Images and Le FabShop we processed the modeling of this gigantic work. This 3D modeling work had a first objective of making pedagogical films that explain in simple and clear terms to the public how the Palace evolved in history. The first step was to write a script, and once the narration specified, models were adapted for films and processed for their animation. A classic work of lighting, camera movements that allow transforming 3D models in films as aesthetically as possible, for that we used Artlantis. Films are mainly based on synthetic images, but at the request of the Palace, which hoped that visitors can get a glimpse of the gardens, we shot images of all sets of the woods, the park, and Trianons. Finally, these models have been reworked and optimized by the company Le FabShop to be integrated into Google Earth; which allows a 3d visit in real time across the Palace. For the first time in the world, statues from 3d scans are integrated into Google Earth.

growing up conStrained by eric lay Use the DrawHelix14 ruby script and draw a helix/spring. The size and width do not matter but keep the segments low. For this example I used 8 segments and the diameter is around 4â&#x20AC;&#x2122;-8â&#x20AC;?.

Explode the helix/spring and manually move the last two segments on each end inward to the spring. This will make it look tied later in the model.

Create a circle at the base of the spring with the same diameter and number of segments.

Extrude the circle past both ends of the spring.

Copy the spring away from the cylinder and remember how far you copied it out. In this example I copied it out 10’-0”. Now explode the spring inside the cylinder and intersect the mesh.

Copy the inner spring segments up and down 1”. Do not copy the top or bottom circles of the spring.

Erase the original inner spring segments as well as the remaining inside face. This will leave a spring void.

With the Tools On Surface plugin use the offset tool to offset the inner face within the spring void area. I offset this example 1 ¼”. A small bit of cleanup may be required at this point, mainly where the ends of the offset occur. Just make sure to explode the curve created by the offset or you will end up erasing the entire thing.

Select the inside face (inside the spring void) and use the scale tool to enlarge that face, making it appear to be squeezed.

Repeat offsetting the inner face.

Repeat scaling the inside face.

Extrude and scale the ends of the cylinder a few times to start the head and base.

Split the bottom face in half and extrude/scale many times until you have a desired foot blocked out.

Start to shape the head by scaling the segments and/or moving the vertices as desired.

Choose scale

one until

of you

the have

side a

triangles couple

and

extrude/

hand

flippers.

(Note, at any point in the modeling process you can check how your subdivision will ultimately look. Just Subdivide and Smooth with Artisan to check it then undo and continue modeling).

Indent the back of the head to create a skin fold or deformation in the skull. You may have to draw extra lines or manually move vertices. Remember, the scale tool is very powerful. Also at this point, use the Pipe Along Path plugin to create a solid spring. I made this with 6 segments and about 5â&#x20AC;? in diameter.

Use the Pipe Along Path plugin to create a solid spring. I made this with 6 segments and about 5â&#x20AC;? in diameter.

Now that we have the basic body and spring shape, subdivide and smooth with Artisan, both the body shape and the spring. I only used one iteration for this example but you could do more for a tighter, smoother mesh.

Make sure the spring is a group then move the spring into the body the distance you moved it away in the first few steps. There is no need to intersect the spring as we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to have a perfectly enclosed mesh.

Paint the spring a contrasting or final color then start to sculpt the mesh with the sculpt tool in Artisan. Take some time to make it look like the spring is really constraining the mesh/flesh.

Use the sculpt tool in Artisan to enlarge one side of the head. This is where a larger eye will sit and make it look like the head is about to explode.

For the eye sockets create two different shapes shown here; one for the larger bulging eye and one for the smaller eye.

Group each eye separately then move them into the desired position. Grouping will keep the meshes separate until you have placed them where you want them. Explode the eye socket groups then select them and the head mesh. Intersect the selections then delete the unwanted interior geometry.

Where the intersection of the head and eye sockets occur, use the smooth tool in Artisan and smooth out the transitions. Soften/ smooth the mesh with the Eraser/CTRL key.

Explode the spring then group the entire mesh. It is important for the next step that the entire mesh is in one group only. Select the group and run the SketchyFFD (Free Form Deformation) plugin. Choose 4x4x4.

Double click on the control points, select the second to the bottom level of points and scale uniform about the center about 40% or more. Now this little dude looks to be in more of a squeeze.

Use the sphere plugin and make sure the segment count matches the eye socket segments. Copy and scale the sphere then place in the sockets using the move tool.

Find or create a gradient image and import it into your model. Size it so it extends past the top and bottom of your monster. Explode the image then paint your little monster’s flesh with the gradient. It should wrap around the entire mesh very smoothly. If not make sure the texture is “projected”.

Manually cut in a mouth however you like. He could be smiling or he could be sad. Depends on if he views his life spring as half full or half empty. Personally I think he is indifferent as it is all he has known. Paint the new mesh and you are finished.

PRODUCT REVIEW INDIGO RENDERER 3 Indigo Renderer was released in 2008 by Glare Technologies and is currently in its 3rd revision. Its Technical Director, Nick Chapman, began

The toolbar has four principal tools Render - which exports your scene to Indigo

working on Indigo in 2005 with the aim of

Quick Render - which exports your scene if

making a truly unbiased rendering solution for

you have made no changes other than materials

multiple platforms. I spent some time to see how

and lighting setup. This means much faster

well SketchUp and Indigo integrated together

exports but you must have already exported

and what Indigo is capable of.

your for this to be active.

Once downloaded and installed Indigo adds a

Materials Editor - which allows to to tweak

plugin to SketchUp called SkIndigo. The plugin

your scene materials using Indigo materials or

itself is developed by Artisan and Profile Builder

your own material sets.

author Dale Marten and it adds a lot of features that leverage some very interesting and clever techniques to SketchUp.

Render Settings - which allows you to tweak your camera and lighting settings. From resolution output to adding image based lighting.

Where SkIndigo really comes into its own is via the Material Editor and the Context-Menu. The Material Editor uses a standard convention adopted by most Sketchup rendering plugins. Apply a texture in SketchUp and then tweak it by adding bump maps, specular maps, displacement maps etc. What does differ, from most applications, is the ‘Material Type’ for your applied material. This allows you to assign what kind of material does Indigo have to deal with. Is it just a flat diffused material? Or is it something that has a shiny coating? As you can see there are various material type presets that allow you to quickly tell Indigo what you are try to create. The actual material creation process is very controllable but aimed at users that are already very familiar with photorealistic rendering and material setup. The manual and the online help documentation does fill in the blanks as some of the terminolgy used differs from that used in other render applications. Indigo’s approach to material setup is very much geared towards users needing to understand why real life materials behave like they do and what you need to replicate this in your scenes. In other applications it is a simple process of applying the diffuse, bump and specular maps and tweaking parameters to get the desired result. In Indigo it allows you to go that much more further with your materials.

There’s also a very clever online database of textures that can be loaded into your SketchUp scenes using the ‘Search Button’. Currently there are 300+ high quality materials available that the user community can vote to promote via an Indigo Material Leaderboard. The materials are a real lesson in learning material creation from Pro Indigo Users.

I already mentioned that SkIndigo adds some clever features via the context-menu and these do deserve some particular attention. Firstly, there is the ‘Proxy Instancing’ feature that allows you to easily overcome SketchUp’s poly limit. A good example of how this system works is shown opposite. In my SketchUp scene I have 1 tree component named ‘3D Tree’ and 1 line component named ‘3D Tree_dummy’. Indigo sees the ‘_dummy’ tag and adds the ‘3D Tree’ where I have placed ‘3D Tree_dummy’ components. What this means is that instancing objects like vegetation or crowds of 3D people will have no impact on your SketchUp scene. I found that on my system SketchUp handled

that you place over your openings and Indigo

40,000 to 50,000 line components without any

can can force all light through these. There is

real noticeable effect.

a notable speed increase if this method is used

Indigo also handles UV mapping in a unique fashion. Basically you can assign up to 3

over the regular sun as light is concentrated through these portals only.

different UV sets to one texture. So if you had

New to SkIndigo is the ability to render SketchUp

a particular material that you want it’s diffuse

Section Cuts*. If you have a Section Cut in your

map to be twice as large as it’s bump and

scene you right click and enable Section Plane.

specular map then you simply apply each map

Used in tandem with TIG’s Section Cut plugin

in SketchUp and save each using the context-

you know have a long sought after feature of

menu. This does increase the time it takes to set

rendering Section Cuts without decimating

up your materials but when used in conjunction

your models.

with procedural textures you can get some very realistic results. Also to help light interior scenes quickly SkIndigo allows you to place ‘Exit Portals’ in your scene. These are just basic rectangular planes

*Indigo Renderer only not available in Indigo RT

“....’Proxy Instancing’ allows you to overcome SketchUps poly limit...”

Finally, you are ready to launch into the Indigo application itself. Even though SkIndigo allows you to tweak your scenes before export, it is when you start to use Indigo that the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Photon to Photoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tagline becomes apparent. The best way to describe Indigo is that it is a physical camera in your computer. It relies on the user to have an understanding of photography and lighting and its strength is in the level of control it gives you to tweak your final output. Opposite you can see the general layout. On the left is the scene properties and objects, in the centre is the camera view and on the right is the render settings. Everything here can be manipulated from materials to focal distance. There is even a certain amount of image post processing available that can be applied as the scene renders. Indigo has some really nice features like Light Layers. Basically you can place your lighting on a separate layer/s and simply toggle these on/off to create differently lit scenes. This works even after your image is rendered meaning you can effectively compose a scene under numerous lighting conditions and save various outputs dependant on how you set up your lighting. Indigo also handles poly heavy scenes with ease. I loaded numerous xFrog trees to see what impact it would have but found that 10 to 20 million triangles were no real issue. If you make use of the instancing feature then you can effectively populate your scenes with thousands of duplicate objects. Networked rendering setup is pretty painless. Just launch Slave mode on a second machine and Indigo will handle the rest. The render options are all easily accessible and Indigo takes advantage of GPU rendering. The GPU aspect is incredibly fast, especially if you have a powerful card, as both Nvidia CUDA and OpenCL acceleration are supported. What is worth mentioning is that Indigo does come in 2 flavours - Indigo RT and Indigo Renderer - which are priced at 145 euros and 595 euros respectively. The difference in versions means certain features are missing from Indigo RT. You can see a full product comparison on the Indigo site. To see the what experienced Indigo users are achieving with Indigo check out the YouTube showreel opposite.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;....10 to 20 million triangles were no real issue...â&#x20AC;?

Overall, Indigo is a very solid rendering solution for SketchUp. Its initial steep learning curve can be offset by the output you can achieve. If you are currently in the market for an unbiased rendering application then this does tick all the boxes. Currently

Indigo

also

supports

integration with Blender, 3DS Max, Cinema4D, Maya and Revit. So if you are already using these packages you get the plugin included to support the export to Indigo. I tested Indigo in Blender and also Cinema4D and found it as functional as the SketchUp integration. One of the strongest parts of Indigoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overall attraction is their forums. The actual level of knowledge that you get from browsing topics is priceless and members are quick to respond to new users. Special thanks goes to Thomas Ludwig for addressing all the queries I had while testing Indigo. Thomas is part responsible for the core rendering engine in Indigo and is also developer for Chaotica. Get

your

trial

Indigo

http://www.indigorenderer.com/

trucks, trailer and more! by paul russam In CatchUp Edition 11 we featured Paul Russam’s windows and doors collection which he shared on the forums. Lately Paul shared some more great content that is of extermely high quality. This truck and trailer collection, which began as a 3D Warehouse import, contains two Volvo truck variations and eleven trailer variations. As you come to expect with Paul’s models everything is very nicely packaged and makes great use of components so file size is exceptionally low. To download this collection you will need to be a SketchUcation member. Don’t forget to show your appreciation by dropping a comment on the thread. Wait. . . . .there’s more. . . . . .

For our UK and Irish readers Paul shared a mammoth collection of nearly 40 domestic electrical sockets/switches and their associated symbols. For every switch/socket/button component there is a symbol component, this symbol is placed 10mm above the floor and 10mm off the wall, its set to not cast shadows and has all its edges hidden. All three (socket and 2 symbols) are also a component. Everything is layered up so you can have any combination of symbol/switch you require.

As an added bonus this electrical collection also includes 16 radiators that also have symbols associated. Show Paul your appreciation by commenting on the topic.

C O M M U N ITY

SHOWCASE

The latest gallery submissions on SketchUcation.com Each month we want to show what our members are achieving using SketchUp. If something takes your fancy just click the image to be brought to that topic.

Summer Dusk

lofthaus

autumn is coming

David Hennessy

Allan Casas

Alvydas

layout floorplan

entrance hall

simple bathroom

Richard Jeffrey

John Higgins

Cotty

Mixed use

Kitchen

orthodox church

Jason Christiansen

Vizfellas

Bobby Hammond

different mood

layout work

university campus

Frederic Yves Moro

Mike Beganyi

Edson Mahfuz

NEW BOOKS ADDED! books.sketchUcation.com learn with the experts at your pace

buildedge plan beta overview by Stuart Mitch

All of us who design structures know that creating roofs and walls is time consuming, and that there are a number of plugins that have tried to simplify the process of creating walls and roofs in SketchUp. I recently came across a new comer to the market BuildEdge, and their latest offering for SketchUp, BuildEdge PLAN. Overall, my impression of PLAN is that it hits the plugin trifecta â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Great Product, Great User Instructions, and Great Support.

The plugin itself is simple yet powerful. After install, PLAN shows up as a single button toolbar, and when you click on the BuildEdge logo, PLAN launches a well-designed window that contains commands to allow you to create walls and/or roofs. Walls are input one at a time, in much the same way that SketchUp draws a chain of lines. The user interface allows you to define the width and height of the wall, while a â&#x20AC;&#x153;shadowâ&#x20AC;? on the ground represents of

the

the wall

orientation

that will

drawn. You can change the orientation (left, center, or right of the line being drawn) by pressing the left or right arrow keys. Once walls are created, each wall is parametrically connected to any intersecting walls. This means that resizing rooms or the entire building footprint is as simple as moving a wall with the standard Move command. With PLAN, Roofs are input as an outline. You can draw a series of lines at varying heights to create a complete outline of an entire roof. Each line in the outline has a set of properties (slope, heel height and overhangs). Once all of the lines are defined, PLAN automatically figures out how the roof geometry should come together! This is the most powerful aspect of this plugin.

In addition, if you have an outline that produces more than one solution, PLAN presents options to you and allows you to select the solution that you want. Some of the key features of PLAN that I love are: Walls

are

parametrically

connected;

allowing you to alter rooms or the building footprint with a single Move command.

Roof geometry solutions are automatically created from a roof outline. After a roof is generated, you can select and edit the outline and move or change the properties of any of the roofâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lines. The roof can be attached to the walls, so when walls are moved, the roof is automatically regenerated. When you are done modeling, PLAN has a Commit to SketchUp command to convert the entities into standard SketchUp geometry so you can complete your building using standard SketchUp commands. This plugin truly hits the trifecta with a great product, great user instruction and great support. BuildEdge PLAN is a step above any other plugins that I have used to create structures and well worth purchasing at only $29. You can find out more about BuildEdge PLAN by visiting their website. I highly recommend it.

magic plan by Mike Lucey

Sensopia’s MagicPlan2 I feel will be of interest to readers that have an iPhone / iPad and need to complete ‘as is’ building surveys on occasion. With the aid of augmented reality technology, room dimensions are quickly scanned to create accurate metric or imperial room plans (with doors) that can be further manipulated and adjusted using MagicPlan’s software to form complex floor plans. The app is free to download and use, however the free publication updates are limited and include watermarks, also only private / non commercial use is allowed. There are three price package options, Trial (free), Export and Web. The diagram below explains what can be achieved with each option.

There are a number of pricing options for varying degrees of usage on the MagicPlan site. I would add that I found the pricing quite reasonable, starting at $2.49 per plan. With a monthly subscription this figure drops considerably. To get operational, setting up an account is required and again this is a painless process. The 4 step process as outlined in the diagram below is simple and straightforward but I strongly recommend that all the tutorial videos be studied prior to starting as this will make for a positive first experience and eliminate possible frustration experienced by users that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work using the advised processes. In my experience it is essential that calibration is completed correctly.

Many SketchUp users, I think will find the most attractive feature of MagicPlan is the possibility of accurate .dxf file export.

While this works

quite well , I found that the resulting import did not have perfect results and require some further clean up work in SketchUp. The following images show what I am referring to, wall junction overlap in the main.

I have been assured by Pierre Gaubil, CEO of Sensopia that they intend to improve their .dxf export and better integrate with SketchUp in the future. I was also advised that MagicPlan 2.4 should be launched in September / October. Hopefully we will see this mentioned further integration as I feel MagicPlan and SketchUp could make good bedfellows and become a useful tool in the SketchUp Userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arsenal.

Why google doesn’t need sketchup anymore by Matt Donley

ketchup has always been known as an easy to use 3D modeling tool. With its intuitive interface, it has claimed the motto “3D modeling for everyone.” With the recent

acquisition of Sketchup by Trimble, Sketchup is no longer under the Google umbrella. Many people have wondered why Google sold it. But to answer that question, you must first understand why Google bought it in the first place.

Google’s quest to model the world Google has an ongoing, ambitious goal of mapping the world. This vision is delivered via Google Maps, and Google Earth. The two programs share many similarities in the way they show maps and satellite imagery. While I don’t want to go into great detail about the features and differences between the two programs, the main distinction is that Google Maps is a web based application, and Google Earth is a program that gets installed on your computer. In 2004, Google announced that it had acquired Keyhole Corp, a digital mapping company. The technology from Keyhole is what became the beginning of Google Earth and Google Maps. Fun Fact – If you go to www.keyhole.com, it refreshes to the Google Earth website . Google Earth started out as a 3D model of the globe, with 2D satellite imagery pasted continuously on the surface. Even though there was some terrain data integrated into the 3D part of Google Earth, the images were still pasted flat to the surface. Therefore, if you were to fly over a city, all the tall buildings and land features would appear flat on the ground.

3D buildings in Google Earth In 2005, Google started to extrude the outlines of buildings in order to create a rough 3D model. There were no textures applied, and a lot of the building details were lost. All the buildings had the same grey looking surface. It lacked realism. Google realized they would need to do something else in order to take their 3D model of the world to the next level. At the time, the only way to create a realistic model of a building was to manually create each one. It would cost way too much to hire people to create all these models, so instead Google looked to the community to create the models for them. Enter Sketchup.

Sketchup modeling for Google Earth When Google acquired Sketchup from @last software in 2006, Sketchup was already being used to place models into Google Earth. In fact, @last software had collaborated with Google in developing a plug-in that would allow people to integrate their Sketchup models into Earth. By providing Sketchup to the world for free, Google had introduced the world of 3D modeling to millions. People were using Sketchup to model all sorts of things, including buildings and landmarks to be integrated into Google Earth. Over the years, more and more cities were being modeled all over the world by people like you. But there were some drawbacks to this method of using Sketchup models in Google Earth.

Why Sketchup is not the perfect solution for modeling Google Earth There are numerous drawbacks to crowd sourcing the modeling work for Google Earth. Most of the problems are a result of having many different people create models, as each person may have different methods for modeling. They also have different perspectives on quality, causing inconsistencies between models. • Inconsistent image data would be used to texture the buildings. Whether it was aerial images, user images, or sometimes it would be an artificial texture, many models would look different from each other depending upon the image source. • The quality of each model differs, as a result of having many different people create the models. • Not all buildings are modeled. Each building is manually modeled. If someone hasn’t created it, it won’t be in Google Earth. • Placement of buildings is not always accurate. Google has recently announced a new technology that automates the process of creating 3D models in Google Earth.

Automated 3D Models with Stereo Photogrammetry Stereo Photogrammetry at it’s core, is calculating the geometric properties of an object by comparing multiple photographs taken at different perspectives, and producing a 3D model of the object as a result. The technology is not new, although it has become more accurate over the years. Sketchup plugins such as PixDim and PhotoSketch use similar technology to create 3D models from images. To create 3D models for Google Earth, an aircraft will take multiple parallel passes over an area and capture high resolution images of the same area from multiple perspectives. (Curious, I wonder if they are using the Gatewing UAV, owned by Trimble???) Using that image data, a complete 3D model is created of the area. Not only are the

buildings modeled, but all the trees and other smaller landmarks as well. The result is a realistic 3D model, complete with accurate photographic textures. The videos below show the stunning results of this technology.

Sketchup was replaced As you can see, Sketchup became obsolete for Google. They have developed a technology that can create 3D models almost automatically. The drawbacks of using manually created models have been eliminated. Image data is consistent. Each pixel color is created by analyzing all photos of an area and selecting an average color for that pixel location. This makes the entire map consistent in its coloring. The quality is amazing. The result is a life like view of the earth, as if you were flying over looking out the window of an airplane. Using Stereo Photogrammetry, potentially all buildings and landmarks can be modeled in Google Earth. Placement of each object is highly accurate when compared to the manual placement of models from Sketchup. Currently, the new 3D models in Google Earth are only available on the mobile platform. It is available in limited cities at this time, so Google is still accepting Sketchup models to be integrated

into Google Earth for the locations that have yet to be modeled. Wherever the new automated 3D models are being created, all existing Sketchup models will no longer be visible from Google Earth. They will, however, still show up in the 3D warehouse. So if you’re like myself, and haven’t done too much geo-modeling, it doesn’t look like now is the time to start. I was thinking of participating in the “model your town” competition next year, but I wonder if they will even have it now that they have this new technology.

Quick and Simple Equipment Components - Step 12 There are number of visual tricks that work well when you have to set up an advanced construction model. One of the most effective is using an operable equipment model to add scale and show movement in a captured scene or animation. This level of detail is not usually important for jobsite communication like change orders, RFI’s, field layouts, or assembly sequence studies. Instead, advanced construction models are what one contractor calls “money models.” Some examples include: 1. A competitive presentation for a new contract, perhaps as a series of slides detailing a proprietary approach or demonstrating a unique solution to a known problem 2. Illustrations in training or process manuals, especially when components of the equipment are in motion or there are particular functions that must be followed by an operator

An operable model is easily fabricated from specifications for equipment that can be captured from a manufacturer’s website Review the operation of the equipment online so that you understand its operation Take screenshots (PrtScrn button) that can then be pasted from your clipboard into any text or image editor and Saved as a bitmap before importing into SketchUp

Start by importing a bitmap of the profile of the equipment either from the manufacturer’s specifications or a photograph Scale the profile (and therefore the model space) to match the dimensions specified in the manufacturer’s information Once the image is scaled, import the other cut sheets for direct reference in model space and create a work area to build the model

Zoom into the work area, add a ground plane and then use the scaled profile to extrude the pieces of the model you plan to control in the illustrations

NOTE: Extrude the pieces separately with the rectangle tool and Push Pull (see Step 3 in this series)

You-TUBE