Announcement: Sketchup Virtual Builder **UPDATE**

Pout

A quick video preview on the developement of Sketchup Virtual Construction (4D)
Will be available in 3 versions:

Sketchup Virtual Builder Light:
Attach date information to Sketchup objects. See and analyze the construction progress in Sketchup

Sketchup Virtual Builder:
Attach date information from external sources like MS Project, Primavera or Power Project. See and analyze the construction progress in Sketchup. Compare several schedulings and see the results of updated schedulings graphically in Sketchup

xD Virtual Builder Sketchup datasource:
Use Sketchup as a datasource in our xD Builder. An enviroment which makes it possible to centralize all project data into one database. Use Sketchup files and objects to represent buildings, traffic, costs etc. Visualize costs, traffic, construction progress and delay in Sketchup based upon direct information from the database.

Click the image for the preview

Cheers!

thomthom

I'm not that much wiser from that video. Image was too small and blurred to see exactly what was going on, and there was no audio accompany it. (yes, my speakers are on)

Pout

Update:

Additional movies of the light version have been created which shows 4D in Sketchup models (ruby plugin)
This version keeps all time-based information in the Sketchup model itself.
Hope these movies give a good insight in the possibilities and possible advantages of the use of 4D with Sketchup.
The plugin will be available soon for beta testing.
If anyone is interested please let me know.

Link Time and Sketchup Entities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRxtDx9fzYc

Use time in Sketchup Scenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHoA8RgjGac

An additional movie of a complete 4D Sketchup Building block will be available tomorow.

Phil Rader AIA

I'm sure a lot of effort went into creating the plug-in and however even in HQ the youTUBE video is too blurry to see what's happening and without audio it's essentially useless. Hire someone to make marketing videos for you it will be worth it.

Edson

when releasing a new software or plugin it is essential to explain clearly what it does and how. from what you post here i have much difficulty to understand what SVB can do for me. i do not even know whether it is a stand alone app or plugin.

looking forward to better info.

Pout

My apoligizes for the lack on information. I hope the explanation below gives a better insight on what the plugin does.

About the Sketchup Virtual Builder Plugin Light:

With this plugin you can add planning-scheduling information to the Sketchup model.
The user can create "tasks" (aka xD Objects) in Sketchup in a webdialog interface. These tasks are specified by a startdate (when the works start) and end date (when the works finish) a name (what are the works) and a 4D Type (how is it respresented visually)

Each task can be linked to it's visual representation in Sketchup. Eg. the Sketchup Entity that is the decking of the first floor can be virtually linked (by clicking a button) to the task "Decking first floor"
This can be done for all tasks and all entities in the Sketchup model.

Like that entities in Sketchup can be visualized in time.
With the plugin the user can select a date (like 11-09-2010) in Sketchup. The plugin then calculates for each Sketchup entity what his status is (depending on the task it is linked to)
So on the selected date a Sketchup entity can already been build, or not yet build, or being build, or being demolished, or already demolished, etc.
Thus the selected date will show, in Sketchup, the status of the model on that date (entities that have not yet been build according to their task will not be shown, other will be shown as being build, and so on)

This way the user can see the project getting build in time and check if everything is possible or if there will be construction scheduling problems.

Some key functionalities:

Link-Unlink Sketchup entities to user-defined tasks
Choose a 4D Type and specify the colors:
Eg. construction: when not yet started don't show the SU entities, when being constructed show the entities in transparent red, when construction is finished show the entities in original color
Eg. demolition: before being demolished show the entities in original color, when being demolished show the entities in trasnparent blue, when demolishing is finished don't show the entities
Automatically play the project scheduling: automatically shows the construction progress in Sketchup
Go Back/Forward in time: by month/quarter/year/2 years
Automatically create scenes for the task dates and update the view when clicking on a scene and use Sketchup scenes functionalities (to use different viewpoints for example)
Automatically generate project images: automatically create an image for each date of the project
Show Shadows: Shows the shadows of the selected date for the model.
...

No original information is lost. At any time the user can reset the model to it's original colors and show all entities.

With the full version:
It is possible to directly use Microsoft Project-Primavera-Powerproject scheduling information to link the Sketchup entities to. (no import of information)

Below is a HD youtube movie link and a link to a 1024*768 movie

HD Youtube
1024*768

Hope this helps!

Regards and thanx