You can still model for Google Earth. You just turn off the auto generated layer and it reverts back to the buildings that were accepted for GE at the time of the switch. The only change is that Google aren't accepting any new buildings. But you can still upload to the 3DW to share your models.

A street view screen grab with the sculpture model superimposed would have been far superior to that SU rendering.

I do think that that roundabout is a completely inappropriate place for a large sculpture. But the positioning of the model in SU is ridiculous. The barriers are extremely large and there is a wide distance between the barriers so the sculpture needs to go between the barriers, it can't be behind them as they are in the model.

I don't think they are particularly bad, they just look like really quick models to me. Definitely not suitable for publication, and they've only probably been published because they were free and the newspapers are churned out quickly and will accept any rubbish picture they can.

I vaguely remember a preview post of a plugin that allowed animated gif's to be used in SU models, but I don't remember ever seeing it coming out. I figure they couldn't manage to get it to work. I think the example they used was of a fireplace.

@rich o brien said:

Incredible but where do you plug in the vacuum?

You vacuum wood and concrete floors?

If only Pixologic had taken Sketchup off Google's hands.

@aerilius said:

@chiefwoodworker said:

So far Trimble gets a failing grade from me for its influence on SketchUp.

In what way does Trimble show a different influence than Google? I don't see any influence.

There's a famous saying in Germany: "You can't rebuild in 10 years what has been rotting for 40 years" (meant about the previous eastern Germany).
I think it fits well to SketchUp. The transition to Trimble has cost a lot of time, effort and resources to rebuild infrastructure that is not yet visible to many. A lot of the foundations of SketchUp have been renewed (latest build systems, UI framework) which is the foundation for something new. While the development team has been continuously grown at a rapid rate, I'd expect visible changes to appear through the Extension Warehouse. This is the way through which Trimble and SketchUp give you new tools.

I remember someone claiming one of the Google releases as one of these "under the hood" improvements that we'd soon be reaping rewards from. I didn't believe it then. I don't believe it now.

Trimble have rolled out two "new releases" where the major difference has been a new logo and now a new name. Quite frankly the Trimble releases haven't been worth the download bandwidth and the time that it takes to set up plugins and toolbars.

I don't have ANY faith that Trimble are going to make improvements. Sketchup as it is now is pretty much all SU will ever be.

@box said:

Oddly John, I'm struggling to find the point let alone the helpful part of your post.

I was just wondering why he bought software that offers a free trial without actually trialling it first. He claims to be a cheapskate, yet he probably spent $80 on software that he found was of no use to him. He could have taken the free trial and found that out for absolutely nothing.

@fcborik said:

I'm trying to learn how to modify textures and do some post processing of renders, and a lot of the research that I've been doing leads me to Adobe Photoshop. I recently looked up their products, and being a newbie (and a bit of a cheapskate), I bought something called "Light Room" based on the features that it seemed to offer and the price. Unfortunately, it seems to do NOTHING that I want...

Adobe offer a free trial of Light Room. In fact, most software companies offer free trials of their software. Why did you buy it without having a trial first?

It's been like that for a while in certain areas. Big cities like San Fransisco and Los Angeles. Those buildings are auto generated using new software and aerial photographs.

Personally I think the software is a step backwards for Google Earth. It makes every building look like Frank Gehry built it. I think it will come good in the future, but personally I don't feel it should have been released to the public in the state it's in now. There was supposed to be improvements to the technology soon after it was implemented, but I haven't seen any,

Building Maker is also being binned. In June I think,

If it's an architectural model you can show it on Google Earth.

If you can export the model as an obj file then 3D Model Viewer is pretty clean and simple. I think all faces need to be triangles, so keep that in mind. https://play.google.com/store/search?q=3d+model&c=apps