Ross I think the people driving the opposite direction that survive the crash will say "the last thing I remember was seeing a train approaching me head on and I swerved to miss it"
I imagine that's what it would be like at night driving towards this blinding light setup.
@gaieus said:
Ah yeah, I know. I1m at home as well with a broken wrist (I cannot work because I cannot type
)
Umm then how did you type that...must have used your toes...hehe
I believe there are converter programs to convert PowerPoint to flash.
It'll be the Dr. Pepper of the search engines. IE: I actually like the taste of Dr. Pepper more than Coke but just by the shear inundation of the Coke brand I never really think to drink Dr. Pepper. Google is synonymous with search and wether or not it's the best application for it it'll be a moutain of effort just to get people to try your search engine let alone use it on a regular basis over what is the defacto common place search engine you have become so comfortable with.
I believe GOogle has done studies on this with eye tracking devices IE cameras that monitor the users eye movements to determine where they are looking on screen. I'll give it some more thought and try to prepare a response that accurately reflects my time usage on sketchup. THis may take a while to think about though.
interesting. Seems like a plethora of third party apps are supporting .SKP file format these days.
modelhead you can count me in on the beta. Estimating withing SU would be beneficial.
Mateo is on to something that I feel should be mentioned also.
"Pleasure"
Doing drawings by hand is pleasurable, enjoyable, there is an ephemeral feedback between the media and the user. The feeling of the pencil as it bumps along on the paper, the feedback you get that the tip of the lead is getting dull and the brains response to roll your fingers. the unexpected results when the paper absorbs the watercolor pigment and the visual end result is pleasing to your eyes even though you had not intended it that way. There is a symbiotic inter connectedness between the creator and the medium. The computer has something similar but there is a lag time and the medium never changes and is not random.
there are logical reasons why the computer is the correct choice to express ideas in a busy and demanding world, however the allure and pure pleasure of creating something with ones own hand will never be replace by the computer.
I find myself in situations at meetings where my sketching skills have diminished because of lack of use and I don't have the ability to completely illustrate an idea to clients. My brain says if only I had my laptop fired up and could model it in sketchup I could be more clear.
Sketchup is the first application that I actually consider an "on the spot" medium. it's simple user interface and powerful capabilities seperate it form its bloated competition.
I would never consider having AutoCAD running in a live presentation because its so lifeless and lacks any character.
ideas come from people. Getting those ideas out of your head and in front of other people is simply a user preference based on your capabilities with the medium.
Having said that I think we all employ some measure of hand drawing to visualize our thoughts but I have found that the quicker I get my thoughts into the computer the more flexibility I have to massage those thoughts and present them. What I love about computers is they are output "independent" IE: I can print out at 1/8" scale 1/4" scale 1/2" scale etc. I can print to my 11x17 laser printer, my epson 4000 color printer, or my large format plotter. So I can create something once and use it multiple times.
I agree that at times I just need to take a print and sketch ideas onto it. but within seconds of having an idea resolve on paper I jump back into the computer.
There is no going back now. I doubt seriously that students coming out of schools today have the manual drafting skills necessary to complete all the required drawings to convey an idea by hand. SO in that regard at some point all of us who were taught manual drafting and perspective drawing, and water color, etc. in school, at some point we are no longer in charge and the students who don't have or value those skills or for that matter need them will take over and just like any craft if the younger generation does not perpetuate it it will fade away.
Ah it's always amazing to see what people can do with a simple little tool like Sketchup. Keep up the great work Adam.
Here is a link to a Sketchup model for a small residential addition I am working on. Construction should start this week.
I agree with the previous comments you work is splendid. You owe it to you work however to get better stone, brick, roofing textures that do not have obvious repeating patterns.
There are hundreds of companies out there that have 3d textures that don't exhibit the repeating tile patterns here is one
http://www.doschdesign.com/products/textures
granted they cost money but it may be a worthwhile investment. Or there is always searching the internet for free ones.
Maybe chat with a couple of the people here that have produced quality renderings and get some pointers on where to download some good textures.
It will take your renderings to a higher level.
bytor
I agreee that large software companies like Autodesk have and will continue to buyout competing software and assimilate thier technology into their own in sometimes successful and sometimes not successful ways but always "FOR PROFIT". However Google does not have a software to Assimilate Sketchup into. Sketchup is the "big companies" technology. IE: Google will be looking to buy or develop Sketchup to make it all things to all people. I have no doubt that research into making SU into a more robust application capable of handling larger poly counts or multiple cores or 64 bit processors is happening. However the sheer numbers of people who do not need that out way the numbers of people that do so I assume it's not high on the list. I think the Pro versus Free debate is a red herring, it's a distraction that is not necessary. Google has a broader more profitable use for keeping their 3d content creation software free, but if that same software can become the little David that slays Goliath all the better. SU is already most likely in every architectural office in existence in one way shape or form. If not formally in use or sanctioned, it's probably in use by at least one of it's employees. Or at a very minimum the firm is aware of it and may at some day in the future use it. If you don't think that has Autodesk concerned you would most likely be wrong. I think I read or heard somewhere that someone was working on a 300mb sketchup file. I have worked on files approaching 100mb. Granted it's slow but with proper file management its possible. So I think we all just need to step back and take a look at the big picture. SU has literally changed all of our daily lives and altered how we perform our work, I agree it's vital but even if there were not one single change in the program I would probably never need to switch to something different to perform the same tasks that I use SU for now.
I do hope that SU7 comes out in beta soon and I hope that some of the upgrades have to do with the core funtionality improvements that architects have been asking for. Support for higher polygon counts, Support for multiple cpu's, Support for 64bit OS,.
But I will also be just as happy if it has minor upgrades and a few new bells and whistles, because in my opinion there is still not viable alternative out there for me.
Regards
Phil
Sketchup is just a tool what ever your "craft" is you must have an assortment of tools. How many of us here don't grab for the drill with a screwdriver bit to put in a drywall screw. Ofcourse I could use a regular manual screwdriver but the drill version does it so much faster. Now there are power drills and then there are monster super power drills costing thousands of dollars. If you own a construction company you may own a super power drill but even then sometimes a simple cordless drill will suffice and a good craftsman and business person will choose the appropriate tool for the task at hand.
anyway
Sketchup was, is, and always will be just a tool but put it in a teenagers hands and you would expect it to be used differently then if you put it in a 40 year old hands. The tool can and will need to be able to work for each and all in between.
Having said that if Google does not improve the tool for all users than those users will find another tool. The practice of architecture is only one small sector that Sketchup can be used for, and quite frankly even sketchup version 3 satisfied most of the architects user needs. the added features in SU6 from SU3 are numerous but the core stuff in 3 is what makes 6 still the appropriate tool. With the inclusion of ruby as a plugin - addon language SU has for all intents and purposes become open source. Much of the functionality extensions we all get excited about lately are not coming from Google they are third party. Sketchup is like that person who seems lost in the party with out a purpose kind of a lonely geek talented but uninteresting.....until he has a few beers and then all of a sudden he's the life of the party telling jokes and hitting on girls and making use of the extensive knowledge of politics and current events he has in his brain.
SO I see a long and illustrious future for sketchup but at some point its humble beginnings will be lost because out of the box it is essentially bland but when you add on the third party features available to it you can transform it into a powerful full featured set of tools.
Think about AutoCAD, 3dmax, maya, etc. They all had very limited but focused tool sets to begin with I think I still have a copy of version 1 of 3dsmax If memory serves me correctly the application was only 3mb large. I imagine its quite larger than that now. My point is that Autodesk bought out many of the third party applications that were created to extend the capabilities of the simplistic applications they had. Their users were telling them that. Autodesk fear was that one day the users would become addicted to this third party application plugin and then the developers of these plugins would be able to dictate thier own development course.
So I see Google doing the same thing with SU7 Emulate internally some of the features being developed by third party developers (Subdivide and smooth, FFD, Vray, Maxwell, Soap Skin, Podium, Etc. Etc. Etc. or if economic work out buy them and incorporate it in a pro version)
I seam to remember at some point AutoCAD was not very good at actually performing mundane and repetitious day to day drafting tasks that architects needed so along came a third party add-on called softdesk, and a competitor Kativ well Softdesk was bought out and AutoCAD architectural desktop was born.
Wow This is going on.
I for see a series of Google add-ons to SU pro to essentially create SU-Architect version SU-Animate version SU-Earth version SU-Lively version etc.
Essentially these industry specialized versions will incorporate tool sets that are specific to that industry.
So I would not worry if there is a version of Sketchup that is being used by teenagers to populate Lively because its only natural that they use SU for that purpose because its well suited for it. but in my SU-Architect version the same and other tools are well suited for my profession.
BTW I did visit Lively and apart from trying to have a conversation with a female avatar I found very little use for it.
I agree with Coen. In fact at 3dbasecamp I felt like I was visiting family. it was so nice to be with a group of people that speak the same language (SUbonics)this forum is like a home away from home and it's great to see such collaboration.
the last one reminds me of this one:
I was just going to ask if this was possible too. I will get in line behind Dave.
Regards
In my workflow I often create 3d models and export images to be put in autocad such as front, side elevations. If they are in color the black and white printers will make them too dark. It would be great if we could on the fly in sketchup temporarily convert textures to gray scale with high contrast so for example lap siding would end up as just lines or close to it so that when printed it woule look like an autocad drawing with hatch patterns and print out legible on black and white printers.
thanks for considering this.
Regards
Phil