SketchUpdate

Milwaukee and Indianapolis in 3D!

2009-11-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

Today, we introduced two new 3D cities: Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Indianapolis, Indiana. Take a tour (download kml) of these new cities in Google Earth 5.

Posted by Alex Juhola, 3D Modeling Specialist

Geo-Modelers: We want to feature you!

2009-11-05T13:00:00.001-07:00

You may have noticed that we frequently add stories about 3D modelers to our Google Earth Featured Modeler section on the Google SketchUp Blog and the Google 3D Warehouse (here's our last Featured Modeler story). These modelers have done extraordinary work and created fantastic 3D buildings for Google Earth.

If you've been geo-modeling for a while, maybe you wondered how we choose who gets featured. The honest truth is that we have a very unscientific method: we browse the 3D Warehouse, just like you. That's why we want to reach out to our blog readers to ask if you would like be considered as a Featured Google Earth Modeler. We want to hear from you, share your 3D models, and tell your story to the world! Also, if you have a friend who's a terrific modeler but may be too humble to share, poke them with a stick and get them to submit their story.

There is a simple form to get the process started. If we select your story, we will contact you, draft the story for your approval, then put it on the SketchUp Blog. Submit your story here!

Posted by James Therrien, Google Geo Team

Join the Building Maker community

2009-11-04T11:28:00.003-07:00

If you'd like to connect with fellow Building Maker modelers, check out the additions we introduced to the product today. Click on the "Join the discussion" link to get to the Google Group for geo-modelers. We created this discussion group for people who model 3D buildings for Google Earth. It's a great source for tips, tricks, and other product support.

For example, someone else might be modeling buildings close to the ones you're modeling. In fact, they may be modeling the exact same building! You could use the Discussion Group to reach out to other users and find out if someone else is modeling nearby. With this tool, you can connect with some of the world's most enthusiastic and experienced modelers.

We also added a link, "Follow us on Twitter", which will take you to our Building Maker Twitter page. Follow us to get up-to-the-minute news about when new cities are introduced, new product features, new 3D buildings in Google Earth, featured modelers, and other news.

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Business Product Manager

Google SketchUp 7 is now available in Japanese

2009-11-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Google SketchUp 7 の日本語版がついに登場。バージョン 7 の新機能については、[このウェブページ]をご覧ください。

For version 7, we decided to focus on three main areas: making SketchUp easier for new modelers, simplifying the process of model sharing and collaboration and adding more tools for SketchUp Pro customers. We made changes that make everyone's life easier, and launched LayOut 2, a separate program that lets Pro users create detailed multi-page documents and presentations. Download a copy of Google SketchUp 7 in Japanese and give it a try. Happy sketching!

Posted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

Google Earth, SketchUp, and Honey did!

2009-11-02T11:42:00.001-07:00

Recently, my wife and I realized that the plywood retaining wall keeping our backyard from sliding into the pasture behind our house had to go. She kept reminding me that I work with Google modeling tools everyday and should come up with a plan to build a replacement wall.

Honeydew (read "honey, do") turns out to be more than a melon. But she was right. Using Google Earth, I was able to get a very accurate view of the construction area and with Google SketchUp, I created a model that guided the design and construction by our contractors. The challenge was to replace the plywood with something that would last a long time and give us access to the pasture. Time, water and gravity take their toll for, sure, as you can see from the "before" picture.

An overhead view in Google Earth provided an accurate measurement of the total fence width. But I had some concerns about the actual property line because the pasture is privately owned. A very cool thing you can do with Google Earth (works great in free version or Pro) is to import electronic parcel data. Many cities and county governments provide their survey and parcel data online as a public service. Google Earth makes it easy to use. My city had my house's parcel data - which I found and loaded.

I brought the Google Earth view into SketchUp and did some initial design to get scale and sense for what was possible in the actual space. Of course, my design comps had to go through review and approval with the boss (I'll leave you to guess who that might be). Then, we worked together using SketchUp to plan the look of the fence. We wanted a nice gate to give us access to the pasture. There are some beautiful custom fences available online, but they would have cost half our budget! So instead, we "drew inspiration", a nice way of putting it, from some Google image-search results.

With the model in context, we were easily able to communicate with the contractors who bid the job. The only question they had was about the gate, since they had to have their carpenter create it. No problem, as I had constructed the gate in SketchUp to scale by simply array-copying the 2x2's and 2x5's. But, because I have the Pro version of SketchUp with LayOut, I was able to provide the carpenter with a PDF that had not only the dimensioned gate, but images of the hardware we wanted to use an an outline view of the assembly. No muss no fuss. The resulting gate was cool to see!

The contractors were great and got the job done under budget and on schedule. I may have even created some SketchUp converts. Final results are below.

Posted by James Therrien, Google Geo Team

Featured Modeler: Arrigo Silva

2009-10-28T12:00:00.004-06:00

In the West, some of the longest-standing architecture is found in churches and cathedrals. As cities grow and evolve over time, structures come and go with the requirements of society. Through changes over centuries, though, major cities in Europe can still be recognized by their large churches. Enrico Dalbosco (Arrigo Silva, as he is known in the Google 3D Warehouse), a resident of Padua, Italy, understands why churches last and has taken up the cause of showing them off in 3D on Google Earth.

"I have devoted myself to modeling churches because I really like ancient and modern art. Through many, varied periods of time, churches have brought together the highest expressions of artistic skill and their construction has brought together the most renowned architects, sculptors and painters. I think for this reason I am not the only person who is interested in modeling churches for Google Earth and there are still a profusion of beautiful sites of all religions awaiting a modeler!"

Enrico is a retired electronic engineer and has many hobbies including music and photography. He's played classical piano since childhood and is also a fine artist working in watercolor and with ceramics (check out his ceramic buildings and landscapes). In 2007 when, surfing the Internet, he came across Google Earth and was excited to see everything there: sky, fields, roads, houses of Padova, Italy...the whole world, as he describes it.

"What was even more exciting was discovering that here and there on the Earth's surface there sprouted cities, towns, several buildings, monuments, and churches. I wondered, who made them? Was it something I could do too? So I came to discover Google SketchUp. Before that I had never used a 3D package."

Initially, Enrico thought it was necessary to fix all the edges, one by one, entering exact length but quickly discovered that SketchUp took care of scale on its own.

"SketchUp had additional surprises in store for me: in addition to being free (which is a good starting point!), the product has a completely intuitive interface that seems to anticipate what I am trying to do (split surfaces at midpoints, rotation, array-copy, group, create named groups etc.). I must say that I have a thorough knowledge of software usability because of my professional background and SketchUp has one of the best user interfaces I've seen."

In an ironic twist of fate, it was actually Enrico's work with a non-geo-located model, a bust of Beethoven, that most impacted his workflow for creating Google Earth buildings.

"A key learning for me was discovering the power of projecting textures: you can take a flat image and project it onto a complex form. I found a beautiful 3D bust of Ludwig van Beethoven in Google 3D Warehouse, and I sensed that I could 'paint' him, so I found a portrait of Beethoven. I was able to import the portrait as a texture and mold it to the contours in one fell swoop! It was a little miracle, to paint with a single command, and within seconds the countless shapes that made up the face of great musician!"

His first creations were the churches of in neighborhood and the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, which proved a challenge because of the complexity of its structure. To address the challenge, "I adopted the old method of the Roman emperors ( "divide and conquer": if you want to solve a problem, split it in several parts...) subdividing the structure into simple elements: the façade, the transept, the church towers, the domes ..." For the photo textures, Enrico searched the web and found lots of photos taken on the ground from all possible view-points. The divided (and conquered!) structural elements can be seen in the graphic below.

Modeling Western religious architecture requires an understanding of the structure of vaults and domes - the "onion dome" characteristic of Orthodox Churches can be particularly daunting.

"Indeed," says Enrico, "the primary challenge that the Cathedral of St. Basil in Moscow posed was its domes: due to their incredible variety of shapes and colors, I couldn't find a single formula to cover all of them, and so I had to adopt different strategies - smooth and relieved domes, colored and textured domes ... it took some experimenting, trial and error, but in the end I was able to create all the varied dome shapes, including the most twisted, of course, always using the well-tested Beethoven method to project textures!"

Enrico expanded his dome-modeling techniques in working on the domes of the Church of the Nativity in Suzdal.

"In this case, I adopted a more complicated strategy: I initially prepared, with SketchUp, a geometric model of each dome (onion with and stars) and then I created a screen-shot which I then projected (once more using the Beethoven method) these texture on the sectors of the “real” domes. I worked really well."

Clearly, Enrico is pushing the boundaries of what is possible and how ornate and beautiful models for Google Earth can be. It's a revelation!

Posted by James Therrien, Google Geo Team

We're awash in Building Maker models!

2009-10-23T11:30:00.004-06:00

We didn't know what to expect when we released Google Building Maker last week. Would we hear crickets? Would we be hit by a tidal wave? Somewhere in-between? Well, the headline of this post says it all! We've been trying to find dry land in the sea of models you've created! So I guess you like the app!? Seriously, we're doing our very best to review and process these models into Google Earth as quickly as we can. Thousands of models are included in the first wave which will be visible in today's 3D buildings release, so look for yours!

If you don't see your model in the 3D Buildings layer of Google Earth, there are two possibilities: It either needs some additional work on your part to meet our acceptance criteria, or, it's still in our processing pipeline. You can check the status of your models by visiting the Google 3D Warehouse, logging into your account, and looking at the bottom of the model details page. If it's been accepted, it will look like this:

We may have been overwhelmed with the volume of models but that doesn't mean that we haven't taken notice of the incredible models that have been created. We're very impressed! In fact, we've created a new Best of Building Maker collection in the 3D Warehouse to showcase your work, like this cathedral by geo-modeler chrischibuilder.

If you'd like to stay informed on the latest Building Maker news you can follow us on Twitter. We'll be posting updates when new cities are available for modeling, tips & tricks, and other product news.

Happy modeling!

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Business Product Manager

Bright idea: a LayOut case study

2009-10-23T09:30:00.001-06:00

Clear communication of ideas and plans is an important part of the design and/or building process, regardless of the scope of the project. Mike Brightman, of See Before Building and Bright Ideas Consulting, has provided a few examples of how he used the presentation and documentation capabilities of Google SketchUp Pro to communicate with contractors, design with a client, and submit permit drawings for approval.

See his case study for more information on the problems he was trying to solve, and what he did to solve them.

"SketchUp Pro and LayOut are extremely efficient in all phases of the design process. I can generate a concept, thoroughly explore and revise my design, create design documents, generate permit drawings, and then export from SketchUp Pro to a 3D .dwg model or 2D .dwg snapshots. This work-flow gives me all of the speed and freedom of SketchUp Pro and the ability to move into the construction document phase in CAD."

Posted by Nancy Trigg, SketchUp Pro Sales Team

Design It Shelter Competition: The Winners

2009-10-21T12:39:00.015-06:00

Earlier this year, we teamed up with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to launch the Design It: Shelter Competition. People all over the world were invited to use Google SketchUp to design small buildings and submit them for consideration. We received over 600 entries from 68 countries – the level of participation was astounding. You can check out all the entries on the Guggenheim website.

Two prizes were offered: the People's Prize and the Juried Prize. To determine the winner of the People's Prize, students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture winnowed down the entries to a list of ten finalists. Visitors to the Guggenheim website could vote for their favorite; the shelter with the most votes won. A jury of seven experts selected the winner of the Juried Prize.

Here's a video that announces the winners and talks a little bit about them:

The People's Prize

The winner of the People's Prize is the CBS – Cork Block Shelter
by David Mares of Setúbal, Portugal

The Juried Prize

The winner of the Juried Prize is the SeaShelter
by David Eltang of Aarhus, Denmark.

Each of the winners will receive transportation to New York City for two people, accommodation for two nights, "backstage" tours of both the Guggenheim Museum and our New York Google office, and free admission to a number of other NYC museums. The Juried Prize winner will also receive a check for one thousand dollars.

Congratulations to the finalists and to the winners. Thank you to everyone who submitted a design, and thanks to everyone who voted.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

It's design competition season

2009-10-20T08:45:00.000-06:00

If you're like me, you enter competitions to win cool stuff, to challenge your brain a little, or to try new tools. Well, some friends of SketchUp have told us about a few design competitions they're hosting this Fall to keep you busy (warning: these might have an impact on your day job). Have fun and good luck!

Pumpkin Carving Contest
Hosted by: SketchUp Island Blog
Deadline to enter: October 24, 2009
Website

Furniture Design Competition
Hosted by: Vaughan Benz
Deadline to enter: November 15, 2009
Website

Parkitecture: Designing the Garage of the Future
Hosted by: Dwell
Deadline to enter: November 20, 2009
Website

Putting Mexico on the Map
Hosted by: Google team in Mexico
Deadline to enter: November 30, 2009
Website (Spanish only)

Posted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Product Marketing Team

Let's talk SketchUp ideas

2009-10-16T11:30:00.000-06:00

As some of you've seen, we recently launched a Product Ideas series for Google SketchUp and Google SketchUp Pro. If you aren't familiar with Product Ideas, then you'll definitely want to check it out. You can post thoughts on how to make SketchUp better as well as vote on suggestions from other users. The more you vote, the better we can tell which new features are important to you.

In the past three weeks, we've seen some amazing responses. SketchUp users from around the world submitted over 300 ideas to our series. We've heard everything from "fix the shadow bug" to "edit projects collaboratively" to "keep it simple." However, we still want to hear what you think. This SketchUp series will be closing on October 22nd (that's next Thursday), so add your suggestions and votes soon!

Finally, we also want to let you know what we think. Many of the suggestions that have come up are ideas that we've been talking about too. Some of them are possible, some of them aren't, but we think that you should get honest responses to the top ideas (and yes, we did respond to the "fix the shadow bug" suggestion). Visit the Answered Ideas section to see all of our replies.

Thank you to everyone for sharing, and check back soon for the results.

Posted by Vicky Tait, SketchUp Support Team

Introducing Google Building Maker

2009-10-13T09:00:00.001-06:00

Hot on the heels of the SketchUp 7.1 launch a couple of weeks ago, we're pleased to announce the release of the latest addition to our 3D family: Google Building Maker is a super-specialized, online tool for creating buildings specifically for Google Earth.

Building Maker lets you choose a building to model by looking at aerial imagery. After you've told it what you'd like to model, Building Maker loads up several different aerial views of that building taken from different directions. You then align simple 3D shapes – boxes, prisms, pyramids and others – to the different views. Building Maker takes care of all the photo-texturing for you; it uses the aerial photos to "paint" your building when you save it. Models you create with Building Maker are stored in the Google 3D Warehouse, and are automatically considered for inclusion on the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. If your model looks good (and if there's no better one already in its place), it'll appear in Google Earth (for millions of people) within about a week.

Check out this video to see Building Maker in action:

We're launching with 50 cities that are ready for Building Maker. We'll continue to add cities as fast as we can, but feel free to jump in and give Building Maker a test drive whenever you like. Modeling in a place you're not familiar with is a great way to learn something about it.

So is Building Maker supposed to replace SketchUp? Absolutely not! SketchUp is a general-purpose tool that people use to model everything under the sun. Building Maker, on the other hand, is a specialist. For folks who want to make models and see them in Google Earth, it's simple, efficient and (we hope) downright fun.

Here's something else we think is neat: Anything you create with Building Maker, you can download and open in SketchUp. You can tweak textures, refine geometry – whatever it takes to make your building even better. When you're done, uploading your improved model to the 3D Warehouse further increases its chances of being accepted into Google Earth.

Some more things you should know about Building Maker:

Building Maker is an online app, meaning it runs entirely in your web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.).
To get credit for what you contribute, you need to sign into your Google Account.
Make sure you have the latest version of Google Earth installed on your computer.
If you're on a Mac, you need to download the Google Earth plug-in directly.

Building Maker is free and available in 14 languages. Go to www.google.com/buildingmaker to join the worldwide mapping community. Have fun!

Posted by Mark Limber, Product Manager and Matt Simpson, User Experience Designer

Document this!

2009-10-12T16:50:00.005-06:00

Scanning the Internet over the weekend, I came across a great LayOut 2.1 blog post by a friend of the SketchUp team, Eric Schimelpfenig. Eric is a kitchen designer and the author of Sketch This!, a blog dedicated to helping design professionals use Google SketchUp Pro and LayOut for kitchen design.

Below are Eric's LayOut images. If you have SketchUp Pro installed, you can download his LayOut file to check it out for yourself.

In the last post, I started to tell you about LayOut 2.1's most useful new feature, dimensioning. After testing the new dimensioning feature on small projects here and there, I took the plunge and created my first full presentation and kitchen plan in it.

I started with creating the SketchUp model, coloring it, and setting up all my views. Then, I sent it over to LayOut. Over there I was able to create different pages with all my views. I started out with all the perspective views. These are typically the views that you would go over with your customer during presentation.

Next, I added some elevations and sections of pertinent parts of the kitchen. These pages have all the dimensions, cabinet codes, and notes for the contractor or installer. The last few pages contain some detail parts, and the counter top details.

While this may look like just a normal plan generated from any other cad software, there is one really nice benefit with using the SketchUp to LayOut workflow: All of the views are referenced off of the original 3D model. What this means is that the workflow process isn't a one way street. If at anytime during the creation of this document I need to change something, I only have to do it in the SketchUp 3D model once. When I save the model, each and every page in LayOut is updated, so all my changes are reflected everywhere.

Yes, other cad software packages can do this, but SketchUp does it very easily.

Posted by Chris Cronin, SketchUp Sales Team

A new place for your models

2009-10-12T11:30:00.003-06:00

Last week, Google released "Place Pages" in Google Maps, which provides maps, reviews, pictures and other information about a place - all in one view. The Place Page shows where the place is located, how to get there, what users have to say about it, and what it looks like.

For many buildings and landmarks, you can also view a 3D model of the building. You can spin the building around and see its front, back and sides. Need to know where the entrance is? Rotate the building to find it. These 3D models were created by 3D enthusiasts , uploaded to the Google 3D Warehouse, and are now available for view by millions of Place Page users.

For example, take a look at the beautiful Cathedral of Dakar in Senegal, modeled by Google 3D Warehouse user "zappy bibicy".

Place Page offers a new venue where millions of people can explore and learn from the 3D models created by Google 3D Warehouse users. Enjoy!

Posted by Lori Meskey, Google 3D Warehouse Team

Introducing a new Help Forum

2009-10-09T16:35:00.001-06:00

As you may know, we've recently launched the Google SketchUp Help Forum alongside the launch of Google SketchUp 7.1. While our previous Help Group was a great resource for answering your questions - helping you find answers, and sharing your expertise with other users - it's our hope that the new forum will be all of that and more.

We've developed many new and exciting features which we think will make it easier and quicker for you to find the answers that you're looking for and chat with others in the SketchUp community. Some of the new things in the Help Forum include:

Find answers before you even ask your question! The forum will automatically suggest a similar thread as you begin typing your question in a new post.
Mark any reply as "Best Answer" and show this reply right below the original question. If you post a question, you can mark any reply to your question as "Best Answer" as well.
Create richer posts by referencing all kinds of online sources, including images and videos.
Get to know others in the forum better by creating a useful profile, which includes an avatar.
As you build your reputation as an expert, you increase your "level" in the forum. After a while, who knows - you could be the next SketchUp Sage!

If you'd like, you can watch an instructional video about the new Google Help Forums, or you can dive right into the SketchUp Help Forum. It's already hopping and open to new members. We hope you can stop by and say "Hi!"!

Posted by Jody Gates, SketchUp Support Team

SketchUp Pro in construction - video case study

2009-10-08T17:00:00.002-06:00

The development of virtual construction models is a great way to communicate more effectively, resolve issues before they happen, and save time, resources, and money on construction projects. Our friends at Mortenson Construction have helped us with this video case study that shows how, using Google SketchUp Pro, they were able to develop virtual construction models that helped them communicate more effectively and become more innovative builders. Have a look at the video below for more details:

Posted by Chris Dizon, SketchUp Pro Team

The sweetest model you'll see this year

2009-10-07T14:35:00.000-06:00

Time to have your socks blown off. Jacques (a.k.a. Silvershadow) is a SketchUp god who hangs out on the SketchUcation Community Forums, and he's done it again. I'm completely serious when I say that looking at his work makes me, simultaneously:

inspired to hole up for a weekend and do nothing but make beautiful things with SketchUp
never want to build another 3D model again, knowing I'll never come close to Silvershadow's level of über-SketchUp-ninja-mastery

Enough giddy babbling – here are some pictures. Try not to drool on your keyboard.

Note: All images are a combination of SketchUp and VRay rendering.

The best place to immerse yourself in the heavenly glow of this endeavor is to read through this SCF thread. You'll need a free login to see the images, but signing up is well worth it.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Product Evangelist

New book: Google SketchUp for Site Design

2009-10-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

Our friend Daniel Tal's new book about SketchUp is getting terrific reviews, and we couldn't be prouder of him. Google SketchUp for Site Design: A Guide to Modeling Site Plans, Terrain and Architecture is a rollicking thrill ride of 1970's murder and intrigue on the high seas. Think it's not? You'll have to get a copy to see.

Truthfully, this book covers SketchUp topics that no one's even come close to explaining in previous volumes: terrain modeling with the Sandbox tools, techniques for working with huge models, how to wrestle CAD files and using Ruby scripts, just to name a few. He also writes about something he's dubbed "SketchUp Process Modeling", a start-to-finish workflow for completing massive projects without losing your marbles.

The book includes hundreds of beautiful color images with helpful annotations and captions. Flipping through it the first time, I couldn't believe how much work Dan must've put in. He's a practicing landscape architect who uses SketchUp every day in his work, so the material's relevant to pros in a way that most books aren't.

Be sure to take a look at the website Dan built for the book, and be sure to check out his YouTube videos; they're great.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Featured 3D Warehouse Product: KraftMaid by Masco

2009-10-02T14:45:00.000-06:00

Many products have an aesthetic value on their own, but only really come to life when you see them placed in context. The folks over at KraftMaid Cabinetry have done an extraordinary job of not only uploading individual cabinets into the Google 3D Warehouse, but also providing complete kitchen designs meant to inspire designers.

KraftMaid’s models are Dynamic Components, meaning they're extra-easy to use: Each component is configurable by means of SketchUp's Component Options dialog box. The benefit? Instead of having to download dozens of models for each size and material combination for each cabinet, designers can download a single model that represents all possible configurations. The doors and drawers have built-in animation, too. With less work for KraftMaid and less hunting around for designers, everybody wins.

One more thing: Mark Johnson from KraftMaid has created a couple of 3D Warehouse collections to showcase modelers' designs: Projects by KraftMaid Fans and Designers + Architects using KraftMaid. If you'd like to submit your work for inclusion, click the "contact the owner" link on either collection's home page to send a message directly to Mark.

Posted by Steve Dapkus, SketchUp Team

Copenhagen and Marseille now in 3D

2009-10-01T09:35:00.000-06:00

Copenhagen, Denmark and Marseille, France have recently been added to the quickly growing list of 3D cities in Google Earth.

Now you can go and visit these cities by opening Google Earth and making sure you have the 3D Buildings layer checked on. Make sure to view places in Marseille such as Notre-Dame de la Garde and Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Marseille and places in Copenhagen such as Frederik's Church.

Catch a short glimpse of these cities in these videos and visit our YouTube channel to check out many other videos showcasing 3D content in Google Earth.

Posted by Jordan Van Wyk, 3D Modeling Specialist

Hasbro, makers of 'Monopoly' game, launches the Design your own Building Competition

2009-09-29T13:10:00.001-06:00

Hasbro, the makers of the Monopoly game, have officially announced a competition that gives Monopoly-lovers the chance to design a building that will be included in the new interactive game Monopoly City Streets.

To enter this competition, you need to design a 3D building using Google SketchUp and upload it to the Google 3D Warehouse. The deadline to submit entries is Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 11:59pm, EST. Visit the Monopoly City Streets blog for the Official Rules, prizes, and more information.

Here's how it works:

Download Google SketchUp for free.
Learn to build 3D models with SketchUp by watching video tutorials and related YouTube videos. Download and work through a few examples using these self-paced tutorials: Introduction to SketchUp, Starting a Drawing Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
From SketchUp, choose "Share Model" and upload your 3D building to the Google 3D Warehouse (you must have a Google account to sign in).
In the upload window, add the tag "monopolycompetition09" and make sure that you've checked "Allow 3D Warehouse users to contact me about this model" so we can contact you if you win!
Within 48 hours, your model/entry will appear in the Competition Collection in the Google 3D Warehouse.

Technical Guidelines:

Buildings can be any size and any shape
Buildings must not have photo-textures; they must be painted with solid colors
The file size limit is 2 MB
The file format should be .SKP

A few quick tips:

Keep it simple. Or not. The judges will be looking at all designs – simple and complex.
Go crazy. Remember, the MONOPOLY world is a fun place. Make your building the same! Go wild and have oodles of fun doing it.
Upload as many designs as you want. The more you submit, the greater the chance of your design winning!
For some inspiration, check out some sample creations already in the Google 3D Warehouse Competition Collection.

Check out the Monopoly City Streets blog for the Official Rules and more information. Good luck!

Posted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Product Marketing Team

3D Warehouse: Model sharing in 41 languages

2009-09-28T10:50:00.002-06:00

Can you say Google Триизмерна галерия? With this release we've added support for 14 more languages, bringing the total number of 3D Warehouse languages to an astonishing 41! Now you can share your models using 3D Warehouse in Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Filipino, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. You can change the language in the top right hand corner and don't forget to use one of our recent features - integration with Google Translate - to localize model descriptions!

Posted by Jelena Oertel, 3D Warehouse Localization Team

Share your profile in the 3D Warehouse

2009-09-25T14:07:00.003-06:00

Google Profiles are a safe and easy way to share information about yourself and now you can present that information in the Google 3D Warehouse. How does it work? Well, when you upload a 3D model to the Google 3D Warehouse, it's now attached to your Google Profile. Other Google users can easily learn about you and your 3D passions! Here's what it looks like in the 3D Warehouse:

If you haven't created a Profile yet, it's a snap to do so. Go to www.google.com/profiles and login with the same 3D Warehouse account. Do some clicky, type some typey, and boom! Folks who find your models can now find you (well, if you want them to).

Stumped for what to put in your profile? Create a 3D Warehouse collection for your hometown and use Google SketchUp 7.1 to model a few buildings. There's a good chance there are other modelers who are from the same place, and through the power of Profiles you might just make a 3D connection.

Posted by Scott Lininger, Google 3D Warehouse Team

Google SketchUp 7 is now available in French, Italian, Spanish, and German

2009-09-24T16:30:00.002-06:00

Google SketchUp 7 (free and Pro) in French, Italian, German and Spanish has arrived. Learn what's new in version 7!

For version 7, we decided to focus on three main areas: making SketchUp easier for new modelers, simplifying the process of model sharing and collaboration and adding more tools for SketchUp Pro customers. We made changes that makes everyone's life easier, and launched LayOut 2, a separate program that lets Pro users create detailed multi-page documents and presentations.

Here's some information on upgrading:

Installing SketchUp 7 on your computer won't affect SketchUp 6; you'll have access to both versions for as long as you like.
If you have a license for SketchUp Pro 6 and you'd like to upgrade to Pro 7, you can upgrade it through our online store (boutique en ligne, negozio online, Online-Shop, tienda online). The cost to upgrade each license is US$95, EU€72 or UK£62 and if you purchased a SketchUp Pro 6 license on or after August 1, 2009, the fee is waived as long as you upgrade before or on October 31, 2009.
If you purchased a SketchUp Pro license through one of our authorized resellers, please contact that reseller directly for upgrade terms.

What are you waiting for? Download a copy of Google SketchUp 7 in your language and give it a try. Happy sketching!

Posted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

All about LayOut 2.1

2009-09-23T10:48:00.007-06:00

Now that SketchUp 7.1 is out the door, I thought it'd be a good idea to tell you a little bit more about its 2D, Pro counterpart: LayOut 2.1 is more powerful than ever. We added features that should let you use SketchUp Pro for an even larger chunk of your workflow:

Dimensions!
LayOut isn't just for presentation documents anymore. LayOut 2.1 gives you the ability to add precise dimensions to your work. Use the new Dimension tool on any inserted SketchUp model to produce a set of dimensioned drawings quickly and easily. But enough tooting our own horn; here's what some of our esteemed beta testers have been saying over the last few weeks:

"To all the Googies! Dimensioning in LO is the best thing since sliced bread and eating half a loaf a day this is SO welcomed! Getting fat though!" – Richard Jeffrey

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for the dimensioning tool in Layout. We’ve been praying for this for a long time. I can’t adequately express how much it means to my work process." – rdwilkins

"When Google introduce Layout, I asking myself what to do with it. Then I use Layout for a building permission and get congratulation from the mayor of the city. Then, I burn the license of the bad 2D CAD program I use with SketchUp." – Christophe Hébert

"I have just attempted my first set of construction dwgs with LO. Although a simple project it was good to see how the new dimension tool in LO would help." – Andrew Carter

"...Dims in LO is fantastic. I am now taking LayOut VERY seriously as a Con Doc Production app rather than just a presentation app as I had been doing until now." – "Mayor" Mike Lucey

"AutoCAD and I just broke up!" – Eric Schimelpfenig

You can watch a short video I made about Dimensions in LayOut 2.1, then check out this how-to video from Tyson:

Snap to SketchUp Model
Elements like lines, labels and dimensions automatically snap to points in the SketchUp models you insert in LayOut 2.1. When Object Snap (Arrange > Object Snap) is enabled, colored point inferences appear as you hover over edges, endpoints and faces in inserted SketchUp model views. Elements you create while snapped to points in a model are sticky; they remain attached when the underlying model view is moved around on your page. Naturally, this applies to dimensions, but it also works with labels and shapes (like door swings).

Improved Freehand tool
We tweaked the Freehand tool to make it even easier to draw smooth, perfect vector lines with a mouse. As you draw, LayOut figures out where to put the control points so that your shape stays recognizable but editable. Now you can draw things like scale figures, free-form graphics and foliage right inside LayOut.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists
LayOut 2 makes it easy to include lists – bulleted or numbered – in your text. Before, only Mac users could do this. Now, everyone can.

Improved Grids
In LayOut 2.1, you can choose to display your grid as dots instead of lines; sometimes this makes it easier to see what you're doing. You can also tell LayOut to draw your grid (dots or lines) in front of your drawing elements. After all – what good is a grid if you can't see it?

Improved Copy/Paste
We've made it easier to move elements like graphics and text between LayOut 2 and the other programs in your design toolbox.

Tweaks and other goodness
Needless to say, we didn't just add a bunch of new features in 2.1. Our crack team of amiable nerd-types have been squashing bugs and fiddling with code for months. And as always, many thanks go out to the selfless beta testers who've helped make LayOut better with every release.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp (and LayOut) Evangelist