AGO - Gehry's curvy wood facade

Awarded

Admittedly, award ceremonies come around at all times during the year, but two of the recent and notable awards for wood building and architecture were the UK Wood Design Awards (October 2009) and the Ontario Wood Awards (November 2009, also written up here).

Of all the amazing buildings (and furniture) that have received an award, the Art Gallery of Ontario’s curvy wood-glass facade designed by Frank Gehry (and executed by local engineers Halcrow Yolles and Equilibrium Consulting) is the one I already had a chance to visit. Interestingly, it also won a steel design award. You can see one of my images on the right.

Another structure that caught my eye is the Deal Pier (UK) shown below. Congratulations to the engineers, architects and builders of these and all other winning buildings.

Deal Pier Cafe & Bar

Please Submit

There are still awards to be won. If you have built using wood anytime during the last year, then it may not be too late to submit to one of these:

• 2009 North American Wood Design Awards (deadline: December 7, 2009)
• 2010 California Wood Design Awards (deadline: November 20, 2009)
• 2010 Southeast Wood Design Awards (deadline: January 8, 2010)
• All Canadian awards programs
• All US awards programs

Related posts

• Say goodbye to the old mountain hut (0)
• Curtain walls in wood (0)
• A house made of pallets (0)
• Wood Structures Conference Announcements (1)
• Wood Design Awards Books Available Free (1)

Colors of fall

Historic House, Sunderland, MA

Orchard at Quonquont Farm

Rich bounty (my favorite)

What could this be?

You can see more of my photograhy on flickr or on my photo page.

Related posts

• Playing with birds in the cloud (0)
• Oh, the newbies… (0)
• no4card – UMass honors Andrew Card (0)
• Everything is Data (0)
• Autodesk sells something for $2.99! SketchBook Mobile for the iPhone/iPod Touch (1)

Autodesk Labs software trials

And the good ideas keep on coming! As just announced by Autodesk Labs in their post Project Twitch Range Expanded: can YOU connect?, Autodesk extended the range of their application tryout platform “Twitch” beyond the originally stated 1000 mile radius. Now user connection capability is just limited by a network latency cutoff. And as I just found out, this means that I am able to connect – from Massachusetts. AutoCAD even loaded faster than on my local machine!

I very much like the idea of web-based software tryouts. Typically when I try software on my (admittedly aging) machine, it leaves some garbage behind that even my Revo Uninstaller can’t safely get rid of. Autodesk’s “twitchy” little app would get rid of that problem by running the application itself on a remote server and letting users download a small viewer that remotely connects to its user interface.

Of course, this doesn’t allow to test application performance on the local machine and how well it works with the given hardware and graphics configuration. But it is a great first step in the testing cycle.

It gives me now hope that more software vendors will go this route and offer free web-based “live” previews of their programs. This might even be an idea for Google or Amazon to run in their data centers.

P.S.: Apparently the developers are quite taken with their own product. One of the DLLs installed by this service is called “awesomium.dll”.

Related posts

• SketchUp 7.1 has landed! (0)
• Drawing a freewheeling dragonfly in the showroom – An Autodesk Labs roundup (0)
• Now where did I put that generic countertop and sink assembly with backsplash? (0)
• Nice match: Carbon neutral design with Revit and GBS! (2)
• Autodesk sells something for $2.99! SketchBook Mobile for the iPhone/iPod Touch (1)

SketchUp Ruby API and plugins cheatsheet

I like working with cheatsheets when I do coding. Although the online API reference is very extensive and has great examples and the downloadable version is a good solution when you’re offline, this one may be useful as a reference once you mastered the basic concepts. It contains the full API reference in a condensed form. It also has a plugin template and some code snippets. Feel free to suggest improvements and additions for future versions.

You can download the PDF file here:

SketchUp Ruby API and Plugins Cheatsheet v.2.1 [SU v.7.1] (63.05 KB, downloaded 380 times) -

Other useful Ruby cheatsheets and helpers are:

• SketchUcation – Ruby forum (look for the sticky posts for general helpers)
• Notepad++ autocomplete files – also from SCF
• Jim’s WebConsole – a coding helper in SketchUp
• Ruby cheatsheets: here, here, here

Below is an older version of the cheatsheet. It lists only the API classes and methods line-by-line and prints on five pages.

SketchUp Ruby API Cheatsheet

SketchUp Ruby API listing v.1 [SU v.7] (28.16 KB, downloaded 233 times) -

Related posts

• Summer is over! (0)
• Some SketchUp Crumbs (0)
• SketchUp News Roundup (0)
• SketchUp 7.1 has landed! (0)
• SketchUp 7 is here! (1)

Yayyy!!! A new version!

Software updates are always exciting… New features are to be explored, new capabilities exploited for as-yet unknown projects. Contrary to Autodesk’s religious update schedule, Google has been only somewhat regular in providing updates. But alas, announced by today’s blog post by John Bacus, SketchUp’s project manager, the new version of SketchUp is here. And it’s a free upgrade to every Pro 7 user! (This also means that my Boulder-visit-induced gag-order has been lifted)

So what’s new in SketchUp? Let’s summarize what’s on this page.

• A new rendering engine
  This is a major improvement to the way we can work with SketchUp. Apparently the developers replaced SketchUp’s display system with something much more efficient. Large models now handle better and if too much is being moved around visually, the view degrades and usability is preserved. This is happening concurrent to Google Earth’s rendering upgrades, making both applications much more responsive.
  My only (remaining) problem is that selecting lots of elements still slows down everything.

  
  

  

  10,000 Barrels

• More reliable UI
  There is now a “reset workspace” button that cleans tool window placement up (for people with large monitors). Ahhh… peace! Update: My toolbars still get messed up every once in a while. Argghh…
• Addition of COLLADA im-/export (DAE, KMZ). Removal of DWG/DXF im-/exporter (in the free version)
  While the added COLLADA exchange option is a good addition to SketchUp’s im-/export capabilities, removing the DWG/DXF exchange from the free version will cause (and has already caused) a bit of a pickle for some users. I’ll post some workarounds in a bit but this shouldn’t be too much of an issue in most cases since so many 3D converter apps are available out there. And someone (not me!) could still write a DXF import/export plugin…
• Get Photo Texture
  This is a neat addition to the 3D texturing toolset. As you can see in the video above, facades can be identified from StreetView imagery and then applied as images to buildings.
  The main drawback of this tool is that in many cases, only portions of a building are clearly visible in StreetView (Amherst has 1 street in StreetView). However, the selection box placement tool is very sleek in the dialog – and much easier to use for novices than the classic “position texture” tool.

  
  

  

  Photo texture window

• Upload Component
  It is now possible to upload a single component rather than having to upload the entire model. This basically removes the steps of exporting portions of a file into a clean file and then uploading that file. Easier is better!
• Nearby Models
  When modeling a city or a neighborhood, the user can now search for existing models in the 3D warehouse that are within a certain radius of the current position. This is useful for loading context models or for seeing what people have already modeled (to avoid duplicates).
  Apparently this tool uses the following undocumented 3D Warehouse search (sample shown – with 300 in meters):
  “near:42.391346,-72.524920 within:300“
• write_image() method in the Web Dialog class in Ruby
  This extension to the Ruby scripting toolset has the potential to be very useful. It basically allows to acquire the current WebDialog view as an image. This method is used currently for the “Get Photo Texture” window. How about a texture imported for common texture websites? Any takers…
  You can find an example for using this method in the file “webtextures_loader.rb” in the Tools sub-directory (starting at line 519).
• Disable Update Service
  This will be very helpful for our lab installations. There’s nothing more annoying than having to click away the update notifier for at least 1/2 year.

The changes in LayOut are:

• Dimensions!
  You can now use dimensions on your sheets (rather than only within the SketchUp model). To enable this, you can now also snap to the SketchUp model’s elements – quite simiar to how associative dimensions work in AutoCAD. With this final addition, SketchUp Pro is now at par for many users with much bigger and more expensive 3D modeling / 2D annotating software.
• Improved freehand tool
  You can now draw freely and get smooth lines. Where’s my Wacom when I want to try this…
• Improvements to lists, grid display and copy/paste
• More on LayOut here
  

Overall these are a lot of great new features that should help not only the 3D building modeler, but also the professional user of SketchUp. I also very much appreciate the new Product Ideas feedback system – something that was called for multiple times.

Related posts

• Web-Based Application trials from Autodesk – A Great Idea! (2)
• Summer is over! (0)
• SketchUp 7 is here! (1)
• Welcome to the Studio (1)
• Visualizing Data with SketchUp (0)

Faces with vertices numbered

As it turns out, I need to revisit my centroid plugin for SketchUp. While it accurately calculates area properties for a face that does not contain internal (and fully enclosed) openings, it apparently gets it wrong as soon as an enclosed opening is present (like the face in the top-right corner of the image above).

To diagnose the issue, I made a little script to number vertices for a face. It adds the vertex numbers as well as the face normal vector to a group and displays them. Just in case anyone else finds this useful, here is the download. Install the file like any other SketchUp plugin (i.e. drop it into the “Plugins” folder in the SketchUp installation).

The script adds a menu option under the “Tools” menu. You can also change in the source which vertices should be displayed (all or “outer loop” only).

Number Vertices in SketchUp v.1.1 (1.19 KB, downloaded 55 times) - Little script to number face vertices in SketchUp. PLEASE NOTE: Open the ZIP archive. Then drop it into the SketchUp plugin directory (usually at C:\Program Files\Google\SketchUp\Plugins\ in Windows). Then re-start SketchUp and look for the new menu item in the Tools menu.

Related posts

• Wood CAD Chips #1: SketchUp for Woodworking (1)
• Visualizing Data with SketchUp (0)
• Twisted SketchUp (2)
• Some SketchUp Crumbs (0)
• SketchUp Ruby API Cheatsheet (0)

Just plain wrong...

For a few days now local news here in Amherst has been dominated by the report of a killed biker on Montague Road. This tragedy has been exacerbated by the sad fact that the car that hit the two bikers has not yet been found and that the driver has not faced consequences for his or her actions.

While this occurrence is of course tragic, it shines a light on bike safety in Amherst. And although the town has created a beautiful network of bike lanes (and the state has issued stricter bike-protection laws), many bikers appear to me less safe than ever before – mostly due to their own doing!

Here is what I have been observing for a while and particularly since the start of the fall semester:

Many adult bikers do not use a helmet. Although (and incomprehensible to me) not required by law, helmets save lives. Omitting them removes a basic and important safety feature. It is like driving without a seat belt. It is inherently dumb.

The second observation is that occasionally bikers ride on the wrong side of the road (facing traffic). I can only assume that this is due to a misguided extrapolation of the pedestrian rule to biking. This one is in clear violation of all rules of the road. It is a dangerous practice for the biker, other bikers and cars. I can only hope that local police stop these violators, provide education and possibly even issues tickets.

The last observation is maybe the most suicidal of these three. Many bikers ride at night without light and reflectors. Especially on often rather dimly lit country roads around here but also on the UMass campus and in town this is a very dangerous practice.

It has become obvious to me through these observations that these fellow bikers have lost respect for the traffic on the road, other bikers and – most severely – for their own lives. If they cannot take responsibility themselves, then maybe the town of Amherst as well as UMass should step up to protect them from their own bad judgments.

Don’t get me wrong after these lines. I am a biker myself and I very much enjoy biking in Amherst. But I do so with a helmet, a lit bike at night and on the right side of the road.

Links:

• MassBike – The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition
• New bike laws in Massachusetts

Related posts

• no4card – UMass honors Andrew Card (0)
• Welcome! (0)
• Sustainability vs. Homeland Security (0)
• Revit design whitepaper and new 3D Warehouse rules (0)
• Oh, the newbies… (0)

Trip leftovers (I can recommend all of the hotels)

Summer is officially over in a few days and the semester has been on its way again for two weeks now. This means I can finally catch a breath and get back to posting on my own blog. But before I get back to CAD and wood topics, one trip should be mentioned:

Among the list of (professionally oriented) things I did this summer, one trip stands out. It was a visit to Google’s office in Boulder, Colorado (hence the Marriott card). That, of course, is where SketchUp (and as I learned much more) comes from. I had the chance to meet an amazing group of people that work there, get to know their office (which sports a climbing wall!!!) and even get to sample their delicious food (they apparently tweeted my breakfast plate and our barbecue during the conference).

Google had invited the illustrious group you see below to the first Supermodelers conference, which was held right in their office. Attendees came from all around the world and countries of origin included Canada, US, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, UK, Holland and Germany. You can read more about the conference on their blog.

It was great fun. I got to meet a lot of very interesting people and saw what amazing 3D models they had produced of their hometown, place of work or just place of interest. I also got to see what is behind Google’s operation that gets SketchUp, 3D Warehouse and Google Earth to work. It gave me an even greater appreciation of these fantastic (and above all free!) products.

The supermodelers

Related posts

• SketchUp 7.1 has landed! (0)
• SketchUp Ruby API Cheatsheet (0)
• SketchUp 7 is here! (1)
• Welcome to the Studio (1)
• Web-Based Application trials from Autodesk – A Great Idea! (2)

Now that’s a very interesting surprise! After releasing a rather useless “Fluid” application (actually a technology preview) on the iPhone a while ago, Autodesk this time released a winner. SketchBook mobile is a nice sketching application. Other than most similarly-minded iPhone software, it has nice brushes and even boasts a layer system. Here is a more detailed list of features:

• Multitouch Navigation
• Double-Tap Corner capability
• Over 20 Brushes
• Synthetic Pressure Sensitivity
• Dynamic Resizing
• Customizable Brushes
• Gallery
• Save Work-in-Progress
• Directly Email Pictures
• Import Images from Library or Camera
• Full Palette of Colors
• Interactive Color Wheel
• Store Custom Colors
• On Canvas Color Picker
• Landscape and Portrait Symmetry
• Layers with Reordering and Merging capabilities

Autodesk's mobile Sketchbook app

Background images can come from either the photo library or (for iPhone users) can be taken with the internal camera. This should be a great feature if you want to take a picture of a plan and start sketching over it right away. It would be nice if the user could email an image that preserves all layers, though – I haven’t seen that feature yet.

P.S. On a more frustrating note: I recently updated my iPod Touch (1st generation) to the 3.1 operating system. That move apparently removed my capability to attach an external microphone. Very annoying indeed! It is not good practice if a company removes a feature that I paid for. I’ll likely downgrade back to 3.0 after this (and I’ll put Apple into the same category as Microsoft from now on).

Related posts

• Web-Based Application trials from Autodesk – A Great Idea! (2)
• Playing with birds in the cloud (0)
• Ready-to-eat Revit families (2)
• Nice match: Carbon neutral design with Revit and GBS! (2)
• Hot 3D (SketchUp) models (2)

For this project I took a lot of thermography images (using a colleague’s FLIR thermography camera) of a single-family house. To visualize the temperature distribution on the outside surface of the house I correctly scaled and sized them and added them to the exterior of a previously made 3D CAD model. The end result is a great looking, interactive thermal snapshot.

You can read more about the technique and preview the paper I’ll be presenting at the Inframation 2009 conference on this page.

Related posts

• Get 3D Everywhere! (0)
• Visualizing Data with SketchUp (0)
• Typical Types and Others (0)
• SketchUp to Revit to Solar Study (0)
• Reducing SketchUp File Sizes for Google Earth (0)