Compound (Boolean) Geometry in SketchUp with Solid Tools

Compound (Boolean) Geometry in SketchUp with Solid Tools

When you need to create complex geometry in SketchUp, it is often better to break an item into positive (solid) parts and negative (void) parts that you can then subtract from each other with SketchUp's Pro's Solid Tools. In this example, I am showing this process for a cast steel structural connector, but the principle applies to many other shapes as well. Because this process uses solid geometry from beginning to end, the result is also a solid and therefore easily 3D printable. Side view My model doesn't replicate the geometry of this piece exactly, but this is an example of such geometry Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrhfJjT8YBQ Links Some of the tools I used here are: SketchUp's built-in tools: Solid Tools (specifically the Subtract tool) Parallel-projection camera view Hide / show FredoCorner Extension - One of Fredo6's excellent extensions that allows you to round corners ...
Read More
The Cube – A Fun SketchUp Diffusion AI Experiment

The Cube – A Fun SketchUp Diffusion AI Experiment

In this video I am having a bit of fun with the new SketchUp Diffusion tool… Give this a try: Add only a single cube to your modeling space and then try to create an interesting visualization from that using only the prompts and the styles in SketchUp Diffusion. This is actually a great way to explore prompt engineering. It is interesting how the AI is able to capture the general orientation of the scene from just the cube and the horizon line behind it. You can find my original forum post about this on the SketchUp forums here. And admittedly I based this on a competition that the Blender community has been doing for a while. Check those out, too. For more on what you can do with SketchUp and Diffusion, take a look at my initial post about this topic. Video https://youtu.be/dQmV58Jlq4c Examples Here are some of my own examples: Prompt: "A treasure in a luxurious space." Prompt: “A floating, death star spacecraft over a...
Read More
Coding Your First SketchUp Extension

Coding Your First SketchUp Extension

In this (beginner!) video tutorial I give a very basic overview of the process needed to create a SketchUp extension from scratch and then distributing it as an RBZ file. Admittedly, this isn't completely from scratch since I am starting with a template file that you can simply download from this site, but the result is a very basic yet fully-functional SketchUp extension. Want to learn more about Ruby scripting? This video does not cover much of Ruby scripting, but you can read up on that topic in Chapter 7 of my book. Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/fDV92tkzTh0 Links Extension template files - You can download those from my website here. SketchUp Ruby API - SketchUp's official API reference. ...
Read More
AI Rendering with SketchUp Diffusion – First Impressions

AI Rendering with SketchUp Diffusion – First Impressions

In this video tutorial I give a first glance overview of the new SketchUp Diffusion tool. Throughout, I am combining a basic how-to tutorial for SketchUp Diffusion with my various thoughts on the tool (given several different use case scenarios) and the general usability of AI for visualization and ideation. While it is indeed still early days for this technology, it is already quite impressive what it can do. Good looking first renderings can be done quickly, even from minimal geometry. However, there are some caveats and I am very curious how the next iterations of this and similar tools will impact the AEC industry. Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/CIzSw98WBaw Examples You can see some of my example images below. Original model views (as submitted) are on the left and the SketchUp Diffusion AI results are on the right. The respective prompt is in the image caption. Prompt: "A rendering of campus buildings at sunset" Prompt: "An exterior entrance to a campus dining hall" Prompt: "A bench sculpture in a...
Read More
Joyful Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2024!

Joyful Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2024!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61MgpvHfowg To my readers, viewers, friends and colleagues: I wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyous holiday season, Merry Christmas (to those that celebrate it), and a healthy, happy, and successful New Year 2024! And just to reiterate what I said in last year's post: A little bit more peace on earth would also go a long way! As usual, I made this video "card" completely in SketchUp. Want to see how I did this? I’ll post a tutorial soon to sketchupfordesign.com and my YouTube channel. Cheers,Alex ...
Read More