News Blog Archives – SketchUp for Design

Yes, you can use OpenAI’s GPT AI to Create Geometry in SketchUp

March 17, 2023March 24, 2023 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

AI can create a box from a text prompt and even show a completion message Just like everyone else these days I have been trying out OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing (which now also uses the same AI engine). One of my lines of exploration (beyond "what does this thing know about me?") was the question whether it can auto-generate SketchUp Ruby code. And - as it turns out - it can do that. Albeit with some caveats. As a start, you can go to ChatGPT and (after signing up) ask a reasonably specific question like "Which Ruby code would draw a box in SketchUp?". That would spit out somewhat appropriate code that you can just paste into e.g. the Ruby Code Editor. Apparently the SketchUp API is part of its knowledge base and generating SketchUp-specific Ruby code is thus well within its grasp. You could even refine the query with a comment like "Isn't there a simpler way to do this?"...

SketchUp 2023 is Out!

February 22, 2023February 22, 2023 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

The Trimble folks have just released the 2023 version of SketchUp. As always, you can learn more about new and improved functionality in their blog posts and the YouTube channel. I am quite excited about the new Revit importer (see image above for an example) because it allows for improved coordination and rendering workflows with Revit. It loads and converts models reasonably fast and even inserts various plan sections. Now if we could also have a way to easily export from SketchUp to Revit that includes creating native system families (walls, floors,...) where appropriate. IFC only goes so far... Another great new tool is the Flip functionality, which lets you mirror objects in any orientation. This was of course already possible with extensions and via the "-1" scale-factor trick, but it is now implemented in a more comfortable way that also makes this functionality usable on the iPad and web versions. This version also includes some future-focused core program improvements like a new...

Joyful Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2023!

December 24, 2022December 24, 2022 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

You can interact with the 3D model here. To my readers, friends and colleagues: I wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyous holiday season, a Merry Christmas (to those that celebrate it), and a healthy, happy, and successful new year 2023! A little bit more peace on earth would also go a long way! Cheers,Alex P.S.: As usual, I modeled everything in SketchUp. This is indeed my (messy) handwriting that I captured on an iPad, then vectorized it, and then pulled into SketchUp via DXF. Want to see how I did this? I'll post a video soon to sketchupfordesign.com and my YouTube channel. ...

Trimble Creator: Introduction to Parametric SketchUp

October 12, 2022October 23, 2022 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joc6ouRTaTg In this tutorial I show how the newly released Trimble Creator works. This tool/service allows you to create parametric "Live Components" for SketchUp and lets you come up with some cool designs (or product configurators). You can try all of this for yourself at https://creator.trimble.com/. If you want to experiment with my models, search for "alexschreyer" there. Also, all of my Trimble Creator videos are contained in this YouTube playlist. Have you tried Trimble's Creator yet? Let me know below in the comments what you think about it. ...

3D Basecamp in Vancouver is a Wrap!

October 3, 2022October 1, 2022 by Alex SchreyerNo Comments

First impression for all attendees The SketchUp 3D Basecamp (and Bootcamp) user conference that just wrapped up its weeklong stay in beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada, is the latest in a series of bi-annual meetings. The organizers again chose an inspiring venue and the main difference with previous conferences was that the 2000 iteration never happened due to a well-known global event. Therefore, attendees were four years out from their last meetings and hence quite excited to see each other again. Now, that is a pretty nice location for a conference! Everyone who knows this city knows how nice the conference location in the convention center is (or is it "centre" - we are in Canada, after all). The only disruption came when cruise ships departed next door with their horns blaring. I gave four talks on different topics at this conference. Below are the cover slides for those. When I get back home, I'll post more here about various details that I just didn't...