Tutorials about using SketchUp extensions: New extensions, applied workflows, tips and tricks, etc. Learn more about this topic in Chapter 4 of my book
Although I had recorded some introductory videos about point cloud modeling with Scan Essentials in SketchUp that are included at the end of this playlist, those didn't go into sufficient detail on a bunch of the features. Based on my presentation "From Points to Polygons" at the recent 2024 3D Basecamp, I decided to rectify that shortcoming and produce a set of videos that introduce Trimble's Scan Essentials extension and present various workflows that can be used with this tool. Those videos are included below and in the aforementioned playlist.
As I mention in the videos, you can download a sample point cloud from this site if you want to try this out for yourself.
Let me know in the comments if this is helpful for you and if there are any other topics that you would like covered.
What are Point Clouds?
Point clouds are created using either laser/LIDAR scanners like Trimble's X9 or photogrammetry. If you use a laser scanner, then you...
In case you are in need of an opinionated architectural critique, look no further. You can now employ AI for that! With the recently introduced vision capabilities in OpenAI's services and therefore my OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension, you can now ask questions about what is in your SketchUp model. But that's not all: For a little bit more bite in that critique, you can even give the AI response a specific personality, e.g. the snarky critic in my video below.
You can do that via the System Message option in its settings. Just add a line like the one shown in the image below and then that instruction will apply to the entire conversation between you and the AI.
As you likely know by now, you can download the OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension and learn more about how it works here.
Got any other fun and/or useful ways to employ this new tool in SketchUp? Let me know in the comments below.
Video
https://youtu.be/Nv4jzMoY7y4...
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
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FredoCorner Extension - One of Fredo6's excellent extensions that allows you to round corners...
In this video tutorial I show how you can take a portrait of a loved one (or yourself) and - using SketchUp - turn it into a revolved object that you can then use as a vase, cup, candle holder etc. This technique is simple and makes for a great gift (e.g. by 3D printing). As a bonus, I show how you can create a face-morphing shape with two portraits.
Keen readers of this blog may know that I covered this technique in a step-by-step tutorial in one of my earliest posts. I had never done a video tutorial on this technique, however, which is hereby remedied.
Tutorial Video
https://youtu.be/d5y5f965YAs
Links
While the basic technique uses only SketchUp's built-in tools, I also demonstrate some of Fredo6's extensions here:
Joint PushPull - An extension that lets you thicken any surface.
FredoSpline - This is useful for creating smooth curves and converting between different curve types.
Curviloft - This lets you "morph" between two outlines.
Rubin Vase - Apparently this effect...
Are you using SketchUp Pro on multiple computers? As I mention in Chapter 2, it may make sense to leverage one of the many cloud storage services (that you may already be using) like Dropbox, OneDrive, GDrive, etc. to make your life easier by synchronizing those. In essence, using the approach presented here, you can off-load extensions that you want to have available on both machines onto a shared drive, and then you load them back from the respective computers using the script shown below.
Tutorial Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI6FvENlIno
Tutorial Steps
Step 1: Designate a folder on your cloud drive
First, designate a folder on your cloud-synchronized drive as the Plugins folder. As you can see in my example below, I am using OneDrive (at C:/Users/<username>/OneDrive/SketchUp/Plugins), but you can use any other service, too (e.g. for Dropbox on Windows it would likely be C:/Users/<username>/Dropbox/). Of course, for this to work you need to have a cloud-synchronized local folder, not just an online folder. And that folder...
