Having Some Fun with AI: The Snarky Architecture Critic

Having Some Fun with AI: The Snarky Architecture Critic

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
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 ...
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Now You Can Have an AI ‘Copilot’ (Assistant) for Ruby Coding in SketchUp

Now You Can Have an AI ‘Copilot’ (Assistant) for Ruby Coding in SketchUp

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
In this tutorial I cover one specific use case for my OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension: A coding 'copilot' (assistant) for Ruby code. This is one of several use cases for this extension and it has the potential to at least save you from a ton of web browsing. When I write SketchUp Ruby code, I frequently need to look up code snippets. With the approach presented here, I can use AI to provide such snippets for me instead. This works well with my Ruby Code Editor extension where you can then past, edit, and run that code. But it will also work with the built-in Ruby Console. Tutorial Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwhD5reOkoo Links OpenAI Explorer SketchUp extension Ruby Code Editor extension ...
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Adding AI Vision to SketchUp with OpenAI’s gpt-4o Model (Ruby Snippet)

Adding AI Vision to SketchUp with OpenAI’s gpt-4o Model (Ruby Snippet)

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
Response to the prompt: "Is there anything wrong with this building?" Earlier this week, OpenAI released its new gpt-4o model. This model not only improves and updates its current AI models, but it also adds vision ability. As a result, a user can upload images and then the AI can identify things in the image based on a user prompt. There are some great examples of the new capability on OpenAI's website. Since I previously implemented the OpenAI connection with SketchUp using both plain Ruby code and a handy extension, I had to try out whether we can connect the two using these new capabilities, too. One use case for this could then be the ability to ask questions like "What may be missing in my model?" or "Is there a cat in the model?" (Not sure why you would ask the latter but it leads to a correct answer!) As it turns out, giving SketchUp this AI capability is not too hard...
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The Cube – A Fun SketchUp Diffusion AI Experiment

The Cube – A Fun SketchUp Diffusion AI Experiment

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
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...
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AI Rendering with SketchUp Diffusion – First Impressions

AI Rendering with SketchUp Diffusion – First Impressions

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
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...
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