SketchUp 2024 is Out!

SketchUp 2024 is Out!

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
A New Graphics Engine, Ambient Occlusion, Improved Trimble Connect Integration, Modeling and File Format Improvements, and Better Error Handling What's New in SketchUp? Introducing a cleaner UI, and Teddy! As of yesterday, the latest version of SketchUp (2024) is available. And as it turns out, this one has several nice & visible new features and others that are more "under the hood". On the first impression side (see image above) there is a cleaner UI: Look at the panels in the default tray and their headings and you can see how the flat graphics now look much cleaner and modern (and more consistent with the web and iPad versions). Now if we could only also have dark mode... There is also a new scale figure, Teddy! Hi There! New Graphics Engine & Ambient Occlusion SketchUp's new graphics engine The new graphics engine is one of these features that - I am guessing - takes a lot of work to implement and then when everything goes right, things...
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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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Creating a Combined Texture in SketchUp (e.g. for a Cross-Laminated Timber)

Creating a Combined Texture in SketchUp (e.g. for a Cross-Laminated Timber)

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
In this video tutorial I illustrate a useful technique for cases where you need to combine several texture images into one material in SketchUp. I am using the example of a cross-laminated timber (CLT) here but you can employ this for many other applications. The beauty of using SketchUp for this (instead of Photoshop) is that you can apply textures to correctly-scaled objects (which you first create using SketchUp's modeling tools). Sidebar: What is a CLT? It is a large 8-foot wide structural wooden plate that can span in buildings approximately 25 feet. It is made from lumber strips that are glued in parallel layers, which alternate directions by 90 degrees. Several buildings have been constructed with these, including our Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst. How can you use this technique? Give rendering in SketchUp a try. I cover it in Chapter 5 of my book. Tutorial Video https://youtu.be/CEQU5DhdpZ4 Tutorial Steps This list shows the key steps for this technique. Watch the video for further...
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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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Designing a T-Shirt with SketchUp

Designing a T-Shirt with SketchUp

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
This post is adapted from an exercise that appeared in the first edition of Architectural Design with SketchUp (Chapter 5) but that I have since removed from the book. I hope you find it useful. For this (clearly non-architectural) example, let's assume you want to preview a T-shirt design that you created in SketchUp using an image of a T-shirt model. This example uses SketchUp's styles and especially the watermarking feature and can be adapted for many other (non-clothing) uses, too. It even works with the web version of the program. So, without further ado, here are the steps you can take to create and preview a T-shirt design in SketchUp: Tutorial Steps Let’s start with a simple SketchUp model—a sphere within a rectangular box. Of course, you may pick whatever design you like. Let’s just assume that we wanted to make a sketchy-looking T-shirt with this design, and that we needed to preview how it will look. The original design idea Open the Styles...
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