Student / Teacher Discount on Render[in] Software

I got a press release today that states that in December, teachers and students can get the very cool Render[in] application for $50, a big mark-down from the usual $160. 

Render[in] is a fully-integrated, real-time radiosity engine developed for SketchUp Free and Pro users.  Powered by Artlantis 4’s rendering engine, Render[in] gives SketchUp users the high-definition, realistic renderings they've been looking for, in a robust, easy-to-use application.

Students and teachers are invited to send a scanned copy of their valid student or teacher ID's to education@renderin.com to receive a special coupon entitling them to this significant discount. Only valid ID's will be accepted.  This offer is valid from December 1 through December 31, 2012.

Render[in] is fully-integrated into SketchUp and uses the same settings, so learning how to create high-definition renderings is fast and easy.  Once the model is ready, Render[in] brings designs to life, by offering realistic additions like a 3D sky, four types of clouds, and modifiable lighting sources.  Render[in] also offers additional texture settings to choose from, like specular reflection and shininess, and auto-bump for materials.  In addition, Render[in] users can create iVisit 3D panoramas.  Developed especially for architects and designers, iVisit 3D allows users to view panorama renderings on the web, or on an iPad or iPhone.

I've seen Render[in] do demos at the last two Basecamp meetings - both times they put on an impressive show. They made it look quite easy - rendering in real-time, meaning you can orbit, zoom, and pan an actual rendered view (depending on your processor speed).  I haven't tried it, I admit, at least not yet! Here are some cool images from their gallery page:

If you take them up on this offer and get Render[in], I'd love to hear your feedback, especially if you're a teacher or student. Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

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New Video: T-Square Fractal

It's been a while since I uploaded a video - I wish I had more time to make these!

 In our Projects of the Month from October, I included one on how to model the famous T-Square fractal. This prompted architect and professor Nicolai Steinø of Denmark's Aalborg University to share with me his method of creating this model.

The trick is scaling the original square component, and making a series of unique components that are progressively substituted for others. (Hard to explain, easy to show!)



The beauty of SketchUp components is how easy it is to change one to get a whole new look to your model.

Enjoy!

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New Book: Construction Documents Using SketchUp Pro and LayOut

For the first time, I'm offering something by another author on my website! Written for SketchUp Pro and LayOut users, this PDF book is a tutorial on creating construction documents, and costs only $18.95.

The author is my friend and colleague Paul Lee who runs Viewsion - Ireland's first authorized SketchUp training center. Paul has been around the SketchUp "scene" for several years, and has developed a nice, streamlined method for taking SketchUp models and getting them ready for presentation in LayOut. His method was featured recently on SketchUp's Official Blog.

Paul's new book is a 72-page tutorial (PDF format) that contains four parts:

1. Create 2D construction information from your model
2. Format 2D construction presentation using SketchUp scenes
3. Importing 2D construction information into LayOut
4. Structuring the SketchUp model: a recap using a house model

View some sample pages here.

The entire book is estimated to take 4-6 hours to go through, depending on how many coffee breaks you take. All starter models are ready-made and waiting for you to download.

And yes, Paul is Irish, not French. But he bears a striking resemblance to this guy...

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Sundial Animation

One of this month's projects shows how to model a working sundial, and another one shows how to animate the shadows moving over the hour markers.

Here's the animation I made of my sundial, from 6 AM in the summer to 7 PM. This was a really fun project!

These projects are going out tomorrow to subscribers, and the year of projects is on sale for just $24.95.

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See the First Chapter of the Interior Design Book

While the Amazon page for our new Interior Design textbook still doesn't have a "Look Inside" feature (I hear that's in the works), you CAN see a book preview on the Pearson site itself.

Go to this page on the Pearson site, and click the "Take a closer look" link on the set of tabs halfway down the page. That opens a presentation in which you can see the Table of Contents and the entire first chapter.

Enjoy!

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What's Coming in our November Projects?

The three projects for this month are inspired by the awesome classroom model produced in the Design Charette from SketchUp Basecamp last month. If you are a subscriber to our Projects of the Month (still on sale for $24.95 for the year), here's what you'll get next week:

Sundial

The charette model featured a "human sundial," which I didn't reproduce with an actual human, but instead modeled a more traditional, working sundial which tells the hour based on shadows.  You need to tell SketchUp where on Earth the sundial is located, then let SketchUp figure out the shadows.

Sundial Animation

Once you have your sundial, this project shows how to save scenes you can use to see its shadow based on the hour and season.

 

Translucent People

The people and trees in the classroom model from the charette are translucent silhouettes - a nice, artistic way to show entourage in a model. This project shows how to populate a model with silhouettes of poeple, and how to make them translucent.

To get these cool projects, and 33 more over the next 12 months, subscribe to our Projects of the Month.




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Design Charette from SketchUp Basecamp

A couple of weeks ago I went to Boulder to attend the 4th SketchUp Basecamp. SketchUp has hosted this gathering every couple of years, to get users and programmers together to discuss what's planned, what should be planned, what people want to see, and to see examples of how some SketchUp experts are using the software. There are always a bunch of us third-party product people running around as well, including writers like myself, trainers, rendering engine companies, dynamic component producers, and the like.

I plan to write up my impressions of the entire three days, but first I wanted to post about the design charette - the main activity on the third and final day (which ended around lunchtime).

"Charette" is a term I hadn't heard as an engineering student. It is generally used in architecture, when a group of students or designers need to come up with a problem-solving design in a short time. The Basecamp charette participants were told to form groups of about 10, and the assignment was to either design the classroom of the future, or some sort of organizational system for storing educational technology (tablets, printers, etc).

I ended up not participating myself (got involved in a couple of meetings instead), and I wasn't there when the results were presented (lunch meeting!). So I don't know how many groups opted for the organizer and how many did the classroom. But I do know who won, because I know most of the members of that group!

So imagine that you and some colleagues have TWO AND A HALF HOURS to come up with a design and get it into some sort of presentational format. Rather high pressure! But these are SketchUp experts, who are also fluent in LayOut, so great things were happening.

My friend Eric Schimelpfenig was on the winning team, and he sent me the winning model as well as the LayOut (presentation) file. Here are some shots of their design. For each image, click to view the entire thing - you might not get the full image in the blog format.

The overall view shows one enclosed classroom, surrounded by lots of landscaped outdoor space. (I assume this is located somewhere NOT being pounded by Hurricane Sandy, as we are right now...)

This view of the classroom, minus roof, shows the main room with circular desks and a loft area with beanbag (!) chairs. 

There aren't many (if any?) doors that close. A nice flower garden with paving stones is just off (and visible from) the main classroom.

Behind the classroom is an area with interactive signage.

Here's the greenhouse with solar roof:

And this is the open-air Council House.

Next to the Council House are some CSA-style vegetable plots, and the overlook features a human sundial.

Heading back into the main classroom area, there are some flat screens where the kids can see and chat wtih their fellow students across the world.

Have you noticed the translucent people? You can find them by searching for "silhouette" in the 3D Warehouse. These are components that always face the right way, and their black color was made translucent - an easy way to get a quick and dirty rendering without using any other programs.

Various views of this design, along with larger detailed views, were assembled into a LayOut document, which was then presented to the charette judges.

Congrats to the winning team! I'm not sure if the they had a team name, but here are the participants:

Zack Mertz

Rashad Al-Ahmadi

Mike Tadros

David Pillsbury

Jeffrey Orkin

Wyatt Thompson

Bertier Luyt

Yael Kadem

Eric Schimelfpenig

John Pacyga

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What's Coming in Our October Projects?

I love the project offerings for October - illusions, puzzles, and fractals (oh my!) If you're a subscriber to our Projects of the Month, (on sale for $24.95 this month!!) here's what you'll get in your inbox on October 15:

Ames Illusion

In the room below, which man is taller? If you're familiar with the famous Ames Illusion, you know that both men are identical. This project shows you how to build the room that makes this possible.

 


Shapes Puzzle, with Solution

One of last month's projects showed how to make a puzzle from simple shapes. This project shows you how to include the solution in the SketchUp model. So if you have a complicated puzzle and get stuck after placing a few pieces . . .

. . . you can "cheat" and look at the tab that shows the completed puzzle.

T-Square Fractal

You don't have to be a math geek to be turned on by fractals - they made cool art projects as well. In this project, you start with a simple square divided in two . . .

. . .  and use some copying, scaling, and rotating, to get this neat-looking pattern:

Go to Projects of the Month to sign up - our $24.95 sale for 36 projects is a fantastic October deal!

 

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What's Coming in Our September Projects?

Back-to-school isn't all work, it should be fun, too! So here are some playful projects to keep you or your kids amused, in between bouts of homework. Subscribe to our Projects of the Month.

Crossbar Illusion

Look at the yellow and blue crossbars within the orange frame below. How can the yellow bar be sitting above the blue bar, when both bars fit within the orange frame? This project shows how to build this crazy model.

 

Shapes Puzzle 

This project shows how to use lines and groups to make this puzzle. The 11-piece puzzle shown below is pretty easy to solve, but what about 100 pieces?

 

Rounded Box

Anyone can make a regular box in SketchUp, with sharp corners between sides. This project shows how to round corners, both along the vertical sides and around the top. It's not as straightforward as you might think - you'll need to use a neat trick!

 

 To get these and 11 more months of similar fun stuff, subscribe to our Projects of the Month.

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What's Coming in our August Projects?

Our projects this month include one two-parter and another where you use the very fun Inkscape. You can sign up to subscribe here - the year is still on sale at just $20!

Sky Sphere

Ever wanted to see your model surrounded by nothing but blue sky and some clouds? This project shows you how to make a sphere (more or less) painted with a sky image, that you can use to encompass a model.

Sky Sphere Animation

Part 2 of this project shows how to use the sky sphere model to create an animation of a model (an airplane in this case) flying through the sky.

Curvy Text in Inkscape

Text along a curve is tough to do in SketchUp, at least not without a lot of editing work. But it's easy to do in the free 2D drawing program, Inkscape. This project shows how to make a text string like this:

And import it into SketchUp as a graphic with a transparent background.

 

Don't miss out on our summer sale price! Subscribe today.

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Free Project: Getting Started in Tinkercad

SketchUp has paved the way for new 3D modeling applications, and one that I've recently run across is Tinkercad.  It's a FREE, web-based application that enables you to quickly model objects that can be produced on a 3D printer.

I recently wrote Getting Started in Tinkercad (PDF), a free project, ready for you to download and use. If you have kids home from camp, this is a great activity to keep their brains firing till school starts!

The project uses my usual-step-step method to work through this cute little boat:

 

The Tinkercad team has a similar boat printed out (I believe from a MakerBot):

 

Enjoy!!

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