What's Coming in Our March Projects?

March is the month of pretty things, at least in our set of projects! Here's what we have for project subscribers (still on sale for $24.95 per year!) coming out next week on the 15th.

Amazing Polyhedra

A math professor who's used my GeomeTricks books to create Platonic and related solids has created a wonderful model for everyone to use, containing organized sets of solids you can combine. (See my blog post about this!) This project shows you just some of the things you can make by starting with this model, and all the hard modeling work had already been done for you!

Dotted Mug 
This project came from one of my SketchUp enrichment students. She wanted to know how to start with a simple cup, or mug, or bowl . . .

 . . . and place polka dots all over it. This is a fun project that makes use of the Intersect Faces tool.

Broken Wine Glass 
I recently saw this very neat image, which I believe is a rendered image of a SolidWorks model:

It's also possible to create this gravity-defying model in SketchUp!

These projects will show you all sorts of fun modeling techniques - why not subscribe now?  For $24.95 you get 36 projects over 12 months, and many hours of "WOW!"

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Polyhedral Waltz

Math professor Debra Borkovitz recently sent me this video she made, which beautifully shows the interactions between Platonic, Archimedean, and their derivative solids. You don't need to be a math geek to appreciate the amazing, eye-popping relationships between all of these 3D objects.



In her blog post, Debra explains how she made the models in SketchUp (she used my GeomeTricks books to learn how to create many of these objects!), and also goes into detail about making the video itself. Like the music? It was composed by her friend and colleague, another math professor!

If you want to experiment with these objects yourself, be sure to download Debra's model, which contains all of the solids used in this video, each on its own layer. Click the 3D icon below to spin or zoom the model, and click "Google 3D Warehouse" to go to its download page.




To control layer visibility in Debra's model, open the Layers window and check the Visible box for what you want to see. You could play with this model for hours!

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What's Coming in our February Projects?

This month's projects, going out to subscribers next week, includes a Sketchy Physics example -I've been making so many amazing models for my upcoming book! The subscription price is still discounted at just $24.95 for a year, which includes 18 fun projects. 

Jenga!
 With the free Sketchy Physics plugin, you can make a FUNCTIONING JENGA GAME - this project shows you how. Once you build your tower, start pulling out blocks. Will yours fall right away, or stay up?

House Plans

This project is a teacher request: How to start with a realistic model of a house . . .

 

. . . and create floor plans.

Tip of the Screw
One of last month's projects showed how to make screw threads, using spirals and the Scale tool. But a real screw ends in a point (or close to a point). This project shows an easy way to finish off the end of the screw model.

 There's a lot of fun stuff here to keep you busy, if the snow or cold is keeping you inside! Again, here's where you sign up to receive these projects. Anyone can design anything in 3D! http://www.3dvinci.net/

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Our First Projects of 2013!

My first blog post of the year, and it's about the projects we'll send out this month to subscribers to our Projects of the Month. (Which are still on sale for just $24.95 - a great deal for 12 months worth of projects!)

Rubik's Cube

If you didn't get one of these for Christmas (this year, or in 1985), you can create and play with one in SketchUp! This project shows how to model the completed cube and how to spin the sides, but sorry - you'll have to solve it for yourself!

Screw Threads

This project was requested by several teachers over the last few months, so here it is. There are a few ways this model could be made, but the technique shown in this project is quite cool!

 

Bumpy Checkerboard

This is a model of a popular optical illusion. Starting with a simple checkerboard . . . 

. . . you add some strategically-placed small squares to create this 3D "pop-out" effect:

 

To get these projects, and three more each month for a year, subscribe to our  Projects of the Month.



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Escher and Crooked Teeth

I teach a weekly after-school class on SketchUp at the elementary school where some of my kids go. The students range from 2nd to 5th grade. It's quite amazing to see what they come up with, after I demo a short project for them at the start of the hour.

One 5th grade girl made this Escher pattern:  

(See my previous post on my video on how to create these, and other, Escher tilings.)

I thought the pattern was very nice as it was, but then noticed she added something I had to zoom in to see - the yellow face has braces on its teeth. 



She's clearly mastered the multiple-copy feature of SketchUp!



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New Video: Three Escher Tilings

Yesterday I uploaded a new video - this one shows three Escher tilings you can create in SketchUp. The first one, based on a rectangle is very easy. The second uses a square, just a little harder. The third uses a triangle and is the most complicated, though all three can be done using just a few basic SketchUp tools.

I got some of the ideas from Jill Britton's very nice website on Escher in the Classroom.

The coolest thing about these is how creative you can get. Some of the shapes can become lizards or birds or fish, or whatever comes to mind. If you have a steady hand, you can create nice details using the Freehand tool.





Enjoy! And if you have some neat Escher tilings to share, please let me know!

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What's Coming in Our December Projects?

The last ones of 2012!

For those who are subscribers to our Projects of the Month, here's what's going out next weekend, on December 15:

Parallel Lines?

The horizontal lines between squares are parallel to one another, but they sure don't look it. This project shows an easy way to make this eye-confusing model.

 

Helix

There have been a few projects over the years that show how to make a spiral (the Barber Pole from last year was one, the DNA project was another). This project shows yet another way to make a helix, starting with just the vertical "edges" of a short cylinder.  This helix is also used in the third project this month - the Goblet!

 

Goblet

Starting with the helix from the previous project, and adding a cylinder through it, you can perform a VERY COOL trick with the Scale tool to make several interesting shapes, including this nice goblet.

 

These projects, and three more every month for a year, will come to your inbox when you subscribe to our Projects of the Month, still just $24.95!

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Some More Great Geometry Models

A few weeks ago I heard from a teacher, Patrick Waters, who goes by the handle "woodshopcowboy."

According to his blog,

I’m a late-twenties, early-career, woodshop-esque teacher in a math/science department at a very progressive therapeutic private school for students with neurological differences.  My job involves a little of everything: lesson planning, curriculum building, community outreach, technology literacy (hence this blog), gardening, erecting permanent structures on campus, outdoor environmental education, wearing a tool belt, generally being awesome and so on.

I'm a little late in blogging about Patrick's blog post (sorry!) but he pointed to what his middle school kids did last month in SketchUp. He used some of my GeomeTricks books for ideas. You'll have to click over to his blog for the full slideshow, but I picked a few to show here:

 These kids have clearly discovered the Styles window!

 

And this one isn't a regular tessellation, but I'm including it because it's so pretty. If it tiled, it would make a really cool wallpaper for a kid's room:

 I loved this bit on his blog page:

Ms. Roskes projects have a real wow factor in the classroom.  My students would shout my name to show off their work, get frustrated during transitions away from the computer and talk incessantly about how awesome the class is going during lunch.

... She wrote her manuals in a clear, concise and picture-heavy style suitable for high-school and collegiate level work.  My classes skew to the younger range, about fourth through seventh grade, of reading comprehension so I found them less useful as step-by-step guides.  I mainly used them for my own growth as a CAD draftsman and a source of inspiration.

Enjoy the student’s work!

Fun Escher Tessellations, Created in SketchUp

About two years ago I wrote about some fantastic Escher tessellations submitted by Dr. Steve Armstrong, a math professor at LeTourneau University. He offers this particular class every two years, so it's time to show off some more of his students' work!

Here are seven patterns based on a rectangle (the crazy-looking birds are my favorite):

 

If you want to try to make these yourself, download my step-by-step project.

And this one is based on a hexagon (same principle as the rectangular ones):

 

Good work, looking forward to seeing what Steve's students come up with in 2014!

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