sketch-up

Solid color, by AR:2

2011-05-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Osman Insurance by AR:2

M199 by AR:2

Commercial Road by AR:2

I believe you and I like to use solid color for your SketchUp model, as opposed to mono tone mentioned in early post, this is good especially when you have material idea in your mind during the design process. Here are some samples designed by Australian architect AR:2, their design is contemporary, clean and bold.

Also visit their website for other related projects built by SketchUp.

Images © AR:2

Mono tone, by PHAB architects

2011-05-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Camp Hill Residence, Brisbane

Bardon Residence 2, Brisbane

Windsor Residence, Brisbane

Here are the few beautiful single house projects by Australian firm PHAB architects, they are presented in mono-tone, this method is most of architects' preferred presentation style in conceptual stage for formal expression. If you noticed, there are a wire frame next to the objects, it is good that if you wish to show its surrounding situation in relation with your house, while still keep the house as the main focus point in the drawing.

Some designers build white base for surrounding (which is in white solid), if your house design has striking color, then you can go ahead with this contrast method. Otherwise you will lose the design.

Hope this helpful.

Images © PHAB architects

Water color effect, by Heterarchy Ltd

2011-04-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

If you get bored of the SketchUp default effects, you can try this sketchy yet presentable effect by Heterarchy Ltd, it looks like watercolor effect, very soft, and feeling comfortable.

You can achieve it in 2 ways, either going to built-in plugin where is available from the top menu in window > styles >, there are few options that you can play with, and of course it is able to edit to your preferences, but some mapping you may need to do it in photoshop.

Or

Touch-up in photoshop after exporting from your SketchUp, you may need some photoshop skills.

For me, I would prefer using built-in effect because it would save you a lot of time in photoshop if you have a lot of images to present, however, if you only have few nice images to show, please do not hesitate to do it in photoshop, it is a very powerful tools to enhance your presentation style and overall effect.

Have fun!

Images © Heterarchy Ltd
via

How to divide a line or arc into equal segments?

2011-02-23T02:16:00.000-08:00

It is so embarrassed telling the truth here, although I have been using sketchUp for quite a long time, but recently just noticed that it's a very useful command, which is to divide a line or arc into equal segments.

So, from now on, I can throw my calculator away from and desk and say bye bye.

Here is the demonstration step by step. Let's feel free to test it out.

First, you need to right click on the line or arc to display the menu (blue arrow, click on the "divide"),
you will see some red-spots, moving left-right or key in the number of segments you would like to have.
Draw lines to split the surface.

That's it, easy huh...

MAGLIN sketchUp outdoor furniture components

2010-11-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Well, let's talk about real product designs which are available in the market, sometimes when you put some of sketchUp components to your design model, would you be experienced being asked by your client how to get that products? Then how was your answer? "opps, I get those from component library, but I might try to get the similar product for you" or "......" I think this gonna be your answer?

But now, I recently discovered one of the outdoor furniture design & manufacturer in USA & CANADA - MAGLIN SITE FURNITURE INC. MAGLIN supply outdoor furniture ranging from Ash Receptacles, Trash Containers, Recycle Units, Benches, Bike Racks, Bollards, Cluster Seating, Planters, Patio Enclosures to Signage. All of these products are available in sketchUp component for you to download.

You can register Now to gain immediate access to Maglin's CAD, PDF, SketchUp files and instant quotes.

Please click here to the MAGLIN website.

Presentation style by Irishplans.com

2010-10-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Recently when I browsed through the internet, I've found this interesting website irishplans.com which produce and present their design mostly in SketchUp. Some are touch up with photoshop in the final design process. They are sketchy and presentable.

Images © irishplans.com

Sketch up video: How to create for Google Earth 3D modeling

2009-05-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

How to create for Google Earth 3D modeling... I believe some of you are expert in modeling sketch up for Google Earth, but some are not, if you are the one who is new to this field, please click the link for your practice.

Besides, in Google sketch up tutorial site, it ranges from basic to advanced topic, which include,

1) Beginner
2) Intermediate level
3) Expert level
4) Working with Google earth
4) Creating layout for presentation

How to draw egg in Sketch up?

2009-03-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

"How to draw an egg?" is an interesting question that I received recently, I've done a demonstration and post it here to help those don't know how to draw an egg in sketchup.

First, you need to draw an 2D egg shape by using "arc" tool, then draw a circle which control the size of the egg, put it at the center of egg shape. Now you can use the "follow me" command to build your egg.

Have fun!

Sketchy effect, by BEHNISCH archietcts

2009-02-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

Anting New Town Sports Complex

Millenium Biologix - Headquarters & Research Facilities

I like Behnisch archietcts's presentation style, because the way they present their works is very clean and sketchy.

Millenium Biologix proposal, one of the Sketchy model, the effect can be achieved by extending the edge lines which can be set in the 'Edge style - extension' option.

Images © Behnisch archietcts

SketchUp component compatibility

2008-12-22T06:28:00.000-08:00

"I am using sketchup 4, but most of the components in Google warehouse are in sketchup 6 version, it would be appreciated if you send me the sketchUp 4 version component to my email xxx@gmail.com."

"where can I get older version of sketch Up component?"

"I am very hard to find sketch Up 4 components from internet, can you send me some link to refer? thanks so much."

Recently I've received a lot of queries of the sketchup component compatibility, we know after Google bought over the sketch up software, it seems to us a frequent launching 3D software, a lot of older version user, cant really find a suitable component.

Today, I just wanna have a post of helping you guys for the component compatibility issue. I have always featured the Google 3D warehouse in my previous post, no worries, lets see the picture below, what do you think?

yea... you are right, if you are sketch up 3, 4 or 5 users, please go the google sketch Up page to download a free sketchup 6 or 7, then you can open the component in where you have downloaded from if the component is not in 4 version, and save it as [sketch up 3] , [sketch up 4] or [sketch up 5], it depends on what kind of version you are currently using. Done! you can now insert your saved component to your older sketchup version. Easy, isn't it?

please click here to download a latest sketch up version.

SketchUp video tutorial

2008-12-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

As promised, I've found additional SketchUp tutorial videos. I think these SketchUp tutorial videos are very helpful for those are new to SketchUp. The tutorial video featuring how to apply the texture to the model, how the components work, how to create terrains from contour, how to build model from a photo and etc.

Please click here for more your enjoyment.

SketchUp garden design

2008-11-29T08:40:00.000-08:00

I've just have a quick study of designing a home garden landscape design by testing the various size of concrete pieces in relation with concrete seating (white color).

Some has emailed me regarding first time using 3 dimensional program. If you're wanna do your own home garden design, I'll suggest you using sketchup, it is friendly user, free and available from google SketchUp. Once you've known the basic tools> draw, pull, turn, move, copy..etc, you'll be soon get closer to the SketchUp.

Here is a video tutorial for those are new to sketchUp. Let's enjoy!

Need more? Please check it out our tutorial page or to google sketchUp official page for more sketchUp tutorial information.

Clean presentation style in Sketchup, by Pott architects

2008-11-29T08:16:00.001-08:00

This is an art campus design proposal in berlin, designed by Pott architects. I personally like this kind of presentation style as it is simple, nice and straight forward, no any unnecessary work required that spending time in full rendering. The design and images are copyrighted to Pott architects.

Google SketchUp 7 has launched with new feature!

2008-11-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Further to sketch up pro 6, the Google Sketchup 7 has released! You can take a look at What's New in 7 page and also download for free available for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X (10.4+).

There are some special new features that I would like to highlight in Sketchup 7 are as below,

You can draw a free-line polyline to create a irregular shape of form, you can even edit the line with a path edit command.

Beside polyline, there are no more stretching and distortion when you Scaling an object.

Here are some videos of Sketchup 7 demonstrating the new feature in SketchUp 7 version.

Official Google Blog: Introducing SketchUp 7

Soap Skin & Bubble, Tensile Structures for Sketchup

2008-10-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

Archdaily has a post regarding how the sketchup does the flexible form, for instance, before, we can actually only use sketch up to build simple form, but NOW...Tensile-structures has launched a plug-in associated with sketchup that enable the program to build a better and flexible form as samples below.

You can go the their website to download the sketch up plug-in for free! and also the video tutorials and demonstration all are available in YOUTUBE.

Tensile Structures for Sketchup (image © http://www.tensile-structures.de)

Soap Skin & Bubble (image © http://www.tensile-structures.de)

Kitchen sketch design

2008-10-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've designed my own kitchen by sketch up with kitchen components which are available from GOOGLE warehouse, especially refrigerator, cooktop, kitchen sink and etc. I felt good to show my idea to kitchen contractor for their better understanding.

Podium 1.5 working in Sketch Up

2008-08-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

image © Christ Haseldonckx, a.k.a.‘biebel’

SU Podium is a photo-realistic rendering plug-in for Google SketchUp 6. Now, you can run a TRUE photo-realistic effect rendering program from your sketch up model without going through too many complex processes.

"Podium runs completely inside Google SketchUp from start to finish. It uses SketchUp features such as textures, background colors, groups and shadows to achieve impressive results. Podium is intuitive to SketchUp users."

Here are a free evaluation version to download and play with it, no expiry. Some more this version is exactly the same as commercial version just only the smaller outputs (320x120, 500x500 image resolution). Before doing anything, let's browse through the video tutorial for your better familiar with the program.

Sketch-up component - chairs

2008-07-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

If you are able to read Chinese words, here are some sketch up components (Chair) download for free from ~~IDMEN.com~~ (dead link: updated 12/3/11).

Google 3D Basecamp 2008, YouTube

2008-06-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Google 3D Basecamp 2008 video presentations are available on YourTube

SketchUp and AutoCAD
How to create a base-plan quickly and effectively, the relationship between AutoCAD blocks and layers with SketchUp components and layers, it would save all your time.

SketchUp and ArchiCAD
This video talks about the connection between SketchUp and ArchiCAD, describing the "BIM -building information modeling", as called "vitual building".

Promoting Your Work Using Google Resources
There are some architectural design case studies, majority to demonstrate how we can maximize using the Google resources.

Maxing Out Your Productivity with Ruby Scripts
How Ruby Scripts relate to SketchUp program.

SketchUp and Green Design
Does SketchUp relates to Green Design? Let's see...

Adding detail with the follow-me tool
A shape follows path, the video is also demonstrating the modeling shortcut method.

Marking Your Mark with SketchUp

Sketch up in light and shadow

2008-06-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

You can even have a better Sketchup animation with the V-Ray plugin support. V-Ray is a rendering plug-in that enables Sketch-Up users to have a performance enhancements for producing an outstanding image quality. The renders using these V-Ray technique can appear more photo-realistic to the human eye, as actual lighting effects are more realistically emulated.

This is the sample of how the Sketchup output associated with V-Ray.

Google 3D Warehouse

2008-05-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Google 3D warehouse serves as a sharing platform for the sketch up users to publish and share your works. The 3D model has been categoried into 2 types: geo-referenced and non-geo-referenced. The geo-referenced is a real building object which has been built and located in Google Earth, and the non-geo-referenced is just the supporting 3D model like car, people, tree & etc....

There are some helpful modeling guideline (pdf format) for your better understand how to apply a new texture/material to the model (including the tutorial in Photoshop).

Car component in Google 3D warehouse

2008-05-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here are one of the sample sketch-up component which is available in Google 3D warehouse. It is all free.

Sketch-up animation video

2008-05-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sketch up is not only for paper presentaion, but also the animation, allow to create a fly through video. In the video, we can see how the 2D (plan) turns to 3D (form), and the 3D comes to animation (doors open & close).

Beijing Airport by sketch up

2008-05-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

wow! the world's largest airport in Beijing, China. Developed by Sketch up.

Sketch up components available to download

2008-05-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hi all, please be informed that all the sketch up components are available by just 1 click. Who those left a message requesting the component, please go each relevant page to download from there. It would be appreciated if you guys can share your any creative libraries with us.

from sketch up to 3D studio MAX

2008-04-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

This is a demostration of modeling by sketch up and run the full rendering in studioMAX for the final presentation to your client. You can still have some final touch up in Photo shop (waterfall effect, background, tree, people etc).

Sketch design, 2D + 3D

2008-04-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

The presentation of sketch elevation design in sketch up with the CAD lines (both elevation and plan) which are laid in layers vertically and horizontally as shown in picture. It looks pretty cool right....

Sketch up video tutorial

2008-01-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

Interest video demostrates the process of building a building using the sketch up, it is fun !

Riverwood mixed-use project sketch up samples, by HOK international

2008-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Drawing courtesy HOK

Here is the sample of sketch up which is designed by HOK architecture, that showing how presentable the creation of sketch up.

How to generate a twisting form by sketch up?

2007-12-12T04:13:00.000-08:00

One asked how to build a twisting form in sketchup, let's start with a simple form for your experiment and better understanding, here we go...

First, after building the form as shown in picture, then select only the top surface and rotate it, the twisting form will be automatically generated... try it out!

sketch up effect with a lightlight color

2007-12-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

car showroom proposal

Here is the sample of creating the sketch up effect with a lightlighting color that expressing your architectural ideas. This features can be colored in photoshop or even in sketch-up before exporting to Jpeg file.

Video sketchup Tutorials

2007-08-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Google offers video sketch up tutorial to improve your sketch up skill, these videos demostrate

The basic techniques of using sketch up
Features of Google SketchUp 6, alternatively, you can download a PDF here
How to model for Google Earth 3D modeling

If you are still sketch up 5 user, and looking for tutorial, here are some video informations that meet your needs.

create a simple background in sketch up

2007-06-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

You can just create a simple background in sketch up like what other 3D softwares do, here are the sample of creating a background with black & white effect (hidden line, endpoints = 5).

the background: window > model info > 'table below'

Abandoned Tech Facility by Murali

2007-04-09T03:12:00.000-07:00

Murali has done a good job, and wanna share his work with us. Thanks again Murali for sharing such a great work here.

Jitter Effect Sketch Up

2007-04-07T03:59:00.000-07:00

Jitter Effect in Sketch up.

3 effects in 1

2007-01-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

This is another method of presentation for your sketch up,

3 effects in 1 (can be more than 3 if you want to)

wireframe
hidden line (Jitter)
shared with textured (Jitter)

* touched up in photoshop for joining them together

Google Sketchup Pro 6

2007-01-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

I've been suprised that
Google has launched Google Sketchup Pro 6 in just few months after launching sketchup 6. The new recommended feature for this version is the LayOut (beta).

With LayOut (beta) you can:

Create compelling multi-page design documents and presentations.
Arrange and annotate multiple scaled images on a single-page.
Create customized elements and symbols for your presentations using 2D Vector graphics toolsets.
Create, document and present your designs using a single software package.

These are all in one, save time for doing photo touch-up and presentation panel. You know why? time is the assert for architects. :) Google has thought everything for you.

8 hours FREE trial version of Google SketchUp Pro is from availabe!

how to create sketch up JITTER effect

2006-12-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

Jitter effect in sketch up

Jitter effect creates sketchy effect to the building by just ticking the box as shown. This is a very powerful tool in the conceptual design stage.

Shop sample

2006-12-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

commercial project by sketch up

BMW 7 series sketchup component

2006-12-26T05:07:00.000-08:00

BMW 7 SERIES COMPONENT

Download

reception desk component

2006-11-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

reception desk

designer planter component

2006-11-21T05:17:00.000-08:00

designer planter pot

Download

sketchUP comment

2006-11-19T09:14:00.000-08:00

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Donald Rumsfeld

master planning sketchup sample and effect

2006-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

sketch up sample for masterplan.

free Google Sketch-up

2006-11-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth..

get it free now

free sketchup tutorial & solution

2006-11-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

This blog is created by sketch up user in the field of architecture and design. We post the relevant sample, news, works, and components, for the sketchUP users all around the world in order to have a better sketchUP community and get it closer... by having the comments and discussions in this blog.

Your works are welcome to post here, if you'd like to share with our friends... If you are interested in the component libraries which has been posted here, ~~please leave your email, we will forward to you~~, please go to the component page, FOR FREE!!!

audi tt

2006-11-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

audi tt car component

Download

comments

2006-11-01T04:03:00.001-08:00

"We have been extremely happy and impressed with Sketch up 5. I am impressed not only with the program itself, but also the tutorials, technical support and component libraries. I look forward to opening the program every time I use it. "

- Jeff VanCuren
Halbach Dietz Architects

sketchup for archicad

2006-11-01T03:55:00.000-08:00

The integration of SketchUp with Archicad lets architects and Principals alike, focus on creativity at the earliest concept phase of any new project knowing that their designs can be automatically imported into Archicad®. This tool allows users to automatically re-use as much of the SketchUp® model data in Archicad as possible, without the need to manually rework it.

source

black&white, textured, and jitter effect comparison

2006-10-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

the comparison between the sketch up effect:
1. Black & white effect
2. Textured effect
3. Jitter effect

sketchup component libraries

2006-10-31T04:27:00.000-08:00

due to insufficient tool for blogspot... those are interested in sketchup component libraries, ~~please leave a message here with email, i will forward the file to you~~... you can just go to particular page to click on the download button, with the password of 'sketchup' , I'd try my best to share all availabe sketch up components with sketch-up lovers.

enjoy..

SketchUP Viewer

2006-10-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

SketchUP Viewer is used to view and print the sketchUP model created in sketchUP. Free download is available here.

dunebuggy

2006-10-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

this car component is available

Download
password: sketchup

massing

2006-09-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

sketchup sample 3D

2006-09-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

mix development

sketch up effect

2006-09-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

i have been developing the design using the tool of sketch-up. This is a very powerful tool for architect who wants to test the massing...

sketchy effect that allow to achieve the sense of 'architect conceptual design'...don't you think?

i have some sketchup component libraries that would like to share with you guys, BMW 7 series component for an example, those are interested, ~~please leave a message, i will email to you the file~~, please go to sketch-uplibraries page to download...

cheers...

the official site: http://www.sketchup.com/
sketchup tutorial: http://sketchup.google.com/tutorials.html