Plugin: Parking

Rick Wislon of smutard.com has released a new, free plugin to:

Create parking lot lines with two clicks

Smustard(TM) - the Companion to Sketchup(TM) - Parking

SketchLife - SketchUp to Second Life

Sketchlife is a system which allows you to model for Second Life using SketchUp.

Check it out.

Updated Construction Line Tool

Thanks to Henry Schorradt, who modified my Construction Line Tool so that it no longer creates multiple CPoints at the same location.

[ Construction Line Tool | Blog of Henry Schorradt ]

Plugin: BTM Sculpt Tools

Sketchucation member BTM created a powerful new toolset for sculting meshes directly in SketchUp. This plugin fills an often-requested feature set and is very much appreciated by the SU community. The toolset includes vertex pushing, pulling bulging, and smoothing.

Download and discuss the plugin here.

Plugin: RoundCorner by Fredo6

The most recent plugin from Fredo6. Performs 3D operations called by various names such as: bevel, round-over, bullnose, fillet, chamfer, radius.

RoundCorner performs the rounding of the edges and corners of 3D shapes along a 2D profile, in 3 modes: Round corners, Sharp corners and Bevel.

Download and Discussion on Sketchucation Forums.

Pachube SketchUp Plugin

Pachube (pronounced "patch bay") is a web service that enables you to connect, tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. [read more]

Pachube has a plugin for SketchUp which allows access to Pachube data (i.e. sensor and environment data) in Google SketchUp.

[ tutorial (download) and video ]

Plugins by TIG

TIG's super extrudeEdgedByEdges plugin allows you to create surfaces from 2 curves.

[via sketchucation forums]

This plugin is only the most recent for the prolific author. Be sure to look for more outstanding plugins from TIG.

SketchUp Transformation Tweening Animation Videos

These 2 quick demo videos show Groups being animated in Google SketchUp.

Although the motion is most noticeable, it is not strictly the position that is being animated - each Group's Transformation is being tweened from the initial to a target Transformation. This means it should be possible to tween rotation and scaling of the Group also. The rotation is also shown in the videos, but the scaling is not working yet.

The first video shows a 'quad in/out' easing, and the second a 'back in/out' easing.

The animations are slow because my computer is old.

Updated GreyScale Plugin

Sorry for the re-post - Picasa ate my images.

GreyScale

I have updated my GreyScale plugin to include a new mode called "Front Face". Front Face is similar to SketchUp's Monochrom mode, except that textures remain and are color-matched to the Front Face color.

Normal Colors and Textures

Here is a model as normally viewed.

Model in GreyScale Mode

In GreyScale mode, all in-model colors are saved, then their color values modified to a greyscale equivalent. Note the textures are still visible, but their colors have been modified to shades of grey.

Front Face Mode

Now, if we set the Face default color using the Style Dialog...



Now we switch the the plugin's Front Face mode, you can see the colors and textures all take on the same color as the Face default color set in the Style dialog. Again, very similar to SketchUp's Monochrome Face Style, but textures are kept visible.

Revert Selected Colors

When in either GreyScale or Front Face mode, you can right-click on a painted or textured object and Revert the material to it's original value for highlighting.

Notes

A model can be saved in either GreyScale or FrontFace mode with no problems. When re-opened, the model will be in the same mode it was saved in, so check the Mode in the menu to reset the original color values.

For FrontFace mode, once the mode is selected and the in-model colors modified, you can continue to change the Front face color without changing the in-model colors again. This way if you have elements that are untextured and uncolored, their color can be changed using the Font face default color.

I can see the use in this, but I lack the talent to demonstrate it. So here is a link to a sketchucation forum thread showing how some very talented people are using it.

Smustard.com

Finally, with this update I have signed up with the great people at smustard.com to offer this updated version for sale at a very reasonable price.

Thank you for understanding that it takes time and effort to create these plugins.

Buy GreyScale here.

-- Jim

Embeded 3D Models from 3D Warehouse

It is now possible to embed any 3d model on Google's 3d Wharehouse on a web page.

Here is my Spiral Stair Dynamic Component Demo. It is a try at making the handrail completely dynamic. This demo is close, but not quite there yet. And below that, the options dialog for all the stair settings.







To include a model in your web page, first visit the 3d Warehouse page for that model. Then near the bottom, click the Include link, and select the 3d Option. Copy and paste the code into your web page.