Just another Kerky render.

Link to model used for second image.

Tutorial: Getting Started With SketchUp Plugins

I have made a short, inter-active tutorial demonstrating some basic techniques for writing SketchUp plugins in Ruby. It covers the workflow of editing, saving and loading a script using a simple example.

The tutorial does not cover learning the Ruby language, nor the SketchUp-Ruby API.

View the Tutorial and let me know what you think.


Tutorial Resources:

Ruby Language (Download Ruby)
Ruby Documentation
Ruby Editors
SketchUp-Ruby API Blog
SketchUp-Ruby API Class Reference
Tutorial created with Wink

SketchUp to Valve Hammer Exporter Video

Here's a video demoing a SketchUp -> Hammer exporter. There's no links or other information given. Video by yas1945

Popular Woodworking Bench in SketchUp

Popular Woodworking Magazine Senior Editor Robert W. Lang has written an article, posted a SketchUp model, and a video about what he's calling a "21st Century Workbench" for the upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking. 


Read the article.

Free Version of IDX Renditioner Express is now available

The free version of IDX Renditoner Express includes all the same features as IDX Renditioner but differs in render size and possibly speed.

IDX Renditioner Express (Free) supports a maximum render size of 640 x 480 pixels.

IDX Renditioner Express (Free) includes a smaller number of light components, but more will be available on the forums at http://forums.idx-design.com. Lights are easy to create and we encourage you to share.

At this time the PC version is available, but a free Mac version is expected soon.

(http://www.idx-design.com/)

SketchUpVideo Adds Non-English Subtitles to SketchUp Videos

Some of the videos from the Official Google SketchUp video channel on YouTube have started showing up with foreign language subtitles. So far, I have found the following languages:

SketchUpVideoFrench (4 videos)
SketchUpVideoItalian (4 videos)
SketchUpVideoGerman (4) videos)
SketchUpVideoSpanish (4 videos)
SketchUpVideoJapan (3 videos)

Are the others?

Podium Greeble Render

I like how this one turned out. It's an attempt to copy a simple rendered image from the Greeblelicious gallery.

SketchUp 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion Library by FloMoCo

FloMoCo has made available a library of extruded aluminum profiles and connectors. Deatils here.

Podium1.5 Renderer for Mac OS X Released

Read about it here.

Google Sketchup T3D Exporter for UT3

Here's a terse post by user HardPCM on the Epic Games Forums announcing a SketchUp exporter for UT3. There's really not much more information given.

link

Sketchup Ruby API Class Diagrams

Inspired by a thread on Google Groups[1], I decided to make my own class diagrams of the SketchUp Ruby API classes and modules. These were made using a script running in SketchUp which output a file for GraphViz[2].

I decided to create separate graphs for the Observers, the UI, and Geom classes/modules in order to keep the main SketchUp diagram readable when printed on a singe sheet of paper. 

Sketchup



UI




Geom




Observers



Mixins





[1] Incomplete API Class Diagram (author: RLC)
[2] GraphViz

Podium Blue Render

This render was made using Podium while playing with the face divider plugin and Protrude plugins.

Construction Detail Render

I have been playing with Podium since it first came out, and finally purchased a license. Here's the first decent render I was able to get.

Preview: Face Division

Hi all,

Just a video of some work in progress. With this one, you select a face and then run the plugin. In this video, I have it assigned to a shortcut key.

The plugin draws a single line to divide a face, and works on all selected faces. The location of the line is determined by a random number in a user-specified range. A range of 20-80 means the line will be drawn at least 20% from the edge, but not more than 80% from the same edge. A range of 50-50 always divides the rectangle in half. The line is always drawn parallel to the short side of the rectangle - and it does only work on rectangles (and squares, of course.)

I think eventually this will be incorporated into Protrude, and both will be mashed into a Greeble suite. I need a few days to work on the User Interface.

Daniel asked about what happens on curved surfaces. Since curves are really just softened rectangles, the plugin happily divides them using the same algorithm.

And Daniel's reply was to download the above model and produce this..