Regular Polygon Keyframe Animation Plugin

Regular Polygon has published a keyframe animation for SketchUp version 7 & 8, Free or Pro.

Main Features include:

• Keyframes are easily added, deleted, renamed, and reordered.
• Any group or component can be animated.
• Animated groups (components) can be nested.
• Animated groups (components) can be nested inside of non-animated groups (components).
• Animated groups (components) are interpolated between keyframes by translation or rotation.
• The interpolation lasts for the entire keyframe transition time.
• Keyframes can have independent transition times.
• Keyframes can have independent delay times.
• The keyframes can be converted to a slideshow of ordinary (non-animated) scenes, called tweens.
• The number of tweens depends on the frame rate you set.
• The tween slideshow can be exported to an AVI movie, or to image files (PNG, JPEG, TIF, or BMP)

Keyframe Animation is a commercial Plugin with an introductory price of just under $20. The download is a full-featured, 10-day evaluation.

[ KeyFrame Animation @ Regular Polygon ]

Plugin: Simple Shell

Simple Shell creates an inner or outer shell by copying and scaling a Group or Surface around its center of geometry. It works best with symmetrical objects.

To make a shell,

* Select a single Group or surface.
* Select JF Simple Shell from the Plugins menu.

A Dialog will prompt for the wall thickness.



The Faces of the shell will be reversed from the original's. Use a negative thickness to make an outer shell.

Download jf_simple_shell.rb

Driving Dimensions 1.4 Update for 8

LEDAS has released version 1.4 of their Driving Dimensions plugin for SketchUp. The update is focused on SketchUp version 8 compatibility.

Driving Dimensions adds parametric ability to SketchUp by allowing users to set and update contraints through SketchUp's Dimensions.

Read the official press release: LEDAS Improves Google SketchUp 8 with Driving Dimensions 1.4

2Bot CNC ModelMaker

I thought this machine was interesting, since it says it is compatible with KMZ files produced by Google SketchUp.

The 2BOT ModelMaker is a turn-key solution for creating physical 3D models from 3D data. The system includes hardware, software, and material. Your 3D data needs to be loaded into the 2BOT software, called 2BOT Studio, which "is compatible with many different file formats including DWG, DXF, Google SketchUp KMZ, STL, and USGS FLT files."

(I couldn't find a price, or a description of the material.)

[ 2bot.com ]

'Digital Job Site' Blog - Fine Homebuilding SketchUp Blog

FineHomebuilding has recently entered the Sketch-U-verse with a blog they call the "Digital Job Site" about...

how builders, remodelers, and architects use the free 3-D modeling software Google SketchUp to design projects and present them to clients.

'Digital Job Site' Blog - Fine Homebuilding

Stand-Alone FBX Converter

If you need to work with FBX files and don't have an Autodesk product, then this stand-alone converter may be useful. It doesn't directly support SketchUp files, so an intermediate format will be needed.

Transfer project data from one application to another quickly and easily with the FBX Converter. This utility lets you convert OBJ, DXF™, and 3DS files to and from the FBX format.

The converter supports COLLADA, although it is not mentioned in Autodesk's description.

Downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

[ FBX Converter ]

SketchUp Graphing Plugin

Update: 2010 December 05, a cold and snowy Sunday morning.

• Add function to Layer (allows Color By Layer)
• Add Function to Group
• Users can enter X range and X step values

Equation Grapher is a free plugin for Google SketchUp.

Activate the plugin in the menu: Plugins/JF Graph Eq

A dialog will ask for the X Range and X step value to plot the function through.

The Function dialog will prompt you to enter the function to graph. The function must be valid Ruby language statement. (see also: Ruby Math module.) Use paranthesis to force order of operations, or whenever there is doubt in the order in which operations might occur.

Colors

To display the plots in color, open the Layers dialog and select Color By Layer in the fly-out menu. Then, select Edge color by material in the Styles/Edge Settings dialog.

Installation

Download the file attachment below. Move the file to your SketchUp Plugin folder, and restart SketchUp. The file is meant to replace the file named eq_grapher.rb (if you have it also.)

Download: jf_eq_grapher.rb.