Smart modeling for building performance using SketchUp and Sefaira

A few members of the SketchUp team recently traveled to New York to spend a little time with the folks at Sefaira. Sefaira provides energy and daylighting analysis to help architects and designers drive decisions like form, orientation, and facade design with the aid of real-time feedback in SketchUp.

Together, we worked on a webinar called Smart Modeling for Building Performance. The focus of the webinar was to take a closer look at some of the decisions that drive building performance, as well as some SketchUp techniques that aid in this kind of modeling at early stages of design.

Check out the recorded version of the webinar from Feb. 19, 2015. The techniques shown in this video are aimed toward the use of SketchUp with the Sefaira extension.

We also put together a list of resources and answers to questions that were presented during the webinar. You can access those here and find more information about Sefaira on their website or on the Extension Warehouse.

Posted by Josh Reilly, SketchUp Team

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SketchUp Skill Builders: Model Smarter, Faster

Have you ever had that moment in SketchUp where you discovered something new and your entire day got a little brighter? We created a new video series that’ll hopefully add more of those moments to your month. Our new SketchUp Skill Builder videos are meant to be short (just a few minutes), so you can grab some morning coffee and learn something new in a few sips!

SketchUp Skill Builders: Learn something fun and useful about SketchUp in just a few minutes!

As we release these videos, we’ll also create separate discussion threads for each video in the Tutorials category of our SketchUp Forum. That’s the place to go if you have questions about a technique, or an idea about how to model even smarter.

We’re planning to release a few Skill Builders each month, and we’d love to hear what techniques you’d like to learn more about or any of your own modeling tips you’d like to share with the SketchUp community. Fill out this form to suggest an idea for a future Skill Builder video.

Posted by Josh Reilly, SketchUp Team

What? You’ve never been to the SketchUp YouTube channel? We have lots of useful videos about modeling techniques, tools, and user stories. Search within our channel or subscribe to stay in the loop on our latest and greatest.

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SketchUp Multi-Tool Personalities: Part One

Did you know that many SketchUp tools have alter egos? You might think you know your SketchUp tools pretty well, but many have supplemental functions revealed in the status bar at the bottom of the SketchUp window that most folks don’t notice.

What’s that? The Eraser tool leads a secret life as a quick way to hide or soften/smooth geometry!

Keep an eye on the status bar for other modifications on standard tools.

The information in this status bar changes when different tools are selected. For example, when the Eraser tool is selected, you’ll see two key modifier hints in the status bar: hold Shift to hide edges instead of erasing them, or hold Option (Ctrl on PC) to Soften/Smooth edges. All of sudden, one tool gives you access to three.

However, there are a handful of tool abilities that are not communicated via the SketchUp interface. If you didn’t know about these extra options – it’s kind of like finding a $20 bill at the bottom of your drier. Take a look at the Arc tool, for instance. There’s a useful hidden feature here that was introduced in SketchUp 2015: you can automatically trim corners with the Arc tool by double-clicking immediately after drawing an arc. Here’s how:

1. Select the Arc tool and click on one edge of a corner to start drawing an arc.

2. Hover your cursor over to the adjacent edge; notice the “Tangent to Edge” indicator that appears.

3. As you continue to hover along the edge, look carefully for the arc to change color from cyan to magenta. The magenta color indicates that you’ve located the point that is equidistant from the corner relative to your initial point (arc is tangent at both edges).

4. Double-click when you see the arc change to magenta and SketchUp will automatically trim that corner.

5. If you’d like to continue trimming corners at that same radius – simply double-click near other corners. Need a visual? Check out the animation of this in action below.

Automatically trim corners by drawing a tangent arc at a corner and then double-clicking with the Arc tool. Check out this Knowledge Center article for additional information about these methods.

Now let’s explore the Position Camera tool. It may not be used often, but it’s worth taking out of your tool belt once in a while. If desired, you can review this tool in our SketchUp Training Series: Position Camera / Look Around video. When you’re ready, try this in your current SketchUp model:

1. Select the Position Camera tool; notice status bar informing you to “Select the camera position.”

2. Click once on a point in your model where you wish to set the camera position.

3. SketchUp zooms into the viewpoint you chose. The status bar now states, “Drag in direction to turn camera.” Note that your cursor now changes to the icon for the Look Around tool. This allows you to adjust your view as if you’re turning your head; the camera position is stationary, but you can swivel to look around.

4. In Step 2, we clicked and released the mouse button. If you click and drag, the status bar indicates: “Select a point that the camera is aimed at.” You can now release the mouse button over a location in your model where you wish to look. One use of this is to perform a line-of-sight analysis where you want the vantage point from a specific location and the view aimed at a specific point in your model.

Position Camera lets you pick a vantage point in SketchUp and create a view looking towards a specific location in your model. (Models shown found via 3D Warehouse: Star Trek TOS Crew, USS Enterprise NCC- 1701- G, & 40 Acres "Mayberry" Sets)

We’re sure you’ve noticed that SketchUp will snap to specific inferences as you draw with certain tools. The Arc tool snaps to a half circle proportion. The Rectangle tool snaps to square proportions as well as the Golden Section (Golden Ratio). A dotted line with a Golden Section tool tip will appear when you’re in a position to create a Golden Section. Try this for yourself by clicking once to start drawing a rectangle – hover slowly – and look for SketchUp to snap to those proportions.

Looking for Golden Section proportions? Utilize the Golden Section snap in SketchUp to quickly draw with these proportions.

If you’re curious about what else you may have never noticed about your favorite SketchUp tools, here’s a list of some key modifiers you can find among the tools in the Large Tool Set:

Select → Shift = extend selection
Eraser → Shift = Hide, Option (Ctrl) = Soften/Smooth
Push/Pull → Option (Ctrl) = create new starting face
Move/Copy → Option (Ctrl) = copy, Shift = lock inference,
Command (Alt) = auto-fold
Rotate → Option (Ctrl) = copy, Shift = align to face
Tape Measure → Option (Ctrl) = create guides
Protractor → Option (Ctrl) = create guides, Shift = align to face
Orbit → Shift = pan, Option (Ctrl) = suspend gravity
Zoom → Shift = change field of view
Walk → Option (Ctrl) = run (seriously!), Shift = move vertically or sideways,
Command (Alt) = disable collision detection
Section Plane → Shift = lock to plane

It’s easy to miss some tool options and key modifiers when you’re cruising along in SketchUp. Don’t forget to occasionally peek at that status bar while you’re modeling; it might just give you the hint you need to proceed.

Posted by Josh Reilly, SketchUp Team

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The Value of "Clean Modeling"

David Heim is a veteran book and magazine editor specializing in woodworking. After a 28-year career at Consumer Reports, he moved to Fine Woodworking magazine. David has been writing about and teaching SketchUp for over four years, and says he never begins any project until he has previewed it in SketchUp first. This is one of several upcoming SketchUpdate guest posts from David on modeling principles for woodworkers.

I first heard the phrase clean modeling from Dave Richards at 3D Basecamp 2014. As Dave explained it to me later, clean modeling is a simple concept that basically means, “learn to sweat the small stuff.” If the model isn’t “clean,” small flaws could interfere with the changes you or someone else may want to make in the future. Let’s take a closer look at clean modeling principles via a Shaker trestle table I did a few years back. It looks pretty good, right? Actually, it’s a good example of why clean modeling is important.

Although this model of a Shaker table looks pretty good, it actually contains a number of flaws; finding and fixing them is what clean modeling is all about.

Missing Faces. I thought enough of the trestle table model to share it on the SketchUcation woodworking forum. Someone quickly cut me down to size, pointing out that my turned legs were missing faces. It’s a good thing no one looked closer. In fact, there were several problems with the model. Let’s begin with the missing faces. It happened because I was working with small geometry at a 1:1 scale. I could have saved face, so to speak, if I had scaled up the leg profile before extruding it.

The blue areas (left side) show where faces were not created properly. The right side shows the successful result of the scaled up Follow Me technique.

You can heal these faces by tracing over some of the edges with the Line tool, but it’s better to scale up certain components before using Follow Me or running Intersect Faces. Dave Richards typically copies a component to be extruded or intersected, scales it up 100x or even 1000x, and then edits the copy. After that, he deletes the copy; the original will show the edits properly. Generally, I’ve found this scaling method ensures a model won’t wind up with small missing faces.

A closer look. Inspecting the bottom of the arched feet reveals more small problems. If I run ThomThom's Solid Inspector extension, it shows me a stray line at one corner. It’s only about 1/64” long, but it shouldn’t be there. The same goes for a sliver of a stray face on the opposite corner. Extraneous lines and faces like these can pop up sometimes when performing certain tasks — like Intersect Faces mentioned above. These little lines are hard to see, of course. I could say, “So what? No one will ever see them.” Maybe, but I need to get rid of them if I want a clean model.
Ed. Note: ThomThom recently released Solid Inspector². Also, try “StrayLines.rb” from www.smustard.com.

The Solid Inspector extension reveals a minuscule stray line at the base of the foot. This extension is a useful tool for identifying extraneous geometry that could be erased.

Orient faces. Obviously, visible faces must be oriented properly. But the same goes for faces that aren’t meant to be seen: the sides of holes, recesses, mortises, and the like. As you create those elements, take the time to be sure the correct face is showing. If a surface is facing the wrong way, you can right-click on it and choose Reverse Faces.

Soften/Smooth curved faces. Often, when you Push/Pull a shape that results in a curved face, you’ll also create edges separating the facets of the curve. You can hide those edges, but the face will still look faceted. It’s better to eliminate the edges with the Soften/Smooth Edges technique.

Hiding the edges on a curved face leaves the surface looking faceted (middle object). For a truly smooth face, use Soften/Smooth Edges.

Set component axes. If a component doesn't perfectly align to the axes, be sure to set the axes when you create the component. This is especially important if you’re planning to use the CutList extension. It relies on the size of the bounding box to reckon the size of the component. An oversized bounding box will lead to inaccuracies in the cutlist.

Clean-up. Finally, reduce the file size: purge unused components, use multiple copies of components instead of numerous groups, and compress textures. ThomThom's CleanUp³ extension helps expedite this process. If my advice strikes you as too obvious, that probably means your models are pretty clean already.

Guest authored by David Heim

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What are Fast Styles?

Let’s say you’re presenting an idea in SketchUp, but perhaps you’d prefer a loose conceptual look or a hand-drawn visualization — you’d rather not show what you’ve created in a way that makes it feel finished or final. Styles in SketchUp control the display settings which alter the way your model appears.

You can choose from a collection of predefined Styles, mix attributes of various Styles to make your own unique Style, and assign Styles to Scenes for handy access. The thing is, some Styles render faster than others. Because of this, you may want to use certain Styles (or Style settings) in certain situations during modeling and presentation work.

The Style shown above is called “PSO Vignette”; you can find it in the “Assorted Styles” category of the Styles Browser. This Style looks great, but it’s meant for illustration — not navigation. (Mountain Lake Retreat model by MB Architecture via 3D Warehouse)

This led us to the idea for Fast Styles: a combination of Style settings that won’t slow you down while modeling. In SketchUp 2015, you’ll notice a small green stopwatch icon in the bottom right corner of a Style thumbnail that meets the criteria of an official “Fast Style.” SketchUp now auto-detects Styles that use less processing power — this earns them the new badge.

These Styles are Fast Styles; note the new green badge.

To create your own Fast Style, you’ll need to get your hands dirty in the Styles Browser. When creating a Fast Style, you should avoid Style choices that will cause performance decline as your model complexity increases — settings like Sketchy Edges, Profiles, and Watermarks. Check out our Knowledge Center to learn more about these settings and Fast Styles, and remember to save the changes to your newly configured Styles!

However, a Fast Style doesn’t mean a boring Style. We whipped up a few custom Fast Styles and tossed them into this SketchUp model. Go to Window > Styles and jump into the "Select", "Edit", and "Mix" tabs to see what's there and mix some new Styles of your own.

This Style was created by simply changing the edges for the default “Blueprint” Style. The white Edge Setting from the “Camo” Style was applied to a copy of the Blueprint Style to create this new fast version.

A Style like the Fast Blueprint above might be a good choice when you want to present your SketchUp model in a stylized fashion, but you’d also like the benefits of smooth navigation and Scene transitions. Of course, you can still use Styles that have not earned the Fast Style badge — the benefit of working with Styles and Scenes together is that it’s easy to jump from a Scene meant for illustration to a Scene you might want to interact with. Now, with Fast Styles, you've got another trick up your sleeve for working and presenting quickly in SketchUp.

Posted by Josh Reilly, SketchUp Team

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Modeling a laser-cut Halloween costume for my son

October is the time of year that all of my creative energy is focused into a single, solitary purpose: the design and making of an unreasonably complicated Halloween costume for my son. This year, I was determined to reflect his outsized interest in aviation by building him his very own airplane. Something with an open cockpit. Something with a propeller. Something vintage. I started by touring the 3D Warehouse, collecting models of airplanes that might be good candidates. I settled on a WWII-era F4F-4 U.S. Navy fighter because I liked its shape, and because the model I found (by D.James) was beautifully executed.

 I found this Grumman F4F-4 on the 3D Warehouse. It was modeled by D.James.

Opening it in SketchUp, I began the process of simplifying the plane down to its most basic forms by hiding or deleting stuff I didn't need. The landing gear and propeller went. So did the wire-looking thing (I'm not much of an engineering buff) that connected the tail to the cockpit canopy. Eventually, I grouped the remaining bits of airplane together and put them on a single layer that I called "Reference."

The first step was to strip away the details that I didn’t think I’d need.

Next, I set about creating a brand-new model of the fuselage and tail by using the Circle, Push/Pull and Scale tools to create a form that (more or less) matched the existing model. I worked right on top, using the original geometry as a snapping guide for the new. This didn't take as long as you'd think, and it resulted in a simple form that I could easily manipulate later on. For the wings and stabilizers (the smaller wings on either side of the tail) I traced basic, flat shapes; I knew I wouldn't end up making them aerodynamically correct, so I didn't bother giving them a realistic thickness. It is, after all, illegal for a two-year-old to pilot aircraft in the state of Colorado.

D.James’ model is very complex, so I made myself a simpler version (grey) by modeling directly over the original (blue). The wings and the horizontal stabilizers are just flat faces.

Not being able to find a decent model of a small child anywhere online, I used a toddler-sized cylinder as a scale reference as I scaled down the entire vehicle to fit him. "Rough" doesn't begin to describe the level of accuracy I employed at this stage of the engineering process; I basically held a ruler next to his waist and decided that he could squeeze into a ten inch tube. I did NOT at any time actually squeeze him into a ten inch tube. Mostly because I didn't have one handy.

At this point, I set about changing the proportions to increase the airplane's overall level of adorableness. To do this, I grouped together the body, wings and tail bits, made a copy off to the side, and used the Scale tool to stretch and squish the whole thing.

Starting with a squashed cylinder to represent a toddler, I used the Move tool to change the proportions of the airplane until it looked wearable.

At this point, I'd pretty much decided that the airplane would be made out of laser-cut cardboard (more on that later), so I continued modeling with the assumption that the wings and stabilizers would be 2D shapes, and the body would be a more organic, 3D form. This part of the process was the most time-consuming and fiddly—it was just a matter of tweaking the shape of each element until I was happy with the overall proportions of the plane.

The intermediate state of the airplane is actually very basic.

As I settled on a material and construction method, I spent a lot of time on the website of a New Zealand and US-based company called Ponoko. They offer laser-cutting and 3D printing services, and their material selection is terrific. Ponoko has also been a good friend of SketchUp since they launched several years ago. Frankly, I'd been waiting for an excuse to try them out; their offering seemed really slick.

Before I could go any further on the airplane project, I needed to know more about the material I'd be using: its precise thickness, what sheet sizes are available, and its cost. Weight and budget were my major concerns, so I settled on double-layer corrugated cardboard with a thickness of 0.264 inches (6.7mm) and a maximum sheet size of 31.1 x 15.1 inches (790mm x 384mm). Sheets that size cost $3.50 apiece, which is cheap, plus file setup and cutting, which is decidedly less so. When I uploaded a test file to Ponoko to see what this undertaking might cost, the average price per sheet of cut parts was about $25.00. I figured I'd need about ten. This was turning out to be a very expensive cardboard airplane.

The double-layer corrugated cardboard page on Ponoko’s website. Make note of the material thickness for accurate modeling.

Back in SketchUp, I set about figuring out how to build the project out of interconnected, flat pieces. I started with the easy parts: the horizontal section of the body, which included the wings, and the vertical section, which included the tail. These two components were the structural parts of the plane, so I made them out of three layers of cardboard, laminated together for stiffness and durability.

The horizontal fuselage sheets (which include the wings) provide the airplane’s back-to-front structural strength. The vertical pieces are necessary for forming the nose and tail.

To design the rest of the plane's pieces, I copied the 2D profiles that made up the fuselage, made them into faces, and extruded them to the same thickness as the cardboard. Each piece was an individual group at this point; I didn't bother making named components until I was further along.

The ellipsoid “fins” that march down the length of the airplane are the key to defining the fuselage’s sleek, rounded shape.

Next, I used the maximum sheet size for the cardboard to figure out which parts would need to be subdivided and re-assembled after they'd been cut. This task was made a bit simpler by the fact that the biggest pieces of the plane—the horizontal and vertical "slabs" I'd started with—were each made up of three thicknesses of material. I just figured out a design that would hide the seams on the outside, visible layers, while allowing the middle layer pieces to overlap enough to form a strong sandwich when I glued everything together.

Parts which would ideally have been cut from a single sheet of cardboard had to be broken up into smaller pieces due to the small maximum sheet size for that material. These were then sandwiched together with glue. The resulting triple-layer laminates ended up being very stiff.

One of the last steps in the design process was to design the slots that would allow all (or at least most) of the pieces to interlock together. Figuring that the kerf (the width of the cut made by the laser) would be very small in this material, I decided to make the slots exactly as wide as the material thickness. This part was actually kind of fun—it's the closest I've ever come to modeling a 3D puzzle.

There are lots of ways to cut slots in the pieces; I used the Line and Push/Pull tools in combination with the Copy and Paste in Place commands.

At this point, I began the delicate process of converting my groups into components; piece by piece, I exploded each group and then immediately made it into a component with a meaningful name. Where I had a pair of identical, flipped parts (this was actually the majority of the airplane), I made sure both were instances of the same component. The airplane is made out of 58 individual parts, but only 32 unique components.

Because the airplane is so symmetrical, most of the parts are flipped and duplicated component instances.

Just for fun, and because I knew it would look really cool, I copied the plane onto a duplicate layer, and used the Move tool to arrange the parts as though they'd been exploded out from the object's center.

All of the airplane’s parts, exploded outward for visibility.

To have something laser cut by Ponoko, you give them a vector file (EPS or SVG) with all of the parts laid out flat. They provide Adobe Illustrator templates for all three of their standard sheet sizes, which makes things a bit easier. In order to go from a 3D, assembled object in SketchUp to a series of 2D cutting files in Illustrator, I needed to disassemble the plane piece by piece. Figuring that it would be easiest to have the assembled and flat versions adjacent to each other, I made a copy of the airplane off to the side and proceeded to take the copy apart with the Move tool. I used the Move tool's rotation grips (and occasionally the Rotate tool) to spin pieces around so they lay flat.

I made sure not to forget any pieces by literally taking apart an assembled copy of the airplane, laying the parts flat on the ground as I proceeded.

Almost there. I drew a rectangle that matched the sheet size of the cardboard, turned it into component, and made a dozen copies. Then I went through the laborious process of figuring out how to lay out all of the airplane pieces in an efficient way. Having done some experimentation on Ponoko's website, I'd discovered that it's significantly cheaper to produce two copies of the same cutting file than it is to make two different sheets. Good thing, because it turns out that most of my airplane parts are symmetrical; they're mirrored copies that exist in pairs. To take advantage of this, I arranged all of the symmetrical pieces on five sheets and produced two copies of each; all of the "singles" fit on only two more. In total, I had twelve sheets of parts.

The grey rectangles represent 31” x 15” sheets of cardboard. Notice that there are five pairs of identical parts sheets, plus only two unique sheets (in the upper left corner). This significantly reduced the laser cutting costs.

Digging around on Ponoko's website a little more, I discovered a mention of something called "nodes" which help to keep slot-assembled parts from wobbling and falling apart. Basically, it involves adding rounded bumps to the slots in your pieces. The size, position, and number of nodes depends on your material and its thickness, and the website didn't provide any specific tips for my double-layered corrugated cardboard, so I made an informed guess and crossed my fingers: I settled on a node height of 1/16th of an inch, which, multiplied by two, represented about a quarter of the 0.264" thickness of the sheet. That's a lot, but I figured that cardboard is a pretty compactible material. I was lucky; the nodes ended up working perfectly.

Nodes help to keep the parts snug when the final object is assembled.

One at a time, I copied each sheet to a new SketchUp file, set my camera to a top, parallel projection view, applied a simple, white Style with no profiles edges or other effects, did a Zoom Extents, and exported a PDF at 1:1 scale. Then I opened each PDF in Illustrator, copied just the parts, and pasted them on a new layer in the template provided by Ponoko. I went through this process a total of seven times—once for each unique sheet I'd be sending them.

The sheets are exported out of SketchUp Pro as 1:1 scale PDF files. These are then opened in a vector illustration program like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.

In order for Ponoko to convert an Illustrator EPS (their required upload format) into whatever file they send to their laser cutters, you need to make sure all of the edges in your drawings are colored and sized correctly. Blue lines tell the laser to cut, whereas red lines are used for engraving. Just follow the instructions on the template and you'll be okay.

After uploading my files, putting in all my credit card details, finalizing the order, corresponding a few times with the friendly staff at Ponoko, and waiting a couple of weeks, a box arrived at my house. I opened it up and was nearly knocked over by the smell of laser-cut cardboard. It's an odd odor; not terrible, but definitely not pleasant. I quarantined the pieces in the spare bedroom and went to work punching everything out.

The accuracy of the cutting was astounding. I've never laser cut anything; I expected the pieces to look good, but the quality of what I got made me alternate between grinning and literally giggling. For a person who spent hundreds of hours in architecture school hacking away at cardboard, foam core, basswood and plexiglass with an X-Acto knife, the extravagant expense of laser cutting instantly justified itself. I was hooked.

I couldn’t believe the quality of the laser-cut parts that arrived on my doorstep.

It took longer to peel the paper backing off of the individual parts than it did to assemble the actual airplane (not counting the time it took for the glue to dry completely). With only a couple of exceptions, the parts slotted together exactly the way I'd designed them to. It was the most gratifying thing I've made in years.

It took me only a couple of hours to put the airplane together. The next version will have less glue—that was the most time-consuming part of the process.

As a devout follower of the Church of Making Things Overcomplicated, I decided early on that the airplane should have a custom-designed instrument cluster. And a steering wheel. And a working, motorized propeller. This is already a monster blog post, so I'll end the description of my process here. To conclude, a few photos of the end result.

The final result weighs somewhere between five and six pounds, but that includes the steering wheel, the propeller motor, and four AA batteries. My son (who’s two-and-a-half) had no trouble wearing it.

 I designed the instrument cluster entirely in LayOut, using layers of translucent details to simulate reflections, highlights and shadows.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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Making custom patterns for LayOut

The major new feature in the newest version of LayOut in SketchUp Pro 2013 is Pattern Fill. It lets you fill any shape in your document with a pattern. LayOut ships with a library of patterns to get you started, but creating and adding your own is possible, too. This post is a tutorial on how to do just that.

The Basics

Patterns are made up of image tiles. When you assign a pattern to a shape, LayOut fills that shape with image tiles to create the pattern you want to see. The following picture shows this concept in action:

A sampling of patterns that ship with LayOut. Each is made up of image tiles which repeat to form the pattern.

There’s nothing magical about image tiles in LayOut; they’re just JPG, TIF, GIF or PNG images. All of the pattern tiles we’ve included with LayOut happen to be PNGs because that format supports non-lossy compression (which makes them look good) and alpha transparency (which makes parts of them see-through). If you can, you should make your pattern tiles PNGs, too.

To add a pattern to LayOut, all you have to do is choose Import Custom Pattern... from the drop-down menu in the Pattern Fill panel. You can choose any image you like; LayOut will automatically turn it into a pattern by tiling it (copying it in a grid).

How does LayOut decide how big to draw each individual tile in the pattern? It looks at the source image’s resolution (pixel density) and uses that. Every PNG, JPG, TIF, and other raster image is saved with a resolution when it’s created. This is expressed in pixels per inch, or ppi.

Consider an image which is 1200 pixels wide by 600 pixels high. If this image is saved at 300 ppi, its physical size would be 4 inches (1200 pixels ÷ 300 pixels per inch = 4 inches) by 2 inches . If it were saved at only 100 ppi, its physical size would be 12 inches (1200 px ÷ 100 ppi = 12 in) by 6 inches. The higher the resolution, the smaller the physical size.

Example: A simple geometric pattern

A pattern composed of parallelograms, or hexagons, or cubes, depending on how you look at it.

Let's make a pattern that looks like the one in the image above. This pattern is relatively simple to create for three reasons:

1) It has only one basic unit.
The “cube” is repeated over and over; there is no other shape.

2) It isn’t trying to look “random”.
Patterns that are supposed to look like a random distribution of elements are much trickier to create. I’ll cover them in a separate article.

3) It has no horizontal or vertical lines at its edges.
The following procedure isn't ideal for making pattern tiles that are made up of horizontal and vertical lines (like bricks and other rectilinear units). Those patterns, while common, are actually special cases that require a completely different technique to make sure they look right when they're tiled together. You can see three examples of these in this article’s first image, above. I'll outline that different technique in a separate article.

The technique that follows uses LayOut and Photoshop. While it’s possible to create pattern tiles using only LayOut (or even SketchUp, for that matter), Photoshop (or another image editor like GIMP) makes it much easier by providing pixel-level editing and tools for resizing raster images precisely.

Step 1: Use LayOut to manually draw a sample of the pattern.

LayOut is an obvious way to create simple pattern tiles like this one. The addition of SketchUp's Copy Array feature to LayOut in SketchUp Pro 2013 makes tasks like this one a lot easier.

Step 1: Start by manually creating an area of pattern. For something this simple, LayOut works well.

Step 2: Outline a single tile with a rectangle.

Drawing this rectangle on a new layer makes it easier to turn on and off later on. Giving it a thick and brightly colored outline makes it easier to see what you're doing.

Step 2: Use the Rectangle tool to outline a single tile.

Step 3: Fill the "tile outline" rectangle with a bright color and turn off its stroke.

This step makes it easy to crop away everything you don't need once you're in Photoshop. Choose a fill color that doesn't appear anywhere in your pattern tile.

Step 3: Convert the outlined rectangle into a filled shape with no stroke.

Step 4: Duplicate the page and delete only the rectangle.

Step 4: Duplicate the page and remove the rectangle on the copy.

Step 5: Export a PDF.

In your exported PDF, include both the page with the rectangle and the one without.

Step 5: Export both pages as a PDF file.

Step 6: Open the PDF in Photoshop.

In Photoshop, choose to open both pages of the PDF as separate image files. Set the image size to something quite large, like 5000 pixels wide. You'll downsample (make them smaller) later on.

Step 6: Open the pages of the PDF as separate Photoshop files

Step 7: Copy / Paste one file into the other.

In the open file with the colored rectangle, choose Select > All from the menu bar, then choose Edit > Copy. Move to the other open file, then choose Edit > Paste Special > Paste in Place to create a new layer.

Step 7: Copy/Paste in Place the contents of one file into the other, creating a new layer in the second file.

Step 8: Select the colored rectangle.

Choose the layer containing the colored rectangle, then activate the Magic Wand tool and click once on the rectangle to create a selection from it.

Step 8: Use the Magic Wand tool to select only the colored rectangle

Step 9: Crop the image based on the rectangular selection.

Choose Image > Crop from the menu bar to crop the file based on the selection rectangle. Choose Select > Deselect when you're done.

Step 9: Crop the image, leaving only a single pattern tile

Step 10: Hide the layer containing the colored rectangle.

When you hide the layer with the colored rectangle on it, you should be left with only a single pattern tile in your Photoshop file. Save the layered image as a PSD file.

Step 10: Hide the layer containing the colored rectangle.

Step 11: Resize the file.

Choose Image > Image Size... to open the Image Size dialog box. Make sure the Resample Image checkbox is checked, and the drop-down menu below it is set to Bilinear. Type in a new width, in pixels, for your pattern tile, then click OK.

Note 1: If you create a very large pattern tile, you won't ever have to worry about blurriness or visible pixels when your pattern appears in LayOut—it'll be sharp as a tack. On the other hand, making your tile too large could bog down your computer; it all depends on how large each tile will appear, how many tiles LayOut will end up drawing, and how zippy your computer is.

Note 2: When it comes to digital images, there are some "magic" numbers to be aware of. They're the powers of two (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc), and using them makes it easier for your computer to resample an image when it needs to be displayed bigger or smaller than its native size. Making your pattern tile image width one of these numbers says to the world, "I know what I'm doing."

Step 11: Resize the image using the Image Size dialog box.

Step 12: Change the image resolution.

Choose Image > Image Size... to open the Image Size dialog box again. This time, make sure the Resample Image checkbox is unchecked. The fields in the Pixel Dimensions area of the window should be uneditable.

Here, you're setting the physical size of the pattern tile on your page in LayOut. The value you type into the Width field is the physical width your tile will appear in LayOut when the pattern is set to 1x scale in the Pattern Fill panel. If you want an individual tile to be 0.5 inches wide in LayOut, enter that measurement into the Width field, and click OK.

Step 12: Change the image resolution (the pixel density) so that the pattern appears the correct size on your page in LayOut.

Step 13: Save your image as a PNG file.

As I explained at the top of this article, PNG is the image file format that offers both lossless file compression and support for areas of transparency. Both are desirable qualities in a pattern tile, so PNG's almost always the way to go.

Step 13: Save the image tile as a PNG file. Giving it a meaningful name will save time in the long run.

Step 14: Import your custom pattern into LayOut.

Back in LayOut, open the Pattern Fill panel (Window > Pattern Fill) and choose Import Custom Pattern... from the drop-down menu at the top. Find the PNG file you created in Step 13 and open it.

To make your custom patterns available in every new LayOut document you create, put them in folders on your system and use the Add Custom Collection... option from the drop-down menu in the Pattern FIll panel.

Step 14: Use the Pattern Fill panel to import your custom pattern into LayOut.

In my next couple posts, I’ll outline techniques for creating pattern tiles that are rectilinear, ones that incorporate transparency, and ones that are supposed to look like a random distribution of elements. Stay tuned, and good luck.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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New Book: Architectural Design with SketchUp

Back in March of 2011, when Wiley (a publisher of many books about SketchUp, including my own) asked me to review Alex Schreyer's proposal for a new title, I jumped at the chance. Alex's outline was mouth-wateringly full of promise; aimed squarely at architects and other designers, he promised not to spend hundreds of pages teaching the basics. Instead, he focused on aspects of SketchUp that were a) not well covered by existing books and b) very, very interesting to millions of experienced SketchUp modelers everywhere.

The completed volume does a beautiful job of presenting material that devoted SketchUppers badly want to learn, but which isn't very easy to explain. Put it this way: I'm pretty good at SketchUp, and in the hour or so I've been thumbing through Alex's book, I've learned about 50 things. I can't wait to read the thing from cover to cover.

Architectural Design with Sketchup is organized into four main sections—these are actually listed in the book's subtitle: component-based modeling, plugins, rendering and Ruby scripting. I'll talk about each in turn.

Component-based modeling

This section of Alex's book is a great primer for using groups and components to build assemblies of objects. The thinking here is that by modeling every element of a complex construction—the example he uses is a foundation/floor detail—you're effectively "building" your design before you actually build it. You save time and money and therapy sessions by making your mistakes digitally, and you end up with a better design. This isn't exactly a new concept, but Alex does a terrific job of providing concrete guidance for how to do this kind of modeling; it's the detailed how that's missing from most other resources. Other aspects of component-based modeling that Alex fails to shy away from: building dynamic components, applying materials and generating reports that list every part in your design with SketchUp Pro.

Using plugins effectively

One place where even accomplished SketchUp modelers stumble is in identifying the plugins that might help them do their work. There are zillions of plugins out there, but before this book, no one had assembled a comprehensive, alphabetical listing of dozens of the most popular, most useful extensions. Not only does Alex list them; he also provides a good, brief description of what each is for. This is the section of Alex's book that I'll study most carefully—it might even be the source of inspiration for a few posts on this blog.

Photo-realistic rendering

Admit it: If you're not already an avid renderer, you've at least thought about how nice it would be to master that particular skill. But where to start? There's never been more choice in renderers, and everyone knows that rendering is a lot more complicated than just clicking a button and waiting a few hours. The settings, presets, lighting environments and other widgets that go along with making a halfway decent rendering require an indecent amount of background knowledge. It's half science and half craft. With Alex's book in hand, I think we all might finally have a shot at learning this stuff.

Another thing I should mention: This book is 100% in color. If you think that makes a big difference when you're trying to learn about rendering, you'd be 100% correct. I wish my book was in color...

Scripting

Here's where things get a little wacky. When I saw in Alex's proposal that he intended to include an entire section on scripting, I thought, "Ruby for designers? Did Alex mix up his medications?" I was pretty dismissive about the whole idea in my feedback to Wiley.

Well, it's a good thing I was wrong. Twenty months later, it's a different world, and being able to read and write simple code has never been more important. In teaching the fundamentals of Ruby scripting, Alex intelligently focuses on using scripts to generate forms that are otherwise arduous or impossible to model in SketchUp. He doesn't assume you want to create entire standalone plugins; this is really just about using the power of algorithms to make stuff when you can't think of any other way to do it. The material is by no means easy, but Alex deserves a world of credit for making it as easy as possible.

I recommend this book without hesitation to anyone who really wants to be able to make SketchUp do everything it's capable of doing. It's clearly written, well-illustrated and comprehensive. And the icing on the cake: There's a companion website where you'll find sample files and a direct line of communication with the author. Buy this book and take the first step toward becoming a more useful person.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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A recap of SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2012

Almost two months ago, hundreds of the world's most dedicated SketchUp aficionados descended upon our hometown for 3D Basecamp 2012. On the first day, we packed into the Boulder Theater for presentations from the SketchUp management team, several plugin developers and a keynote by Bre Pettis of MakerBot.

The first day of Basecamp took place at the historic Boulder Theater.

 

Leaders from SketchUp and Trimble talk about what's in store for our product. They address such questions as "What's next for SketchUp?" and "Why did Trimble buy SketchUp?". (46:14)

 

The SketchUp leadership team takes questions from the 3D Basecamp audience. (17:06)

 

Representatives from seven SketchUp photo-realistic rendering plugins outline their product offerings in rapid succession. (17:07)

 

Four very different companies present their SketchUp-related technologies: BuildEdge, Sunglass, Product Connect and 4D Virtual Builder. (56:57)

 

 MakerBot Industries co-founder Bre Pettis delivers a terrific keynote presentation about 3D printing. (31:35)

That night, we gathered at a local spot for a party, where the highlight was undoubtedly the SketchUp ShootOut: two heroes competing to make the audience guess a mystery word by modeling on side-side computers. Bulldozer! Cabin! Bubble tea! Melancholy! The winning guesser and the winning modeler both won free drinks, but everyone seemed to be having a blast. Note: I beat John in a best-of-five match with "glove", "foyer" and "cook". It may be the proudest I've been all year.

Hotshot modelers squared off against each other in the first-ever SketchUp ShootOut.

Tuesday's proceedings moved to yet another venue for a full day of barely-contained mayhem. The morning's three blocks of unconference sessions coincided with three hours of beginner Ruby training. After lunch, we squeezed together to watch scheduled presentations by the likes of Daniel Tal, Nick Sonder, Mark Carvalho, and teams from 3skeng, ARmedia and SightSpace 3D. Three more hours of unconference sessions and a repeat of the morning's Ruby 101 class followed, then everyone went straight to bed. I assume.

 

Landscape architect and author Daniel Tal presents a wide-ranging set of tips, tricks and best practices for modeling everything from terrain to site design. (40:31)

 

Architect and video tutorial star Nick Sonder outlines his process for using SketchUp Pro and LayOut to create complete sets of construction documents for his projects. Note: We subsequently made a set of six videos with Nick that describe his process in detail. They're easier to watch and understand than this recording—just an FYI. (52:06)

We planned a Design Charrette for Day 3; participants split up into teams to tackle a challenge that we created in collaboration with Impact on Education, a local non-profit that acts as a kind of R&D department for the Boulder Valley School District. The design brief involved re-imagining a classroom to take into account the way teaching and learning have evolved with the introduction of mobile technology. At the end of the two-and-a-half hour charrette, a dozen teams presented their designs (in SketchUp and LayOut, of course), after which an illustrious panel of judges from IoE picked their favorite projects. The winning team members then squared off against each other for several rounds of SketchUp trivia. The victorious Michaels (Tadros and Brightman) each won a Replicator 3D printer, generously donated by our friends at MakerBot Industries.

While the designer-types did their thing, about twenty plugin authors spent Day 3 across the street at our first-ever Ruby Developers' Conference. They huddled and schemed and plotted the future of our API (application programming interface). They even held a competition of their own: Dale Martens, a.k.a. "Whaat" and the creator of the Artisan organic modeling tool set, won the hackathon by coding a working first-person shooter game that runs inside SketchUp—in a couple of hours. Needless to say, Dale got a MakerBot, too.

Participants in Wednesday's Ruby Developer Conference posing as if they're a sports team.

All in all, we're pretty proud of how well our first Basecamp at Trimble went, considering how quickly we planned it and that Dusty (our Event Manager extraordinaire) isn't on the SketchUp team anymore. The space was at times tight and A/V and internet access are forever thorns in my side, but the vast majority of attendees we surveyed said they enjoyed themselves, learned some things, met cool people and (most tellingly) would happily join us at another 3D Basecamp.

Which brings me to my last point: When's the next Basecamp? Good question. We don't know right now, but given that our plan is to move to an annual release cycle starting next year, and that conferences are a great way to celebrate product launches, we'll do our best to make sure there's a 3D Basecamp in 2013. If you'd like to be one of the first to know when we announce it, you can add your name to our Next Basecamp Notification List.

Feel like looking at lots of pictures from the event? This album should do the trick.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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