A comment on one of my SketchUp posts prompted me to provide clarification in the form of a new post rather than just a quick reply. The issue was that exported images from CAD files (SU in this case) can be quite grainy.

To export an image of the current view in SketchUp, go to File > Export > 2D Graphic... and select a file format for the export. In the save dialog that opens, there is an option button that allows for customizing. That's where you want to make the following adjustments:

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So far I have used SketchUp for a lot of things, but a 50-minute presentation wasn't among those. Besides, one of the big no-no's for "classic" Powerpoint presentations is having too much happen on-screen (flying-in arrows and the like). Given the dynamic 3D interface of SketchUp I was curious if flying around inside its space would be too confusing for the audience. I just had to give it a try and see if it works.

The video below shows the exported (and sped up) version of a presentation I just gave at the 2008 UMass family weekend. The topic was mainly the Google Earth model of our campus that my students prepared but I also gave some background on 3D CAD. Originally, I started to prepare a Powerpoint presentation for this, but quickly realized that it would be too limiting and much more appropriate to actually do it right in SketchUp. All slide transitions and animations were done with the tabbed slideshow feature and I interspersed the show with some live model-building and a switch to Google Earth for a view of our campus.

Building a 3D World from Alexander Schreyer on Vimeo.

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One problem when exporting a SketchUp model that contains images as textures to Google Earth is file size. You do not want to have a building model that weighs in at more than 500kB. A 1 MB file may be justified for a very complex building, but anything beyond that will a) load slowly (remember that these models are streamed over your internet connection) and will b) reduce the chances that Google will ever include it in the 3D Building layer in GE. As a result, we have to put our models on a diet. Pardon the pun, but we are after anorexic models here.

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After a year of amazing development work, the team behind the freeware rendering engine Kerkythea finally released the 2008 version. It is called "Echo" and features some major improvements. While the most noticeable one will be the redesigned sleek user interface (it now has scrollable material list menus!!!), some under-the-hood improvements are worth mentioning, too.

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Now this one ought to be quite interesting. Microsoft just bought out Caligari, maker of the 3D modeling, animating and rendering software TrueSpace. Is this a new, free SketchUp in the making? Microsoft wants to use the software for their Virtual Earth platform - similar to Google using SketchUp for their Google Earth platform. This also would perfectly fit into Microsoft's current "I wanna be Google" expansion ambitions - see the recent Yahoo offer for additional reading on this.

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