The following is a cross-post from my other site http://sketchupplugins.com. When you are done creating your new plugin, feel free to add it to the index on http://sketchupplugins.com. It’s free and easy. Learn Plugin Developement There are many tutorials, resources and forums available online that will help you get started. Use the following list as a springboard: [...]

If you are using SketchUp, then it’s time for you to soon browse over to Google’s website and download the latest version (v.8 M2). Although this release is not a new version but rather a maintenance release (hence the “M2″), there are a few new features and a bunch of bugfixes. So what’s new and [...]

When I went to the 2011 Google Geo User Summit United States in Mountain View, CA this July, I had the chance to present two projects that I have worked on in the recent past here at the University of Massachusetts. “Building a 3D World” The first presentation was on our campus modeling project in [...]

While I am semi-comfortably seated on my United Airlines flight and traversing all three North-American time zones on my way back to Massachusetts, it’s time to recap what happened at the 2011 Google Geo User Summit United States over the last two and a half days*. Overall summary: Wow, was that ever great fun!!! If [...]

Please upgrade your browser One of the greatest benefits of having a 3D modeler like SketchUp is that creating and sharing explorable representations of real-world objects is extremely easy. It was therefore just a matter of time before Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad appeared on Google Earth. So before the real building gets taken [...]

I frequently get asked how to set up a small-ish CMS-driven (CMS = Content Management System) website for research groups or other entities. Many of these people have learned that maintaining a static website the “old-fashioned way” (e.g. using Dreamweaver) presents a variety of problems – mainly related to inconsistent content or collaborative editing problems. These issues [...]

Now that everyone has had a chance to get to know the new features of SketchUp 8 (like the new solid tools), it is a good time to look at what may be in store for the next release – presumably version #9. Fortunately, as with the last release, a recent survey on Google’s website queried [...]

If a mathematical algorithm based on statistics creates wisdom, then it must be true… maybe. The following run-on sentences were found by Google Scribe by starting with entering a two-word combination and then just pressing return to accept the most likely follow-up words. Some fun. I am stumped by what Google means by “I despise [...]

Just in time for today’s beginning of Google’s Basecamp user meeting (an “unconference” in their words), Google released the eighth iteration of SketchUp, their hugely popular 3D modeling application. This version comes with a few enhancements to satisfy both user bases: Geo-modelers (who create buildings and objects for Google Earth) and planners/designers (who model all [...]

I have blogged about Autodesk’s new online offering – Project Butterfly – before, but today, Tal Weiss, former co-founder of VisualTao and now Senior Software Development Manager with Autodesk, gave me an interesting presentation of the collaboration features that have been added recently. With more than 25,000 documents already uploaded into the system, Autodesk wants [...]