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 [...]

I finally fixed some problems and added new features to my SketchUp Ruby Code Editor. The result is a 1.1 version that is now available for download. The changes are: Changed webdialog internal name for compatibility Better looking dropdowns under IE Win Fixed save filename preselect problem Better code execution and error catching (thanks to [...]

And the good ideas keep on coming! As just announced by Autodesk Labs in their post Project Twitch Range Expanded: can YOU connect?, Autodesk extended the range of their application tryout platform “Twitch” beyond the originally stated 1000 mile radius. Now user connection capability is just limited by a network latency cutoff. And as I [...]

I like working with cheatsheets when I do coding. Although the online API reference is very extensive and has great examples and the downloadable version is a good solution when you’re offline, this one may be useful as a reference once you mastered the basic concepts. It contains the full API reference in a condensed [...]

Yayyy!!! A new version! Software updates are always exciting… New features are to be explored, new capabilities exploited for as-yet unknown projects. Contrary to Autodesk’s religious update schedule, Google has been only somewhat regular in providing updates. But alas, announced by today’s blog post by John Bacus, SketchUp’s project manager, the new version of SketchUp [...]

Summer is officially over in a few days and the semester has been on its way again for two weeks now. This means I can finally catch a breath and get back to posting on my own blog. But before I get back to CAD and wood topics, one trip should be mentioned: Among the [...]

As announced in their latest blog post, Google has just released an optimization feature for their online spreadsheets (which, of course, are part of Google Docs). With this new feature, linear optimization problems can be solved easily. This is a great feature and makes online spreadsheets even more Excel-like and usable. Here are some of [...]