Google Data

If you’re into such noble pursuits as geo-modeling or photo-realistic rendering, there’s a good chance that you spend a ridiculous amount of time hunting for photo-textures online. Flickr and other photo sharing sites are goldmines for content, but…

Have you ever wanted to take your SketchUp models on the go? Our friends at the Boulder-based start-up, Limitless Computing, have a solution for you: their recently released SightSpace 3D app allows you to view SketchUp models on the iPad, iPhone, or i…

Earlier this summer, we unveiled a new website called Your World in 3D to help introduce users to the concept of geo-modeling — the term given to creating 3D buildings for Google Earth and Google Maps. Today, we're releasing the You…

Rome really is an eternal city. With a history spanning over 2500 years and regimes from the early kingdom, through the republic, the empire, and later as the heart of the Catholic faith in the Vatican city, each has made their mark on the current urba…

The most sure-fire way to mitigate your model’s geometric complexity (its count of faces and edges) is to pay attention to extruded circles and arcs. Experienced modelers know that curves in SketchUp are actually constructed out of multiple, straight…

Plain ol’ SketchUp lets you walk, run or crawl around your model till your fingers fall off, but you’re limited to SketchUp’s selection of non-photorealistic rendering styles. Pushing your model through a fancy rendering engine can make it deliciou…

Everybody knows that faces in SketchUp can be painted with different materials. What lots of folks don’t know is that you can apply materials to groups and components, too. The following illustration shows the Entity Info dialog box, which is a great…

Guillaume Godin is an accomplished geo-modeler based in Montréal, Canada. He has 157 models uploaded to the 3D Warehouse so far. Of those, 86 are geo-located and 72 have been accepted into Google Earth. Thank you for your contributions and keep up the…

When it comes to instructions for building your first house, or your first bench, or your first Google Earth model, there is no shortage of available materials. But what happens after you’re a SketchUp rockstar? Where are all the tomes full of delici…

Our August and September 2011 SketchUp Authorized Training Center schedule is now available. The map below contains information on specific locations, dates, and courses provided:View in a larger mapPosted by Shara Rice, SketchUp Training Team

It was over five years ago when we came up with the initial Acceptance Criteria for photo-textured 3D buildings in Google Earth. Since then, we’ve learned many things and have also made many improvements to the 3D modeling process—including the rel…

If you happen to be using LayOut on a Mac, there’s a menu item that you might’ve missed: Choosing Text > Show Rulers displays the Mac operating system’s default ruler at the top of the screen. More interestingly, it adds a few typographic cont…

We’re committed to providing almost every K-12 student in the world a chance to learn and use SketchUp. To that end, we’ve recently granted SketchUp Pro K-12 licenses to eight US states (bringing the total to 27), two Canadian provinces, one county…

While I was putting together this post last month, it dawned on me that doors are represented differently in plan, elevation and sectional orthographic views of a building. By which I mean:In plan, doors are generally shown in the open position.In elev…

April Phelps is a LEED-accredited designer who works at the New England Aquarium creating new exhibits and enhancing existing ones. Boston’s New England Aquarium is one of the many non-profit organizations to which we’ve granted SketchUp Pro licens…