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In the second installment of our three-part series profiling Turner Construction Company, we turn our attention to the plugins Turner is developing to increase efficiencies across the global organization. Jim Barrett, Director of Integrated Building So…

In November, our friends at Next Limit Technologies announced the release of the Maxwell for Google SketchUp plugin, a dedicated photo-renderer that operates entirely inside of SketchUp. Soon after, they issued a challenge to see who could make the jui…

Today, we kick off a three-part series profiling Turner Construction Company, one of the largest construction management companies in the world. Turner uses SketchUp Pro at several points in its workflow: planning and coordinating of demolition and con…

The process of extruding one 2D profile such that it ends in another, different 2D profile is often called lofting. There’s no easy way to do this in plain ol’ SketchUp, but there are plenty of plugins that make it possible. The one I’ve been obses…

[Crossposted from the Google Lat Long blog] We’re taking bird’s eye view to a whole new level with the latest version of Google Earth, released today. With Google Earth 6.2, we’re bringing you the most beautiful Google Earth yet, with more seamless i…

Here’s an interesting twist on our Make Ideas Real project: sometimes great designs aren’t your ideas. The good folks at CustomMade.com have developed a marketplace that connects roll-up-your-sleeve makers with people who have project ideas they wa…

I’ve yet to meet a SketchUp modeler who doesn’t—at least just a little bit—want to work in the video game design industry. I get a stupid grin on my face when I think about how much fun it it would be to make battle tanks and exploding oil drum…

It’s easy to see why 3D printing has captured the imaginations of modelers around the globe — it’s captured ours as well! Being able to hold what you’ve modeled in your hand brings a new dimension (no pun intended) of understanding and usefulnes…

About 8 years ago, the SketchUp team started receiving some pretty intriguing calls: parents of children on the autism spectrum were calling to let us know how SketchUp was changing their kids’ lives. People with autism tend to be unusually strong vi…

Reviewing the hundreds of designs that SketchUp users have submitted to the Make Ideas Real project, we’ve noticed that a large number of submissions could be described as “useful.” (Shocker right? People design things for a reason!) For some fol…

[Cross-posted on the Official Google blog]It’s that time of year again! The stockings are hung by the chimney with care and Google and NORAD are ready to answer the question of “where?”NORAD’s tradition of tracking Santa on Christmas Eve starte…

Paul from 3DOn Ltd. presented at an event I attended a month or so ago. After his presentation, I asked him if we could tell the SketchUp community about his product, 3DOn ARchitecture. He said yes, but at the time the app was only available in the UK….

Sometimes a SketchUp model is only as good as its presentation. Users often take advantage of render plugins to add realism and detail to their work. But to truly illustrate the power of a 3D model, nothing beats a video. To that end, Cadalog, Inc., th…

Easter Seals has extended the contest deadline and will now be accepting Sketch-a-Space entries up until January 13th, so there’s still time to enter.To refresh your memory, this year’s competition is focused on drawing attention to the employment ne…

Skelion was designed to make working in SketchUp quite a bit easier for solar professionals. It features the ability to automatically insert solar panels on SketchUp surfaces. Because the developers are solar professionals themselves, I have a feeling …