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Robert Pearce, AIA
03-26-2009, 01:38 PM
Take advantage of the economic downturn by sharpening your digital pencil.

As part of it's "Survival 101" series, the AIA will be providing an introductory seminar on how Google SketchUp can be put to work in the architect's office. See how this fun to use and relatively easy to learn software can be implemented throughout a project.

This seminar will be an introduction to SketchUp (using Release 7, Pro version) for use in an architect's office, and will cover the basics of what SketchUp (SU) can do by itself as well as how it works with other professional software, particularly AutoCAD and Photoshop. The seminar is not intended as a class to teach SU (although some basics will be covered), but rather to show how SU can be integrated into an architect's process and be used to maximum effect. The presentation portion of the seminar will run 45 minutes to an hour, with the remaining time left open to answer specific questions from the group.

Attendees will earn 1 AIA continuing education credit, with the following learning objectives:

Objective 1: To understand the use of SketchUp as a multi-level communication tool.
Objective 2: To review basic architectural tools in SketchUp including materials, sun/shade analysis, animation, and presentation styles
Objective 3: To explore interactivity with other professional software
Objective 4: To review additional resources

DATE: Wednesday, April 1, 2009

TIME: 8:00 a.m. Registration & breakfast; 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Seminar

LOCATION: AIA Arizona - 30 N. 3rd Avenue, Suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85003

*Parking will be validated for the public parking garage on the southwest corner of Washington and 3rd Ave

COST: $10.00 Members; $20.00 Non-members

PRESENTER: Robert Pearce, AIA, Pearce Design Studio, LLC

RSVP to Alexandra Evjen at alexandra@aia-arizona.org by March 30, 2009.

Registration form here: http://aia-arizona.org/wp-content/up...ation-form.pdf

Robert Pearce, AIA
03-27-2009, 09:36 AM
The seminar scheduled for April 1st has been filled. A second seminar has been scheduled for April 22nd. Please register with Alex if you were unable to get into the first seminar.

If you have any questions pertaining to the seminar, please post them to this forum. I'll respond as time allows. Thanks.

Robert Pearce, AIA
04-02-2009, 01:13 AM
The first seminar seems to have gone pretty well. Attendees ranged from those who had never used SketchUp to those who have only used it for a short time. As part of the presentation, I handed out a list of resources, reprinted here with hyperlinks:

RESOURCES AVAILABLE:

To download either the free or Pro version of SketchUp
Google SketchUp Homepage
http://sketchup.google.com/download


To learn SketchUp
Google SketchUp Homepage
http://sketchup.google.com/

SketchUcation Forum
http://www.sketchucation.com/

Google SketchUp Help Group
http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp

SketchUp Pro Help Group
http://groups.google.com/group/sketchup-Pro-Groups/topics

School - The SketchUp Show
http://www.go-2-school.com/media/browse/sketchup_show

SketchUp Wiki
http://suwiki.org/suwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

SketchUp 7 for Dummies
http://www.aidanchopra.com/Home

Google and YouTube - search for (SketchUp, SketchUp tutorials, etc)
http://www.google.com/
http://www.youtube.com/

Instructor (within SketchUp) (Window > Instructor)

Components, materials, and styles
Google 3D Warehouse (free)
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

FormFonts (pay site)
http://www.formfonts.com/

Many rendering sites


Ruby scripts and plugins
Google SketchUp Homepage
http://sketchup.google.com/download/plugins/html

Smustard
http://www.smustard.com/

Ruby Library Depot
http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/RUBY_Library_Depot.htm


Other
IES-VE Carbon and Energy Calculator plugin
http://www.iesve.com/SketchUp/VE-Ware

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com

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If any attendees have constructive criticism or ideas to make the next presentation better, please feel free to leave comments below. Thanks.

Robert Pearce, AIA
04-09-2009, 08:46 AM
I received the following e-mail today regarding ruby scripts and thought I'd post the e-mail and my response here:
-----------------------------
Dear Mr. Pearce:
I attended last week’s seminar for Sketchup for Architects. And, I noticed that you had some cascading menus with your program. Can you tell me if those are “plug-ins” or “ruby scripts” and where can I go (website) to download them? Can you recommend some plug-ins and ruby scripts that would be essential? I’ve not used either of them before. But, after the seminar, they got my attention. Also, do you know of any websites for Photoshop (for Architects). I’m trying to further my skills with this program too.

Sincerely
(name withheld)
-----------------------------

Hi (name withheld),

I listed a couple of great resources for ruby scripts on my handout. The major sources are Smustard: http://www.smustard.com and The Ruby Script Library: http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/RUBY_Library_Depot.htm. Most of these are free (I've never paid for one), and the site will give brief explanations of what the script does. You download them as either .rb files or .ZIP files which extract to .rb files, and place them in your C:\Program Files\Google\Google Sketchup 7\Plugins directory. Restart the program if it is running and the new script should be located under the Plugins tab.

The "essential" ruby scripts really depend on what type of work you do, but the ones I use most are Windowizer, Make Faces (great for working from imperfect AutoCAD files), Group by Texture and Layer by Material. Tube Along Path is great for making handrails. I've also played with the House Builder tools, which is fun and very impressive - but I don't find I use it much in my professional work.

I came across this YouTube video just the other day. It's kind of long, but does a good job of introducing some of the more relevant scripts available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl6wTSoeVMg

Regarding Photoshop, there are tons of tutorials available out there. Nothing that I can think of specifically for architects. Most of my Photoshop work involves compositing (cutting out people and trees, etc and "pasting" them over a computer generated image), so look for tutorials on Selection Tools, Masking, Image color adjusting, Levels, etc. A Google or YouTube search will turn up a lot of options.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!

Robert Pearce, AIA
Pearce Design Studio, LLC
e-mail: pearcestudio@aol.com
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Note: All the resources I listed in the handout are hyperlinked in the post above.

borrows123
05-17-2010, 09:42 PM
Ruby is a programming language that anyone can use to write plugins (scripts) for Google SketchUp. Once installed, Ruby Scripts can add tools, simplify multi-step operations, and otherwise improve the way you work with SketchUp.

The good news is that you don't need to know anything about Ruby scripting (or programming in general) to use Ruby Scripts that other people have created.