SketchUp Extensions

3D Printing Watertight Model

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed using Monochrome view to check your SketchUp model for watertightness – making sure all front faces are facing front, to ensure all is ready to be converted to the STL format for 3D printing. In this post, I’m writing about the Solid Inspector extension, which can solve front-back face problems, […]

Park Pergola Design 17

In Part 1 of this series, I showed how to create the curved, horizontal cross beam for the 3D pergola. And in in Part 2 I showed how to make the vertical supports.   In this part, we’ll finish up the pergola by adding the tilted cross-beams along the horizontal beam.   Design the Beam […]

Park Pergola Design 13

In Part 1 of this series, I showed how to begin the park pergola design, by modeling the curved horizontal beam that follows the pergola path.   In this post, I’ll show how to model the vertical supports for the beam.   Design One Support Draw the cross section of the support like this:      The extension I used for […]

Park Pergola Design Curved-Canopy

In a previous series, I showed how to model a few kinds of sails in SketchUp. These aesthetic landscape design elements are shade-providing canopies – very popular these days. See Part 1: Sail Canopy, Part 2: Canopy Support, and Part 3: Fluid Sail Canopy. In this three-part series, I’ll show how to create another element of […]

Community Center Rendering FINAL small

Before you ask, no – this is not an interview with this guy:   I met Ryan Seacrist when he attended one of my classes. During one of the tutorials, Ryan came up with a different approach to getting 3D modeling work completed faster. I was impressed and have kept in touch with him. Ryan has a […]

SketchUp Skelion Extension. High Rez Aerial with Location Selected

In Part 1 of this series, I showed how to use the Skelion extension to import terrain into SketchUp. This produces a much larger terrain area than what you could import using SketchUp’s Add Location tool, which imports data from Google Earth. While Add Location limits you to one square mile of imported terrain, Skelion is able to bring in […]

SketchUp Skelion Extension

Building SketchUp models in context, a.k.a. geo-location, requires reference information. Whether working on bridges, residences, commercial development, or parks, including the surrounding area is crucial for accuracy. This post is about Skelion, available in the Extension Warehouse. If you haven’t yet installed an extension from there, see our post on how to do it.   Add […]

1001Bit tools

This post appeared a couple of months ago, and was one of the most popular things to appear so far on 3Daily. Since we ran this post, our readership has just about tripled (thanks, al!) So this is for anyone who might have missed it the first time. Enjoy!   The 1001bit Tools extension has […]

Modeling A Sail Canopy

In the first two parts of this series, I showed how to create a simple sail canopy. In Part 1 I modeled the surface of the canopy, and in Part 2 I modeled the tower supports. In this post, I’ll show how to make another popular landscape architecture model in SketchUp: a fluid sail canopy. There […]