Meet the Bloggers: Bonnie Roskes

Hi 3Daily readers, I’m Bonnie Roskes.

When Daniel Tal first approached me about a year ago with the idea for this blog, it didn’t take much to sell me on the idea. The idea was to post almost every day on any topic related to SketchUp in particular, and 3D design in general. Nobody else is doing that, so why not us?

I’ve known Dan for about 12 years – we met at SketchUp’s very first “Basecamp” user conference. If there’s a fact about SketchUp, or drones, or 3D printing, or virtual / augmented reality, it’s stored somewhere in Dan’s brain. And his dream was to create a vehicle to speak about all of those facts and ideas and thoughts and musings. But it’s tough to do that on your own, and he wanted a partner who actually enjoys the writing part.

And that’s me – I also know a bunch about SketchUp and 3D modeling, and writing about it is what I do. I’ve been producing all sorts of content on SketchUp for about 15 years now. My website is www.3dvinci.net, where you can find step-by-step tutorial materials for a wide variety of ages and subjects.

My best-sellers have always been my Hands-On Series: general how-to books on all of SketchUp’s native tools. This series also includes a Student Coursebook, popular at the university, college, and sometimes high school and even middle school levels.

I also have books in other series as well, focusing on specialties such as 3D Printing and Interior Design.

And if you have (or teach) young kids, I have books for them too. The ModelMetricks Series teaches 3D modeling with fun and colorful projects. And for math lovers, I also have the GeomeTricks Series – 13 project books on 2D and 3D geometry. No calculator needed.

How did this all come about?

I got my start with all of this 3D business during my long-ago civil engineering career – I designed and repaired bridges. I discovered I liked writing about engineering software, and worked for a few years documenting CAD/CAM software, before going out on my own and starting 3DVinci. It’s been a roller coaster, but I love what I do!

I live in Washington, DC with my husband and five kids (I guess writing isn’t the only thing I produce). Here’s one of my favorite pics – the whole group on vacation last summer: