Given the unknowns surrounding the acquisition of SketchUp by Trimble, and the future of free SketchUp, I would suggest everyone saves a few copies of various back versions of SketchUp just in case. I fully expect elements of SketchUp free to remain with Google because it’s an important part of Google Earth, but this will be unlikely to have the full functionality you have come to expect.
Google SketchUp has been acquired by Trimble
27 AprWow! This is out of the blue. Google SketchUp is being sold to a company called Trimble. Full press release below.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SketchUp®, one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world, from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012, subject to customary closing conditions and expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. While financial terms are not being disclosed the transaction is not expected to be material to 2012 earnings per share.
SketchUp is currently used by millions of users annually—ranging from architects to engineering and construction firms to building and design professionals—for designing, modeling and visualizing projects. The SketchUp product and its vision of “3D modeling for everyone” has allowed modelers worldwide, across a wide range of industries, to express design concepts easily, accurately and efficiently. Additionally, SketchUp users benefit from its extensive third-party developer community that provides industry-specific solutions for a variety of customers.
As part of the SketchUp platform, Trimble will also partner with Google on running and further developing SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse, an online repository where users can find, share, store and collaborate on 3D models. The site enables users to create collections of models, including 3D Buildings, and share them with fellow modelers around the world. Individual models can be loaded, saved and viewed in 3D from within SketchUp or a web browser. For the foreseeable future, Google will host and operate the 3D Warehouse for Trimble and together the companies will continue to offer the same capabilities, functions and services that are offered today. The ability for users to submit 3D Buildings for potential acceptance and viewing in Google Earth will be maintained. Currently the 3D Warehouse has almost two million user-generated models.
“SketchUp and the corresponding 3D Warehouse provide an important element of our long term strategy by enhancing the integration of our field presence with the wider enterprise,” said Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president. “Trimble has already created the de-facto standard for field data models and project management tools for our key markets. SketchUp, together with these existing capabilities, will provide a stand-alone and enterprise solution that will enable an integrated and seamless workflow to reduce rework and improve productivity for the customer. Users will be able to collect data, design, model, and collaborate on one platform. The combined capability will enhance our ability to extend our existing market applications including the cadastral, heavy civil, and building and construction industries. In addition, the SketchUp platform will enable Trimble, third-party developers and our distribution partners to efficiently develop new applications.”
“Since its inception, the SketchUp team has been committed to providing a robust, user-centric solution to its community and we look forward to engaging their talent and expertise. Beyond extending the reach of the product into Trimble’s commercial markets, we are committed to continuing to provide SketchUp as a free version to millions of users. Trimble and Google will also continue to collaborate on utilizing other Google tools for Trimble’s markets that, along with SketchUp, will provide our customers innovative and productive tools that transform their work,” concluded Fosburgh.
“In Trimble, we found a partner that will grow SketchUp in a way that best supports the SketchUp team and our users,” said Brian McClendon, Google’s vice president of engineering. “While at Google, the SketchUp community grew significantly because the team put users first, and we are confident they will continue to do so at Trimble. We at Google look forward to a continued partnership with Trimble and the SketchUp team.”
SketchUp
As a part of Google, SketchUp’s charter was to empower a worldwide community of users to create 3D models for whatever their imagination could envision. Examples range from household furniture to famous stadiums and other buildings. These users come from a variety of backgrounds, with a large part of SketchUp’s user community coming from a professional architectural or engineering and construction background. As a part of Trimble, SketchUp will continue to support all of its current users through its Web site at: http://sketchup.google.com/. Concurrently, the SketchUp engine will be integrated into Trimble’s current solutions in its Engineering and Construction, Field Solutions and Mobile Solutions segments.
About Trimble
Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.
For more information, visit: http://3d.trimble.com.
Safe Harbor
Certain statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include the timing of closing the acquisition and its expected financial impact on earnings per share. These forward-looking statements are subject to change, and actual results may materially differ from those set forth in this press release due to certain risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to changes in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to (i) realizing the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of SketchUp, (ii) successfully completing the acquisition of SketchUp and the timing of the closing, (iii) Trimble’s ability to successfully integrate and expand SketchUp’s platform and, (iv) the risks and uncertainties associated with unexpected expenditures or assumed liabilities that may be incurred as a result of the acquisition and retaining key SketchUp personnel and customers. The timing of closing will depend on the receipt of regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of closing conditions. Any failure to achieve predicted results could negatively impact Trimble’s revenues, cash flow from operations, and other financial results. Trimble’s financial results will also depend on a number of other factors, including the risks detailed from time to time in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its annual report on Form 10-K. Undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statement contained herein, especially in light of greater uncertainty than normal in the economy in general. These statements reflect Trimble’s position as of the date of this release. Trimble expressly disclaims any undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any statements to reflect any change in Trimble’s expectations or any change of events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/682692#ixzz1tEdIfuAU
3D modeling comes to the iPad with Verto Studio
3 MarHave you ever thought how great it would be to create 3D on your iPad? Well, here you go! Here’s a superb example of how a 3D view can be rotated effortlessly with touch screen.
Verto Studio is available for around $25 in the apple store.
How to Submit content to the Unity Asset Store
2 MarOne of the very best places to sell your SketchUp game assets is the Unity3D asset store. Will Goldstone, author of Unity Essentials, explains the process in his latest video on the official Unity3D blog.
http://blogs.unity3d.com/2012/02/19/how-to-submit-content-to-the-unity-asset-store/
Further information:
I explain the process for creating and importing game assets using SketchUp and Unity in my book, Google SketchUp for Game Design.
Lumion realtime architectural walkthroughs
29 FebI just got told about Lumion over on the Sketchucation forum. It looks like a great piece of kit for architectural walkthroughs using your SketchUp models… and the basic version’s free.
Further info http://lumion3d.com/free
Vue 10 architecture option equals Vue+SketchUp
15 FebWhen I published a round-up of all the best Google SketchUp supported rendering solutions a few years ago, I tipped Vue for the top spot in the commercial renderer section. They won it by some margin, I have to say. Yes, some other renderers provide more realistic results (Unbiased engines like Maxwell for example) but it’s always at the cost of speed. Artists still end up pasting in trees and people in Photoshop, which is madness in this day and age. The big win with Vue is that you get a dedicated and awesomely big content library called Cornucopia to buy cheap assets from. That’s stuff like trees, cars, buildings and people. Secondly that the rendering engine copes with vast numbers of leaves and foliage like it wasn’t there. Thirdly you can import Poser and Daz figures, meaning you can pose your figures and have them lit correctly in the scene.
I also mentioned Vue in my book, SketchUp for Architectural Visualization: Beginner’s Guide. Yet at that time Eon, the company behind Vue, were still only just starting to build in a flimsy import function for SketchUp files. Two years later and what an amazing transformation. With the release of Vue 10, Eon are advertising their Architectural Bundle, and amazingly, it’s basically Vue for SketchUp. Check out the image below from the product page:
The significance of this cannot be under-stated for the Google SketchUp community. Vue is by no means a small player in the market, and they have made a statement here that for architectural visualisation modeling there is only Sketchup, period. Prior to this the marketing talk has always been of integration with 3D-Studio Max. Here’s what this breaks down into for you and me:
- Architects and CAD people can happily forget about having to list 3DS-Max on their CV to get a job. Practically no-one apart from the best visualisers really know how to use this tool to best effect.
- Word is getting out to bosses, decision makers and recruiters that SketchUp isn’t for sketchy output, but for “real” high end graphics.
- Uptake of Google SketchUp within industry continues to ecclipse other 3D modeling software. The tipping point has been reached where all third party plugin developers are now going to have to support SketchUp as their main platform if they want any meaningful sales numbers.
These three can only be good for the architectural community. They mean that SketchUp will be increasingly supported by plugin developers, not just for arch-viz, but by a growing list of tools which fill out SketchUp to the rounded platform it is meant to be. Looking into the future, the next industries to follow architecture’s lead will be game development, engineering and construction, and that might be very soon. The message to all of you reading this is: brush up on your SketchUp skills, get a Pro license, and don’t hide your SketchUp skills in the shadows any more. SketchUp is emerging out of the shadows into glorious sunshine. Thanks Vue for the helping hand!
Massive 100 book giveway to launch Unity iOS beginner’s guide
15 FebFans of the Unity3D game engine can get one of 100 free ebook copies of Unity iOS game development beginner’s guide by keeping an eye on @packtexplorer for the publication announcement. The first 100 retweets get the book!
Further details of the giveway: http://www.packtpub.com/news/packt-publishing-give-away-100-unity3d-books
Tags: book, game assets, unity3d
SketchUp modeling for WebGL tutorial on cover of Web Designer Magazine
10 FebMy tutorial on SketchUp modeling for the web is featured on the cover of the latest Web Designer Magazine. How good is that! 
Robin de Jongh SketchUp Tutorial on cover of Web designer Magazine
Planning a floor tiling project with SketchUp
4 FebSketchUp’s easy to use tools can help you in all sorts of DIY tasks. One of the best is to get quick plans and estimates of materials. If you’re about to go and tile your bathroom floor, pave your driveway, or board your loft – wait a second – and follow this tutorial first. I promise it will save you hassle and time!
Step 01 – Draw your room
First draw your floor using Rectangle tool
Using the Rectangle tool, click on the Origin (where the red, blue and green lines cross) and then draw a rectangle roughly the right size of your room, or area to be paved. Type in the dimension of the room (length, width) and hit Enter. The rectangle will resize.
Step 02 – Draw the obstructions
Now draw rectangles where the bath, toilet stem, basin stand, or any other obstruction are placed. Do this as roughly or accurately as you like.
Step 03 – Choose tiles and paint them onto the floor
Next go to the Paint Bucket tool. The Materials Pallet should appear. Go to Tiles on the dropdown list, and select some tiles that look approximately like the one’s you’re going to use. Paint onto the floor area.
Step 04 – Scale the tiles correctly
Of course, these tiles could be any size, so it’s important now to resize them accurately. Go to the Edit tab in the Materials pallet. At the top you can see a thumbnail image of the tiles. Note how many tiles wide the image is showing. In this case it is 4 tiles. The tiles we’re using in this project are 300mm wide, so 4 x 300 = 1200, with some gaps for spacers, say 1250mm. Type this figure into the width dimension box and hit Enter. Now the tiles on your floor resize correctly.
Step 05 – Arrange the tiles for best fit
From what little I know about tiling I gather that visually the best way to go is to center the tiles. You can do this now by Right Clicking on the floor, then select Texture ¦ Position. Now use the hand to move the tiles around on the floor. Easy peasy.
Step 06 – Display the total area of your floor
This bit is a piece of cake. Go to View ¦ Toolbars and make sure Construction is ticked. Then go to the Text button, select it, and click somewhere on your floor. Click somewhere else where you wish the text to be displayed. You will now have the area of your tiles, without any of the obstructions (bath etc.) factored in. If it’s in mm you can convert it to m by moving the decimal point 6 places to the left.
Step 07 – Find the tiling starting point
You’re going to want to start tiling in the middle, working your way out. So to find the measurement at the corner of your starting tile, click on the Tapemeasure tool. Click on the right hand wall, and move to the left. Settle the line at the edge of the centre tile as shown here. Now repeat with the perpendicular wall. You now have two lines crossing in the middle at the corner of your first tile. Use the Dimension tool to get the measurements. Hit Print, and go get ordering your tiles.
Now get to it. And don’t forget to wear kneepads.
How to host your 3D models on the web with WebGL
14 MarMy latest article for Web Designer Magazine is out! In this article I show readers how to take their SketchUp model, add lighting and animation effects, then export to HTML5 WebGL using the simple CopperCube authoring environment. It’s a simple and rewarding process.
Web Designer Issue 194 is on sale now.
Find details of how to download Coppercube here.