List of SketchUp Related Websites

[takesh h]

If you see any misinformation, or know informative websites that are not listed here, please post them in this thread.

::Five Most Recent Entries::

Ruby Scripts - The SCF Power Toolbar at Quarr-IT NEW! One of most well-thought toolbars for SketchUp. Go to "Ruby" section and don't forget to watch "Tutorials".
Blog - Ronen Bekerman NEW! A pushpullbar veteran bakbek's blog is about SketchUP, 3d Studio Max, V-Ray, Maxwell Render, Fryrender, Photoshop and more.
Exporters + Importers - skp_to_dxf.rb NEW! Convert Sketchup SKP files to DXF or STL for FREE!
Renderer - Twilight Render NEW! it's now possible to render photo-realistic images inside Google Sketc
Forum - Land8 NEW! Land8 is landscape architects' premier social network. Although it is not specifically SU-related website, there are full of SU in it.
Tutorials - SketchUp Artists NEW! The name says it all. Lots of tutorials on image creation.



::Forums and UserGroups::


Google SketchUp Help Group

• SketchUp General
• Using SketchUp
• SketchUp Issues
• SketchUp Pro
• LayOut
• StyleBuilder
• 3D Warehouse General
• Feature Suggestions
• Ruby Ideas
• Gallery
• LayOut (beta)
• Files
  
  The following groups have closed but will be available for archival review
  
  
• SketchUp How-To
• Deutschsprachiges Anwendergroup
• Ruby API
• GIS and SketchUp
• Materials/Components/Styles
• Corner Bar
• Pro Gallery
• Files

SketchUcation Home of the SketchUp Community

• Newbies
• SketchUp Discussions
• Layout
• Tutorials
• Components, Materials & Styles
• Gallery
• Ruby Discussions
• Extensions & Applications Discussions
• Woodworking Discussions
• Corner Bar
• Other Languages

pushpullbar.com

• Design Studio
• Architecture+Design Bar
• Orbit Lounge
• Media Room
• Techincal Department

List of Sketchup UserGroups (go-2-school.com)



::Tutorials and FAQs::

3D Basecamp 2008 video recordings of the event.

Google Video Tutorials

Google Self Paced Tutorials

Google SketchUp For Dummies Videos to accompany the book (of the same name) by Aidan Chopra.

Google SketchUp Paradise in Japanese only

Google SketchUp Sage A user-created companion source to many frequently asked questions from Google SketchUp Groups and beyond.

Learn to Program A Place to Start for the Future Ruby Programmer. In Japanese, French, Russian, Danish and Portuguese.

SketchUp Artists NEW! The name says it all. Lots of tutorials on image creation.

The Sketchup Show Tutorials in Web2.0. Now at YouTube too.

SU Tutorials-Tips-Links20.zip A famous (and enormous) file containing all the information you need.

SUWiki Another important resource of information run by Chris Fullmer aka clf23, a ppb member.

Tutorials by SketchUpVideo in Youtube Many more useful tips from Google.

Tutorials Index of SketchUcation Tutorials by SketchUcation members.




::Rendering and Animation::

3DPaintBrush 3DPaintBrush provides near photo-realistic rendering in real time, with no learning curve and zero programming skills. (PC)

Antics 3D Development Stopped YouTube Video.

Artlantis Easy radiosity - even in preview (Mac + PC)

Cheetah 3D Powerful 3D modelling, rendering and animation solution (Mac)

CubicPanoOut.rb 6-sided cube panorama exporter. Use it with GoCubic to create QuickTime panoramas. (Mac + PC)

Deep Exploration Standard Convert, render, animate and publish .skp files to 40 different 3D formats including .3ds, .obj, .u3d, Flash, HTML, etc. (PC)

HyperShot Photo-realistic images in stunningly simple interface. (PC)

iClone is a film studio that lives in your HDD. iClone is used for pre-visualization for live action work and as a standalone animation package. With 3DXchange utility, you can combine iClone with SketchUp models. YouTube Video.

IDX Renditioner Photorealistic rendering that’s easy enough for novices, powerful enough for professionals. (Mac + PC)

Indigo Renderer A physically-based, unbiased render engine. SkIndigo is an exporter for SU. Tutorials here. (PC)

Kerkythea "Simply Powerful (and free!)" (Mac + PC)

LightUP LightUp is a SketchUp plugin that adds realistic, realtime lighting to your sketchup models (Mac + PC)

Maxwell Render A physically correct, unbiased rendering engine (Mac + PC + Linux)

modo 3D modeling, painting, rendering and animation in a single integrated package (Mac + PC)

Photoshop For some people, SketchUp and Photoshop (or GIMP) are all they need to render. Examples: 1 2 3 (Mac + PC)

Piranesi Render like you sketch. Free exporter is available for both SU pro and free. (Mac + PC)

SU Animate SU Animate works inside SU and creates scenes that you can play as an animation in SU or export to an AVI or MOV. (Mac + PC)

SU Podium Photo-realistic rendering for SketchUp by a single click (Mac + PC)

POV-Ray The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free renderer. There is SU2POV, a SU exporter. (Mac + PC + Linux)

Thea Render NEW! a new physically-based renderer with the unique ability of producing both biased and unbiased photorealistic renders (Mac + PC)

Twilight Render NEW! it's now possible to render photo-realistic images inside Google SketchUp! (PC)

V-Ray The benchmark (PC)

Vue6 Offers solutions for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments. SOLO’s place has some good examples. (Mac + PC)



::Components and Materials::

3D Warehouse 3D content created by Google SketchUp users.

Cadyou a free resource for digital designers that work with 2d and 3d models in architecture, engineering, interior design, game design and more.

Designconnected.com Well-known furniture components in various formats including .skp.

Designer Components Depot Hidden deep inside of pushpullbar

Digital Nursery Tree images and components, palm trees, 3D landscape images.

Entourage Arts Non Photorealistic Entourage Elements for architects. (Mac + PC)

Engineering ToolBox provides a tool for layout planning and design of techical applications. Easily creates flange beams, hollow sections, piping bends and elbows.

Form Fonts 3D Sells quality SU components

Hand Drawn Images by Scowcroft Studios Libraries of hand drawn backgrounds, trees, shrubs, flowers that work seamlessly with SketchUp. Precise alpha channels included.

Sweets3D Collection Sweets is building the largest collection of professional grade SketchUp 3D building product models.



::Notable Extensions and Ruby Repositories::

Extensions and Tools


1001bit tools NEW! is a collection of Ruby scripts that are dedicated for architectural works. It create 3d models of staircases, spiral staircase, escalators, walls, doors and windows, and self-generated roof rafters. The toolset has very sophisticated UI, but no toolbar.

CADspan Plugin allows generation of solid, 3D printable STL files directly from a SketchUp model. The plugin provides several tools to ease the process of preparing a model for 3D printing:

DoubleCAD If you are a Google SketchUp user wanting to go from concept-to-construction drawings, DoubleCAD XT is an invaluable companion to SketchUp and AutoCAD LT, too. (PC)

GML texturizer This plugin simplifies creation of textured 3D models of urban buildings for Google Earth. Related thread. (PC)

HouseBuilder Tools and classes to support building a house. (Mac + PC)

Moment of Inspiration MoI is a complementary NURBS tool for a polygon-based CAD like SU. Its SU export generates clean N-Gon polygon meshes from NURBS models. (PC)

Pepakura Designer Unfolds 3D models into papercrafts. Compatible with OBJ,
DXF, MQO, 3DS, LWO, STL, KML, KMZ. Some amazing examples.

SketchUp Custom Toolbars Who doesn’t need a set of meticulously-handpicked-by-you-and-none-other tools?.

Sketchyphysics You just have to see what it does!

Synchro Project Constructor is specifically designed to work with SketchUp models. It's a scheduling tool for visualizing how construction phases will occur. (PC)

Tensile Structures A tool collection for the Design of mechanical and pneumatically strained surfaces.

Waybe Unfolds Google SketchUp models into papercrafts. Demo video on YouTube (Mac + PC)



Exporters + Importers

eDrawings generates a self-executable file out of SKP. The .exe file contains the viewer as well as the design data. You can also convert it to HTML format and the models can be viewed in the browser. (PC)

EnergyPlus plugin The plugin allows you to launch EnergyPlus simulations and view the results without leaving SketchUp. (PC)

IES plugin toolbar Enables Environmental Performance Analysis directly from SketchUp Model (PC)

IFC2SKP Beta The plugin lets SU to load IFC data from popular BIM apps such as ArchiCAD, Revit and Microstation. (PC)

SketchUp Web Exporter Beta Exports your 3D model for webpages that are viewable without plugins (Mac + PC)

skp_to_dxf.rb Convert Sketchup SKP files to DXF or STL for FREE!

SYCODE Plugins SketchUp data exchange plug-ins that cover 3DM, 3DS, DWG, DXF, IGES, OBJ, STEP, STL, VTK. SYCODE also released SKP file import and export plug-ins for a variety of CAD software - Adobe Acrobat, Alibre Design, AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, Inventor, IRONCAD, INOVATE, Solid Edge, SolidWorks and SpaceClaim.

WalkAbout3d(Beta) WalkAbout3d allows SketchUp users to explore their designs as a full screen real-time walkthrough - all at the press of a button. WalkAbout3d has anaglyph stereoscopic support as standard. YouTube videos

Simmetry 3d Symmetry3D is an enhanced version of WalkAbout3d, and it will allow you to work with 3D terrain, load multiple 3D models, and create animations/simulations. YouTube videos



Ruby Repositories

Archsymb_Ruby Library Another place for ruby scripts

Jan Sandström Yet another place for Rubies.

OhYeahCAD Free Software Download Worth a visit.

The SCF Power Toolbar at Quarr-IT NEW! One of most well-thought toolbars for SketchUp. Go to "Ruby" section and don't forget to watch "Tutorials".

Ruby Library Depot THE place for ruby scripts

SketchUp Plugins Ruby Scripts by Jim Foltz.

Smustard.com Brilliant scripts

Visual Index of Ruby Scripts Please contribute.



::Blogs, Forums and Miscellaneous::

Ronen Bekerman NEW! A pushpullbar veteran bakbek's blog is about SketchUP, 3d Studio Max, V-Ray, Maxwell Render, Fryrender, Photoshop and more.

Land8 NEW! Land8 is landscape architects' premier social network. Although it is not specifically SU-related website, there are full of SU in it.

Running Sketchup on Wine You may have to jump through some hoops to get it working, and here are how.

John Bacus Interview @Architosh John Bacus, Google’s SketchUp Product Manager, talks about new SketchUp 7 (+Pro 7) and why they didn't go for multi-threading.

SketchUp on Linux How to install SU on Linux via Wine.

SketchUp on Linux with Ruby Scripts Yes, they actually do work.

GraphicConverter An image browser that converts almost any image file format. Skp preview support added to ver.6.2. (Mac)

XnView XnView is an efficient multimedia viewer, browser and converter. A good company with SketchUp. (PC)

Google Earth What? You need an explanation for Google Earth?

Google Great SketchUp Resources Probably the largest depository of links related to SU. Extensive, but not selective.

The Official Google SketchUp Blog That’s what this is.

SketchUp Plugins A blog by Jim Foltz, a SketchUp and Ruby enthusiast.

Design. Click. Build. Learn the art and science of designing furniture in SketchUp, by Dave Richards and Tim Killen.

3D construction modeling A blog by Dennis Fukai. Yes, of course it is about 3D construction models.

Swamp Road Wood Working A blog by Joe Zeh, a cabinetmaker in Massachusetts. There are some SU tutorials and knowledgeable posts on SU and CutList.

Viz.arch A blog by ppb member Tim Danaher. SketchUp in its extreme.

Other Useful Websites (SUWiki)

If you see any misinformation, or know informative websites that are not listed here, please post them in this thread.

[utiler]

Great work, takesh_h!!! a great source....

[roadkill]

nice post thanks for the info.... that will keep me busy

[sandropc]

Thanks a lot Takesh this is very usefull....

[jparchitectus]

Well thought out!

[Richard]

Nice set of links mate! Thank you thank you thank you!

[The Donn]

I notcied that on another tread (3D model) we are discussing sketchup related websites - free 3D model websites

Here are the suggested sites and maybe they should be added to the list as I find them very useful as well as others.

http://archidom.net/ddd/model_A.htm added by m-suke
http://archibase.net/gdl
http://www.e-interiors.net/default.php added by Jay

It seems to make sence to have all these in the one tread instead of scattered around the bowels of ppb!

[takesh h]

Originally Posted by The Donn

It seems to make sence to have all these in the one tread instead of scattered around the bowels of ppb!

None of the above sites provides .skp files. Most of their models are in 3DS format.
They are 3D-model-sites but I cannot call them SketchUp related.
Therefore, I don't think they belong to this list. Thanks for the info anyway.

[Hasko]

Thanks for the list

[utiler]

cheers takesh_h!!!!