Google SUD

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Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.
-John Updike

Click here for the Sktchpdt — a bare-bones SketchUpdate that gets right to the point.

WHAT'S NEW?
Well, about the biggest thing ever: we’ve been Googled. That’s right, Google Inc. has acquired @Last Software… so you might have just spit your coffee all over your keyboard, or you’re rolling your eyes thinking this is another one of my April Fool’s jokes. Believe me, we’re still having a hard time believing it ourselves, but it’s real — we are now Google!

WHAT??!
Wow…where to start? You have to be wondering what this means for SketchUp. Are we going to give up on design and all the cool new features and products we have in the pipeline? No way! In fact, the mission doesn’t change at all. We’re all about enabling users to express themselves in 3D and share their vision with others. Architects, builders, woodworkers, gamers, students and my Uncle Bob all want basically the same thing: the most intuitive tools to help them create and share their 3D dreams. So we’ll stay the course. (Only now we have just a smidge more horsepower...)

I can't stress this enough: the 3D world just got a huge boost, so please don't worry about SketchUp or our mission. Think about it this way: we haven't traded in the Honda for a Porsche; we've strapped a rocket to the Honda. SketchUp is still SketchUp, but now it will go places it couldn't possibly have gone before.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?!!
Here’s the story. We got to know a bunch of Googlers while we were building the Google Earth Plugin for SketchUp, and it quickly became apparent that we could really stir things up together. At first, it was kind of hard to imagine; after all, we'd been blazing our own trail for so long. But after we kicked it around awhile, it started to seem right. One thing led to another, and here we are. This is one of those wonderful win-win situations; it would have been impossible for us to feel good about this acquisition if we didn't feel our culture, our users and our mission would be in good hands.

(If you've never seen it, Google Earth lets you explore the world from your desktop and it's free! Remember those flying dreams you had as a kid? This is it...only without the flannel pajamas; mine had those built in feet. Just type in where you want to go and this thing will fly you directly over the spot!)

Google's resources will allow us to serve our current users better, and Google's reach will allow us to expose more people to SketchUp in one year than we could have touched in ten years on our own. "3D for Everyone" is becoming a reality; we're bringing the '3D' part; Google's contributing the 'Everyone.'

HOW IS THIS A GOOD THING FOR SKETCHUP USERS?
One of the biggest reasons we chose to go ahead with this deal was that it was a good thing for our users. We'll keep SketchUp simple and easy, and we'll continue to make it more useful and powerful. Looking ahead, the product will improve, the user experience will get better, and the community will grow. I think the future of SketchUp is brighter than it's ever been before.

I'M A DESIGN PROFESSIONAL. DON'T RUIN MY SKETCHUP.
I hear you. The truth is, we've been changing SketchUp since the beginning. Every new version has been an improvement on the previous one, and we're going to keep it that way. The goal here is to introduce SketchUp to a wider audience and to continue to make it the best 3D software around. SketchUp is only going to get better—I promise.

SO I GUESS NOW YOU'RE MOVING TO CALIFORNIA
Not. Once they saw Tom W and me descend on the free food at the Googleplex cafeteria (picture locusts on a Kansas wheat field) they knew they had to keep us in Boulder. We aren’t going anywhere.

I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THIS
Neither can I. As you all know, it's our users who have spread the word and helped build our little idea into what it is today. SketchUp was launched with what Joe refers to as the “Field of Dreams” business plan — build it and they will come. Thank goodness so many of you did! It is a rare and wonderful thing to have a dream, to watch a community develop to support that dream, and to see it eventually take on a life of its own. Our users have played a big part in our success, and not one of us here will ever forget that.

This is definitely not the end; this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for the next incredibly exciting chapter. From me personally and from all of us here at @Last…THANK YOU.

(You probably have more questions. We tried to anticipate some of these and took a shot at answering them here)

OTHER STUFF: TIME FOR ANOTHER TUNEUP
It seems like only yesterday we were reminding you to go and get the latest TuneUp, our cutesy word for a SketchUp Maintenance Release. The latest TuneUp fixes some bugs that cause crashes, and is important enough that we think everyone should install it. For instructions on how to proceed, click here if you're on Windows or here if you're on a Mac.

USER PROFILES
The folks at Scott Carver in Sydney, Australia have done some really amazing work in SketchUp. For an example of how to make beautiful drawings of an urban scheme, click here.

People are finding terrific ways to use SketchUp with other software; Eric Pettit of OPENSPACE Architecture in Vancouver, Canada writes about his firm's success at going from SketchUp to a timber frame manufacturer's milling machine. It would be SO cool to have a milling machine...

TIPS AND TRICKS
Brad A, our Quality Assurance Engineer in the Hill Country of Texas, suggested a useful tip:

"On the forums there are a lot of great self-paced tutorials, mostly from Jean (Johnny) Lemire of Richelieu, Quebec, Canada. I download and have used them when trying to figure something out. Anyway, I figured out if you stored these models in “C:Program Files@Last SoftwareSketchUp 5PluginsSelfPacedTutorials” they show up under Help > Self Paced Tutorials. This makes for a quick way to get to and use these great tutorials quickly and easily."

On a Mac, save new tutorials to Hard DriveLibraryApplication SupportSketchUp 5PluginsSelfPacedTutorials. You can find more self-paced tutorials from us right here. For a link to a forum post that can help you find Johnny's tutorials (among others), click here. Thank you, Johnny; it's people like you who have gotten us where we are today.

If you have a Tip that you think would benefit SketchUp users everywhere, please send it to us. We'll make an online list of them, and we'll publish our favorites right here. This is your chance to be famous, to help your fellow man/woman, and to brag about how much you know to the guy who sits next to you at the office. A chance to be both immortal and insufferable — what could be better?

A TIPS AND TRICKS CORRECTION
How embarrassing. It would appear that we messed up in last month's Tips and Tricks. In the last SUD's "Chuck Norris"-level Tip, we provided a lengthy and rather complicated method for allowing sunlight to reach the inside of your model without removing the ceiling. Of course, there is a much easier way to do this, as was pointed out by Mark Muller of Markwell Designs:

"Hi Guys,
Regarding the ceiling shadows tip in the newsletter, all I do is select the ceiling and go to entity info, where I uncheck the "cast shadows" box. Et voila! - the room is lit up. I'm sure this is much easier than changing transparency on reverse faces."

Indeed it is — thank goodness for the Mark Mullers of the world. I hope we didn't cause too much harm...

Carl Oldenburg sent in an excellent addendum as well:

"In your "Tips and Tricks" of Feb 3, you mention a clever way of dealing with lighting levels in interiors of models. I've had perfectly good results with simply adjusting the shadow settings so that the shadows are significantly lighter than the default setting (default is 20; I generally use 70). With light-colored walls and a window or two that allows a little "sunlight" in, I get a realistic and lively image, with subtle shadows cast by furniture and objects, and a play of "sunlight" from the window (if there is one). The problem with the transparent exterior face idea is when the same model is used for exteriors and interiors...and when the interior in question is not immediately under a roof or next to an outside wall."

Thanks, Carl.

USER GROUPS
As a service to SketchUp people everywhere, we'll use this space in the SketchUpdate to let you know about SketchUp user groups around the world. If you'd like us to mention yours, drop us a line.

Los Angeles contact Robert (tansu@adelphia.net)
Philadelphia or Baltimore contact Patrick (jpfugeman@aol.com)
Seattle contact Andrea (andrea.vaught@gmail.com)

Keep sketching, and we'll talk soon,

Brad
Founder, @Last