Quench

Sketchup and Plugins

admin — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:05:00 +0000

"Fringe Fries" Created with Sketchup and some plugins

One of the things I really like about Sketchup is the ability to create plugins. This has led to a large amount of plugins being developed by the user community. Sketchup plugins are written with a programming language called Ruby and there are sites dedicated to providing lists of the available plugins like SketchUcation (see the plugins link). I use a few plugins in my day to day Sketchup work:

Random Painter: Select faces, run plugin, then enter any number of RGB numbers. Once you have you have finished entering your colors the plugin will take those colors and randomly assign them to the faces.
Random - pushpull.rb: Select faces, run plugin, then enter a maximum and a minimum. This will randomly assign sizes to the selected interfaces.
Woodworx Board Maker Plugin : Enter in your board specs and Sketchup will create the board as a component.
3d Shapes: Quickly create a sphere, pyramid or a cone.
Round Corner: Add rounded or beveled edges to your 3d objects.
Make Fur : This plugin will let you create blades of grass, fur or just about anything you want to populate as a multitude of items. I have just started playing with this one.

Basically, you download the plugin which will have at least a .rb file (ruby code that you can view with a text editor) and maybe some supporting files or directories with files. Copy the files to /Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup 8/plugins on a MAC and /program files/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins on Windows. Launch Sketchup and should be able to see your plugin.

Here is a good list of Sketchup plugin references: http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en_uk/download/plugins.html

Rendering Sketchup with Indigo

admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:15:43 +0000

Indigo has released a new version 3 (3.0.14) of their excellent rendering software that can be used along with Google Sketchup 8. This combination of software the rendering somewhat realistic 3d graphics. Indigo provides a Sketchup Exporter which enables quick access to the rendering interface loading your Sketchup file as an .igs render file.

Cubes created in Sketchup 8.0 and rendered in Indigo 3

Indigo also provides the capability to setup other machines on your network as rendering slaves. I did discover that you cannot mix Windows and Apple machines together for network rendering. But, I did setup two Macbook Pros to render the above image in almost half the time. Rendering the cube file at that level took one hour but once I implemented the rendering slave it took about 35 minutes to achieve the same level of quality. I could have let it render longer but wanted to make a quick comparison. Indigo will actually keep rendering until you tell it to stop.

Indigo provides a 30 day demo that will render large files. After the 30 days, it only allows a certain maximum file size of around 720K. Great for playing around but if you are going to do commercial work you will need to plunk down the $835.00 plus $270.00 for each slave rendering node. It is the only rendering application that I have found that runs well on Mac while integrating with Sketchup.

More of my renders to appear on this blog.

Design a day every 100 or so days…

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:06:35 +0000

Sample of logo design

Sign, sign everywhere a “NO” sign

admin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:32:31 +0000

The city of Huntsville has passed a ban on texting while driving. Which does not really bother me except, once again we can be punished by law for making poor decisions. What bothers me is that the city has spent quite a bit of tax money in posting "NO TEXTING WHILE DRIVING" signs all over the road ways. Along with that law, they passed a loud stereo ordinance and that was also accompanied by numerous matching signs. While driving through Huntsville you will be visually assaulted by rules that you should follow while in our city (maybe should take notes on each of the rules but please pull over to do so). I thought that maybe they should consider adding some real crimes to the sign postings since they feel these are an effective deterrent to stop me from texting and playing my radio too loud.

Maybe these will keep someone from shooting or stabbing someone...

Google Sketchup…now I can use it! (Sketchup 8.0 that is.)

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:02:23 +0000

Through the years I have downloaded Google Sketchup only to get frustrated with it and eventually uninstall it. Lately, I had been reading about wood working techniques to design furniture and found out that many craftsmen are using Sketchup. I decided to try the new version of Google Sketchup 8.0. Either I was not intuitive enough to use this software in the past or they have greatly tweaked it's usability (My geek pride says go with the later). Don't get me wrong, Sketchup is not for the neophyte, you should have some understanding of graphics programs like Photoshop and Fireworks along with some understanding of CAD and 3D before attempting detailed Sketchups.

The good thing is that the community for this product is strong and many plugins have been created and supported. I have found some great plugins which help creating Sketchup drawings. I have a list of the ones that I use at the end of this post. I have also contributed the checkerboard drawing to the Google 3d Warehouse.

Base drawing in Sketchup 8.0:

Checkerboard with default style

Above is a base drawing in that I created in Sketchup 8.0 in 10 minutes. The drawing is created with only 2 components,the checkerboard square and the checker itself. Since these are created as components, you only have to edit the component to change all of duplicates. Sketchup does allow application of materials to each duplicated component separately. Copying and pasting are done with using the array method so you can duplicate one component and then type 6x to create 6 more spaced the same amount as the first initial pasted component.

Sketchup also has styles which let you acheive some really awesome effects to your drawings.

Checkerboard with Sketchy edges style

Checkerboard with scribble on masonite style

There are also some plugins (free and paid for), that will render your Google Sketch.

Google Sketchup drawing rendered with SKindigo renderer plugin.

Not bad for a open source product. Sketchup is going to allow me to create some 3d graphics that can be rendered or styled to whatever look that I want to achieve.

Links:
Google Sketchup
Indigo 3d Render for Sketchup
Lumberjocks Sketchup wood material library

Some other drawings I have been working with:

LR Baggs Para Acoustic Di Active Direct Box and Preamp

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:29:27 +0000

The Para DI is a roadworthy 5 Band EQ/Direct Box that will make any pickup, passive or active, sound better. The award winning Para DI's features include; tunable notch and midrange controls, XLR and 1/4"outputs, adjustable gain, phase inversion and 48v phantom powerable or 9v battery.

LR Baggs Para Acoustic Di Active Direct Box and Preamp

My daughter and I recently performed for the Hampton Cove Middle School Talent Showcase. I had recently installed a Fishman 125 saddle pickup and wanted to get the best sound out of my old Yamaha FG25 acoustic. My Fender Hot Rod amp is not the best equipment to run an acoustic guitar through. I started looking at purchasing an acoustic amp but also started reading about acoustic direct boxes. The knowledgable staff at The Fret Shop here in Huntsville recommended the LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI. It is a little pricey at $150+ but, I found out well worth it. The manual had some ideal settings based upon pickup configurations and I used those for the show. My guitar sounded great thru the PA system that night with close to the default settings. I am glad I purchased it and will be using it again.

The Amplitube iRig rocks!

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 04:32:27 +0000

It is really amazing what tools my trusty iPad has replaced. I have been using it as my virtual effects rack/amplifier and as an 8 track recorder since Christmas. This cool hardware and software combination comes from the folks at IK Multimedia (http://www.ikmultimedia.com). Their product combination of a hardware component, the iRig (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irig/features/) along with their software component, Amplitube (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/amplitubeipad/features/) allows me to carry a large pedal board of effects, different amp head and cabinet combos along with a 8 track recorder all in a neoprene, notebook sized sleeve.

iRig and AmpliTube Rocks!

It works like this:

Plug the iRig into your headphone jack on your iPad.
Plug your guitar into the 1/4" jack on the iRig.
Plug your headphones (if desired) into the other side of the iRig.
Load the AmpliTube application.
Select your amp, cabinet and microphone combination.
Select up to 4 effects and change their settings.
ROCK OUT!

I have really enjoyed having the portability of the iPad as my practice rack and I am going to try and use it live soon. The quality of the sound is pretty good and the 8 track recorder is feature rich with effect options, bouncing tracks and other sound engineering duties.

The product is a little pricey for an iPad/iPhone application. The iRig retails for $39.99, AmpliTube retails for $19.99, the 8-Track plugin is another $17.00 and there are other effects to add on for around $2.99 a piece. The software comes with 11 effects (Delay, Fuzz, Distortion, Overdrive, Wah, Env Filter, Chorus, Flanger, Phazer, Octave and Noise Filter) and you can buy 5 more (Compressor, Limiter, Reverb, Parametric Equalizer, Graphic Equalizer). So for around $90 bucks you can have 16 effects, 5 amp heads, 5 cabinets, tuner, song practice tool that speeds ups and slows down loaded mp3 files, metronome and a 8-track recorder. I sold my Vamp and held back on purchasing an 11 Rack after getting this for Christmas.

All-in-all it is a great tool for the amateur guitarist. They do have a free version of the application so you can get an idea of how it works before making the big purchase.

While researching the IK Multimedia site, I discovered they have another product coming soon, the iRig Mic along with Vocal Live (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/vocalive/features/) which looks to be a vocal effects application like the AmpliTube. Hope I can multi-task these 2 products.

Design a Day Number 12

admin — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:17:46 +0000

Yes, I know it should probably be "design a month" but work has really been hectic lately. I am trying to get back in the habit of designing something daily if possible. So my wife wanted a Popsicle applique so I started playing around with drawing one and then kept going in Corel Draw X4 and came up with this design. Her applique will be a little more basic.

20+ Hours flying

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:03:48 +0000

I am all packed and ready to see my girls to school before leaving for India. My flight has me in Detroit, Amsterdam, Mumbai and then Pune. I am trying to have the traveling mindset of being moved around like a herd of cattle. Should have some good travel stories after today.

WordPress for iOS Version 2.6.1, started using it today.

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:12:09 +0000

I looks like they have done some updates to the WordPress for iOS app (iOS for WordPress). I will be using it for the next few days on my iPad. I did experience some issues with my first post but, it maybe the configuration settings. I will post a review after a few days of using it on my India trip.