Ruby library for SketchUp

The Ruby Library Depot, maintained by a laboratory of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nancy in France, has many of the scripts developed by the SketchUp community over the last few years. A good place to start when you need to extend SketchUp's functionality for a particular project.

Formfonts

Google Earth has a store of free models online at its Warehouse, but for the best range of mid size SketchUp and 3DS models Formfonts is a useful (though subscription only) resource.

Bathsheba, the Rhinoceros, and Google Earth

Santa Cruz artist/craftsperson Bathsheba Grossman uses Rhinoceros and SLS (selective laser sintering of metals) to produce sculptures of mathematical concepts. Unique and wonderful.

And McNeel has developed an export plug-in for Rhinoceros to save out KML and KMZ files with geolocation. This completes a comprehensive model/presentation software group consisting of Rhino-SketchUp-Google Earth, plus any competent image editor for textures.

Woodworking plugins for SketchUp

SketchUp is inspiring a varied collection of Ruby plug-in writers. As a former professional woodworker, Wudworx' collection caught my eye. It's now possible to create a seamless progression of derivatives from a SketchUp model: from working drawings, renders, animations, and sightline/shadow studies up to Google Earth geolocation and tours.

Google SketchUp blog

A post illustrating the potential of SketchUp Pro's Layout feature for a small visualization consultancy from the SketchUp blog here. SketchUp Pro may seem expensive ($495) since it's possible to do so much with the free version, but that extra 20% functionality gives it 80% more power.

SketchUp is tightly integrated with Google Earth; the ability to exchange information between the two - and the possibilities this generates - will be the subject of a Studio Cruz event in July or August. A SketchUp model of the studio is shown above.