SketchUp 2014

skp2014-feat

If you happen to visit the SketchUp homepage, you might notice that a couple of the featured images are by none other than Fat Pencil Studio (!), but arguably more importantly, you'll see that a new version of SketchUp was released today. There are a bunch of new features to play with in SketchUp 2014, including improvements to LayOut, faster shadow rendering, and BIM functionality. We are particularly excited about the ability to share 3d models using SketchUp's WebGL viewer that works in modern desktop browsers such as Chrome. Click into the window below and you can pan and zoom and rotate to see the 3d model from every angle:

We've tried other WebGL 3d viewers in the past (SlingM, SketchFab) but this is the first time that it's been possible to embed a viewer for native SketchUp models without requiring some kind of export. More importantly, the rendering seen in the web viewer is the same as what is seen in SketchUp, including both edges and faces. In case you are reading this on a mobile device (which doesn't support WebGL), here are a few images of the bicycle light model shown above. You can download a copy from the newly revamped 3d Warehouse.

JC-2018.jpg

Joshua Cohen is a Principal at Fat Pencil Studio