Putting Comet 67P into SketchUp

December 6, 2014 The European Space Agency (ESA) has recently put two 3D formats online of comet 67P currently under observation by the Rosetta spacecraft (see also ESA's Rosetta mission page). The formats are .wrl and .obj, neither of which can be imported into SketchUp 8.

Stl files can also not normally be imported into SketchUp 8 unless you have the proper plugin. There was a tutorial on this published a while back so if you would like to import/export .stl files, check it out. In addition to importing ESA's 67P model, .stl files are useful for 3D printing.

With the plugin you can bring in .stl files, but how do you convert ESA's .obj file into an .stl file? I found an online converter that does just that. An online 3D file converter found at Greentoken.com allowed me to take ESA's .obj file and convert it into an .stl file in 3 easy steps. I was then able to import it into SketchUp 8 and then used the "Make Faces" plugin to cover the wire mesh.

The results are far from perfect but I do basically have comet 67P in SketchUp 8 on my desktop ready to explore.  I thought it might be interesting to print this out and make a Christmas tree ornament out of it but there are some problems with the model that would need to be resolved first.

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SketchUp for Interior Design :: 3 Basic Aspects of Workflow

Design :: SketchUp is an invaluable tool when it comes to visualizing. Its intuitive interface is easy to learn and quickly becomes second nature leaving your energy entirely to the design process. With the 3D Warehouse, you can quickly populate an empty scene and do everything from space planning to exploring real world objects you cannot see or handle in person.

SketchUp allows users to quickly visualize ideas in 3D and present them in a wide variety of ways -- from photo-realistic renders to basic floor plans used for space planning.

Assuming that you don't need to be sold on using SketchUp and instead are looking for some potentially new methods to incorporate into your workflow, the following are 5 basic aspects used at Helios Works when doing interior design visualizing. This, mind you, is our workflow, and is one of many possible alternatives that may work depending on your preferences and requirements. If you feel you have a better way of handling an interior design project, let us know.

1. Starting Out :: Most of our interior design projects start out as a CAD file (easiest) or a scanned floor plan in the form of a .jpeg file (slightly more difficult). Sometimes even that much is not available, and instead we are given site pictures from which we must make an approximate floor plan (the most difficult). It's good to be familiar with the dimensions of common interior features such as doors, chairs, and tables to get a sense of scale and to double check your work as you go along.

To import a CAD file, you must go to File>Import and then navigate to the folder your CAD file is in. Then you need to scale it. This is done by making sure your imported CAD lines are in a single group, entering the group by double clicking on it, and then picking a line you are certain you know the dimensions of. Usually this is a doorway (the standard doorway is about 900mm wide).

Whether a CAD file or a .jpeg of a floor plan, resizing it inside the component using the tape measure tool is a quick and easy way to get your dimensions accurate. Here I am "exploding" the .jpeg and then preparing to regroup it using "G" and "enter" before resizing it. This also works with CAD files to make sure they are proper components before attempting to manipulate them further.

Use the tape measure tool and click from one side of the doorway to the other. In the bottom right of the workspace you will see dimensions. These are probably not going to be anywhere near 900mm. Before clicking anything else, simply type in 900 and hit enter. This will then prompt you with the following, "Do you want to resize the active group or component?" You will click "Yes."

SketchUp 8 + STL Files for 3D Printing

Galata Tower STL in SU8

EDUtutorial :: I have an older version of SketchUp 8, but I really wanted to try the new .stl plugin announced on SketchUp's official blog.

STL files are what you would use in 3D printing, and so having the ability to import STL files into SketchUp, or convert models you've made in SketchUp into STL files, allows you to add SketchUp into your 3D printing workflow. 

If you have the latest version of SketchUp 8, all you have to do is follow the easy instructions on SketchUp's blog to install the new plugin. You simply go to Window>Preferences>Extensions and then click on Install Extensions... Then you navigate to where you downloaded your .rbz file and go on from there.

Since I have an older version of SketchUp 8, I have no such button called Install Extensions. So what I did instead was what you normally do with all ruby scripts -- drop them right into SketchUp's plugin folder manually.



Here's the steps...

1. I opened up my Plugins folder by going to Program Files>Google>Google SketchUp8>Plugins.
2.  Then alongside that folder, I opened up the folder I downloaded the .zip file for the STL plugin into (download here).
3. You should have a .zip folder titled, sketchup-stl-master. Inside it should be a normal folder also titled sketchup-stl-master. Inside that you will have 2 folders and several other files. The one you want to open is src (images below). 
4. Take the folder and .rb file you see in there and drag it over into your Plugin in folder you already opened. 
5. After this, simply start up SketchUp, check under file to see if you have STL options included, and begin enjoying your new STL plugin. 

Industrial Design for Startups: The Factory Floor

Artwork on Arduino.

DesignTUTORIALS :: Here is a snippet from "The Factory Floor, Part 3 of 4: Industrial Design for Startups" by Andrew "Bunnie" Huang. It covers some practical approaches to bring some of our lofty ideas down to Earth, and still have the impact we as designers are looking for.

As a designer of interiors, exhibitions, furniture, and even graphics - it is definitely agreed that having a close relationship with your contractors, be they a factory, a workshop, a print shop, or a work crew, is important and understanding what they can and cannot do can help you produce more appropriate designs and achieve greater results.

Andrew says...

"If you don’t have pockets deep enough to invest in new equipment and capabilities on behalf of your factory (i.e., if you’re not a Fortune 500 company), the first step is to learn the vocabulary available. A design vocabulary is defined by the capabilities of the factory or factories producing the goods. What materials, what finish, what tolerances are achievable, what fastening technology is available – these are all heavily dependent upon the processes available.

Therefore, I find that visiting a factory in person early in the design process results in a better design result. In a factory visit, some design vocabulary will be discarded, but some new vocabulary will be discovered as well – the engineers who work the factory day in and day out develop process innovations that can open up novel design possibilities that are not knowable without the on-site visit." 

The examples Andrew uses are the Chumby One (pictured below) and the Arudino microprocessor. The Chumby One employs very simple solutions that modify the original design in respect to what the factories can actually do. The Arduino uses very simple processes to achieve the desired results, processes that might be slightly outside the standard approaches used by manufacturers if the decision was left up to them. Understanding the manufacturing process better, helps make better designs.

Learning Genetics

EDUtutorials :: The University of Utah has an awesome website called, Learn. Genetics. It is like an interactive textbook and even includes experiments students can try in the classroom or at home - like - How to Extract DNA from Anything Living. In fact, this experiment caught my eye on Twitter and is how I found this website in the first place.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/

There is a lot of information on the page, and the beginner's material is a good way of preparing for more advanced material you might find from online open-university projects like those at Yale, MIT or Berkeley, as well as infinitely more complicated material to be found on websites like those of Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) or Applied Biosystems (AB) who offer a wealth of information regarding their products and services - and from that you can learn a great deal more about genetics and the modern methods of bioengineering.

I would suggest starting with "Tour of the Basics" and continue on from there. There is also a Teach. Genetics page the university is working on, but I don't think it would take much effort to walk students through the material found on Learn.Genetics.

The idea of having an "online textbook" like this that can be updated on a day-to-day basis and is accessible to all is truly a revolutionary idea that has potential across all fields of study. It's something we might think of doing as time goes on as well.

Hope this helps. Enjoy! If you have a favorite educational resource you would like to share - contact Helios Labs and we'll be glad to feature it.

Wuzhen River Village Animation (Converting .flv to MP3 with VLC)

designTUTORIALS :: This started out as a project to develop a logo yet to be finished. The idea of building a quick model to capture exactly the scene wanted for the logo quickly evolved into a chance to practice SketchUp animation and video editing. The subject was Wuzhen, a Chinese river village near Shanghai.

The buildings, bridges, stairs, and other main features were modeled from scratch while the pagoda, boats, 2D oak,  2D pine trees, and 2D people were imported from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse.

The music was "菊花台 Ju Hua Tai - Raffles Alumni Chinese Orchestra," taken from a live performance on YouTube.

Everything from still images to animation and music were spliced together in Windows Movie Maker.

I have lots of music on my hard drive, but for this particular animation I wanted to use some Chinese orchestra music. Since I usually listen to this music on YouTube and have no need to download it, how could I take a video of a live performance and use the audio only in Movie Maker? There is a way to do it with VLC, and below (click "Read More") is an excellent video that explains exactly how.

RENDERING WINTER SCENES

designTUTORIALS :: A reoccurring favorite stop of mine is the website of Alex Hogrefe, a designer who shares many incredibly useful tutorials for designers seeking to hone their skills with many of the subtle tricks needed to get that professional look. Getting in the holiday spirits, Alex shares his workflow for achieving wintery scenes - check out the rest of the tutorial on his site here....

Source :: Alex Hogrefe