An important update for SketchUp 8

Sometimes a haiku says it best:

new SketchUp version
shadows work much better now
farewell artifacts!

You’ll want to download today’s free update for SketchUp 8 as soon as possible. It contains (among a great many other things) fixes for for raster image export at high resolutions on Windows, and for the dreaded Shadow Bug. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of millions of modelers uncorking Champagne to celebrate. Believe me – we’re thrilled, too.

Here’s an overly-dramatic video that shows the Shadow Bug fix in living color.

The newest version of SketchUp 8 (free and Pro) is available today in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Traditional Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese. Stay tuned for Russian, Dutch and Simplified Chinese; they’re coming soon.

Here’s how to get the latest version of SketchUp 8:

Windows: Choose Help > Check for Update

Mac: Choose SketchUp > Check Web for Update

Please feel free to express your own euphoria in the form of a haiku in this post’s comments thread.

New SketchUp 8 book in Portuguese

We know from examining our charts and graphs that the good people of Brazil are crazy about SketchUp. We can officially add 3D modeling to the long, long list of things for which that country is famous.

The first book about Google SketchUp 8 is now available, and it’s in Portuguese. Written by architect João Gaspar, Google SketchUp Pro 8 passo a passo was launched in Sao Paolo on December 3rd, 2010. It’s the author’s third book about SketchUp; he also wrote volumes about SketchUp 6 and 7.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Making your rounded models look better

When you’re working with rounded objects whose edges have been smoothed, it’s sometimes hard to make things look good. That’s because curved surfaces don’t automatically produce a profile edge that helps to differentiate them from the background. You can see what I’m talking about in the images that follow; notice the (what I consider to be) unsatisfying outline of each of the rounded objects below?

Without Profiles turned on, rounded objects don’t stand out.

Turning on Profiles in the Styles dialog box produces a completely different result. At a Profiles setting of 2 pixels, perimeter edges become clearly visible. They’re a little chunky, though—and that’s not always the effect I’m aiming for.

Profiles that are 2 pixels thick often look too bold and cartoony.

Dialing down Profiles to 1 pixel solves the problem (see below).

Using a Profile thickness of 1 pixel makes rounded objects pop out from the background.

While this trick might seem obvious, it actually took eight years to soak into my brain. I never understood the benefit of setting my profile thickness to a single pixel. After all, edges are already that thickness—why spend the computer cycles to draw them again? Now I know. I thought others might benefit from my epiphany, embarrassingly late though it is.

It’s worth mentioning that telling SketchUp to draw Profiles can slow things down considerably if your model’s pushing the limits of your polygon budget. I only switch Profiles on when I need them.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist