View SketchUp models in your hand with augmented reality

Augmented Reality is a concept that has a lot of potential in the coming years. In particular, technologies like Layar could prove to be very useful as the GPS accuracy and the underlying dataset continue to get more accurate.

A few years ago we showed you a neat augmented reality tool of a product called ARSights. They allow you to print out a “target”, and then when you held the target in front of your web cam it would appear that you were holding an actual 3D model in your hands. It was very cool!

They’ve now just released version 2 of their SketchUp plugin that features a variety of enhancements, so it’s a great time to see how things have advanced since then. Here’s a quick video to show how it works, along with some of the new features.

As you can see in the video above, the new version allows you to use multiple targets at once, allowing you to piece together buildings like that. It’s a minor enhancement that could have a major impact on the uses of the product.

To get started, your best bet is to begin with their “Quick Start Guide” (PDF – Windows | Mac) and go from there. After that, install their plug-in, print out the marker and give it a spin!

SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization: Retweet and Win a Free Copy

As regular readers will know we are big fans of Google SketchUp here at digital urban. From its ability to export to game engines such as Unity through to its integration with Google Building Maker, SketchUp has become our one stop shop for urban modelling. To get the most out of SketchUp it is well worth sitting back and going through one of the many tutorial books and ‘SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization’ by Roben de Jongh is one of the best out there.

Normally we are slightly skeptical about tutorial books, after all most tutorials can now be found online but Robin provides a unique step by step guide that provides an essential skill set. For example, Chapter 4 details how to model ridge tiles, that is not something your easily come across online and that alone makes the book a must buy.


Here is a brief summary of what each chapter covers:


Chapter 1: Quickstart Tutorial – Photo Real Gallery Scene – This chapter is an immediate fix for those who are impatient to get photo-realistic rendered SketchUp scenes. Straight away you will learn how to model the gallery scene, fix up lighting, add materials, add a photo background, and finally render in Kerkythea.


Chapter 2: Plug in and Gear Up – Did you know that by downloading a few free plugins and other software you can turn SketchUp into a free fully functional 3D visualization and animation suite similar to high end commercial software? Follow this chapter to obtain all the goodies.

Chapter 3: Composing the Scene – In this chapter you will learn how to take the hard work out of modeling by setting up your scenes prior to starting work. You will learn how to start from CAD plans, site images, or Google Earth and build the scene optimized for quick rendering or animation later.

Chapter 4: Modeling for Visualization – SketchUp is so easy to use that we’re tempted to jump right in and model everything. But this can lead to ineffective presentation later and large polygon counts, which slow the computer. This chapter leads through some of the professional modeling methods you need to learn to save you time and hassle, and to make photo-real rendering a cinch.

Chapter 5: Doing It Up (How to Apply Materials and Photo-textures) – Most visualizers are crazy enough to use the materials bundled with rendering software. But this methodology was developed during the ice age! Now that we all have digital cameras and access to unlimited free online image resources, we have a far more effective way of “dressing” the model. The tutorials in this chapter show you how to use SketchUp’s unique photo and material handling tools to create ultra-real textured models mega easily.

Chapter 6: People, Trees, Furniture, and Things – Now that you’ve created the scene, modeled the buildings, and applied materials, you can add life to the scene with Entourage. Learn how to find the best free people, foliage, vehicles, and furniture online, and better still learn how to easily create your own with the foolproof methods in this chapter. In no time you’ll be able to build up a comprehensive library to use or give/sell to others.

Chapter 7: Artistic Techniques – Exporting images from SketchUp is not the end of the process. Combining several image layers in GIMP, a powerful free photo editing suite, you will learn how to simulate sketchy pencil and watercolor styles. Fans of these methods will be pleased to know the famous Dennis Technique is presented in this chapter along with Dennis’s own creations.

Chapter 8: Photo-realistic Rendering – Here the amazing Kerkythea introduced in Chapter 1 and 2 is explored in more depth, giving you the skills and confidence to tackle any rendering project. A hassle-free method of working is introduced along with proven best settings for test renders and final outdoor and indoor scenes. This chapter covers everything you need to get professional photo-realistic renders from your SketchUp model that you’ll be personally amazed with.

Chapter 9: Image Compositing and After-effects – The rendering process isn’t the end of the line, because there are lots of subtle but important after-effects you can apply to make the image even more effective. This chapter covers how to add reflections without rendering, creating depth of field effects from a depth render, adjusting levels for realistic daylight scenes, and compositing real and rendered images.

Chapter 10: Animated Flyovers and Walkthroughs – The crowning glory of your visualization project is likely to be a rendered or artistic-style animation. The tutorials in this chapter will take you through this step by step, showing you how to create storyboards, set up cameras and paths in SketchUp with extra plugin functionality, export test animations and final renders. Photo-real animations are then composited to make a simple show reel.

Chapter 11: Combining It All in Layout – Layout is bundled as part of SketchUp Pro and is introduced in this final chapter for those who wish to explore the free trial before committing to Pro. You will learn how to bring together SketchUp models and artistic or rendered output into a screen presentation or printed portfolio, adding borders, text and dimensions.

The good news is that the nice people at Packt Publishing have provided us with 3 copies to give away. All you need to do is retweet this post and we will pick 3 random twitter users by 12 Noon Monday 10th January, each will receive a copy of the book. The competition is open to anyone in the world, yep we will ship it out free of charge next week.

You can buy the book direct from Packt or of course online via Amazon…

London 3D Project

Jack recently contacted me to let me know about the “London 3D Project”, which I wasn’t previously aware of. They’re a group of users that want to see more 3D buildings in London and rather than complain about it, they’re getting to work! Since they started work in October, the team has constructed well over 100 models, and roughly 80 of them have shown up in Google Earth.

They’re making a point to try to tackle a lot of the “boring” buildings that people otherwise might not model. For example, there are over 200 models of “Big Ben” in the 3D Warehouse, and most of the popular buildings in town have multiple models available. Their effort is focused on filling out the city with all of the models they can find, not just famous buildings.

To learn more about the project, you can visit their website at www.london3dproject.mfbiz.com.

You can also check out some of their models in the 3D Warehouse.

A project like this is also a great way to explore a city. Jack mentioned that they’ve come across a variety of interesting architecture and some buildings that they didn’t even know existed. Not only have they discovered these buildings now, but they’re sharing them with the rest of the community. Great work guys!