Sketch Up 4.0

[CHE]

Hi all,

 

Have any of you had the opportunity to play around with the new Sketch Up 4.0 yet? I have and I must say that the guys @Last have done a wonderful job with these new release. The most impressive tool is the "Follow me" Push/Pull extrusion along paths (see attached image). One can now lathe geometry with the help of this new tool (rolly-coasters anyone?) . Menus are modeless and more intuitive. There is a new Boolean operation (intersection) and there is a way to tweak texture on flat geometry (scale, move, distort,etc). For more info read below:

 

What's New in this Release?

SketchUp 4.0 contains the following enhancements and new features:

 

User Interface Modifications

 

The user interface has been modified in several ways to better facilitate the design process:

 

Menus have been redesigned to allow learning the program on both platforms easy: Files (opening, closing, import, exporting), Edit (selecting, deleting, hiding, and entity-level editing), View (items that affect the visibility of items in the work space and the rendering of your model), Camera (viewing your model), Draw(creating geometry), Tools (manipulate geometry), Window (settings dialogs and other workspace items), and Help (learning to use SketchUp).

 

Many of SketchUp's dialog boxes have been enhanced such that they can remain open while you work on your model. This "modeless behavior" allows you to explore design options while simultaneously working with your model. In fact, most all options under the View menu now invoke a modeless dialog box.

 

The Preferences dialog box only contains program preferences while other, model-specific settings , are within a new Model Info dialog box under the View menu.

 

The Entity properties dialog box, now called "Entity Info" gives you information about the currently selected entity or multiply selected entities. Additionally, this dialog box contains a material swatch that you can click on to edit the material painted on the of entity without having to invoke the Materials Browser.

 

A new entity specific sub-menu item on the Edit menu has been added to give you convenient access to the context commands for the currently selected entity. This feature is particularly useful for users who have a single button mouse or pen tablet.

 

Indications of inference locking have been visually enhanced by bolding the inference rubber band to four pixels, making it easier to determine that you are locked to an axes. Press the Shift key to activate this enhancement.

 

New "Follow MeTM" Tool

 

A "Follow MeTM" tool has been added to allow any profile to be pulled or pushed along any path, surface profile, or edge.

 

New Texture Positioning

 

SketchUp's new Texture Positioning feature allows textures to be placed, scaled, rotated, and corrected for perspective distortion, directly on a surface. This feature allows the user map images to an existing model.

 

New Projected Textures

 

SketchUp's new Texture Positioning feature also allows textures and images to be wrapped over forms as though "projected" onto the form. This feature is useful for projecting an image on to terrain.

 

New Intersection capabilities

 

With the Intersector, any geometry can be intersected with other geometry, automatically creating the edges along the intersecting geometry. This feature allows you to combine geometry to easily create complex shapes.

 

New "Face MeTM" behavior for 2D components

 

2D components, such as trees and people, can be turned into billboard objects, which always face the camera. This feature speeds performance by allowing you to use far fewer polygons to describe very complex objects, while maintaining a 3D look and feel.

 

Component Browser enhancement: The Component Browser allows you to view components visually or by name.

 

Ability to delete (purge) a material that is used in a model

 

The Materials Browser allows you to select and purge "in use" materials. This feature is invoked by context clicking (right-clicking) on a swatch in the "in use" tab of the materials browser and selecting Delete. SketchUp gives you the option to revert objects to the default material while the selected material while purging the material from the model.

 

Zoom Extents for selected entities: Zoom Extents can be performed on additional entities through a context commands menu item.

 

Enhanced multiple page editing in the Page Manager

 

The Page Manager allows you to select multiple pages and assign or reassign attributes across the set of pages. This feature is particularly useful in managing changes during animation modeling.

 

Rectangle Tool enhancements: The Rectangle Tool contains new "constrain to square" and "constrain to golden section" feature allowing you to create perfect squares and golden sections (for classical proportioning).

 

Text Tool default labels: The Text Tool contains default labels for entities, such as component names for components, square footage for a rectangle, and length for an edge.

 

Layers enhancement: The contents of a layer can now be deleted without affecting other layers.

 

Enhanced AutoCAD support: An improved AutoCAD importer allows you to import AutoCAD 2004 drawings and additional entities, such as solids and splines.

 

Mouse control enhancement: The input for three button mice has been improved such that you can now use of middle mouse wheel in conjunction with the left mouse button to activate the Pan Tool.

 

New Camera Field of View Tool: The Camera menu contains a Field of View Tool allowing you to modify your perspective of your model by dragging your mouse.

 

Check model for invalid geometry: A Check Validity button has been added to the Statistics panel of the Model Info dialog box. When depressed, this button scans your file, reports any invalid geometry, and attempts to fix any problems.

 

New Templates Feature: Common settings, such as units, location, and background colors, and geometry can be saved in templates which can be loaded automatically when starting SketchUp or creating a new document.

 

New BugSplat integration: BugSplat technology has been built into the product for capturing information pertaining to irrecoverable errors. This feature will help @Last Software create the most stable products in the industry.

[GaryR50]

Being a beta tester for 4.0, my answer to your looooooooong post is a resounding, "YES!"

 

Many of us have mixed feelings about 4.0, though. While improvements like Follow Me are great, the changes to the interface are not so great. Forinstance, stupid little things like moving the Materials Browser from the View menu to the Window menu. Others are lamenting the purging of the fog feature.

 

Nevertheless, SketchUp 4.0 has some powerful tools and, as we all get used to the interface changes, this should be the best SketchUp ever.

 

Gary

[Brownie]

For those in the Boston, MA area - there will be a live demo of Sketchup 4.0 at the Colonnade Hotel.

 

The demo will be held on August 17th, 2004 from 7-9 p.m.

 

Beer, wine and food will be provided !

 

Need to RSVP by August 13, 2004 to david.gall@sketchup.com or call 303-385-4984

 

Brownie