Igloo Studios

Take care of your users if you want more customers

2011-12-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

Here in the Bay Area, there are a lot of tech companies that are focused on their “users”. Notice I didn’t say “customers”. That’s because tech companies have realized that its good business to attract people to try-out a product or service and if the experience is a good one, then the company has a good chance of converting folks into paying customers.

Photorealistic 3D rendering made by a Google SketchUp user. Or was it a Delta Faucet user? I say both.

I think that the next age of business in the building industry will see manufacturers adopting some of the same “user” based principles. Clearly, I’m not alone: I recently read an excellent article titled Users are the New Growth Engine by Aaron Shapiro via the Harvard Business Review blog. In it, Shapiro makes the case for how traditional products and services companies are actually in two businesses:

“...their core business, which sells the products and services the company has always sold, and a new business, what I call the Software Layer — a layer of technology that surrounds the core business and serves as the focal point of interaction with the outside world.”

But what sort of “layer of technology” would encourage someone to “use” a physical product before they buy the real thing? We’re convinced that Google SketchUp is part of the answer for building product makers. They can offer users free SketchUp product models that can be used in Google SketchUp (also for free) allowing someone to test-drive products virtually. Combined with education distributed via social media such as YouTube or Twitter - again, delivered for free - companies can offer a robust user experience while leveraging existing, popular technology. Whatever the user experience, as much of it as possible should be free with key incentives to upgrade to purchase or specify the actual underlying product.

Designers and consumers can experience this Dacor range in 3D before buying or specifying the real thing

If you’re a product maker, I encourage you to ask yourself: How can you build a large group of users first and then convert a healthy chunk of them into paying customers? Create your technology layer and use it to deliver a great user experience for more than just your traditional customers.

Jason Wu for Brizo product collection now available on the Google 3D Warehouse

2011-12-01T16:29:00.001-08:00

We are pleased to announce the newest collection Google SketchUp models: Jason Wu for Brizo. This is the first complete collection of bath faucet plus related accessories that Brizo has added to the Google 3D Warehouse.

Jason Wu for Brizo, Google SketchUp model collection

This particular collection of products has a great back story. Jason Wu, a renowned fashion designer and long-time Brizo collaborator, was asked to design a bath collection - his first foray into industrial design. Wu, who drew inspiration for his Fall 2011 fashion collection from Robert Polidori’s photographs of the restoration of Versailles, settled on a baroque style for the Brizo product line. It’s easy to see the relationship between some of the detailing in his clothing line and things like the flower and matte black finishes being used in the bath collection.

What’s especially exciting about this project is that the actual products aren’t going to be available until Spring of 2012. But rather than wait until then, Brizo wanted to allow SketchUp users to test drive the products immediately. You can download any of the files directly from the Google 3D Warehouse into your SketchUp designs and add them to your plumbing schedule reports using the Product Connect plugin. If you’re smitten with how the files look in your design, you can pre-order from the Brizo website.

Both the Jason Wu and Brizo brands represent high fashion and beautiful design. I love that Brizo trusts SketchUp to be able to carry the essence of brand through to the design files, and ultimately through into designers ideas, imaginations and presentations. I’m looking forward to seeing what sorts of designs these products make their way into... I’m seeing a baroque or art deco inspired hotel, perhaps?

Miele asked us to present at Dwell on Design... and we said yes!

2011-06-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

While some of us Igloo Studio-ites will be in the Bay Area this week at the PCBC conference and hosting a MeetUp at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Mike Tadros will be representing us at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles. Miele USA has asked us to demonstrate how designers can use Product Connect for Google SketchUp to find, present and specify building products - and of course, we'll be showing off the brand-new Miele Futura dishwasher SketchUp model in the process.

If you're in Los Angeles, you can catch Mike's presentation at 3:30pm on Friday, June 24th on the Design Innovation Stage at the L.A. Convention Center.

For the full story, see Miele's official press release here.

Calling all Bay Area, CA SketchUp enthusiasts - Join our MeetUp group

2011-06-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Bay Area has a great selection of interesting MeetUps and we've attended our fair share of them. Yet, we had never organized our own.... (I bet you can see where this is headed). A couple of months ago, we launched the Bay Area Google SketchUp MeetUp group. So far, we've had three lively meetings, all in our San Francisco office. And while we're still experimenting with the format and meeting topics, we decided it was time to step the venue up a bit and head to the Google campus in Mountain View.

Click to view the Google Campus in 3D in Google Earth

Thanks to our friends at Google, we're hosting our next MeetUp tomorrow, Thursday June 23rd at the Google offices in Mountain View, CA. We'll be meeting at 6:30 to tour the offices and snag a few free snacks. Then we'll start the MeetUp at 7:00 with a presentation from SketchUp's Product Marketing Manager, Gopal Shah. Finally, we'll wrap it up with 90 minutes of round-robin presentations from group members showing-off their favorite, SketchUp-friendly rendering applications such as Kerkythea, Twilight and Shaderlight.

If you live in the Bay Area and you like SketchUp, you can sign-up for the MeetUp group here. It's free to join and you aren't obligated to attend meetings if you don't have the time (or aren't interested in the topic). The group is designed for SketchUp fans of all levels - beginners, experts and even people who've never tried SketchUp but are interested in learning more. And of course, if you have topic ideas, we'd love to hear from you and incorporate them into future meetings.

The MeetUp on the Google campus is at capacity as of this writing. But there is a waiting list that you can put yourself on in-case a spot opens up.

Top 10 Green Products added to Google 3D Warehouse

2011-06-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

I will be a co-presenter at the PCBC conference here near our office in San Francisco tomorrow (Thursday June 23rd). In partnership with Sustainable Industries, we'll be announcing their Top 10 Green Building Products for 2011. So what does Igloo Studios have to do with the announcement? Well, we've created Google SketchUp models of the winning products, naturally!

SketchUp model of the Indow Windows product

I'll be speaking briefly to a live audience at the conference, as well as a webinar audience tuned into the online presentation about how designers using Google SketchUp can download these best-of-class green building products as well as other building products into their design projects for presentation and specification.

If you're in San Francisco, be sure to stop by the conference and come see our presentation. We'll be at the West Coast Green Salon at PCBC 2011 presenting live from 10:30am - 11:30am.

If you're not familiar with Sustainable Industries, you can download an issue of their magazine using the password: racecar

Do you use Google SketchUp for sustainable design or to evaluate green products? If so, we'd love to hear your story in the comments below.

AIA 2011 Presentations

2011-05-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

It seems like we've only just begun to recuperate from the activity surrounding the launch of Product Connect at KBIS 2011 in Sin City just a few days ago. Regardless, this week our sights have turned to the Big Easy, home of the AIA 2011 Convention (it's a tough gig, I know...).

We've got a packed schedule of presentations at the show, including demonstrations of our newly launched Product Connect plugin, Google LayOut, and the Shaderlight rendering plugin.

For those of you who are planning to be at the show, please feel free to stop by and check out one (or all) of the presentations that I'll be giving on the days and times listed below. Most of the presentations below will be taking place at the Kraftmaid/Merillat booth (#3317) and I'll also be giving a presentation each day at the Shaderlight booth (#3606). I'll likely spend some time loitering around after my demos for any of you who just wanna geek out about SketchUp for a bit:

Thursday - 5/12

• 11:00a - Product Connect for Google SketchUp

• 11:40a - Interior Renderings with Shaderlight (*at the Shaderlight Booth #3606)

• 12:30p - Rendering Your SketchUp Models With Shaderlight (Featuring KraftMaid's Newest Kitchen)

• 2:00p - Tips for creating working drawings in Google LayOut

• 3:30p - Product Connect for Google SketchUp

Friday - 5/13

• 11:00a - Rendering Your SketchUp Models With Shaderlight (Featuring Merillat's Newest Kitchen)

• 12:30p - Tips for creating working drawings in Google LayOut

• 2:00p - Product Connect for Google SketchUp

• 2:40p - Interior Renderings with Shaderlight (*at the Shaderlight Booth #3606)

• 3:30p - Rendering Your SketchUp Models With Shaderlight (Featuring QualityCabinets' Newest Kitchen)

Saturday - 5/14

• 11:00a - Tips for creating working drawings in Google LayOut

• 12:30p - Product Connect for Google SketchUp

• 1:10p - Interior Renderings with Shaderlight (*at the Shaderlight Booth #3606)

For reminders/updates about the schedule, or if you want to connect at the show and talk about where "this is all going", hit me up on the 'ol Twitter. I am happy to exchange SketchUp knowledge for Hurricanes...

Hope to see you in New Orleans!

100 Product Connect users from around the world!

2011-05-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

We're happy to report that we signed-up our 100th Product Connect for Google SketchUp user today, just a few days after launching the plugin at KBIS 2011. Hailing from 24 different countries around the world, our first 100 users highlight another great part about SketchUp: As the most popular 3D modeling software in the world, its reach is truly global. Just take a look at the map below to see where some of our first users live and work:

How can we properly say "thank you" to all the folks out there who've downloaded Product Connect? With the help of Google Translate, of course:

Gracias, Obrigado, Tak, Go raibh maith agat, Grazie, Dank U, Baie dankie, Tack, Хвала, شكرا لك, 谢谢您, ありがとう, آپ کا شکریہ and Thank you!

Product Connect for Google SketchUp

2011-04-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

After some blood, sweat, and tears*, we are very proud to introduce the Product Connect plugin for Google SketchUp. Designed to get more out of product models from Google's 3D Warehouse, this plugin makes it easier than ever to find, visualize and specify products using SketchUp.

This first iteration of the Product Connect plugin consists of a tool called Report Maker. Here's how it works:

You search the Warehouse for a Product Connect-compatible product model and download it into your SketchUp model.
Then, you open the Product Connect tool set and click on Report Maker.
Finally, you just select the product schedule type (such as Cabinet or Appliance) click the Create Reports button. The plugin will generate a spreadsheet (.csv) file containing all of the product models and their relevant data. We have some great ideas for improvements and expect to regularly update both the 3D product models available, as well as the Product Connect plugin with new features and functionality.

On the surface, this is a straightforward plugin that streamlines a tedious step in the design process. Despite its elegant simplicity, there's a lot going on behind the scenes. For instance, Product Connect is useless without compatible product models on the Google 3D Warehouse. Our team has been busily working with a handful of manufacturers to model select portions of their catalog, infuse their models with relevant data, and post them to the 3D Warehouse. Today, there are hundreds of Product Connect-enabled models freely available, including

Cabinetry: KraftMaid® Cabinetry, Merillat® Cabinetry, QualityCabinets™
Countertops: DeNova™ Countertops
Faucets: Brizo®, Delta® Faucets
Appliances: Dacor®
Tile: Oceanside Glasstile™, Mandala
Surfacing Materials: Formica® Corporation

This is only the beginning! Any product manufacturer can participate. The easiest (and, naturally, our preferred) method is to work with us to create new, Product Connect-enabled models. We can also upgrade existing SketchUp models to be compatible with this revolutionary system. If you're reading this, Kolbe and Kolbe, please repeat that last sentence out loud for emphasis.

All jokes aside, we're developing this solution for the SketchUp community, so we're most interested in hearing what features you, the SketchUp users, would like to see. Please visit our Get Satisfaction community page and let us hear your thoughts on how to make this better! We check that account regularly, and will respond as promptly as possible to your questions or comments.

*For those literal thinkers imagining a bloody, sweaty, and melancholy plugin, please rest assured that all blood, sweat, and tears were neutralized during the debugging process.

Coverings 2011 - Google SketchUp for the Tile & Stone industry

2011-03-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of Coverings 2011. And it was the first time that I, or anyone from Igloo Studios, had ever been to this particular trade show. For the uninitiated, here's the short of it: Hundreds of tile, stone and other surface material producing companies from all over the world show their wares to the design trade.

The booth displays are modern and beautiful. They are dominated by international companies from Italy, Spain, Turkey, Brazil and Egypt, among others.

The thing that sticks out about the show: Designers like to walk-up to the product samples to touch them with their own bare hands. Because we create product catalogs for Google SketchUp, I hear this a lot from designers about materials like tile, stone, laminate, etc: "My clients need to touch the real thing in their own hands." I couldn't agree more. Today in fact, I saw living proof on the Coverings show floor.

But here's what makes me excited about creating digital versions of all the products I saw on the show floor today: For every designer at Coverings, there are hundreds that didn't make the trip to experience the products first-hand. Tile of Spain and all the companies they represent will be on a flight back home later this week, and designers all over the world won't get to feel the products firsthand. Even more important, for every designer here today there is a client (or 10) at home who didn't get to touch the products. Not to mention the fact that those very same clients, had they been here today, would still struggle to imagine that swatch of Oceanside Glasstile as the backsplash in their kitchen remodel.

Coverings represents the intersection of where physical and digital can play a symbiotic role for designers and their clients. Physical product samples, whether at tradeshows or on display in design showrooms, help clients choose materials and finishes while the virtual Google SketchUp catalogs help designers sell clients on the final design in the context of the actual kitchen or bath (or other space).

Getting more of the products from the Coverings show floor into the Google 3D Warehouse would be a big win for everyone: Manufacturers would benefit from promoting their products using Google's technology, designers would gain a tool to help them sell design ideas to clients, and of course we'd be thrilled to help both groups in the endeavor.

If you're at Coverings and would like to connect to learn more, you can reach me on Twitter (@igloostudios) or by email (alex@igloostudios.com).

Case Study: Brizo's Designer Challenge

2011-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

Google SketchUp is uniquely suited for online competitions. Its seamless integration with the web means that users can easily collaborate and piggyback on each others' work. In this case, it also allows a contest's host to easily distribute a branded set of digital building blocks, like particular product models, larger vignettes, or building sites. By eliminating preliminary and tedious steps from the design process, a SketchUp contest lets participants focus on the most creative task of design: combining disparate elements into a unified vision. Because it's so easy to learn, especially for people with little or no CAD experience, SketchUp can reach anyone with a computer, an internet connection, and even the slightest desire to be creative. So it should come as no surprise that diverse groups, like the Guggenheim Museum, Dwell magazine and Brizo Faucets, are turning to SketchUp contests to stimulate interest in their brands.

As part of their Fall 2010 NYC Fashion Week, Brizo leveraged SketchUp as a fun yet practical vehicle for interacting with designers. In anticipation of these festivities, they asked us to model some of their newest bathroom faucets in SketchUp. The artistry that they bring to their work, even for something as simple as a bathroom faucet, challenged us to make the digital versions look just as good. We are very proud of the finished product models, which anyone can drop into their own designs in a few short moments. Brizo also invited Mike Tadros to the Fashion Week festivities and asked him to get the other designers started in SketchUp. After his brief presentation, each team of designers modeled a dream bathroom, complete with Brizo's impressive new product models, in under 3 hours. You can explore each team's submission here.

From a designer's perspective, contests like Brizo's provide a fun incentive to improve their design process. Instead of just reading about a new tool, or paying to take a class, they get hands-on instruction and a stress-free environment to learn and practice. From Brizo's perspective, their Designer Competition cultivates favor with an influential audience while drawing attention to Brizo's digital catalog. Plus, through effective social media outreach, this one-time event can become the perfect narrative to push through Twitter, Facebook, company blogs, or Youtube---or any other channels preferred by their audience.

Mike Tadros, Google Qualified Geo 3D Developer

2010-10-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

It's official! Thanks to Mike Tadros, Igloo Studios is now a Google Qualified Geo 3D Developer. According to the program's website, our Geo 3D Qualification represents a mastery of "technologies that enable rich 3D websites and applications", including "KML, JavaScript, SketchUp, Building Maker, and the O3D API." Simply put, it's like getting our black belt in geo-modeling.

Developer Qualification is Google's way of recognizing professional expertise relating to Google and Open Source APIs. Candidates for this program are rigorously evaluated and reviewed by their peers. Eligibility is based on application development, community participation, personal references from clients, and a 50-question Qualification Exam. To maintain eligibility, Google Qualified Developers must regularly submit new examples of their work, stay active in the community, and update their references. We look forward to the challenge.

Thanks to Google for organizing this program. We're honored to be listed in their Developer Directory of trusted references, and to have our Blue Marble Project collection featured in the 3D Warehouse.

"Main Streets in 3D" Training

2010-10-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

We recently wrapped up the free education segment of the "Main Streets in 3D" project, a collaboration between the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Igloo Studios, and Google. Inspired by McMinnville, Tennessee's use of SketchUp and Google Earth in their downtown revitalization efforts, this project challenged 1200+ cities nationwide to submit their vision for how SketchUp and Google Earth could benefit their local community. Some cities proposed to use a 3D model of their downtown to support tourism, while others intended to use the model for city planning. The 5 winners soon distinguished themselves with their passion for the project, as well as the size of their volunteer teams. These teams were a varied mix of city employees, college professors, architects, designers, artists, photographers, high school students, and college students.

And so, off we went to Fairmont (West Virginia), Downtown South Orlando (Florida), Jefferson (Georgia), Mildford (Delaware) and Oregon City (duh). Our mission was simple yet bold: to teach these volunteers everything they need to know to transform their downtown areas into fully-interactive, 3D SketchUp models positioned perfectly within Google Earth. This is a lot of material to cover, even if you disregard the fact that many of these volunteers were using SketchUp for the first time. Plus, all this training needed to happen in 1 day.

The teams from all 5 communities were certainly up to the task. We managed to hit nearly every major concept from our Essentials 1 and Essentials 2 classes, plus a majority of the Advanced Geo-Modeling class. Just in case anyone's brain (including the instructor's) wasn't yet fried, we topped it all off with a crash-course version of our Google Earth Pro class. All in all, that's 12 hours of intense education crammed into 7 hours! Thank goodness for Google SketchUp 8, which launched right before we began the training tour. Its new geo-modeling features helped us move more efficiently through the training. We saw firsthand how these new tools make modeling cities much more user-friendly.

Now that they've been trained, each of the communities have roughly 7 months until the National Main Streets conference (May 22-25) in Des Moines, IA . Here, they'll present their final product. For some, it will be a Google Earth model of their city complete with walking tours and historical points of interest for tourists. For others, it will be a city planning tool for visualizing development. One community is even planning to use the model to help entice businesses to set up shop in their downtown area.

The training has already generated some buzz in the local communities. In Fairmont, their local news station featured the training session in the evening news. Milford is reporting from their own blog. We've also got some photos from South Orlando featured throughout this article.

Thanks to all the volunteers who hung in there through all the material we covered, and especially to those who shared their SketchUp knowledge with their fellow students. Your enthusiasm makes this project possible. We're looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labor!

Virtual Kitchen re-design

2010-08-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

How would you re-design a client’s kitchen in 30 minutes? What if you couldn’t visit the house or work from drawings of any sort? I witnessed my business partner do just that at the AIA trade show in Miami. As School’s lead instructor, he should be handy with SketchUp, but this display at Masco Cabinetry’s booth was impressive nonetheless. A post on the Sketch This! blog called it “building kitchens from space!”. We call it Mike Tadros…and Google Earth and SketchUp.

You think she found this presentation engaging? Picture from Sketch-This.net

“What’s your address?” said Mike as he opened Google Earth. The next 30 minutes passed by quickly: he found her house, turned it into a 3-dimensional model in SketchUp, and began to fly her through Masco’s cabinet catalog. She moved closer to the display screen, directing the installation of the particular KraftMaid cabinets she had just specified a moment ago and clearly enthusiastic about the virtual re-design. It was, hands-down, the best design meeting I’ve ever witnessed. Granted, Mike was only producing a conceptual sketch – but the interactive nature of the meeting was powerful.

For a more detailed recap, including pictures, please read Eric Shimelpfenig’s first-hand account.

Mass producing Dynamic Components for Google SketchUp

2010-06-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Though I’ve already announced the 1000+ Dynamic Component models we created for KraftMaid Cabinetry, I’d like to revisit that milestone to explore how we built so many models so fast. To begin, let’s take a moment to consider our task. 1000+ Dynamic Component models, each with an average of about 8 configurable options, would produce 8000+ options to manage. On top of opening the door pretty wide for all sorts of errors, the scope of this project appeared to guarantee a few bouts of carpal tunnel. Valuing the long-term use of our hands, and our sanity, we decided not to build all of these models by hand.

Instead, we built a virtual cabinet “assembly line,” a suite of applications and scripts that translates information from Kraftmaid’s product catalog into collections of dynamic SketchUp models.

The assembled cabinets are Dynamic Components ("smart models") that can be configured to match real-world SKU options

The assembly line works something like this:

We begin with a manual read-through of the cabinet manufacturer’s product catalog.
We organize and input key values into a front-end process.
We identify a series of standards which can be re-used for a number of cabinet models.
We create a series of parts based on drawings from the manufacturer.
We take photographs and create a texture library of manufacture-specific wood species and finishes
Using photographs and manufacturer drawings, we create a hardware library of various pulls and knobs.

With all this information in place, our assembly line software takes over and…

Uses the data to assemble the kit of parts and turn it into a final cabinet model.
Stuffs Dynamic Component attributes into each of the resulting SketchUp files so that the models are visually interactive, display product information, and allow users to configure the various options that are available in the real world.

The creation of this virtual assembly line was no simple feat; it’s something we worked on for nearly 5 months. Though we were very proud of these new tools we developed, we still had to upload the resulting 1000+ cabinet models to the Google 3D Warehouse. Fortunately, our assembly line had the data to compile 99% of the titles, descriptions, tags and related information for the upload process. We tackled the other 1% with some Excel hackery and good ol’ fashioned data entry. While this part sounds painfully tedious, we’re glad we stuck with it; while solving these final problems, we developed a framework for making the entire process more efficient next time.

With our new fine-tuned assembly line, we’re ready to create more cabinet models at an unprecedented rate. Look for more door styles and cabinet types from the KraftMaid catalog in the coming days leading up to the 2010 AIA tradeshow. We’re also looking into ways of utilizing our streamlined process to add dynamic attributes to SketchUp models that we’ve already created for past clients.

These new super powers give us a big leg-up when it comes to creating Dynamic Component models for the 3D Warehouse; we now guarantee fewer errors, quicker builds and larger batches of models. Quite simply, the tremendous value we can deliver to our clients trumps any other company in this arena. I’d like to offer a special congrats to Mike, Rich, John, Ann and Jon on our team for seeing this through!

Starting a 3D Warehouse movement

2010-05-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

When it comes to lauding the virtues of Google’s SketchUp and 3D Warehouse, we have at times felt a bit “out there”. Now, that can mean either “ahead of the curve” or just plain crazy, depending on your perspective. When we first began convincing building product manufacturers to develop free resources for designers, we got a lot of weird looks that suggested the latter. But as more and more companies began to appreciate SketchUp as a network that reached designers all over the world, “out there” became the place to be.

Sivers during his TED talk "How to Start a Momement"

On TED.com, Derek Sivers’ presentation entitled “How to Start a Movement” encapsulates this progression from crazy-looking to groundbreaking. Sivers’ main point struck me because it rings true with our own experience: the difference between crazy crazy and crazy smart is the people that dance with you. Relying on this fact, we have worked hard to support the SketchUp community in relevant and useful ways. Through our School brand, we’ve made almost 60 free tutorials and maintain an online forum where designers can meet, ask questions, and share information. As a result, the party has continued to grow. Designers from all over the world have tuned in to the power and simplicity of SketchUp. Now that we’re dancing with this crowd, we don’t look so crazy after all.

Contributor Tags in the Google 3D Warehouse

2010-05-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

It’s well-known by now that the Google 3D Warehouse allows designers to download virtual products into their 3D drawings, as well as upload their finished designs back into the Warehouse. Certainly good for designers, this cycle creates a free opportunity to market and sell their services to a very large audience online. The Warehouse’s “Contributor Tag” feature is another, lesser-known aspect of the Google 3D Warehouse.

Though somewhat hidden, the Contributor Tag is a very powerful feature for companies marketing their products in the Warehouse. When a designer downloads a product model into their design, then uploads that design back to the Warehouse, the original product manufacturer gets credit as a “Contributor”. That means that the product and the manufacturer attribution are now being shared socially and potentially virally.

Here is a sample model uploaded by Mrrollie. Note that there are 7 Contributors to this model, including Thermador and KraftMaid. Contributor Tags provide another meaningful way for brands to interact socially with designers online.

Bienvenido a Miami!

2010-05-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Miami in Google Earth

On June 10-12, we’ll be at the AIA show in Miami. This time KraftMaid Cabinetry, Merillat and DeNova have invited us to demonstrate how architects can use Google SketchUp and Google LayOut to to draw, present and sell their designs. We’ll have more information to share as the show approaches.

Brizo adds 12 faucets to the Google 3D Warehouse

2010-05-04T07:59:00.001-07:00

I had the good fortune of being able to experience the Brizo brand firsthand at KBIS. Their whole team has done an incredible job of telling a visually intoxicating story. The industrial design of the faucets is gorgeous, and the supporting messaging and graphics made their booth one of the best branded experiences I encountered at the trade show.

snapshot from Brizo's new ad campaign video (see it on YouTube)

For full disclosure, I should mention that Brizo is a brand new client of ours and that we recently uploaded 12 new Brizo faucets to the Google 3D Warehouse. We relished the challenge of delivering 3D models that are nearly as beautiful as their real world counterparts. You be the judge:

We also included all of the products’ technical specs by making the faucets Dynamic Components. This information makes product selection easier on designers and links them back to Brizo’s website to help specify the products. Another dynamic feature – this Pot Filler faucet swings in and out when clicked on with SketchUp’s Interact tool. We thought this was a nifty representation of how a particular product simplifies life in the kitchen.

Its clear that a company like Brizo prioritizes the building their brand. From sponsoring fashion designer Jason Wu for his New York Fashion Week shows and their new ad campaign, to their meticulous attention to industrial design details, the Brizo brand is a carefully curated experience. With that in mind, we were honored to be selected to work with them. Too many times, we see companies spend a lot of money on their brand, and then award their 3D modeling contracts to the lowest bidder, or perhaps do them in-house with a team that might not have “brand experience” in mind when creating the product models. This can produce a disastrous result with the designers that are using these files – not an audience you want to leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

I encourage you to check out these new models in the 3D Warehouse and rate them as you see fit.

Search Engine Optimization via the 3D Warehouse

2010-05-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

Companies spend a lot of time and money on Search Engine Optimization. Unfortunately, a great deal of time and effort is spent on trying to game the system, often at the expense of meaningful programs that actually offer real value to prospective customers. Of course, SEO is important, but how you approach it is vital. For marketing strategies, the difference between sustainable and flimsy exists in how you optimize your message online.

Traditional SEO tends to focus on keywords, marketing text and cross linking, among other things. These are all good things to be mindful of, but none of them typically drive value to your prospective customer. They may help that person find you, but that’s about it.

Contrast this with KraftMaid’s strategy of presenting helpful tools and education online. All of this content is branded, and points the potential customer back to Kraftmaid products. If you follow this blog, you know that KraftMaid has posted their cabinets in SketchUp format to the Google 3D Warehouse. These 3D models are incredibly useful to designers who want to use real world products in their designs. In addition, each of those cabinets – over 1000 of them – has its own product page in the Google 3D Warehouse. Google’s search engine recognizes that this is a valuable collection of information about KraftMaid cabinetry. And voila – in just a few short months this collection of KraftMaid cabinets appears 6th when you search “KraftMaid” at Google.com. Think about all of the KraftMaid dealers and distributors around the country that would kill to show up on the first page of a Google search result.

Search for "KraftMaid" on Google.com and you will find the Google 3D Warehouse collection 6th on the list of results

Some other searches return good results as well:

“KraftMaid Putnam” (Putnam is the name of a specific cabinet style) lists the 3D models link as the 4th result.
“KraftMaid Base Cabinet” lists the 3D models as the 10th result.

The Lesson
If you combine SEO strategy with useful tools and information, you get the best of both worlds. People find your brand, and they arrive equipped and excited to interact with your products. After all, winning new customers is the point of all this optimization.

Delta Faucet launches 3D Warehouse collection

2010-05-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Delta Faucet Company is the largest manufacturer of residential and commercial faucets in the US. As such, they’re eager to serve the professional designer market with resources and tools that make it easier to specify Delta products. When Delta first came to us as a client, they were already well on their way; they already offered 2D and 3D CAD files of well over 500 products on the Autodesk Seek website and had a sampling of SketchUp models to boot. Talk about a kindred spirit! Because Delta didn’t have a presence in the Google 3D Warehouse, they came to us with an interest in expanding their reach to Google’s 3D platform.

Autodesk Seek is a wonderful resource for professional designers – especially architects – to search for and find AutoCAD, Revit, MicroStation, ArchiCAD and SketchUp files, among others. The upside to being listed on this site is that many professional designers use Autodesk’s software packages and can quickly find content that ports directly into their designs. Any manufacturer that needs to serve AutoCAD or Building Information Modeling enabled files to their professional designer audience should consider Seek as a viable option.

For Delta, Seek didn’t cover two key aspects of their overall strategy:

1) Delta was failing to reach the wider audience of professional AND amateur designers that use Google SketchUp. Sure, they had SketchUp models on Seek – but most SketchUp users look to the Google 3D Warehouse for all of their 3D content needs. The Google 3D Warehouse has garnered over 1 billion visits since launching in 2006, and it provides manufacturers with access to a much larger designer audience than Seek.

In 2010, the 3D Warehouse has been roughly 5 times more popular than Seek (according to Google Trends)

2) The SketchUp files Delta had on Seek needed to be upgraded into Dynamic Components and also needed to have some more realistic finishes applied. Delta works hard to build its brand and their industrial designers take special care in the creation of Delta products; we felt it was more than appropriate that their brand’s experience and detailed technical information carry over into their models.

The Delta Allora faucet: Stainless Steel finished SketchUp model with product specifications

We set out to create a starter collection of 12 Delta kitchen faucets and decided it was best to build them from scratch as Dynamic Components with small file sizes and incredibly realistic stainless steel finishes. We think they turned out beautifully! They’re already being used by designers everywhere, most notably popping up in kitchen vignettes being uploaded to the Google 3D Warehouse.

Be sure to check out the entire collection of faucets and see for yourself. And if you like them, don’t forget to let Delta know by rating them!

KBIS 2010 recap

2010-05-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

The Kitchen and Bath show wrapped up just over a week ago in Chicago and it was a blast. If you’re not familiar with KBIS, picture this: hundreds of companies exhibiting breathtaking kitchen vignettes in hopes of wowing scores of designers who showed up hungry for new information and education. With a beautiful kitchen and a full day of SketchUp presentations, Kraftmaid’s booth was the place to be.

To be fair, one small paragraph doesn’t do the show justice. For more in-depth recaps, check out our favorites:

Paul Anater’s tale of his American Gothic/SketchUp presentation
Paul’s pick of Hansgrohe as best in show
Eric Schimelpfenig’s story of the KraftMaid booth cheer
Sarah Lloyd’s favorites from the show floor
Ann Porter’s bathroom vanities review
Cheryl Kees Clendenon’s recap of her Brizo panel presentation

KraftMaid Cabinetry’s Tech Launch
Invited by KraftMaid Cabinetry to give SketchUp presentations at their booth, we were overwhelmed by the positive response to our live tutorials. We presented in 30-minute chunks from 10 AM to 5 PM every day, and switched up the topics so that folks could stay for several in a row without seeing a re-run. To top it all off, designers could get continuing education credits for each presentation. The whole initiative was a run-away success; nearly 300 designers registered for credits, and at least another 300 on top of that dropped by for part of our tutorials.

The star of the show was Google SketchUp. Designers were excited to hear about this inexpensive tool that was so easy to learn that they could use it right away for both design and sales. That’s right, SketchUp is a sales tool too. As our fellow presenter Eric Schimelpfenig is fond of saying – “SketchUp sells kitchens faster than any other tool I have used.” KraftMaid’s booth sent a clear message to this crowd: “We’re making it easier for you to design with our cabinet catalog and we’re supporting this new resource to help you be more successful.” This message is quite different from the traditional sales pitch those folks were hearing at many other booths on the floor. For more on KraftMaid’s SketchUp initiative, read about the 1000 cabinet models that they posted to the Google 3D Warehouse.

Photo-realistic rendering of a kitchen drawn in SketchUp (cabinets by KraftMaid)

KBIS also set the stage for the launch of our Designer Bootcamp. This is a new SketchUp training event geared towards Kitchen and Bath designers; the first Bootcamp will be held in Orlando from May 26th-28th. You can get more information and sign-up here, you can read our blog post about it here, and you can even see what kitchen and bath designer Paul Anater has to say about it on his blog. Paul will be a fellow presenter at our first Bootcamp, so you don’t want to miss that.

Beautiful Delta and Brizo faucets now available on the 3D Warehouse
KBIS revealed another exciting development for SketchUp users: Delta and Brizo have both launched sample collections of their faucets as SketchUp models in the Google 3D Warehouse. In creating these starter collections, we had to maintain the high aesthetic standards of these two brands, so we added real stainless steel and chrome finishes to the models. You can check out the results in the Delta collection and the Brizo collection in Google’s 3D Warehouse. The designers attending our presentations were thrilled to know that they could freely access either collection of faucets to add drama and reality to their SketchUp designs.

Delta Faucet's new collection of SketchUp models

Where do we go from here?

Designers: If you are interested in using SketchUp as a design and sales tool, we’d love to help! Let us know if you are interested in the Designer Bootcamp, online educational resources, or something else entirely at info@igloostudios.com.

Manufacturers: If you’d like to reach this hungry group of designers with SketchUp models of your products or related educational programs, we’d love to help you too! Please contact us to talk about your project at info@igloostudios.com.

Designer Bootcamp: Google SketchUp for Kitchen & Bath Design

2010-04-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

In our 5 years of teaching Google SketchUp, we’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic responses expressed by all kinds of designers. In particular, we’ve been especially thrilled at the kitchen and bath industry’s reaction to the possibilities of incorporating SketchUp into their design process. Roughly 55% of all kitchen and bath designers use a software made by 20-20 Technologies. Approximately 20% still draw by hand, so they don’t use any CAD software. The remaining 25% or so use some other software or CAD tools. Google SketchUp holds only a small portion of that 25%.

Why are we so excited by this industry? For starters, SketchUp is inexpensive (or completely free) and much easier to use than other 3D CAD software. For anyone who hasn’t yet incorporated CAD into their workflow, SketchUp is arguably the most painless program to learn. In this environment, we’ve found that 20-20 users and non-CAD users are excited to learn about SketchUp, especially how it will help them design in 3D and sell their designs.

With this hungry audience in mind, we’re launching a Designer Bootcamp, 3 days of training that’ll get any kitchen and bath designer up and running in SketchUp. The details are below.

 WHEN: May 26-28 , 2010
WHERE: Sub-Zero Wolf Showroom  in Orlando, FL (hosted by The Westye Group)
HOW MUCH: $699 for the 3-day event
PRICE INCLUDES:

* NKBA continuing education units
* 18 hours of hands-on Google SketchUp training
* $100 off of Google SketchUp Pro Software License
* 1-month free subscription to go-2-School.com SketchUp training website
* On-Site showroom tours, appliance demonstrations & cooking theater presentations
* Breakfast and Lunch will be provided each day

Registration is now available at http://igloostudios.com/bootcamp. If you have questions, please contact us at info@igloostudios.com.

Designer Bootcamp Flyer (click to enlarge)

Off to KBIS 2010

2010-04-14T23:54:00.001-07:00

We’re going to to the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) this week. We’ll be in the Kraftmaid Cabinetry booth (#S1210) presenting all of the 3D models of cabinets, faucets, kitchen islands and full kitchen designs that we’ve created and uploaded to the Google 3D Warehouse on behalf of Kraftmaid. The 38 half-hour presentations we have planned are all approved for NKBA CE units, and revolve around the new possibilities for designers that the 3D Warehouse creates. With all these cabinet products and assemblies now available, designers can simply drop real products into their kitchens at the earliest stages of the design process.

Every attendee who completes a CEU course at the booth will receive a free copy of our SketchUp for Everyone training DVD. In addition, we’ll hold a drawing every 2 hours for an autographed copy of “Real World Google SketchUp 7” by our very own Mike Tadros.

2 Kitchen and Bath designers who use Google SketchUp daily will be joining us at the Kraftmaid booth:

On top of being a stellar designer, Paul Anater is also a blogger and social media consultant. His blog, Kitchen and Residential Design, is read by over 40,000 design enthusiasts each month. He’ll be presenting two themes using SketchUp – a “New Traditionalist” kitchen with several products downloaded from the Google 3D Warehouse, and the American Gothic kitchen re-imagined from the historically famous painting of the same name.

Eric Shimelpfenig will also be presenting. Eric runs the website Sketch This where he creates educational video and blog posts on Google SketchUp and kitchen design. Eric will cover 2 topics as well; the first will concentrate on using SketchUp’s LayOut program to create a set of project drawings. For his second presentation, he will create a kitchen from scratch in less than 25 minutes.

Of course, I’ll be there too, elaborating on how manufacturers and designers can make the design process more efficient and a lot more fun with Google SketchUp and the Google 3D Warehouse. If you go to the show, stop by Kraftmaid’s booth and say hello!

KraftMaid posts over 1000 cabinets to the Google 3D Warehouse

2010-04-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

Marking an exciting day for us and KraftMaid Cabinetry, we just posted over 1,000 new models to the KraftMaid collection in the Google 3D Warehouse. This is the largest set of models that we’ve ever completed in one batch. In one fell swoop, KraftMaid has become the the leading cabinetry company to present their products in Google’s 3D Warehouse. These new collections represent their product lines for K&B Dealers, Lowe’s and The Home Depot.

Screenshot of 7 new cabinet collections on the Google 3D Warehouse

All of these models feature Dynamic Components that allow users to easily customize and interact with each cabinet. For instance, a Base Double Door cabinet can be configured in 7 different available sizes (the cabinets average between 8-9 options each). Each cabinet model is unique; some have as few as 1 configurable option, while others have up to 18. Because of Dynamic Components, these 1,062 new cabinets represent well over 9,000 possible SKUs that can be ordered from KraftMaid!

Screenshot of Google SketchUp with two new door style options now available

Here is more info on these 18 new collections.

Each collection has a distinct material and finish combination
There are 6 unique door styles represented – everything from traditional to contemporary styles
Each collection has 59 cabinet models – 16 base cabinets, 10 tall cabinets, and 33 wall cabinets (total: 1062 models)
There are also 6 new hardware pieces (1 per unique door style). Each piece was hand-selected by KraftMaid’s Internal Design team.

If you decide to play with these new cabinets, keep in mind that Dynamic Components are designed to work within Google SketchUp. So, instead of simply double-clicking the SKP file in the 3D Warehouse, you’ve got to download the model and import it into SketchUp. We’ve embedded these instructions into each of the cabinet models to help you work with them:

This Dynamic Component can be configured to any of the available sizes for this cabinet type via the Component Options dialog box (Window > Component Options). Use the Interact With Model tool (Tools > Interact) to open doors and drawers.

If you have any feedback about this new release, feel free to email us (kraftmaid3dwh@gmail.com) with your comments or post them here to the blog.

Continuing Education Course - Designing Skylights into your SketchUp model

2010-04-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

We’re excited to launch a first for Velux USA – an interactive, continuing-education course on using Google SketchUp to design skylights into a building. This free online course qualifies for AIA CEU and will also qualify soon for LEED AP CEU.

screenshot of the Velux course webpage

Here’s how the class works:

1) Go to http://velux.igloostudios.com/

2) Register for the test by creating a free username and password

3) Download the Google SketchUp models so you can follow along with the tutorials

4) Watch all 3 video tutorials (a total of nearly 70 minutes)

5) Take the test

Integrating 3D design into video tutorials creates a more engaging and productive experience for professional designers. Plus, because the class is online, students can review the material at their own pace and on their own schedule. Kudos to Velux for their vision in conceptualizing such an effective learning tool for their designer audience.

For more information about Velux’s Google 3D Warehouse initiative, read this article I wrote earlier this month.

2010-03-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

Kraftmaid Cabinetry on the Google 3D Warehouse
Here’s a project we’ve been working on for Kraftmaid Cabinetry. We have been converting products from their catalog into Google SketchUp files. Designers can now download these files for free from the Google 3D Warehouse.

Screenshot of the Kraftmaid Cabinetry collection page on the Google 3D Warehouse

Connecting with more Designers
When we first spoke with the Kraftmaid trade marketing team, they were asking themselves the following question: “Who can we reach with our product offerings and how can we connect with them?” Targeting the Kitchen & Bath design space, Kraftmaid had done an incredible job of reaching Kitchen & Bath dealers with educational training and product information. And by providing their entire catalog in 20-20 file format, they were also effectively reaching dealers and designers who use that 20-20 software.

SketchUp (blue line above) reaches a wider audience than other kitchen design software (see trend report)

In addition to these efforts, Kraftmaid wanted to reach designers who were not using 20-20. They realized that a large piece of their target market needed certain tools to help with the design process.

Don’t market products – Give away tools
After surveying the marketplace, it was clear to Kraftmaid that Google SketchUp was a great way to reach the designers they wanted to target. SketchUp is widely adopted; there are over 1.3 million unique activations of the program each week, and over 1B visits to the Google 3D Warehouse have been logged since it was launched in April 2006. SketchUp is free, and so is access to the Google 3D Warehouse (note: there is a $495 Pro version of SketchUp as well, but even this cost is minor compared to other comparable software). Finally, many other design software can use SketchUp files.

Kraftmaid began by asking us to experiment with the types of SketchUp files they can offer designers. Below, I identify types of Kraftmaid models found in the 3D Warehouse and describe why each of these collections exists:

Putnam door style, individual cabinet models: Designers looking for Wall, Tall and Base cabinets can now drop Putnam cabinets directly into their kitchen designs. These cabinets are formatted as Dynamic Components; designers can import them into their designs, re-size the cabinets on the fly to fit the design, and be certain that the new size is indeed a cabinet that Kraftmaid sells. Each cabinet comes with its own branded information window that allows designers to see what model numbers they are using and even click out to the Kraftmaid website for more information. Each cabinet is interactive; designers can click on the cabinets to open the doors and drawers, enabling them to experiment with spacing decisions during the conceptual stages of design.

Kitchen island concepts: Kraftmaid designers have put together a number of innovative island design solutions for showroom kitchens around the country. They’ve decided to begin offering those same solutions as SketchUp files for downloading from the 3D Warehouse. Now designers can drop islands into their projects and modify them to suit their clients’ needs, all while designing with real-world cabinet options.

Entire Kitchens and Homes: Beyond providing cabinets and islands as 3D tools, Kraftmaid also wants to inspire designers with full showroom kitchens, and kitchens from real-world homes. For folks unable to visit these kitchens and homes in person, we created SketchUp models using the actual cabinetry, appliances, faucets and finishes from the real kitchens and homes. It’s the perfect way for a designer to explore other successful designs and glean new ideas to apply to their next project.

Results
In the last 8 months, over 700,000 Kraftmaid cabinets have been downloaded as either individual SketchUp files or entire cabinet suites within a kitchen design. This tremendous success reflects their efforts to reach a larger part of the design community by offering tools and education for SketchUp users. We’re happy to be developing a ton of innovative new content for this initiative. We can’t say what’s coming next just yet, but we’re sure you’ll be excited about what’s on the horizon!

2010-03-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

Velux USA adds new No Leak skylight to the Google 3D Warehouse
Conceptually, skylights are an easy thing to understand; they brighten a home with natural instead of artificial light. But for designers, adding a skylight to their project raises a lot of questions. This was especially apparent to me when I visited the Velux booth at both the Greenbuild tradeshow in late 2009, and also the International Builders Show early in 2010. Designers and builders had an array of questions for the Velux salespeople, and there were dozens of sample skylight products and installations on-hand to demonstrate exactly how skylights work in a real project.

But not everyone interested in a Velux skylight can get to Greenbuild, or the International Builders Show. That’s why Velux contacted us to learn about how 3D Google SketchUp models might help them reach a wider design audience with accurate and timely information about their products.

Reaching designers online
Velux’s marketing team has done an incredible job of crafting a clean, helpful website packed with information for professionals looking to evaluate and specify Velux’s products. However, when they first reached out to us, they were thinking about how to expand their marketing beyond their website and reach designers in other online places. In early 2009, we launched a Google 3D Warehouse collection of Velux products as SketchUp files, useful tools for designers and builders looking to integrate Velux skylights into their projects. This early experiment was successful; over 40,000 Velux products were downloaded from the Warehouse during 2009.

screenshot of Velux's Google 3D Warehouse collection

Encouraged by the initial success of that project, Velux decided to work with us to show designers how to take advantage of the 3D tools we created. In 2010, we have accordingly launched these two programs:

Interactive Skylight installation file: To recreate the hands-on experience that designers seek at trade shows, we crafted a SketchUp file that animates the various stages of a Velux installation. This presentation clearly identifies the exact steps necessary to successfully specify and install a new skylight. This file has become an invaluable tool, not only for designers wanting to interact with the product online, but also for Velux’s sales reps in the field. No SketchUp expertise is needed; folks can just download the file and click through the Scene tabs, much like clicking through a Powerpoint presentation.

three images from the interactive installation Google SketchUp file

60-minute video tutorial series on how to use Google SketchUp to design with Velux Skylights: Because Velux spends so much time at the tradeshows explaining how their products work, they imagined that they should be doing the same thing online. And given the success of reaching new designers with their Google SketchUp files, Velux asked us create a video series that taught people how to make use of the SketchUp files and also explained the general process, features and benefits of using skylights in a project. The series is a part of our Sketchup Show and it will soon be qualified for AIA and USGBC continuing education learning units. You can watch the three episodes at these links:

Designing a Roof and Adding Skylights

Create Photoreal Renderings with IDX Renditioner

Presenting Your Designs in Google Layout

Watch the case study video of this real-world project

Igloo studios featuring sequences design ::the elkhart initiative

2009-04-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Igloo Studios, along with our friends and collaborators - Sequences recently entered a design competition together. Matty Bennet, of Sequences, really powered the whole thing with our very own Nate Logston helped visualize the idea.

The contest is hosted by Dwell and has been titled: Innovate It!

We like to work on projects like these that expand our thinking and creativity, and give us a chance to have fun working with our partners. Sure it would be great to be selected, but we believe that the process is the best part. For whatever it is worth, here's a brief overview of our submission:

Selected Relic :: The Pop-Up Camper

matty bennett :: sequences design nate logston :: igloo studios

In the words of Matty: "This competition came across my desk for the first time 03.27.09. Of course we misread the directions, went ahead and completely developed a special product. So we have opted to include our renderings and such to maybe persuade your decision of the three selections.

The Reason :: We believe as homegrown men of Indiana world of technology improvements in racing and autos have seen our state fall to its knees. The once RV motor capitol of the world; Elkhart, Indiana has seen some better days. Thanks to Obama coming to Elkhart their is a renewed interest in thrusting the RV/ personal camping industry forward. Rebates from the govt. are not nearly enough. Being involved in the New INdustrialists movement has seen this coming. 30 years of development, the in house designers have only changed the upholstery.
Completely reliant on destination electrical. Entirely too large, wasting time and precious space, what you take in is all you have. No thanks.

Our Solution :: Small 4’x4’ box by 1 foot thick, 20 inch diameter wheels capable of being daisy chained together, scooters, bicycles, pulled by humans, and autos [with adapters]. Upon moving axles spinning producing and collecting in cells housed within, solar panels inset protector adding to reserves. Once to site remove wheels [quick release] set aside, we will back to those. Pull out some stabilizers, set upright, pull on top, releases telescopes out to 8’ tall. The solar panels flap out for cover and collecting. Maybe a graded dew/ precip collector tray that leads to a cistern that can be filled before you leave home or put faith in mother nature. Once in the cistern gravity leads to faucets over a swivel out sink basin/removable and retractable exterior rainmaker head for rinsing off. A pull down six foot bed and modular cushions. Additional flap down work surface with collected LED panel for night time activities, it also pops out and can be used around camp. An electric two burner unit/ 12 pack cooler. Awning structure attaches, made of solarized fabric panels with dew collection pockets around perimeter of awnings. Back to the wheels, jump up on the flip out step extend your towers install the louvered pinwheel like structures to wheels and blow. Many add ons would be available. Introducing the NidoFab Adventure Nest, Everything but the food and the toilet. This is bigger than us, just as studio 804 has done after the storms in Kansas, we feel responsible to provide a solution via this competition. Thank you."

Upcoming Event: We're speaking at Where 2.0

2009-04-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

We were honored to be recently selected by the good folks at O'Reilly to deliver a pair of presentations at the upcoming Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, CA. The conference, which focuses on "Becoming Location Aware", will take place May 19-21.

Our first presentation will take place at 11am on May 19th. Our CEO Alex Oliver will be giving a talk titled Translating Geo-Web Efficiency into Real-World Sustainability. In the presentation, Alex plans to cover some case study projects where technologists can leverage digital data sets to give architects, builders and designers better tools and education for building a more environmentally friendly world.

Our second presentation will take place later that day at 4:30pm. Our President Mike Tadros will conduct a 1 hour class titled Building Our World With Sketchup. During the class, attendees will learn more about how to leverage location inside and outside of SketchUp, including importing and exporting location-based data from Google Earth.

Come see us for one or both of our presentations. We've arranged for you to get 25% off your Where 2.0 registration when you enter this code: WHR09FSP. Sign up here. If you plan to come, we'd love to meet you! Email us at info@go-2-school.com and we'll plan to catch-up at the show.

A letter from the guy on the videos

2008-12-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy Strangers,

Our eskimos have been busy here at Igloo HQ this winter, gearing up to launch a series of new products and updates for School - our software training and consulting division which focuses primarily on SketchUp and Google Earth training. I just wanted to take a couple minutes to recognize the invaluable role that our clients and customers have played throughout the course of our development as a company.

To everyone of you who have supported us in our efforts to pursue our passion for educating people around the world about this funky little program called SketchUp, we really appreciate the role that you play in making our dream a reality.

We started teaching SketchUp for @Last Software back in early 2004, and put out our very first SketchUp training DVD back in '05. In early 2008 we achieved another milestone when School was officially deemed a Google Authorized Training Center. Becoming an ATC was something we've always wanted to do, but the last 8 months have taught us that organizing a country-wide live training effort can be quite a handfull! Still we've continued to grow and improve each month. We're incredibly proud of the fact that over the past year, our band of misfit SketchUp geniuses have disseminated their priceless wisdom to over 3000 SketchUp users in over 20 cities across the country.

Whether you're someone that we've had the pleasure to meet in person at one of our live classes, or whether you've watched our DVDs, or watched our online video tutorials, or if you were one of the 1500 people who have subscribed to our YouTube channel, or the 10,000 people who have subscribed to our podcasts on iTunes or whether you became a fan of ours on facebook.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

When we first sat our scrawny butts in front of a camera, we honestly hoped that someone out there would watch our stuff and benefit from the goop that dribbled out of our brains, but never really imagined that our little rinky dink productions about SketchUp would reach so many people. Our podcasts have been watched nearly 2,000,000 times by over 30,000 people in over 50 countries around the world. I'm not sure, but I think that means we're almost legitimate internet celebrities. I'm gonna have to do some research on that. Maybe even get myself a new t-Shirt.

Thank you to everyone who's ever complained. It made us better. Thank you to everyone who said thank you, It gave us hope that we were getting better. And thank you to everyone who took a chance on our little experiment. We're really looking forward to all the exciting things that we're working on for you. We're going to be rolling out a new website and a bunch of new products and courses in 2009. We hope you'll stay tuned as we grow this thing into a legit company and we hope you'll continue to help us make School the most bad-ass resource for learning SKP.

.SKP 'til we .DIE!!!

Sincerely,

Mike Tadros - and all of your friends at Igloo Studios

Using SketchUp and Google Earth for Complex Data Visualization

2008-08-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Recently, we were asked by the folks at Google.org to create a few Google SketchUp models as well as an animation for their Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) team. They were interested to see how SketchUp and Google Earth could be used to help visualize the process of drilling for and harvesting geothermal energy. We're pleased with the results and we're thrilled to see that websites like Treehugger.com have picked up the animation (see it directly below):

From the onset, we recognized that this project would present a great interplay between 3D models of structures such as drilling rigs and powerplants, as well as point cloud data and illustrations of the depth of various layers of the earths surface . Immediately, we were excited by the thought of how compelling SketchUp and Google Earth would be in helping us tackle this sort of visualization. The results make for a far more compelling presentation than one that would have required having to flip through slides of static images and graphs attempting to tell the same story.

Once we located the site in Google Earth, we were able to import topography and satellite imagery into SketchUp as a base for the models. Then we imported a series of CAD files and images reference materials to create models of the drilling rig, power plant, and a model of the Earth's Surface. A big thanks goes out to the folks at Geodynamics - an Australian geothermal energy company that helped out by providing us with a bunch of information which aided us in creating a realistic model for our simulation.

The trickier part of this project - was figuring out how to take thousands of data points that mapped out a fracture cloud and add them to our 3D model? An integral aspect of our answer to that question is the ruby-driven application enhancement aspect fostered by Ruby developers around the world who greatly contribute to SketchUp's ability to be used seamlessly within a collaborative environment. In our case, we were able to leverage the work of Didier Bur, a talented Ruby developer who had created a ruby script that helps solve the data cloud problem we faced.

While a larger list of Didier's scripts can be found in the Ruby Library Depot, we ended up using his cloud.rb script to import a bunch of data from a CSV file which was given to us by Geodynamics. The CSV file contained measurements of each stimulation event in the geothermal site, including the location, and time of each event that occurred. Using the cloud.rb script, we were able to tell SketchUp to represent each data point as a 3D box. The data was parsed out and imported into separate layers based on the time-stamp info from the CSV file. Then the data from each layer was colored according to a timeline diagram. Ultimately, this strategy allowed us to create an animation entirely within SketchUp that took the timing of the stimulation events into consideration.

Thanks to Google.org for inviting us to participate in this exciting project. It was a great chance to learn more about enhanced geothermal energy production and Google's Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative. We plan to create an episode of 'The Sketchup Show' soon that outlines more of the details of visualizing this project in SketchUp, so stay tuned for that.

The SketchUp Models for this project are available for download from Google's 3D Warehouse.

Sustainable Industries 2008 Top 10 Green Products

2008-06-29T16:32:00.001-07:00

Sustainable Industries released their annual supplemental issue - 2008 Top 10 Green Products. Our Blue Marble Project division is proud to have played a role in the creation of this year's issue by supplying Sustainable Industries with the 3D computer models that were embedded in the downloadable PDF version of the issue.

The 3D models, which were modeled in SketchUp, can also be downloaded from the Google 3D Warehouse. The 3D PDF (.u3d) models were exported from SketchUp using the RPS 3D PDF Exporter.

Note: In order to see the 3D models that are in the PDF, you'll want to be sure to open the file with Adobe Acrobat Version 8.0+.

YouTube Video of Our Google 3D Basecamp Presentation

2008-06-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Some of the videos from Basecamp are starting to go up on YouTube. Here's the vid they shot of our presentation. I was actually a little nervous to give this presentation. It was kind of outside of my usual comfort zone of SketchUp stuff. But it was really fun to have the chance to talk about all the great projects we've got going on at Igloo. Thanks again to Google for putting on a great event and inviting us out there. And thanks to everyone who showed up for our presentation. We were glad that we weren't presenting to an empty room.

Click Here to check out more videos from the 2008 Google 3D Basecamp. The SketchUp and Green Design presentation was really cool. Hoping to get Peter Ellis on the set for a few SketchUp Show episodes and find out more about the EnergyPlus: Energy Design Plugin (especially once they release a MAC version).

Google SketchUp Basecamp 2008 presentation

2008-06-14T21:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone that attended our Google SketchUp Basecamp 2008 presentation! We've included our slideshow below. Please contact us at info@igloostudios.com with any questions.

For more photos from Google SketchUp Basecamp, check out this SketchUp Photo Blog.

Embed High Quality YouTube video

2008-06-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

In this post I want to show you how to 1) Embed a YouTube video onto your website or blog, and 2) Trick your browser to embed the high quality YouTube video using a small snippet of code. I will be using our re:Source educational network about sustainable design + build as our case study.

First, let's talk about embedding a YouTube video:

Create a YouTube account
Upload a video to that account
Navigate to the video on YouTube - in this case, we'll use our re:Source trailer which can be found on YouTube here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qSEH5_TS-Sw
To the right of the video there is a field with the Embed code in it. Copy that code on your clipboard.
Open up your HTML document for your website, or make sure that you are editing the HTML for your blog, and paste that code. For me, that embed code looks like this:

<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qSEH5_TS-Sw&hl=en"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qSEH5_TS-Sw&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>

Once you publish this embed code, you should have a video on your page that looks something like the video below:

Success! We've got the video in there. Now onto the important part - how do we make it look better?

Well I happen to know that we shoot re:Source in 1920x1080 high-definition, and we export it using a high quality codec so that it looks great on the web. Hardly the same thing that we are looking at above. So here are two tips to make sure that the video plays in high quality and the proper aspect ratio.

Change the width and height numbers in the embed code to match the width and height of the source video that you originally uploaded to YouTube. In our case, the source video was 640 (width) x 360 (height). I'll adjust the height a few pixels more to adjust for the player controls and come up with the following code:

<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qSEH5_TS-Sw&hl=en"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qSEH5_TS-Sw&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="385" width="640"></embed></object>

To force YouTube to serve the high quality source video, you need to add the following snippet of code to the URLs listed in the embed code: &ap=%2526fmt%3D18

Once doing that, my source embed code now looks like this:

<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qSEH5_TS-Sw&hl=en&ap=%2526fmt%3D18"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qSEH5_TS-Sw&hl=en&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="385" width="640"></embed></object>

Paste that code back into the HTML document or into my blog and now I will see this much better version of my video

Embed Google Maps

2008-06-11T14:14:00.001-07:00

There are two ways that we use Google Maps to promote our work, and I'll touch on both below. The first method involves creating homemade map on the Google Maps website (no programming knowledge necessary), and the second method incorporates the Google Maps API (some programming knowledge needed).

The Home Made Google Map (click on the bubble below)

View Larger Map

In order to create your own Google Map and embed it on your website or blog, follow these steps:

Go to http://maps.google.com
Just underneath the Google Logo in the upper left hand corner of the screen, click on "My Maps"
Under My Maps, click on "Create New Map"
On the Map, you can click on the Blue Balloon icon and click again anywhere on the map to set a Placemark
Give the Placemark a Name and Description
Once you have set your Placemarks (and possibly other Lines and Shapes), go to the far left column on the page, in the middle of that column, and enter a Title and Description for the map and be sure to click Save.
Go to the upper right hand corner of the map and click on "Link to this Page"
Copy the code in the second field, the field titled "Paste HTML to embed in website"
Paste that code into your Blog or Website to get something like what you see above.

Using the Google Maps API

(click on the image below to go to the School website for a live example)

For the School website, we used the Google Maps API to connect the Placemarks on the map to our database of SketchUp Training Classes that we hold around the country. Our database of classes is constantly changing, so this would be a pain to remake the map by hand each time we changed the schedule. Check out the Google Maps API blog for ideas and help incorporating Maps API onto your site, or feel free to contact us.

Embed 3D Warehouse Images

2008-06-11T13:43:00.001-07:00

For SketchUp designers, its important to promote your work by uploading it to the Google 3D Warehouse and then create visual links back to that content on your website.

Our Blue Marble Project division creates SketchUp models of buildings and products for a variety of clients. Once we create these models, we help our clients promote their buildings or products by placing them in the Google 3D Warehouse.

For product manufacturers, the 3D Warehouse is a great place to get noticed by architects and designers looking for 3D models of real world products for their designs. Chances are if you make it into their designs then your products will get purchased for the final project.

For buildings like stores and hotels, your SketchUp models can be geolocated, or smart about where they exist in the world. When you upload them to the 3D Warehouse, that means that they will also be loaded into the 3D buildings layer of Google Earth - another great promotional avenue.

Now, onto the 3D Warehouse link tutorial:

Navigate to the Google 3D Warehouse
Search for "Charleston, SC"
Look down the results, find "City Hall" and click on the thumbnail image
Beneath the large image, click on the "Include" button
Copy the Embed code in the field that pops out
Paste that code into the HTML document for your web page or into your HTML editor for your blog and publish. You should see an image like you see below. If you click on that image, you will link directly back to the model on the 3D Warehouse.

Use the SketchUp Web Exporter (Beta)

2008-06-11T13:38:00.001-07:00

Google recently released a new plugin that allows SketchUp users to export an image for the web that allows viewers to click/drag to spin objects 360 degrees. The plugin is only available for PC users right now. See below for an example that we grabbed from the Form Fonts website (click and drag on the image below):

You can download the plugin at the following Google SketchUp web URL: http://sketchup.google.com/download/plugins.html

Embed a Picasa Image Slideshow

2008-06-11T13:35:00.001-07:00

This is an embedded slideshow of one of the Picasa Web albums that we created to showcase the portfolio of projects from our Blue Marble Project division. Blue Marble is the SketchUp modeling services part of our biz that models everything from building projects to real estate developments.

The rest of our portfolio albums.

Our Blue Marble Project website.