Today was another gorgeous day in Boulder. Today’s un-conference was held in a three story art gallery called the Rembrandt Yard just off the famous walking street – Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, Colorado.
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Breakfast and Vendor Tables at The Rembrandt Yard
The perimeters of the second and third floors were occupied by vendor tables, which included the following vendors:
MakerBot had a separate room to itself which was extremely cold. Some people wondered if this was by design, to keep several of the Makerbot replicators cool. But in fact, it’s not ideal because the it affects how fast the plastic extrusion from these machines sets-up.
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Unconference Sessions Blocks I, II and III
There were several un-conference sessions which were well attended despite the hard-to-figure location of each. In general the vibe was very friendly and kind of that warm and happy feeling when you’re with a couple hundred people who share your exact same problems, and have hints and tips and workarounds to share.
For lunch, I took a walk down Pearl Street, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and stopped in some of the great shopping on the mall. This is where I learned what a dog-friendly city Boulder is. There are dogs in over half the stores on the mall.
Apparently dogs are welcome in the SketchUp offices as well. Yesterday Bryn Fosburgh said that in his move to the Boulder office “ He learned more about dogs in the workplace, than he ever wanted to know”.
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm Case Study – Terraforming and Site Design
Wiley author Daniel Tal, ASLA gave an excellent presentation on what turned out to be some pretty serious civil-engineering level land-forming. However, I stopped counting after Daniel introduced the 9th SketchUp plugin and/or ruby script. It’s amazing what Dan can do with SketchUp, but his layer discipline is superb. Has to be.
Nick Sonder is an architect in California who uses SketchUp Pro and LayOut to create unique and compelling sets of construction documents for his residential projects. He uses SketchUp to complete a project from start to finish.
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm Kit of Parts Modeling
Mark Carvalho of Cadman Inc. gave a presentation on so called “kit of parts” modeling he developed for a playground manufacturer in Kansas recently. These plugins simplify the process of designing complex assemblies from libraries of existing parts.
This session was also co-presented by 3skeng conceptual engineering software for SketchUp. 3skeng makes a powerful SketchUp plugin for engineering layout of equipment, pipes, air ducts and cable trays. The plugin essentially puts a ‘kit of parts” template on your cursor, so you can switch between straight and radiused pipes in a snap. Check it out.
And the wacky name? 3skeng is the synthesis of 3D, Google SketchUp and its application to the field of engineering. OK guys, thats even worse than calling your 3D model library FormFonts!
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm Augmented Reality in Depth
We got to see some wizzy demos from two companies who specialize in bringing this technology to SketchUp:
- ARmedia Plugin for SketchUp
- SightSpace 3D for SketchUp
The AR technology is cool, but as one person next to me said, “I like AR and its always fun, but then you just forget about it until the next time you see it.” I have to agree. A school teacher on my other side wondered half-aloud..”How could I use this in my classroom?”.
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm Ruby 101 (Afternoon Class) @ Boulderado
This was a Ruby for Beginners class, held across the street to the Boulderado Hotel taught by Sketcup’s own Scott Lininger. The class size was about 50 people.
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm Unconference Sessions Blocks IV, V and VI
There were many sessions in three one-hour unconference sessions, back to back to back. These ranged widely from extended product demos to political manifestos like “CAD MUST DIE!! and SKETCHUP MUST KILL CAD!!
Tomorrow’s Basecamp will be a design charrette and a half day.
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