Building a PVC Geodesic Dome with SketchUp

Here on the SketchUp team, we’re DIYers at heart -- we like solving design problems and building things. For a while now, we’ve had a big presence at Maker Faire. We go because we truly enjoy nerding out with fellow makers and dreaming up our own design-build projects. At World Maker Faire in New York last month, we decided to cook up a pair of large geodesic domes, because, well, why not?

Who wouldn’t want to build a geodesic lair out of PVC pipe?

You can check out our fabricatable project model and build instructions here on 3D Warehouse.

Actually, the point of our exhibit -- besides being a practice run for a future Burning Man trip -- was to prove that SketchUp makes planning and building team DIY projects easier and more fun. We enlisted the help of our good pal Eric Schimelpfenig of sketchthis.net and set out to turn a pile of PVC pipe into two huge geodesic domes and some comfortable furniture. Here’s how we pulled it off:

After exploring geodesic designs on 3D Warehouse -- and a lot of discovery on Domerama -- we jumped into SketchUp for conceptual design. Satellite imagery for our site plan demonstrated that two twenty-foot diameter domes would fit perfectly, and a simple massing model proved that 3V ⅝ domes -- with their extra head room -- would provide plenty of height and floor space for people and furniture.

Once we knew the defining characteristics of our dome, we churned out the strut lengths using Domerama’s geodesic calculator and then advanced the design using Dynamic Components to create a fabricatable model. From there, we employed generate report and some spreadsheet magic to crank out a cut-list for our PVC stockpile from Home Depot.

Using the proportional math from Domerama’s 3V ⅝ dome calculator, we built a dynamic component that uses dome diameter and hub protrusion as inputs for automating a 3V dome. You can download this dynamic geodesic model on 3D Warehouse.

As our fabrication captain, Eric got to turn our SketchUp model into a collection of ready-to-assemble parts. Using some simple jigs to speed up the cutting and drilling, he churned through 1,600 feet of pipe -- about a quarter-mile of PVC -- from his workshop in Massachusetts. Rounding out the list, he ordered up the awesome purpose-built connector hubs from Sonostar and grabbed a giant bag of nuts and bolts to keep things from sliding apart. With just two days to go before assembly, he loaded 152 connectors, 322 pipes, two ladders, and a dozen hammers into a van we’re pretty sure he had permission to borrow.

Two geodesic domes and enough left-over pipe to spit out a few of these bad boys...

On-site at the New York Hall of Science, the pipe-laden van was met by a jet-lagged assembly crew of SketchUppers who’d only ever seen the geodomes in our working model. Over the course of a few hours, we assembled the two domes according to these hilarious yet exceedingly clear build instructions, courtesy of Eric and LayOut.

Banging pipes together at World Maker Faire. See more photos of our geodesic dome build here, or watch the sketchthis.net time lapse of our build here.

The next day, our team hammered together several pieces of SketchUp-designed PVC furniture (generously contributed by our friends at FORMUFIT), and fitted vinyl tarps to the roof. We had designed the tarps to be a modular shading system, so that we could leave some sections of the dome exposed or cover everything up in case of crummy weather.

To derive the tarps from our SketchUp model, we drew out some basic gore-like polygons over the dome component and then used the Flattery extension to derive their dimensions for printing. The tarps were manufactured with grommets that allowed us to join and secure them with zip ties.

Our tarping system was one of those simple ideas that was meant to work, but not be perfect. We anticipated (and desired) stretching in the tarp, so we modeled our gore polygons for stretched-out coverage, then laid the geometry flat with Flattery.

Throughout the weekend, thousands of attendees -- attracted by the awesome sight of our booth and the promise of shade -- wandered through our domes, where they were pumped full of SketchUp knowledge and slapped with these bracelets before being sent, disoriented, but not sunburned, back into the Faire.

We introduced a lot of people to SketchUp and Buckminster Fuller (not bad company, right?) over the weekend, and now we have a pair of geodesic domes to keep us cool at the next team picnic.

The SketchUp team on good behavior at Maker Faire. We also did a lot of this.

Posted by Mark Harrison and Andrew Strotheide

Looking to build your own geodesic? Explore the links above, then download this dynamic component model and these build instructions to get started. Be sure to Tweet us the pics if you pull it off!

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Announcing the 2012 Google Model Your Town Competition

Following the success of last year’s Google Model Your Town competition, today we're launching the second Google Model Your Town Competition. Model Your Town is about geo-modeling – making photo-textured models of real-life buildings that appear in Google Earth. The Model Your Town Competition is also a chance to celebrate your town by adding it to the 3D map. Of course, the USD$25,000 for a local school/district is a nice incentive too.

Barranco, Lima, Peru

The Model Your Town Competition is open to just about everyone, just about everywhere in the world. Form a team, model buildings (using SketchUp or Building Maker) and upload them by the end of February 2012.

You can model as many structures as you like – which types of buildings you choose to include is entirely up to you. The important thing is that your choices say something about the character and history of your town.

If your town wins, a bunch of us from the SketchUp team will visit, throw you a dinner party and do our best to make you feel like the local hero that you truly are. Check out the competition website for details, and start rounding up teammates!

Here's some inspiration by way of the 2010 winner, Jorge De Albertis, from Lima, Peru (just to get your creative juices flowing):

New to geo-modeling? Learn more at Your World in 3D, then get started modeling your town!

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, Google Geo team

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New 45° imagery available for 16 cities

[Cross-posted from the Google LatLong blog]

This month’s update to 45° imagery in Google Maps includes U.S. and international imagery.

Let’s just begin with Graz. It’s the second largest city of Austria (behind Vienna), located in Steiermark. It is a typical Austrian town with a vivid university life, a charming historic center mostly of the Gothic period and is significantly influenced by mediterranean climate which manifests being among the sunniest places in Austria due to its location at the southeastern rim of the Alps. Arnold Schwarzenegger - bodybuilding world champion, movie star and former governor of California - was born and raised nearby.

View Larger Map

During September we have launched imagery for some of the major towns in the Midwest of the U.S. like Canton OH, Grand Rapids MI, Kansas City KS/MO, Springfield MO.

Kansas City was founded in 1830 and named after the Native American tribe of the “Kansa” and since then evolved to the largest city in Missouri and the third largest city in Kansas. During the Civil War the city experienced several violent events. In the 1930s, Kansas City was the center of a creative jazz scene and today the American Jazz Museum can be found there. The Irish-American community that numbers around 250,000 includes a large number of bands.

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Canton OH is home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame which opened in 1963 and where the busts of America’s greatest professional football players are enshrined.

View Larger Map

Here is a list of updated cities:

Europe:
Caceres, Spain; Graz, Austria; Montreux, Switzerland; Zurich, Switzerland;

US:
Bakersfield, CA; Boise, ID; Canton, OH; Centennial, CO; Columbia, SC; Davenport, IA; Des Moines, IA; Enumclaw, WA; Grand Rapids, MI; Kansas City, KS/MO; Lawrence, KS; Los Angeles, CA; Merced, CA; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; Payson, UT; Portland, OR; Springfield, MO; St. Louis, MO; The Woodlands, TX;

Posted by Bernd Steinert, Geo Data Specialist

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Building Maker gets two new cities in Brazil

Two years ago we launched a web-based tool that creates 3D models from a 2D workspace: Google Building Maker. At the time of the launch, users could only make models in 50 cities. Today we’re adding two more cities, just in time for the anniversary of its launch. With the addition of Porto Alegre and Brasilia, you can now create models in 124 cities.

Join in the birthday celebrations by modeling some buildings in Building Maker’s newest cities. Feliz aniversário, Building Maker!

Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Geo Community Program Manager

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Updated Acceptance Criteria for 3D buildings in Google Earth

It was over five years ago when we came up with the initial Acceptance Criteria for photo-textured 3D buildings in Google Earth. Since then, we’ve learned many things and have also made many improvements to the 3D modeling process—including the release of Building Maker and two updated versions of SketchUp. Given all of these changes, we realized that our Acceptance Criteria were due for an overhaul.

Our new Acceptance Criteria have been completely rewritten with the goal of making them clearer and easier to follow. Issues relating to photo textures, permanence of structures, splitting, and entourage have proven to be the most common areas of confusion in the past:

Photo Textures

Our new minimum requirement for photo textures is more lenient than it’s been in the past. Photo textures are only required on upward facing surfaces of the model and on the main facade. We encourage you to photo texture the entire model, but we also understand that it may be difficult to get accurate imagery on every side of some buildings. Any remaining, non-photo-textured faces in your model should be painted with realistic-looking textures that match the color and look of the building in real life.

Permanent Structures

Beginning today, only permanent structures will be accepted. As we constantly refresh our satellite imagery, temporarily-positioned entities like vehicles and people don’t belong in Google Earth’s 3D Buildings layer.

Model Splitting

From now on, all submitted models should contain only one structure each. Each structure should be uploaded as a separate model file. This includes properties that have multiple buildings on them such as a house and a shed or garage. If buildings are all connected in a city block, they should be split into separate models based on building type, function or address. When our review team is assessing connected block models for splitting issues, we will look at the facade and roof textures to see if there are changes in material that signify where a split should have occurred.

Entourage

In addition to splitting buildings, we are now requiring all models of trees and other permanent entourage (such as signs, light posts and benches) to be uploaded separately from the buildings with which they may be associated. This ensures that when another building is uploaded in the same location, we are only judging the quality of the new building model versus the original. It’s a shame to have to remove good tree models just because they’re attached to a building model when a better building model is submitted that doesn’t contain trees.

Also, multiple, related trees and other entourage objects can be grouped into a single model as long as they are located in a relatively concentrated area. This means a single model can contain all the trees for a block or a park, but it shouldn’t contain all the trees for multiple blocks or an entire city. Remember that only permanent entourage is acceptable—cars and pedestrians move around, and thus don’t belong in Google Earth’s 3D Buildings layer.

Other improvements

One other big improvement we’ve made is the addition of tips and suggestions to each of the thirteen individual Acceptance Criteria. If a model you submit isn’t accepted, you’ll receive an email notification (opt into these emails via your preferences) that includes a direct link to concrete information about how you can improve it before you re-submit.

What about models that have already been accepted?

To help make this transition easier, we won’t be going through all the models we’ve already accepted in order to remove ones that fail to meet the new Acceptance Criteria. If your model has already been accepted, it will stay in the 3D Buildings layer until and unless it is sent through the evaluation process again. There are four actions which can cause a model to re-enter this process:

1. You make an edit to your model and re-upload it to the 3D Warehouse, replacing the previous version.
2. Someone else submits a model in the same location as your model.
3. Periodic terrain and aerial imagery updates cause your model to go through our automated alignment process.
4. Someone clicks the “Report a problem” link for your model in Google Earth.
   

It’s still a bit of a subjective process

Keep in mind that judging 3D models is still a difficult task and is prone to subjectivity. All submitted models are reviewed by real human beings who take time to ensure that they meet our standards. Because human beings sometimes make mistakes, we have a way for you to appeal negative judgements. If, after reviewing the Acceptance Criteria, you feel we’ve made the wrong decision, use the “Tell us why we’re wrong” link (at the bottom of the model’s 3D Warehouse page) to ask us to take another look. You’re encouraged to include links to photos of the actual building or other online resources to will help us to understand your point of view.

We know how much time and love goes into making beautiful 3D models for Google Earth, and we greatly appreciate all the effort you put into your work. Here’s hoping that the changes we’ve made will make for a smoother, more enjoyable geo-modeling process for everyone.

Posted by Jordan Van Wyk, 3D Modeling Specialist

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More Building Maker cities and a new competition, too

It’s a great day for the citizens of Argentina -- and for Canadians in the nation’s capital. We’ve released new Building Maker imagery in six new cities:

• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Córdoba, Argentina
• Mar Del Plata, Argentina
• Mendoza, Argentina
• Rosario, Argentina
• Ottawa, Canada

...but that’s not all! To help these cities get modeled, we’re having the first ever modeling competition for Building Maker. Starting tomorrow -- June 15th, 2011 -- you can create models in these six cities to win prizes in two different categories: Best Model and Most Models. The first place prize is a GPS-enabled digital camera; second place is a Building Maker shirt; and third is a Google travel mug. Have fun!


Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Geo Community Program Manager

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Europe’s best kept secret revealed in 3D

[Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long Blog]

Brussels is one of Europe’s best kept secrets. As Belgium’s charming capital city, many have enjoyed living there, ranging from Victor Hugo and Karl Marx to Jean-Claude Van Damme. Now, you can discover the riches of Brussels in a virtual 3D visit with Google Earth.

Several thousands of 3D buildings have been added to the city’s map. Using Google Maps with Earth view or Google Earth’s “3D Buildings” layer, you can now visit the city to experience its rich architectural history. See the KML tour in the Google Earth Gallery to take a virtual tour of the 3D landmarks for yourself.

The place to start is the Grand Place / Grote Market, Brussels' central square. Its 17th century landmark guild houses are richly decorated with sculptures, gables and gold patterns and are said to hold the secret formula of alchemy engraved in its facades.

From there, you are only a virtual stones-throw away from the Royal Palace and its neo-classical Place Royale, which was built upon the ruins of Charles Quint’s palace and housed the famous Order of the Golden Fleece's treasure. Today, you’ll find the Magritte museum there, beautifully presenting the life and work of one of the world’s best-known surrealists.

Swivel around to see the impressive Palace of Justice, Brussels’ law courts which presides over the city skyline.

En route you will pass the Notre-Dame-du-Sablon church, one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the city.

The next stop is the Cinquantenaire Jubilee Park with its arch built in 1880 to celebrate the 50 years of independence. The large warehouses you see next to the arch used to hold the Mundaneum: the largest historical attempt to categorize and organize the world’s knowledge and make its accessible to all, back in 1900.

Perhaps the most well-known landmark in Brussels is the Atomium, an all-metal building built in 1958, in the shape of an iron atom magnified 165 billion times. From the Atomium, turn around and look back for the best panoramic view on Brussels.

Before leaving Brussels, stop by the European Parliament where 27 nations are slowly but surely morphing into a prosperous and peaceful union. Google Belgium’s office is located nearby, can you spot it?

When you’re finished touring Brussels in Google Earth, head north to Antwerp, where citizens are actively modeling their city with free 3D tools from Google.

You think this is cool? If you’d like to get started modeling your town, you can get started quickly with Google Building Maker (where available).

Enjoy the tour!

Posted by Julien Blanchez, Country Marketing Manager Belgium

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New cities and better coverage in Building Maker

If you climb up on the roof of your house and cup your hands to your ears, I’ll bet you’ll hear cheering. That’s the sound of everyone in Fresno, Lake Tahoe, Austin, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego and St. Louis celebrating the arrival of better Building Maker coverage in their cities. Touching, no?

White outline shows current coverage area; blue indicates previous boundary.

Learn all about Google Building Maker (the coolest dedicated geo-modeling tool around) and give it a whirl when you’re ready. 116 cities so far!

Posted by Nicole Drobeck and Aidan Chopra, Google Community Outreachers

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Four new cities in Building Maker

Building Maker development continues at a torrid pace. Congratulations to the people of Rome, Italy; New Orleans, Louisiana; Long Beach, California and Malibu, also in California. Your metropolises (and/or pricey beach communities) are now proud members of the getting-less-exclusive-all-the-time cadre of cities in Building Maker. One hundred and fourteen—and counting!




Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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Rebuilding L’Aquila in 3D: Progress

In mid-January of this year, we returned to l’Aquila, Italy to teach a Google Building Maker workshop, in further support of the post-earthquake 3D digital reconstruction effort of the city. If you are not familiar with this Google-assisted effort, you can read all about it (or just watch the video below).

While we were there, we had the chance to meet many users that are actively working on the project, and see several of their amazing models. These models allow an “at-a-glance” look at the current situation of the city. Most of the models reproduce the city as it is now, including the damage to the various structures; they provide a precious resource to evaluate current and future reconstruction projects in the city.

Modeling Progress: On the left are geo-models that existed before the Google workshops. On the right are models currently visible in Google Earth.

SketchUp model and picture (inset) of the S. Pietro di Coppito (XIII century) after the earthquake.

SketchUp model and picture (inset) of Santa Maria del Suffragio (XVIII century) after the earthquake.

If you are interested in lending a hand, you can use Building Maker to create simple geo-models. If you’d like to dive in a little deeper, you can use SketchUp in connection with the many photos and other information on the project website.

Posted by Simone Nicolò, SketchUp Software Engineer

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New in Building Maker: Duplication

Endlessly repetitive buildings might not do wonders for the urban fabric of a city (Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse, anyone?), but they present some distinct advantages for the average geo-modeling addict. Anyone using a computer who hears the phrase "repeated forms" should immediately think “duplicate.” After all, doing the same thing over and over again is what microprocessors live for.

Similar buildings in the The Hague, The Netherlands

Nearly identical apartment blocks in Berlin, Germany

In situations like the ones in the cities above, Building Maker's "New from current" feature really comes in handy. You use it to duplicate existing models for re-use elsewhere. With any saved model open, right-click in the center of the next building you want to work on and choose Start new building from current from the context menu that pops up. Here’s what it looks like in the app:

Model a building in Building Maker and save it.

Right click the center of the next building you want to model and choose Start new building from current.

Position the new building wireframe in multiple views.

Repeat a few times, and you end up with something like this. These models, incidentally, were made by Supermodeler Dan Nielsen (aka Dan2310) almost a year ago—without this nifty new feature. Think of how much time he could have saved!

Posted by Brian Brown, Software Engineer and Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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New in Building Maker: See what’s already modeled

We’ve launched a slew of new features in Building Maker recently, but I thought I’d focus on one in particular for now. One of the trickiest things about Building Maker was figuring out which buildings had already been modeled and which hadn’t. I’m happy to announce that we’ve added a feature that solves this problem.

Colored markers in Building Maker indicate the "modeled status" of buildings on the map.

When you’re looking at a city in Building Maker, you’ll notice hundreds of colored blue and gray markers. These markers indicate the “modeled status” of the buildings on the map. Round dots show models by other people; placemarks show models you’ve made. Here’s what the colors mean:

• Blue markers: Models which have been accepted and are live in Google Earth
• Cyan markers: Models which are awaiting review by us
• Gray markers: Models which have not been accepted

Feel free to tattoo this on your arm to help you remember what the symbols mean.

Buildings which haven’t been accepted (indicated by gray markers) fall into one of two categories. The first includes those which we’ve reviewed and decided not to include because they don’t meet the acceptance criteria for buildings in Google Earth. These gray markers also indicate geo-located models which are in draft (not marked “complete and ready for review”). If you’re geo-modeling a city with Building Maker, look for buildings with gray markers or no markers.

Fun fact: Internally, we refer to the little, round dots as “measles.” Since infectious diseases generally carry a negative connotation, we decided to call them “markers” instead. You’re free to call them anything you like.

Posted by Mason Thrall, Building Maker Team

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Rebuilding L’Aquila in 3D with Google SketchUp

On April 6, 2009, a powerful earthquake struck l’Aquila, Italy. Three hundred and eight people died, and most of the buildings in the city center and surrounding areas were damaged or destroyed. About six months ago, we received an email from a British architect named Barnaby Gunning proposing an ambitious project: to use Google SketchUp to build a digital 3D model of the city, as it is now, in order to stimulate discussion about its reconstruction. He had already created a website—called Comefacciamo ("What can we do?")—to contact and organize volunteers.

Barnaby Gunning with the project T-shirt

Barnaby asked if Google would support a geo-modeling workshop in L’Aquila in an effort to create a digital model of the city. An engineer working on SketchUp and an Italian by birth, I was asked to travel to L’Aquila and give geo-modeling classes in Italian. I was excited! I could visit my motherland, teach people about the product I work on and help out with a project that could have a great impact on reviving the city. I ended up teaching six full-day classes over the course of two trips in October and November.

Teaching Google SketchUp skills to volunteers in L’Aquila

Teaching in Italian about a product on which I work almost exclusively in English proved to be more challenging than I thought. It took me awhile to get used to using the correct Italian name for the Push/Pull tool: Spingi-Tira. (It’s more fun to say, though.) The passionate volunteers who attended my classes more than made up for the language frustrations. Not only were they interested and attentive learners, but their desire to do something for their beloved city was contagious.

The church Santa Maria Paganica in real life (top) and modeled with SketchUp in Google Earth (below).

The modeling phase of the project is now in full swing. Several of the volunteers’ models have already been accepted into Google Earth—you can see them in your browser if you like. You can even take part in the project by helping to model the city from wherever you live. We’ve added L’Aquila to the list of places where you can use Google Building Maker to create geo-models, so no previous 3D modeling experience is necessary. If you’d like to dive in a little deeper, you can use SketchUp in connection with the many photos and other information on Barnaby’s website.

My few days in l’Aquila teaching SketchUp proved to be a fantastic experience. I met so many people who are enthusiastic about this project and willing to sacrifice their weekends to learn how to model, and to provide an exhaustive photographic record of the current situation. The time I spent with them was a wonderful remainder of the love they feel for their city—a love that I now share. I count myself lucky to be a participant in this important project.

Posted by Simone Nicolò, SketchUp Software Engineer

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