A textbook for teaching SketchUp

We’ve spent a lot of time watching students of all ages take to SketchUp. Fearlessly, they dive right in, texturing polygons until they’ve created imaginatively robust landscapes, or even autofolding simple geometric structures into mind-bending helixes. Clearly, discerning kids aren’t waiting for permission to explore and design in 3D. We’ve also seen insightful teachers recognize SketchUp’s potential as a teaching platform, but for them jumping into a whole new way of learning isn’t as straightforward.

This fall, longtime SketchUp author Bonnie Roskes has introduced a comprehensive (and rather large) guidebook for teaching in 3D. For middle and high school teachers as well as college and university instructors, SketchUp 2013 Hands-On: Student Coursebook bundles basic and advanced exercises, along with step-by-step modeling guides and over 50 “DIY” projects that can be assigned as homework or classwork. Bonnie’s book also includes an Instructor Guide with all the solutions to these projects (so teachers can become 3D experts in step with their students).

SketchUp 2013 Hands-on -- a teacher's handbook/encyclopedia for teaching in 3D.

SketchUp 2013 Hands-on covers all of SketchUp’s tools and features with illustrated, step-by-step instructions. Need to challenge the more advanced modelers in class? Bonnie also provides an add-on guide to 35 popular SketchUp extensions.

SketchUp 2013 Hands-on clocks in at 505 pages, so there is a handy PDF version (that is much less expensive) and a better choice for students using the book on laptops or tablets. Bonnie can set you up with an evaluation PDF, or help coordinate discounts for bookstore or group orders: just send her a note. Bonnie has been writing about SketchUp for about a decade now, so we can vouch for both her books and her enthusiasm for helping teachers use 3D to connect and engage with students.

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education

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Announcing the Visiting Professionals Program for Higher Education

In our line of work, we meet a lot of SketchUp ninjas. These people have gone way beyond memorizing keyboard shortcuts and customizing templates; they bend SketchUp Pro and LayOut to their will to solve complex design and process problems, to collaborate more efficiently with clients and partners, to build successful businesses. Frankly, these are the folks who make SketchUp do things that even we never imagined possible.

We’re inspired by these 3D experts, and we want to help transfer their expertise and knowledge to the next generation of SketchUp professionals. Our new Visiting Professionals Program is an exciting opportunity for U.S.-based university students and faculty to learn how SketchUp Pro and LayOut are used in professional practice across a variety of disciplines.

The SketchUp Pro Visiting Professionals: a veritable roster of 3D ninjas

The SketchUp Pro Visiting Professionals Program provides access to real-world experts in architecture, planning, landscape architecture, interior design, construction, video game design, film and stage design -- just to name a few. Our program participants include professional designers, renowned educators, and published authors. Beyond SketchUp Pro, these are professionals who have a lot to share about managing schedules and expectations, getting client buy-in and selling project ideas, and working across multiple software platforms to develop flexible workflows. After all, for most people, getting work done means choosing the right tools and making them all work together.

Visit our program site to learn more about what a visit to your school might include, and browse our directory of professional specialists. Then, apply to have a SketchUp Visiting Professional come to your institution. We will be facilitating a limited number of no-cost, U.S. visits for the 2013-14 school year.

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp Pro for Education, Program Manager

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Welcome aboard, Ireland! (and 14 more)

Primary and secondary schools all over the world are using Google SketchUp, an amazing 3D modeling application. Shining examples of student work abound; take a look at Eric Yam’s space colony, Michael Hathorn’s history class project, or Andrew Nathanson’s model of his hometown’s business district if you’re looking for inspiration.

As part of our commitment to providing low to no cost software to schools, the Google SketchUp Pro K-12 Statewide License Grant has been issued to 50 recipients worldwide. These include 39 U.S. states, 6 Canadian provinces, 2 Australian states, and all of New Zealand.

Fifty countries, states, provinces and counties around the world have been granted no-cost licenses of SketchUp Pro for their primary and secondary schools.

We’re proud to announce the most recent recipient: Ireland. All Irish primary and secondary schools will now have access to SketchUp Pro at no charge. Joining Ireland in this latest batch of new Pro recipients are:

• Nevada
• Montana
• Florida,
• Wyoming
• Hawaii
• Arizona
• Alaska
• North Dakota
• Tennesee
• British Columbia
• Nova Scotia
• Alberta
• Saskatchewan
• New South Wales
• Tasmania

If you're a primary or secondary educator, you can check out details on our Google SketchUp Pro K-12 License Grant program site. It includes links to valuable training resources, technical support information, a group forum, case studies, and a map of states, provinces and counties which have already enrolled. If your locality isn't one of them, ask your state technology director (or international equivalent) to apply. License grant recipients don't pay a cent for SketchUp Pro.

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, Google SketchUp for Education Program Manager

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Welcome aboard to our newest K-12 grant recipients

We’re committed to providing almost every K-12 student in the world a chance to learn and use SketchUp. To that end, we’ve recently granted SketchUp Pro K-12 licenses to eight US states (bringing the total to 27), two Canadian provinces, one county in the UK, and the entire nation of New Zealand! The new US states are California, Vermont, South Dakota, Georgia, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Maryland. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the Canadian provinces and the UK county is Cambridgeshire.

If you're a K-12 educator, you can check out details on our Google SketchUp Pro K-12 License Grant program site. It includes links to valuable training resources, technical support information, a group forum, case studies, and a map of states, provinces and counties which have already enrolled. If your locality isn't one of them, ask your state technology director (or international equivalent) to apply. License grant recipients don't pay a cent for SketchUp Pro.


View Google SketchUp Pro K-12 Statewide License Grants in a larger map

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

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Sign Up for the Geo Teachers Institute

[Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long Blog]

For years, Google's geo products have been identified as a powerful learning toolkit that can help students conceptualize, visualize, share, and communicate information about the world around them.

This fall, we will host two Google Geo Teachers Institutes: September 23 and 24, 2011 in Washington DC at National Geographic Headquarters and September 26 and 27, 2011 at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn College in Lewiston, Maine.

This event is a free professional development experience designed to help educators get the most from Google's geo products and technologies. The Geo Teachers Institute is an intensive, two-day event where participants get hands-on experience using Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google SketchUp, including a focus on features like Ocean, Mars, Moon and Sky in Google Earth.

Attendees will learn about innovative instructional strategies and receive resources to share with colleagues. The Google Geo Education team hopes this event will empower educators to bring the world's geographic information to students in a compelling, fresh, and fun way.

If you are interested, please complete this application. You will be notified if you are selected by August 15, 2011. Even if you can’t make it to this event, we have many online resources available for Google Earth and SketchUp and encourage you to check them out.

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Program Manager

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Statewide SketchUp Pro for K-12 schools

K-12 schools all over the world are using SketchUp. Ask any 7th grader if they’ve heard of it and they’ll say something along the lines of “SketchUp is awesome!” Shining examples of student work abound; take a look at Eric Yam’s space colony or Andrew Nathanson’s workshop presentation if you’re looking for inspiration. We made this short video to highlight other great SketchUp work in K-12 education.

Though lots of schools use the free version of SketchUp, we’d prefer that they get SketchUp Pro 8—there’s lots in the professional version that students and educators can use. To that end, we offer a special, no-cost license grant to U.S. states (and Canadian provinces) that want to install SketchUp Pro in every single one of their K-12 schools. There are currently 20 states in the program; collectively, they represent over 250,000 seats. Visit the SketchUp Pro Statewide K-12 Licence Grant website for information about signing up. Spreading the SketchUp love makes us happy. We invite your state (or provincial) technology director to apply.

We’re in the process of exploring a means of rolling out this program internationally, too. If you represent a state, province or other territory in a country other than the U.S. or Canada, and you’re interested in implementing something similar, please drop us a line at [email protected].

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

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Google SketchUp in Higher Education

SketchUp has proven to be a very valuable tool for students and educators. Last year we created a video to showcase a few K12 schools who use SketchUp in interesting ways: they’re doing everything from creating models of their town buildings to designing furniture.

We now we have a new video profiling how SketchUp is being used in higher education institutions. Take a look at three areas of study (film, interior design, and architecture) from three schools (Los Angeles Film School, Art Institute of Colorado, and University of Colorado) using SketchUp to advance the skills needed by students to enter the professional world after graduation:



Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

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Stunning animations about landscape architecture

The American Society of Landscape Architects has produced a number of beautiful and educational animations collectively called Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes. Even better, ASLA asked our good friend Daniel Tal to write, narrate and produce them with SketchUp. You probably know Dan as a bestselling SketchUp author; it turns out he’s a pretty phenomenal video guy, too. Here’s one of them:

Here’s how ASLA describes the raison d’etre for this project:

These animations and their supporting materials are meant to help the public get a sense of both sustainable landscape design and the type of work that landscape architects do. Each animation has a companion guide to sustainability education resources. Designed specifically for students from kindergarten to 12th grade, the resources include curricula, games, activity guides, and videos to help classrooms explore these ideas in greater depth. All these resources are at your disposal when you are discussing the profession in your communities.

Congratulations to ASLA, Daniel Tal and the National Endowment for the Arts (who provided some of the funding for this undertaking) on their commitment to educating people about the impact that design—both good and bad—can have on their everyday lives. I've always believed that the best way to promote good design is to make the tools more accessible. Affordable tools that are easier to learn encourage more people to participate in the process. Participation inevitably leads to understanding, which I think is the key to making better decisions about design.

As both a designer and an educator, I encourage you to watch the rest of these animations and to share them with wild abandon. You’ll be doing the world a favor.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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The 3D Philippines Initiative

We recently made a trip to Manila to help out with the 3D Philippines Initiative started by COMMDAP. The initiative’s goal is to create an entirely 3D Philippines using Google SketchUp and Google Earth so that information can be shared and experienced in a richer way than with just a basic map. It was an action-packed three-day schedule.

The first event was a general geo-modeling presentation for students and teachers at the University of Makati, which was part of the school’s “Technology Week”. The second event was a presentation to the Google Technology Users Group of the Philippines on geo-modeling and becoming a Geo 3D developer.

Me (Nicole) onstage presenting the basics of geo-modeling

Bruce Polderman answering questions about certification for Geo 3D developers

Next, we held two full-day workshops at the university: one for educators and trainers and one for students. These workshops focused on developing basic modeling skills by means of an introduction to SketchUp, but we taught aspects of photography, photo editing, and other techniques specific to geo-modeling as well.

Teachers' workshop at the University of Makati

Group photo with the teachers

Students' workshop at the University of Makati

Group photo with the students

Concurrently, COMDDAP was hosting the Manila Expo 2010. There, they had a designated area where visitors could learn about Google Earth and explore the virtual globe both on a standard computer AND on a super-cool interactive touch-sensitive projection white board.

Now THAT'S a touch screen!

Take a look at this photo album for more pictures of our visit to the Philippines.

Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Geo Community Program Manager

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High school mashup: Digital History Class

We’ve long been admirers of the creative things educators and students do with SketchUp. Michael Hathorn is a high school teacher in Hartford, Vermont who teaches an innovative class that he describes as a “digital history” of their small town. They document White River Junction’s history by constructing 3D models of the town’s buildings and geo-locating them in Google Earth.

We’ve blogged about Hartford High before – and even found his work as an educator deserving of an official case-study video. Mike and five of his students presented at our Google Geo Teacher Institute last summer; since then, all of those students have gone off to college with a serious tool set of skills learned in Mike’s class.

This year, high school senior Michael Bateman created a video about his teacher’s class (above). In it, he and others explain why their project is so valuable in relation to typical high school classroom coursework.

There’s no doubt that engaging students can be difficult; it’s fun to see why Michael and his peers are so jazzed about this class. I’m also envious of his mad videography skills. Nice work, Mike and Michael.

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, Google Geo EDU Team

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Announcing the Sketch-a-Space winners

Our Project Spectrum team has been lucky to form a number of great new relationships over the last couple of years. One of the most rewarding has been getting to know the folks at Easter Seals. (I have to admit that most of my Easter Seals associations dated back to the stamps my grandma used to send me when I was a kid.) Fast-forward a couple of decades, and it turns out that Easter Seals dedicates enormous resources to serving the autism community – and they’re a great group of people. It was clear upon meeting them that we needed to work together; shortly thereafter, the Sketch-a-Space competition was born.

After a number of months and lots of great entries, the results are in. Grand prize winner and (perhaps not coincidentally) longtime SketchUp user JP Saikali produced a thoughtful narrated video for his design “The Ultimate Video Game Room”. In it, you can hear JP explain why he chose each element in his design. It’s not only fun to imagine hanging out in JP’s room, but also eye-opening to hear (and see) his design choices. Check out JP’s video below:

All the winners’ entries display one of the goals of the competition – to introduce design elements that are important to the autism community. The designs are both beautiful and functional. They include beds that can rock, multiple compartments to store and organize belongings, calming colors, soft lighting, pleasing textures, curved walls, natural light, differentiated “zones”, and some very cool hi-tech toys.

Congratulations to JP and all of the Sketch-a-Space winners! We hope that their beautiful and thoughtful designs will become blueprints for tomorrow’s living spaces.

Posted by Tom Wyman and Chris Cronin, Project Spectrum Team

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SketchUp resources for children with autism

Project Spectrum is something we put together for folks with autism who might be interested in using SketchUp; you can find out all about it on the Project Spectrum micro-site.

Bonnie Roskes (author of the Google SketchUp Cookbook and other publications, parent of a child on the autism spectrum, and all-around neato person) has created a couple of great Project Spectrum-related resources. They’re specific SketchUp activities, available as PDFs at no charge, that anyone can download from her website:

Toy Shop: Collaboration and Communication

In this fun project, a group of students work together to fill an empty toy shop. The students decide among themselves who will be responsible for each toy category. Each student finds his or her models in the 3D Warehouse, then the group comes back together to place their models into the shop. Comments and feedback from each student help foster a collaborative experience.

Dentist Office: Relieving Anxiety

Who doesn't get nervous about a trip to the dentist? But "rehearsing" your appointment ahead of time can help make the actual experience easier. It's easy to model the physical spaces using basic rooms, then find the necessary models in the 3D Warehouse. This project shows two ways to "walk through" the model, gives suggestions for conversations about what will happen at the dentist's office, and also shows how to make the experience funny (imagine walking into the examination room and seeing Homer Simpson instead of your dentist.)

Visit Bonnie’s website to download the above activities, and be sure to check out her other offerings, too.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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Announcing Google SketchUp 8

Today is an exciting day around the SketchUp World Headquarters out here in Boulder, Colorado. We’ve just kicked off our third bi-annual “3D Basecamp” to a crowd of SketchUp-savvy folks converging on The Dairy Center from all around the world. I’m looking forward to some great conversations about SketchUp and 3D modeling in general over the next few days. But that’s not our only news today...

We’ve also finished work on SketchUp 8, the next major release of our favorite 3D modeling tool. We’ve been heads down and working hard for most of the last year, and I’m happy to be able to share with you the fruits of our labor.


Google SketchUp 8 includes a batch of exciting new features. We’ve made it easier to build site context models for your projects using our ever-growing collection of geo-data. We’ve added a new collection of “Solid” tools for doing common additive/subtractive modeling operations and we’ve packed out LayOut with some new features that make it easier to document your models professionally.



Ordinarily, those of you who use SketchUp in a language other than English have to wait a few weeks for a version in your language. But not this time—today, SketchUp 8 is available for download in English, French, Spanish, Italian or German language versions. (We weren’t able to get all our translations done in time for release today, but keep an eye on this blog for news about SketchUp 8 in more languages soon)

As always, SketchUp Pro 8 is available for $495 from our web store. Upgrades from any previous version of SketchUp Pro can be had from for only $95. And, of course, we’ve still got a version of SketchUp available for free. Head on over to our main website for all the details.

You can be sure we’ll be talking about this release a lot over the next few days at 3D Basecamp, but I want to make sure that those of you who weren’t able to join us in Boulder have a chance to let us know what you think, too. I’ve posted a new Google SketchUp Questions and Ideas series. I’m listening, and I’ll respond to as many of the top posts there as I can.

Posted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

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Community Celebration in Peru

Recently, a team of Googlers traveled to Peru and celebrated the winner (and community) of the Google International Model Your Town Competition. Jorge De Albertis of Lima won through a process where people all over the world voted for one of five finalists. His ability to win so many votes was a testament to the power of a community coming together to support Jorge’s efforts. His contribution creating 3D models of many of the historical buildings in the Barranco District of Lima has garnered a lot of attention in his country, and worldwide.

There were four majors parts to the celebration:

1. As part of the winning prize, Google gave a donation to a public school of Jorge’s choice. Jorge talked to the students and staff at a ceremony in the school’s courtyard, and we presented a large check to IE 7053 Reino De Espana Public School. Googlers helped students with a hands-on paper 3D modeling project, where they constructed models of the buildings Jorge submitted for the competition. The school graciously hosted a celebration for Jorge and Google, which included a welcome by student marching bands, traditional Peruvian dances, ballerinas, theater acts, singing, and a poetry jam.


Click here to see more photos from the events.

2. Jorge and Google hosted a series of tech talks to over 80 design and architecture students and faculty at the University of Lima, explaining how others can get involved with modeling their communities. Demos were presented on Jorge’s project, SketchUp, Map Maker, and Building Maker. Watch a video of an interview of Jorge at the University of Lima.

3. The Latin America International Film Festival had a looping video of Jorge’s work running throughout the week.

4. Google held a celebration in Jorge’s honor at Picas, which was attended by designers, architects, educators, tourism officials, and the general Lima community. The fun-filled event had demo stations where people could learn more about Google Earth, Map Maker, Building Maker, and Google SketchUp. The band, Colectivo Circo played to a packed house. Jorge received a plaque and spoke to the community about his efforts. We are thrilled to have visited Jorge and to have met many people in the Lima community. Congratulations, Jorge!


Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

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Try some SketchUp Training this Fall

Our September and October 2010 SketchUp Authorized Training Center schedule is now available. The map below contains information on specific locations, dates, and courses provided.


View September/ October 2010 Training Schedule in a larger map

We have some great news for RIAI members in Ireland. Members can now receive CDP points for attending SketchUp Essentials One training through Viewsion, a SketchUp Authorized Training Center.

Posted by Shara Greenlee, SketchUp Training Team

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Last call for Sketch-a-Space entries!

In April, we announced that the Project Spectrum folks had teamed up with Easter Seals for a really inspiring design competition: Easter Seals’ Sketch-a-Space.

The competition invites design professionals, people with autism and all other SketchUp users to design an ideal space for people on the autism spectrum, and win $2,000 to make that dream space a reality.

The competition ends this Friday, Aug. 20th, so hurry up and visit the competition website to submit your entries. The judges are all excited to see your great designs!

Posted by Chris Cronin, Project Spectrum team

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Summer SketchUp training schedule

I'm happy to announce that our July/August 2010 SketchUp Authorized Training Center schedule is now available. Training sessions are available in more places than ever.

The map below contains information on specific locations, dates, and courses provided.


View July/August 2010 Training Schedule in a larger map

Posted by Shara Rice, SketchUp Training Team

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Spring into a SketchUp training class

Our worldwide network of SketchUp Authorized Training Centers makes learning SketchUp quicker than ever. Our certified SketchUp trainers provide hands-on training that will have you designing, sharing and presenting 3D models in no time. We’ve put the June training schedule on a map below (click on a red pin to learn about the training center and sign up):


View June 2010 Training Schedule in a larger map

Do you need more SketchUp experts in your office? Our Authorized Training Centers also offer custom training classes that can be designed specifically around your workflow. Visit our Training Page to contact a training center in your area.

Posted by Shara Greenlee, SketchUp Training Team

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Announcing the Google Model Your Town Competition winner

On April 1st, we announced the five finalist towns for the Google Model Your Town Competition and asked the public to help pick the winning town. For the past month, participants reviewed the 3D models, explored the buildings in Google Earth and watched videos of the 3D towns.

Well, we’ve tallied the votes and we’d like to congratulate our 2010 winning town: Barranco - Lima, Peru!

Jorge De Albertis Bettocchi, a 38 year-old corporate business attorney, modeled the Barranco District of Lima. He entered the competition to generate pride among his fellow citizens and created his 3D models to serve as a tool for tourism, promotion, investment and preservation of Barranco’s historic architecture. Jorge also created a blog, Barranco 3D Project, that includes descriptions of his models, his modeling process, community involvement and press videos.



Jorge is also a musician who plays the keyboard, has a small recording studio, and has participated in the production of concerts in Peru. “I started creating SketchUp models in 2007 when I was asked to design a stage for a rock concert, and a concert-production partner recommended using SketchUp. Since then I have not stopped using it and it is the only 3D design program I have ever used.”

Jorge, you have impressed people all over the world with your SketchUp models. Congratulations to the Barranco community!

We’ll be awarding the local school district with US$10,000 and the SketchUp team is planning a visit to Barranco later this summer to recognize their efforts. Visit the Google Earth Gallery to download a 3D tour of Barranco, Peru and visit our winners page for more details.

Thanks to all those who voted to help us find the winning town. And thanks to all the modelers out there who submitted entries — we hope you'll continue to add 3D buildings to Google Earth!

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp Team

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Save the Date: Google Geo Teachers Institute, July 21-22

For years, Google's Geo products have been identified as a powerful learning toolkit that can help students conceptualize, visualize, share, and communicate information about the world around them.

This July, Google is hosting the first Google Geo Teachers Institute. This event is a free professional development experience designed to help educators get the most from Google's Geo products and technologies. The Geo Teachers Institute is an intensive, two-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's Geo products: Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google SketchUp, including a focus on features like Mars, Moon and Sky in Google Earth.

Attendees will learn about innovative instructional strategies and receive resources to share with colleagues. The Google Geo Education team hopes this event will empower educators to bring the world's geographic information to students in a compelling, fresh, and fun way.

To apply, send an email to [email protected].

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Team

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