DesignerDojo, 3D Printing, Minecraft

Update to the original 2015 Post : I want to thank all those who've supported DesignerDojo over the past 4 years. We've done some great work together. We're back from the Christmas break this Sunday 14th January 2018 with our first Dojo of the new year.

We recently got a nice email from Charles Gray of Lyncconf.com who wanted to spread the word about "Rapid Modelling for Minecraft" Make sure to check out their website that reviews all kinds of cool games! Thanks Charles.

Check out the video below showing how to port any virtual model into Minecraft using SketchUp and Tinkercad...

We have a shiny new DesignerDojo website.

Check it out and let us know what you think : )

3D Printing takes off in Ireland

Cork City became the first City in Ireland to host a public 3D printing course (as far as we're aware..). The participants who come from a wide range of backgrounds conceived and printed their own designs guided by instructors from Viewsion Virtual Environments.

 

The Course poster depicts the transformation from a classical sculpture into a digital matrix

L-R Participants Sue Aylwin, Michelle Kiely, Laura Maye, Scott Carey, Paul (Me), Donal O'Donohoe, (Terry O'Brien- not in photo) showing their work from the course.

The Tiger's Head designed and prepared for print by Michelle Kiely


The course which started May 1st ran for four Wednesdays and finished with students reviewing their own 3D prints. There were discussions about patenting, manufacturing, marketing and model optimisation. Participants are invited to keep the discussion about their own exploits in 3D printing. We look forward to their wonderful work!

If you or someone you know is interested in finding out about our course, please check our descriptor page

Prints were supplied by C-CAD, a local CAD provider and the collaboration of Jim Barrett for which we are most grateful. 

SketchUp to Minecraft: Guest Post by Tadhg Murphy

After following the tutorial found on the Designer Dojo website here. I managed to successfully export a .skp file from SketchUp and then convert it into a schematic file which I was then able to import to Minecraft. After spending a little while texturing the model I felt that the transfer of the model from SketchUp to Minecraft was very fast and far more efficient than just building the model in Minecraft itself. Below is an image of my work.

Cork City plays host to San Francisco Mayor on Saint Patrick's Day 2013. Edwin Lee receives a 3D printed model of the Castle!

Mayor Edwin Lee visited Blackrock Castle Observatory Coderdojo on Saint Patrick's Day where he was presented with a 3D printed model of the Castle.

Mayor of SF Edwin Lee receives a 3D printed model of Blackrock Castle from Blackrock Castle Observatory Coderdojo participant.

This is what Blackrock Castle would look like if it was floating in space.... A preview of the BCO model before it gets uploaded to  Google Earth.

Thanks to Jim Barrett of C-CAD for his unwavering support and assistance in preparing the excellent detailed 3D model of the castle.

The first ever 3D physical representation of Blackrock Castle Cork, Ireland. This model was printed by Jim Barrett of C-CAD assisted by Viewsion Virtual Environments.

SketchUp to Minecraft Export

Minecraft is a compelling, creative 3D gaming environment for kids (and those who still have a kid's imagination.) At Coderdojo I see a lot of the kids interacting with it. Having tried it I can see why- It is immersive and very enjoyable. I have introduced it to my 5 year old son and he is now hooked (in a good way... I think!)

I had been told about a means of exporting from SketchUp to Minecraft and I wanted to find out more.. Having procrastinated for ages I eventually purchased a Minecraft subscription and then did a bit of eh... "research". After a bit of digging around I put together a post on how to export your SketchUp model into Minecraft (Google Doc) Thanks to all the individual contributors who are all linked there.

I still have some tweaking to do to get it working the way I want but it certainly looks very promising so far. Let us know how you get on with your SU>MC experiments and we will be delighted to publish your efforts: [email protected]

Enjoy!

SketchUp Activity Explosion in Ireland (TEDxTallght, 3DBasecamp, DesignerDojo & more..)

We literally can't keep up with the stuff that is going on with SketchUp in Ireland, but here's a quick run-through.

Last month I attended 3D Basecamp where we got to meet Bre Pettis of Makerbot fame, Trimble VP Bryn Fosburgh, all the great SketchUp people and discuss our new upcoming initiative: DesignerDojo which will be coming to a CoderDojo near you next year.

The cool retro cinema location in downtown Boulder
where the initial day's Basecamp presentations took place.

Last Thursday I presented SketchUp to a 150 person audience at TEDxTallaght. Thanks to Patricia Fitzgerald and all the great people at South Dublin Libraries for their help. It was a great evening and I was humbled to be amongst such great speakers as Jo Verrent, Maureen Gaffney, PRSmith, Michael Rossney, Catriona Crowe, and my good friend and fellow Nexus Cork Member, Cathal Garvey, Biohacker par excellence. It was great to meet our MCs Darragh Doyle social media guru and celebrated magician Shane Gillen

Paul going on and on and on about-
Guess what?... SketchUp.. at TEDx Tallaght...
....Blah blah blah blah blah...

 Here's the presentation I gave:

Be a 3D Superhero: Click here for the presentation.

What's next?? DesignerDojo.... Our new international initiative FREE SKETCHUP TRAINING FOR KIDS!!..... We will keep you posted....

The DesignerDojo skateboard: First project... of many.

Front Page News: SketchUpdate.

For a SketchUp Geek, this is the equivalent of seeing one's name in bright lights on Broadway. SketchUpdate has gracefully received my humble offering of a tutorial about creating a plan in SketchUp Pro. and given me a platform for my new book (See previous blogpost)

Image: Aligning the section view in SketchUp to be visible in LayOut.