Tuesday 10 July 2012

Sketchup: my first 3D model

I have known of Google's [1] free SketchUp (SU) for some time, but have never really used it before. Recently I was helping a friend with the structural engineering on his observatory, and around the same time I was reminded about SU by an architect using it on another project we were working on. I decided to learn and model the observatory structure using SU.

While I kind of bit off more than I can chew, it has been a fun experience learning SU. I have since bought the pro version of SU, which has more capabilities in terms of layers and import/export to AutoCAD etc. Don't be discouraged from the free version, though. It's very powerful in its own right.

One benefit of the pro version is the package LayOut, which allows you to present your model on drawing sheets. Kind of like PaperSpace in AutoCAD, while SU is like ModelSpace. Kind of.

I will be using SU at work for schematics and conceptual design more and more.

Anyway, here's some screenshots of my first 3D modelling experience. The drawings are not complete in terms of drafting details. Some messy connections/details that I need to go back and tidy up a bit.

The style is not the traditional structural engineering style of presentation either. Thought I'd have a bit of fun with it since it wasn't a professional type project.

Observatory 1 Observatory 2 Observatory 3 Observatory 4 Observatory 5

[1] More correctly, Google created and started out SketchUp, but it now has a home at Trimble.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

IC4628 Prawn Nebula in Scorpius

This is the Prawn Nebula in Scorpius. It was nearly full Moon, so I used a Ha filter and only showing it in monochrome. Too many gradients in the colour version.

IC4628 Prawn Nebula in Ha