2010 Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp: Day One

by Joe Larano in Boulder, Colorado

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.

With more than 250 people with various levels of  mastery and expertise on SketchUp and other 3D modeling and rendering softwares, this bi-annual event will be a  treasure field for those who want to enhance their knowledge of SketchUp modeling. Among those who came were authors and writers of several SketchUp books and tutorials, SketchUcation sages, forum moderators, Ruby scripters and plug-in developers, Beta testers and 3d Modeling instructors from several foremost universities and colleges in the United States.

I was fortunate to talk and confer with the man who developed the SketchUp rendering plug-in called “Podium”. We talked lengthily and discussed the rendering system of Podium. He also discussed he is about to announce the walkthrough animation temporary called “BWalker”. He showed the capabilities and features of the program. I was amazed by what the program can do. I also met and talked with Pete Stoeppel from Texas who is an expert renderer promoting “Kerkythea’, the rendering system which I am  currently using. I had also a good time chatting with Tomohiko Yamanashi, an architect who is a Deputy Principal at Nikken Sekkei Ltd.,  the largest architectural office in Japan. We discussed  not only SketchUp but various subjects about the profession and matters relating to collaboration. I met a lot of other people who, in various levels have made SketchUp a byword in the 3D modeling industry.

The big event of the  day is the official announcement of the release of SketchUp 8. The announcement was made by John Bacus, the Product Manager of Google Sketchup. A demonstration of the features of SketchUp 8 was presented during the plenary session.

Please find below some of the photos during the first day of 2010 Google SketchUp Basecamp.

In the photo with Tomohiko Yamanashi and "Podium" developer, Mr. Wayne David

Part of the participants in the auditorium during the plenary session.