Re: [Edu-sig] anyone using Python with Sketchup (free Google tool)?
Is there an advantage to using SketchUp over Blender? I tried getting in to SketchUp a few times but I never got to the point where I could do anything very interesting. Also, it is not really free. SketchUp Pro cost about $500. Blender, on the other hand is totally free, and has Python built right in. There is an editor where you can write Python scripts. They have put in a huge amount of work on the Python API for their new 2.5 series. There is also an interactive interpreter window built in.
On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 2:45 PM, Lee Harr <missive@hotmail.com> wrote:
Is there an advantage to using SketchUp over Blender?
Hi Lee -- I've been meaning to reply to this. I have only the utmost respect for Blender, which I've tackled a number of times. I mostly cut my teeth on POV-Ray (stills, but with loop constructs and frame saving), then VRML (+ XML = x3D), then some other formats, the key theme (for me) being simple spatial geometry, like the rhombic triacontahedron and like that. Here's there weirdo kind of stuff that gets me going: http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2008/12/coffee-shops-network.html (top one by me, bottom by Russell Towle) Actually, it hadn't really occurred to me to compare them, as I think of Sketchup as 3D etcha-sketch, whereas Blender is more about multiple objects with independent motion, or at least has that ability. But then I suppose Sketchup, programmed in Ruby or Python, does have this ability to run more of a movie, more than before. [1] I'm awed by this movie of Blender autogenerating whole cities, ala 'Inception', something I'd put beyond the bounds of even Sketchup Pro, but I could be mistaken (none of my current friends seem to have it). One possible advantage of SketchUp is the awesome on-line library of contributed buildings, other structures, which you can just download and snarf. My friend Trevor has been productive with Sketchup, in doing this retro-seeming movie of a never-realized concept in housing (looks like Uru, or that Island in Myst [2]). http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2009/11/4d-house.html John Driscoll picks up on a lot of the same themes (similar architectural memes): http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/05/architect.html As for myself, I came down in Visual Python, which is hard to beat for easy of use right out of the box:
from visual import * sphere(radius=1)
and bammo!, you've got an interactive window open in OpenGL. Arthur and I used to argue about whether it oughta be in the Standard Library. I took the conservative line and bellyached about bloat, but I secretly agree with him: VPython is one of the cardinal flagships, one of the major floats in the Python parade, worthy of its cheerleaders. Which isn't to say it couldn't do more. Will it record successive frames out to disk, at perhaps only a fraction of its rate in real time? I'm pretty sure not, yet that could be useful. Where there are frames, there are movies.
I tried getting in to SketchUp a few times but I never got to the point where I could do anything very interesting.
Also, it is not really free. SketchUp Pro cost about $500.
Blender, on the other hand is totally free, and has Python built right in. There is an editor where you can write Python scripts. They have put in a huge amount of work on the Python API for their new 2.5 series. There is also an interactive interpreter window built in.
You don't mention what you've been able to do with Blender. Cool stuff? The learning curve is pretty steep. I'm not thinking either/or. I'm thinking work out in Sketchup, get your feet wet, then move up to Blender maybe. Or take the VPython route. Or.... Kirby [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WaoImXPMtE ("got more, than we had before...") [2] Cyan Software / http://uru.us.ubi.com/
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2008/12/coffee-shops-network.html (top one by me, bottom by Russell Towle)
You might like this talk from PyCon : PyCon 2011: Algorithmic Generation of OpenGL Geometry http://pycon.blip.tv/file/4882916/
Actually, it hadn't really occurred to me to compare them, as I think of Sketchup as 3D etcha-sketch, whereas Blender is more about multiple objects with independent motion, or at least has that ability.
I use Blender all the time for what I call "sketching." Maybe the limits of SketchUp are what I might feel if I were trying to use an etch-a-sketch for sketching. It would be terribly frustrating.
I'm awed by this movie of Blender autogenerating whole cities, ala 'Inception'
There are a lot of great python scripts and plugins for blender. I think that Make Human is mostly python: http://makehuman.blogspot.com/ (Possibly NSFW due to unclothed humans)
One possible advantage of SketchUp is the awesome on-line library of contributed buildings, other structures, which you can just download and snarf.
There are lots of free blender resources available: http://www.blendswap.com/ I also found a way to bring SketchUp resources in to blender: http://sites.google.com/site/alexvaqp/sketchupblender
My friend Trevor has been productive with Sketchup, in doing this retro-seeming movie of a never-realized concept in housing
John Driscoll picks up on a lot of the same themes
Maybe I have just never had any use for architectural sketching.
As for myself, I came down in Visual Python, which is hard to beat for easy of use right out of the box:
I've used VPython before, but found it difficult to set up sometimes.
I tried getting in to SketchUp a few times but I never got to the point where I could do anything very interesting.
You don't mention what you've been able to do with Blender. Cool stuff?
Mostly I use if for sketching robot designs: http://robotics.easthighschool.net/design0 http://robotics.easthighschool.net/design1 One nice thing there is that with just a bit more work, the robot can be driven around the arena in blender game mode.
The learning curve is pretty steep.
I agree, somewhat. But I think that any 3D design tool is going to take quite a bit of work to master.
I'm not thinking either/or. I'm thinking work out in Sketchup, get your feet wet, then move up to Blender maybe. Or take the VPython route. Or....
I ran in to some resistance when I wanted students to learn blender. People were either saying "we already have SketchUp" but when I tried to use it I could not get it to do what I wanted. Or else they say "We have an Autodesk ___ license. We should use that." But like I was saying, these programs take a lot of time to master, so if students can install the program at home, or on any computer they happen to sit down at (portable apps) then they will have that much more time to work on it. For me, Blender suits just about perfectly. And the fact that they are so invested in Python just makes it all that much better!
participants (2)
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kirby urner -
Lee Harr