Satisfaction is just a few clicks away.

Satisfaction is a few clicks away.

By Richard Williams   08/30/08

         I guess if anyone had to put a label on me today one of my titles would have to be a professional internet surfer.  Indeed I do spend many hours each day online to discover those great things that I want to make you all aware of.  I’m also kind of picky in what I tell the readers out there because it only takes one or two mistakes and you are out of this game.  Blogging has its own special problems and rewards.  Problems are plentiful because those that do not like you are more responsive in the comments back area than those that might agree with you.  But that is good too because we feed on that feedback and adjust accordingly if we should see something that needs to be addressed.  Not all my articles and blog essays have been well accepted but I also don’t know of anyone else’s that has either.  So I guess I am in the ball park somewhere between good and bad.  J  What I really enjoy most is when I find something that is really exceptional to talk to you about and put my seal of approval upon it.  Well I have some great news for you.

         This article is not really about SolidWorks but a program I use an awful lot these days to get my conceptualization juices going.  We have all heard about this one by now I’m sure.  Who out there has not heard of SketchUp yet?  Well just in case you haven’t, head on over to Google’s free download site and go get it for yourself.   Goto:  http://www.sketchup.com/   They have both a pro and a standard version but believe me both are great and easy to use and the Standard free one you get to keep forever.  They are up to version 6 at this time.  The Professional version will cost you around $500 after a trial period if you cannot part with it and must have it. There are many other add on’s available for the Pro version.  It is your choice and it is highly recommended by many of us involved in the 3D world these days.  Yup, and the learning curve is about an hour if you take a long coffee break too.  That is just one of the programs I wanted to make sure you knew about.  Here is the other fantastic program “plug in” to SketchUp that many, even those that are in this 3D world don’t know about yet.  It works with both the standard and the pro versions too.  It just recently came out and I’m still doing testing on it but this one is already a “got to get it” for what you have already with SketchUp. The IES Company from the great country of Scotland, has a great add on to SketchUp and can be downloaded at:  http://www.iesve.com/content/default.asp  Yeah, but what the heck does it do?  Fair question.  When you design or play with different building designs, would you like to know how it would really work in a virtual environmental test?  Well with this add on you can do environmental studies that can tell you if your building will meet, exceed or fail to come up to the 2030 architectural standards set in place now to reduce the worlds carbon emissions into the atmosphere we breath.  The lowest possible carbon footprint equates to how efficient your building design is going to be if you built it with that idea in mind.  This great gem of a program will tell you that. Using simple parameters for each room in the house and even on multi-levels, it can be set up for a study.  Very simple to use and it will give you enough of a sophisticated analysis report to tell you it your ideas are going to fly or crash and burn with your designs keeping you more on tract.  Then as we all love to do with our ideas, we can do “What If Scenarios” which means we can change some of our parameters around to try and meet the standards.  What also is so very nice to see, is that you do not have to a PhD in analytical analysis programs to set up a test and run it.  Just how accurate and comprehensive a study is it, is what I am involved in right now.  If something is not quite up to par with the program let me know and the company as well.  VE is another free download for your free SketchUp program.  This is a really great way for any company to introduce its product to the world.  I commend the company IES for coming up with this fantastic idea for an add on and keeping it simple too. They have a much more intensified Virtual Environmental Analysis program for sale that can do so much more and it is a standalone program that can be used on any structure and you can build it right inside of the graphics window provided.   Here is a very innovative company with a kind of junior and senior level of Virtual Environment Analysis Programs from the people at Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd.  Don’t pass this one up for sure.  Watch their video files about it from the link I gave to you.  Bye.

Richard Williams