Tag Archives: Sketchup
Top 3D Printing Headlines from Last Week: SketchUp, Medical, Toys, Jobs
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from April 30 to May 6.
Monday, April 30
- Why Google Sold SketchUp and What It Means for 3D Printing
- 3D Printing Companies Exhibiting at Maker Faire 2012
Tuesday, May 1
- Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in April
- Futuristic Medicine: 3D Printed Jaw Implant Rescues 83-Year-Old Woman
Wednesday, May 2
- 3D Printing the Rosetta Stone for Kids Toys: Nerd Dad Triumph
- Inspiring High School Students to be Tomorrow’s Designers: 3D Printing [Video]
Thursday, May 3
- Shapeways Feed is a Pinterest for 3D Printing Designs
- Stable Design: 3D Printing with Autodesk 123D and MakerBot [Video]
Friday, May 4
Inspiring High School Students to be Tomorrow’s Designers: 3D Printing [Video]
High School teacher Lesa Childers is inspiring her students to be tomorrow’s designers and engineers, thanks to technologies like 3D printing. In the video below, students from Notre Dame de Sion School of Kansas City showcase their project: a 3D printed fantasy castle with custom-designed furniture and decorations.
For this particular 3D printing project, Childers 3D printed a Castle she found on Thingiverse, and then assigned her students the task of 3D modeling small items of furniture they could then print on the Mosaic and then set into the castle. She gave various criteria as to the size, and watching out for material overhangs. She also create several video tutorials for getting up to speed on using SketchUp (first one here).
Castle photo from MakerBotShop on Thingiverse.
Via 3dprinter.net
Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in April
Here are the top 10 most popular stories On 3D Printing brought you in April 2012.
10. We explored innovative and strange 3D printing concepts, from chocolate to stone to candy to organs!
9. Former MakerBot COO is launching a new 3D printer called Solidoodle, with a $500 price tag.
8. The Forbidden City is cloned with 3D printing (photo above).
7. Hollywood’s storytellers turn to 3D printing, including Iron Man.
6. The lucrative toy industry is challenged by 3D printed generics.
5. The Economist publishes a special report on 3D printing, called “The Third Industrial Revolution“.
4. Google sold 3D modeling software SketchUp to Trimble.
3. We analyzed the market size of 3D printing creators and consumers.
2. Stratasys merged with Objet, and we captured the key deal points.
1. Leapfrog launches a new 3D printer line in Europe.
Thanks for reading in April!
Why Google Sold SketchUp and What It Means for 3D Printing
Google acquired upstart SketchUp in 2006, made the product free, and drove tens of millions of users. Now Google is selling the SketchUp product and staff to Trimble, a company best known for GPS technology.
On the SketchUp blog, John Bacus, Product Manager, SketchUp wrote:
In its time at Google, SketchUp has become one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world. With over 30 million SketchUp activations in just the last year, we’re awfully proud of our accomplishments. But there’s still so much we want to do, and we think we’ve found a way forward that will benefit everyone—our product, our team and especially our millions of users.
That’s why I’m sharing today that the SketchUp team and technology will be leaving Google to join Trimble. We’ll be better able to focus on our core communities: modelers who have been with us from the beginning, as well as future SketchUppers who have yet to discover our products.
Why Did Google Sell SketchUp?
The simple answer is focus. As founder and new CEO Larry Page wrote in his 2012 update to investors, ”Since becoming CEO again, I’ve pushed hard to increase our velocity, improve our execution, and focus on the big bets that will make a difference in the world.”
SketchUp apparently is not included in Google’s big bets.
Good Move by Trimble
Google made the investment to turn SketchUp into a popular software platform. Trimble can capitalize on that brand. Trimble announced in a press release that SketchUp would “enhance its office-to-field platform”.
Trimble will also continue to partner with Google on running and the SketchUp 3D warehouse, an online repository where users find and collaborate on 3D models. And Trimble will keep offering a free version of SketchUp.
“SketchUp and the corresponding 3D Warehouse provide an important element of our long term strategy by enhancing the integration of our field presence with the wider enterprise,” said Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president.
Did Google Make a Mistake?
Google’s move is surprising to those who believe 3D printing is at an inflection point and will be a disruptive force on our global supply chain by empowering a new generation of product creators.
We reviewed Autodesk 123D, Sketchup and Tinkercad and later featured Anarkik3D, a crowdfunding hopeful. Although SketchUp was not necessarily the best design software for 3D printing, it was one of the most popular free 3D design software packages on the planet and inspired many people to get into design. Google has now lost that audience.
We have previously suggested that giants like Amazon would get into the 3D printing field. It would surprise us if Google stayed out of the industry altogether.
Perhaps SketchUp was too technical of a product for the mainstream. Should we prepare for a new 3D modeling software from Google? A web-based 123D of their own? Or perhaps a different play.
Impact on 3D Printing?
Not much today, as summarized by Fabbaloo:
Is this a big change for 3D print operators? We think not so much, because SketchUp just isn’t the best tool for modeling solid objects. It doesn’t even output the STL format used by all 3D printers unless you install a special plug in.
But the long term impact depends on whether Google re-enters the 3D printing field with a new product.
Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, used under Creative Commons license.
Top 3D Printing Headlines from Last Week: $1.4 Billion Merger, The Economist, GWiz Fab Lab, 3D Design Software
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from April 16 to April 22.
Monday, April 16
- Stratasys Merges with Objet to Create 3D Printing Powerhouse in $1.4 Billion Deal
- How Big Can 3D Printing Go?
Tuesday, April 17
- Stratasys and Objet Merger: Analysis and Key Takeaways
- 3D Printing Changes the Game for Scientific Experiments [Video]
Wednesday, April 18
- 3D Systems Acquires Paramount Industries to Advance Aerospace and Medical Device 3D Printing
- Rebuild (or Clone) the Forbidden City with 3D Printing
Thursday, April 19
- A Look Back at the History of MakerBot, 3D Printing Pioneer [Video]
- 3D Printing Earns Top 10 Fastest Growing Industries, Beats Hot Sauce Production
Friday, April 20