The premise is simple; they’re going to focus on an online showcase, highlighting works that have created an impact. The project looks to be open-ended, and they’ve stated that anything goes in terms of subject matter: architecture, archeology, industrial design, construction, woodworking, personal fabrication, model railroading, mousetrap design.

The rules and sign-up process are simple. Just complete this form, then submit an image of your SketchUp work along with a photo of the object it’s based on.

Here’s a video showing off what SketchUp is capable of:

I’ve never used SketchUp, but the examples provided in their announcement article are well crafted. Especially the SKPR Bot by John Bacus, featured below.

Google will be taking submissions over the next few months, and will launch the showcase sometime in 2012.

Google says there are over a million people using SketchUp. "That’s a pretty humbling number of 3D model makers," says SketchUp Product Manager John Bacus.

The new version comes with new geo-modeling capabilities that leverage Google’s collection of geo-spatial data, for what the company says is quicker, easier, and more fun model building.

"We’ve made it easier to build site context models for your projects using our ever-growing collection of geo-data," says Bacus. "We’ve added a new collection of “Solid” tools for doing common additive/subtractive modeling operations and we’ve packed out LayOut with some new features that make it easier to document your models professionally."

SketchUp 8 is available for download today in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German versions. The list of all the new features is here. SketchUp Pro comes with a price tag of $495. Upgrades from previous versions are $95.

Today is the birthday of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and the competition is inspired by Wright’s assignment for his own apprentices. Sketchup Product Evangelist Aidan Chopra explains, "If you wanted to study to be an architect with Wright, you had to design and build a shelter in the desert outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Then you had to live and study in it."

Luckily for contestants, the shelters in the competition are only in the virtual world. You can learn a little more about it by watching the following two-minute clip:

Contestants have until August 23rd to enter their designs. The official competition page can be found here. To enter, you have to share the following information:

- info about yourself (name, email, country, etc.)

- description of your shelter

- link to your SketchUp model on Google 3D Warehouse

- 1-4 JPEG images of your shelter

- link to a video of your shelter on YouTube (optional but encouraged)

Entries should provide a place where someone could study and sleep. They can be anywhere on Earth, and should be no more than 100 square feet, no taller than 12 feet, and should not include water, gas, or electricity.

Judging is based on relationship of shelter to the environment around it, innovative design, thoughtful use of materials, adherence to project specs, and quality of SketchUp model.

There are two prizes that will be awarded. The first one is the "People’s Prize." For this, students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture will choose 10 shelters, and from those, the public will select one. The second one is the "Juried Prize," which is chosen by a panel of architecture and design experts.

Both prizes include airfare and two nights’ accommodation for two in New York City, a behind the scenes tour of the Guggenheim Museum (as well as Google’s NYC office), a complimentary admission to selected NYC museums, and a Google SketchUp Pro 7 license. The winner of the Juried Prize will also get a thousand bucks.

The new features basically all have to do wtih making the program quicker and more reliable, more intuitive and powerful, or sharing and collaboration with other users. In the department of "More Intuitive and More Powerful," features include:

– Crossing lines break automatically
– Scale without stretching
– Configure objects with Component Options
– Introducing the Interact Tool

When it comes to new sharing and collaboration features, SketchUp 7 includes:

– Search the 3D Warehouse
– Download Models Locally
– Take (and give) credit
– Custom Templates

That’s just the free version. The Pro (or paid) version has even more, which you can learn about  here. The new features for SketchUp will hopefully have a direct impact on the quality of projects in Google Earth. As I noted the other day, these projects are already showing an improvement in quality, and as SketchUp gets more features to make it faster and easier to use and collaborate, I don’t see why we won’t witness an increase in the frequency in which we see high quality Google Earth projects surface.

In fact, by the time Aidan Chopra, a “SketchUp Product Evangelist,” announced the SketchUp Blog’s existence on the Official Google Blog, there were already seven posts on it.  The Google Public Policy Blog also came preloaded with posts (admittedly, the situation was slightly different), and it’s been quite active.

Some background on this SketchUp story may be necessary, however.  “For those of you who have no idea what SketchUp is, I’ll start at the beginning: The world is three-dimensional,” writes Chopra.  “Designing a house, building a piece of furniture and navigating through a city all involve three-dimensional decisions.  SketchUp is 3D modeling software that anyone can use to build models of whatever they like.”

An important addendum: basic versions of SketchUp are free.  In regards to the blog, The Utility Belt’s John Fortt describes it as “a decidedly Google-like combination of geekiness and whimsy.  On the one hand, there are instructions for adding color to Google Earth snapshots and notes about a plug-in for Adobe Systems’s (ADBE) Photoshop 3 Extended product that allows 3D modelers to view and share items in 3D Warehouse.  On the other hand, there are pictures of the mustaches of the SketchUp crew.”

One last note: congratulations to Chopra on getting Google SketchUp For Dummies published.

"We’re very excited to hold this first-ever worldwide Google developer gathering," said Google Vice President of Search Products and User Experience Marissa Mayer.

"Developers are using Google’s APIs and tools to build innovative web applications that we never dreamed of, and Google Developer Day is an opportunity for them to connect with one another, learn the latest techniques and have their questions answered by Google’s developer product teams. It’s also a chance for us to get feedback from the community and find ways to make our developer offerings even better."

Topics that will be covered are Google Maps, Google Earth and SketchUp along with the Google Web Toolkit.

The workshop will take place at Google offices in Mountain View, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, Paris, Hamburg, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney. The event will kick off in Sydney on May 31, at 9 a.m. AEST and conclude 27 hours later in Mountain View at 7 p.m. PDT.

Presenters at the events will include Guido Van Rossum, Google software engineer and creator of the Python programming language (Beijing); Chris DiBona, Google open source programs manager (London); Mark Stahl, Google data APIs tech lead (Madrid); Bruce Johnson and Joel Webber, co-creators of the Google Web Toolkit  (Mountain View)

Google will feature live streaming webcasts from its Mountain View office and provide a YouTube channel with videos of sessions around the world.

Chief among these is Photo Match. Google boasts that “users can now quickly and easily trace a photo to create a 3D model of the photographed object or match an existing model with a background photo for near-instant modeling.” Even though other software can perform similar feats, it’s a neat accomplishment.

Google seems uncharacteristically determined to make people aware of Photo Match, however, as well as SketchUp 6 as a whole. In the Official Google Blog, for example, the heading “Super models wanted” lures readers into clicking on the post. The text then reveals that the company is sponsoring a sort of architectural contest.

There’s also the case of SketchUp Pro 6′s promotional quotes – you know, the “I use Product X and it’s the best thing in the world” comments. Google features one quote from an identifiable businessperson, but then apparently ran out of credible sources; the next quote comes from “Scott – Forum Post Unknown.”

Google will get $495 per copy of SketchUp Pro 6 that it sells, so perhaps that’s part of the company’s motivation. And the “Supermodel” contest could just be an example of the whole Google-is-fun mentality, considering that “the pieces are now in place” for users’ entries to “show up in Google Earth for all the world to see.”

Even if SketchUp 6 doesn’t pique your interest, its release may have bigger implications; Google says that “these developments further Google’s efforts to create a fully-detailed 3D Google Earth with user-generated modeling.”

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As Nathan explains…

The free version lets you create 3D models of “houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships”, detailing and texturing as necessary. All your work can be placed in Google Earth and shared, as well as posted to Google’s 3D Warehouse. You can also grab anything from the Warehouse and edit it, giving you a great base to start from.

More via the Google blog.

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A slate of features that make SketchUp Pro 5 an enticing buy for commercial developers won’t appear in the Google SketchUp that has been made available for personal work. But it has quite enough for those who want to try out the package on some smaller scale projects.

Google purchased SketchUp in March 2006 for an undisclosed sum. Both the Pro 5 and free versions work with Google Earth; a plug-in is needed for Pro 5 and can be downloaded from the SketchUp site.

Google and SketchUp are even employing something of a social media model with a presence called 3D Warehouse. ZDNet’s Googling Google blogger Garett Rogers noted Google registered Google3DWarehouse.com and .net, .org, and .info version of that domain name earlier this week.

The 3D Warehouse offers a place where SketchUp users can find and share models for use on their creations. ” Notice that there aren’t many toasters yet?” SketchUp’s Aidan Chopra asked. “Build one, upload it to the Warehouse, and revel in altruism the next time you see it in someone else’s SketchUp kitchen.”

Chopra also listed a few tricks SketchUp users can try, varying in skill level from beginning to advanced. The intermediate technique resembles the flip-book metaphor for making an object appear to be animated. Users will likely discover and share more; that could be a frightening concept.

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The 19.2 megabyte download is for Windows 2000+ systems with a minimum of a 600 MHz processor, 128 megs of RAM, and an OpenGL compliant video card. This is graphics intensive software, however, so more power would be a VERY good idea. A Macintosh version is forthcoming.

The free version lets you create 3D models of “houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships”, detailing and texturing as necessary. All your work can be placed in Google Earth and shared, as well as posted to Google’s 3D Warehouse. You can also grab anything from the Warehouse and edit it, giving you a great base to start from.

Clicking this link loads the 3D Warehouse directory into Google Earth. With it, any object in the Warehouse will exist as a placemark in Google Earth. Click the placemark and you view a preview of the object and get the option to download it to Google Earth or to SketchUp for editing. There are objects, and object collections, and zooming into the collections reveals all the contained objects. Be aware, the more complex objects you load, the higher the stress on your system.

The Rose Bowl, in particular, is really cool. The Golden Gate Bridge is stunning.

The 3D Warehouse set only shows you what is contained in the current view, so zoom out to find more.

SketchUp Pro 5 is $495.

Verdict: Without even loading up the SketchUp software, I’m already pleased. Google Earth just got that much better. There is likely going to be a wealth of 3D models to insert into your world, letting you turn Earth into a more colorful, more alive product. If SketchUp proves easy enough for me to use, this could usher in a new age of 3D modeling, and it will likely do that anyway if it isn’t, since it is free software. Great work, guys.

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