Honolulu Power Plant

Aloha! Check out my latest model! It's the Honolulu Power Plant modeled first in Building Maker and then refined quickly in SketchUp. "Built in 1928 and 1955 and supplying power to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The power plant is considered by some to be an eyesore and may be demolished to make way for waterfront development..." This model is included in my following 3D model collections: Power Plant, My Building Maker Models, 1920s, Models By Zoungy, Zoungy Google Earth Models, *Favorite Thumbnails

Trying Out New Modeling Features

Hi! So I quickly tried out some of the new features in SketchUp 8 and Building Maker. I am still getting accustomed to them and may not remember all that I did, but I'll take my best shot.

Orloj Ahoj!

Play video for 3D tour of Old Town Square, Prague (not a SketchUp model)

I just uploaded my 3D model version of the Orloj-- the 600-year-old Astronomical Clock and Old Town Hall in Prague. Then I found this video (above) of a detailed 3D model someone else made which is way cooler. I'm still happy with my own model though.

Mine is a hybrid Building Maker - SketchUp model, utilizing some photos I took myself while visiting Old Town Square in Prague. Check it out, and also look at this link showing a faster animated version of the clock dial (makes it easier to understand).

SittingDuck's Masterpiece

Check it out:

SittingDuck has this to say about this model:

It's a small chapel in Brussels.  More than a year ago I modeled it in the traditional way.  Now a few weeks ago I remade it in Building Maker.  Now I decided to take the best of both worlds.  It took me about 8 hours in total, but I manually combined the photos I took with the Building Maker textures, and very painstakingly corrected all the geometry flaws in the model.  You can see that the colors and shading are still unified, but the textures have increased many times in sharpness/detail.

Cool stuff.

My Latest Building Maker/SketchUp Combo Model

What do you think? This model is included in my collections: House and Hotel, My Building Maker Models, Zoungy Google Earth Models, Models By Zoungy

Refining Building Maker Models In SketchUp

A Googler pointed me to a handy "how to" page HERE. Specifically it deals with the issue of Building Maker models that, once refined in SketchUp, sink into the terrain. You can see the step that explains how to fix that as well as how to do SketchUp edits at the link.

Above is an example model. Although the version I uploaded initially from SketchUp looked OK to me and I could export a KMZ file at the correct elevation on my computer, the KMZ generated online (at the "View in Google Earth" link on the model preview page) produced a sunken model.

A short edit later... and I think it's all good.

Building Maker: It's ALIVE! It's ALIVE!

Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. Work in progress at the time of writing...

Woo-hoo! Today I saw my model re-texture itself in Building Maker.

This is one of the cool new functions of the Building Maker program... as you build more, the program senses what buildings obstruct the view of others, and what vantage point offers a clear view (and texture) and then re-applies textures accordingly.

In my case I am making a model of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. A wall was incorrectly textured but as soon as I built the part of the building blocking the view, Building Maker found a better angle and fixed the texture. Cool.

My First Building Maker Model

Actually it's my first American building (in Philadelphia, PA) done with Google's new Building Maker program.

I heard that if you model a tall building whose image has "projected" onto another nearby model, that Building Maker will recognize this second building and remove its projected image from the first building. At the time of writing this model has that problem. Part of a neighboring tower appears on one wall.

I'll model the tower and see what happens...

Image of a neighboring building's roof got projected onto the model

EDIT: I modeled and published that tower and so far no change on the shorter model. Maybe it takes more time?