Attack of the Geek II
Sigh... like normal I can't seem to finish ANYTHING. So I haven't worked on the whole company intranet site in a few weeks. It seems like normal I figured out how most of it all works and as such has lost my interest due to lack of a challenge. I plan on getting back to it and creating something usable but I really don't seem to have enough hours in a day to do all the "projects" I get myself into.
So I've found yet another project to delve into. I've been using this program in all 3 of my jobs so far called Sketchup. I'm a diehard user and often espouse my thoughts on how great it is. Oh... its a 3d modelling program, extremely intuitive interface, simple, fast, all around cool as hell. Another program that I have recently gotten hooked on is Google Earth. I find myself addicted to zooming around the earth looking for wierd places and things too look at from space. Put the two programs together and holy crap is it cool. Sketchup created a google earth plugin which allows you to import the earths terrain straight into sketchup along with the sattelite image mapped to the terrain creating a virtual landscape. It also allows you to export your Sketchup model into Google Earth so you can make a 3d model of your house, shed, skyscraper, and see what it looks like on a google earth map. So apparently in working with @last software, the makers of Sketchup, to develop the plugin, Google thought Sketchup was so cool they decided to buy the company. So I'm sure the plugin will only get better.
As of right now I find some major flaws in it. This made me start getting Geeky and looking for workarounds to make it better. For instance as is, the plugin will only allow b&w images mapped to your terrain. How dumb. I want color! So it prompted me to looking into the plugin itself. Which them prompted me to look into the Sketchup Ruby API. Which in turn got me turned on to all the really cool plugins and scripts that you can write for Sketchup using the Ruby language. So now I'm in full programming geek mode trying to figure out the Google Earth API along with learning Ruby. I've been reading some books on C++ for a while now and it's helping me understand it a bit. So I guess we will see what cool stuff I will come up with. First on the list is a timer function that will record the time spent working on a 3d Sketchup Model. Apparently some guy already wrote this program but he has it on a site that you have to pay for so Fu** that I want free stuff so I'm writing my own.
Anyway, I know this was a boring post but I thought it was time for an update. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures on here (I haven't been trying) I'll post a cool 3d image of what I used these two programs to do at work.
So I've found yet another project to delve into. I've been using this program in all 3 of my jobs so far called Sketchup. I'm a diehard user and often espouse my thoughts on how great it is. Oh... its a 3d modelling program, extremely intuitive interface, simple, fast, all around cool as hell. Another program that I have recently gotten hooked on is Google Earth. I find myself addicted to zooming around the earth looking for wierd places and things too look at from space. Put the two programs together and holy crap is it cool. Sketchup created a google earth plugin which allows you to import the earths terrain straight into sketchup along with the sattelite image mapped to the terrain creating a virtual landscape. It also allows you to export your Sketchup model into Google Earth so you can make a 3d model of your house, shed, skyscraper, and see what it looks like on a google earth map. So apparently in working with @last software, the makers of Sketchup, to develop the plugin, Google thought Sketchup was so cool they decided to buy the company. So I'm sure the plugin will only get better.
As of right now I find some major flaws in it. This made me start getting Geeky and looking for workarounds to make it better. For instance as is, the plugin will only allow b&w images mapped to your terrain. How dumb. I want color! So it prompted me to looking into the plugin itself. Which them prompted me to look into the Sketchup Ruby API. Which in turn got me turned on to all the really cool plugins and scripts that you can write for Sketchup using the Ruby language. So now I'm in full programming geek mode trying to figure out the Google Earth API along with learning Ruby. I've been reading some books on C++ for a while now and it's helping me understand it a bit. So I guess we will see what cool stuff I will come up with. First on the list is a timer function that will record the time spent working on a 3d Sketchup Model. Apparently some guy already wrote this program but he has it on a site that you have to pay for so Fu** that I want free stuff so I'm writing my own.
Anyway, I know this was a boring post but I thought it was time for an update. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures on here (I haven't been trying) I'll post a cool 3d image of what I used these two programs to do at work.
posted by Kent at 9:22 PM
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