Google SketchUp Course

Hello and welcome to VTC's Training for Google SketchUp. My name is Jason Maranto, and I will be your guide for this training. Now SketchUp is a remarkable free application that's made available by Google in both the Mac and PC flavors. Now there are some differences between these two and I'll make sure to point those out to you as we go along. Now, SketchUp, while it does have a reputation for being easy to learn, is also heavily dependent upon conventions that it borrows from graphic applications like Photoshop and Illustrator and 3D applications like 3D Studio Max and Maya, as well as traditional drafting techniques and architectural rendering techniques. So, we're going to try to make sure that we minimize the techno mumbo jumbo and the confusion jargon that comes along with these things and we're going to make each and every episode a logical progression from the previous so that you, at no time, will feel lost or confused as to why things are happening the way they are happening and you know, hopefully this will make sure that you don't have any gaps in your knowledge when we're done so that when we're done you can simply open the program, utilize it fully to do whatever it is you need to do and at no point in time feel confused or lost or intimidated by any element of the program because you'll have seen it all and you'll understand how they all work together seamlessly to create the effect that you're looking to achieve. Now, SketchUp was, in itself, is actually a very full featured program, however it's also extensible and it's primary motive doing this is through what they call RubyScript. Now RubyScript is a programming language that's very, very easy to learn and there is a VTC Training on Ruby, so I highly recommend that you seek that out and I'll talk a little bit more about that when we get to the section on RubyScript. But RubyScript allows you to expand the functionality of the program so that you can do whatever it is that you need to do that the program isn't allowing you to do. Now you can also download free RubyScripts that other people have written that will act as Plug-ins for the program and add functionality to it and you can also download third party programs that are written in Ruby that will add functionality to the program as well. So, you really have a lot of options in terms of expanding out the program and that's one of the beauties of SketchUp. The support community is fantastic. I mean, the SketchUp community is really one of the strengths of the program and I highly recommend that you become part of all of that because it really makes the program so much more of a pleasure to use and it also makes it easier to learn, so I really, really highly recommend that you explore that and we'll talk about all the different elements of the community, whether it be Google Earth, or the 3D Warehouse, or even the forums. So, really, really amazing community and it's really fun to be a part of. Now, one of the main concerns when dealing with 3D is hardware and video cards are one of the major questions that you get asked a lot when you deal with hardware and this is something that we're going to discuss at great length, is the different hardware components and how they affect your experience in using SketchUp, you know, whether it's a horrible experience or whether it's a pleasurable experience and I really hesitate to say that there is such a thing as a horrible experience with SketchUp, but certainly you may notice that you're not getting the same performance on screen that I'm getting and I'm going to explain to you why that is and how you can change that, which is a really great thing because it's hard information to come by. So, I hope you really enjoy the Training series and if you have any questions you can find my contact information, along with some information about me, at the end of this Training. Thank you.  

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