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SketchUp spoke to Scott DeWoody, creative media manager at  Gensler  about all things architectural visualization. Over the past 15 years, Scott has worked with numerous clients, including NVIDIA Corporation, ExxonMobil, Shell Oil Company, BP, City Center Las Vegas, and many more… Tell us a little about your role I oversee Gensler’s visualization technologies, managing rendering workflows, training, documentation and R&D into new technologies such as VR/AR/MR. I consult on a lot of projects too, figuring out what might be the best solution to a specific problem. For example, a couple of years ago I worked out of our San Francisco office on the NVIDIA headquarters. I was tasked with bridging the gap between a design team’s workflow and NVIDIA’s in-development hardware. I worked on  IRay  and  Visual Computing Appliance  (VCA) solutions for network attached rendering; which has since morphed into the  DGX station , a deep learning hardware platform. It ’s great to work for Gensler, employees are presented with big opportunities, especially with the sort of clients we have and the variety of projects. We work on everything from the 600m tall  Shanghai Tower  to  wine labels . I’ve been here about 10 years now and have always been able to try new things and work on exciting projects with incredibly talented people. Oddly enough, I don’t really have experience elsewhere. I got hired right out of school, a week before I graduated. When I walked in on orientation day, Gensler had something like 2,500 employees and 37 offices, now we’re at 5,500 with across 44 offices. We’ve grown a lot since 2007 and I feel like I’ve been a part of it. What design tools are employed by the team? Our core design platforms are SketchUp, Rhino, Revit and to a degree 3ds Max.  V-Ray  is our core visualization engine, we also use a little  IRay  and a handful of other apps. We do in-depth work in the  Unity and  Unreal  gaming engines and produce some interactive visualizations. We manage our network resources and essentially create a global render farm by using  Deadline . How does the team set out to produce powerful and engaging imagery? This definitely varies per project and per designer, since we have so many. One constant, however, is that people want really good quality outputs. With V-Ray 3 across all of our platforms, I feel like that’s a baseline we can easily achieve. I’ve been using it since version 1.4 so I’ve seen it evolve over the past twelve years or so. It astounds me what Chaos Group keep producing and our designers just enjoy using it. The new interactive mode allows rendering whilst simultaneously working on a project, not having to stop-start over and over again is a big win. The latest features have given our designers whole new view on rendering quality, what they can expect. It’s kind of up to the artist how far they want to take things, from very conceptual, to diagrammatic, to as photo-realistic as they can make it. The system is flexible enough to do anything. Is there a notion of a ‘standard workflow’ at Gensler? The majority of our designers follow a similar workflow. The Microsoft Store project is a great example of this; we were chosen to work on the new retail outlets to help bring Microsoft’s hardware to the high street in an engaging way. The design team started in SketchUp, as they always do. They can quickly dive in and mass out their ideas-the abundance of downloadable textures and entourage also speeds up the design process. Microsoft store in London - Image credit: Gensler Our retail teams use SketchUp a lot, they’re probably some of our biggest power users. With Microsoft, they were able to iterate different options extremely quickly and even present design changes in the app on-the-fly. A lot of visualization is done in SketchUp and this is where V-Ray comes into play. We can now design and render all in the same package. And, with V-Ray for Revit, the team can share materials and move freely between platforms. For some projects, we go into 3ds Max for the production of high-end renderings. Later in the design stage, we’ll look at the real-time rendering and utilize a mix of  Fuzor  and  Enscape . There are many on the team that loves these extensions. Some prefer 3ds Max interactive, which is based on the Stingray engine. For larger projects, it’s often the case that we’ll go down the gaming engine route too. For Microsoft, the client was in Seattle and design work took place in LA. To help work around this we created an interactive Unity app. It was a pretty powerful tool. My colleague Alan Robles was able to show the client how the huge wraparound LED video walls would translate into the design. When we go into a game engine, effort levels increase exponentially. Right now we are figuring out how best to optimize that pipeline. There are people out there that have set out to solve the issue and we are trying to speak to all of them. If you figure out how to get a model into a gaming engine really quickly, you've won. A lot of designers jump into one button real-time render apps. The output looks extremely consistent. You’d think that’s a good thing but with limited customization, all firms start to look the same. We want to avoid that. When the client team is happy with how things are looking, we enter the design development stage, that's typically then when we start to move into other software such as Revit. What does collaboration look like for you? The style and level of rendering are vast and wide because we don't look at it as an addition to what we’re doing, it’s just a part of the process now. It’s been a goal of mine to have a consistent platform of rendering across the board. So that no matter what app you're designing in, you should be able to get a good rendering out. V-Ray helped me solve that problem really well. It’s helpful to not only get consistent expectations, but with the same version, you can use the same materials and additional features. This lets you set up a pipeline across platforms. Not only is the look and feel essentially the same across the project, the render quality is consistent too. What does the future hold for design visualization? I think we’re at this interesting point in visualization where real-time rendering is becoming extremely accessible, and a lot of people are jumping into it. But at the same time, current real-time rendering isn’t ray tracing [simulating the effects of light as it encounters virtual objects], they’re vastly different. For some people real-time is ok, but for others, ray tracing is where things need to be in the end. I’ve got a feeling that those two worlds are going to collide and there will be a point where we won’t call it ‘rendering’. It’s just going to be how things look out of the box. I’d compare it to photography, it used to be that you needed an expensive camera to take good pictures, but now everyone has a decent camera in their pocket. The same thing will happen in AEC, whether that’s access to more powerful CPUs and GPUs or the cloud comes into play and you're no longer rendering on your hardware. Like taking a photograph, click a button, and boom, I’ve got my image. Tell us about your experience with Mixed Reality at Gensler We’ve had some really good experience on projects where we use HoloLens in tabletop mode instead of building a physical model. The client can get a real feel for the design early on and instantly cycle through options. "If we had access to HoloLens at the time of the Microsoft project, we would most definitely have used them as we do now for all projects like this." There are definitely use cases for HoloLens throughout the entire design process, but we think it really shines when you’re on-site and have the model 1:1. It is awesome for both us and clients to walk around the actual space. Vertical Campus, Los Angeles - Image credit: Gensler For the creation of the new Gensler Los Angeles vertical campus, we used the HoloLens when designing a bridge to connect the existing building with the adjacent tower. Back when Trimble was developing  SketchUp Viewer for HoloLens , Alan Robles got in there early to do a proof of concept, dropping the custom designed bridge into the real-world environment worked like a charm. The video shows Gensler Los Angeles Vertical Campus at various stages of completion, seen through  SketchUp Viewer for HoloLens . How does Gensler respond to the constant evolution of design technology? It’s indoctrinated within us that we need to be on the lookout and embrace new technology and change. Because it’s happening so fast, we need to be ready to move on it - if we don't somebody else will. As a leader in the industry, Gensler leverages the latest technology to remain at the bleeding-edge of building design and sustainability. We have to be driving the trends and expertise. I haven't seen a technology proliferate architecture as quickly as VR has. Back in the day when AutoCAD was released, people were like “We don't need any of this computer stuff, we can just do it all by hand” and eventually, it transformed the industry. Tools like Rhino and SketchUp were also slow builds, having to reach a critical mass before hitting the mass market. With VR, this was not the case, it exploded straight away. We grabbed it and ran with it; Gensler was completely on board. Yes there were skeptics. For them I’d just stick a headset on their heads, a few minutes later they’d tell me to “Buy ten of these now”. It didn't take much convincing that VR was an extremely powerful tool for the industry. Does use of AR/VR have the ability to influence a design? Definitely. One of our first use cases of VR was in a stadium. The client was unsure about exactly where they wanted the huge LED screen, so we rendered it out in multiple locations from six different points of view. We showed the client in VR and within five minutes, they picked exactly where they wanted the screen to be. What was taking weeks to figure out, could be solved in minutes in VR. There have been countless scenarios like that, the average person can’t easily understand what's going on from a 2D representation, VR augments that and can help solve communication issues. And the best part? If you go in with the mindset that every project is going to use VR, it doesn't actually take that much longer to produce the assets. There are three things I tell people to consider when rendering for VR. The first is: that you have to design everything -- if a client has the capability to look and move around, they will. Second: put the camera where someone can experience something, don't just place it in the corner like you usually do. Third: plan for more time spent rendering, it’s no longer a 1920 export, it’s 18000 horizontal pixels, substantially more information.   What does the future of architecture and design look like for Gensler? We are looking at design experience a lot right now. We want to identify how ideal end-user feels when they visit a restaurant, commercial office, or casino, and design around it. We are starting to see design experience play a greater role than the architectural design itself. Both play hand-in-hand very well, and since we've got one down we can focus on the other. We’re also looking at how IoT can enhance an experience. You go to Disney World where your bracelet stores your info and before you even get to the counter you hear “Welcome back, Mr. DeWoody. Your dinner reservation is all set for 7.” We’re exploring how we can take a technology like this into AEC. Machine learning and AI are also buzzwords on the rise now. We are working out how to best embed these tools in our design process. The industry is changing… and changing fast! We need to stay ahead of the curve. About Gensler Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 44 locations and more than 5,000 professionals networked across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Founded in 1965, the firm serves more than 3,500 active clients in virtually every industry. Gensler designers strive to make the places people live, work, and play more inspiring, more resilient, and more impactful. Pick the right SketchUp subscription for your workflow.

Build on schedule, build on budget. Trimble Connect is an open collaboration tool that connects the right people to the right data at the right time - enabling informed decision making and enhancing project efficiency. With Trimble Connect, everyone involved in a project can see the big picture, right down to the tiniest detail. Bring people, technology & information together to deliver what you need, when you need it. Here's some quick tips if you want to get started with Trimble Connect. Trimble Connect is available for free with SketchUp Pro and SketchUp Studio annual subscriptions. Get in touch with us here if you would like a quote or want to request for a trial account.

A pioneering digital transformation approach by Tokyu Construction, a leading construction company specialising in infrastructure construction for railways, roads, tunnels, and bridges. SketchUp played  a central role in helping Tokyu Construction get consensus and communicate real-time reflection of plan changes for the once-in-a-century redevelopment of Shibuya Station. Tokyu Construction's Nakahiro Ikeda , director of the Digital Technology Integration Promotion Office, Railway and Civil Engineering Department, Urban Development Branch shares how 3D visualisation helped enhance understanding of construction plans amongst various stakeholders. Project Overview : 3D design application with SketchUp in the transition of Shibuya Station for the Tokyo Metro move, led by Tokyu Corporation. Benefits: Enhances communication among construction personnel, locals, government officials, police, and road managers. Early Phase Advantage: Utilization of 3D modeling from the initial design stages to identify and eliminate defects before finalization. Process Improvement: SketchUp facilitates processing consultations and validation of design defects. Development of detailed processing plans based on the 3D model. Comprehensive Project Support: Benefits extend throughout the project lifecycle: Upstream: Early design and defect resolution. Downstream: Enables 4D simulations and virtual reality construction simulations during construction phase. To co-ordinate the relocation of the Ginza Line, there were some limitations, including: A. Limited time for construction due to daily operating hours of the trains. B. Multi-level Construction - multiple cranes were required both on the track level, road level and a third "temporary structure surface". A detailed work plan was needed to ensure crane deployment was co-ordinated. C. Real-time updates : As there were many different project teams working across different sites, and across and extended period of time, it was crucial for all participating workers (site engineers, support engineers, project operations and construction team), all have to work quickly and have clarity on the complicated work schedule and construction process and procedures. Please tell us about your company's business and the work you are involved in. Tokyu Construction is a general construction company that handles a wide range of large-scale infrastructure and civil engineering projects, including buildings, railways, dams and tunnels. I joined the company in 1997 and have been involved in railway improvement work in the Tokyo metropolitan area for over 25 years. I use SketchUp in planning and review work using 3D models. I think that the sense of accomplishment and fulfilment that comes from seeing what you have thought up and planned come to fruition is something that is unique to the construction industry. In particular, creating 3D models is a great pleasure. Things that were previously difficult to see in 2D can now be seen in real life in detail, allowing you to get a concrete image. Please tell us why you started using SketchUp and what changes have occurred since then. I introduced SketchUp to this project in 2017. The reason for selecting it was that it was easy to model and could be very easily explained to stakeholders.Typically, t he creation of models and perspective drawings has been outsourced to specialist companies, which has made it difficult to quickly reflect changes to the plan, such as the addition of new element during local information sessions and discussions with the government. By introducing SketchUp, it became possible to reflect changes to the plan in real time. I believe that this change has brought benefits not only to those involved in the construction, but also to all stakeholders, including local residents, government officials, police, and road managers. How do you use SketchUp in your work process? The key to using SketchUp is to use it from the early design planning phase. By creating a 3D model before the design plan is solidified, it is possible to eliminate any problems that may arise later. I used SketchUp to model from the early design planning phase, during construction discussions, verification of design defects, and formulation of detailed construction plans. SketchUp provides benefits not only upstream but also downstream of the project. By creating a 3D model in the early design planning phase, it is possible to perform 4D simulations at the construction stage or to perform construction simulations in VR space. Since SketchUp can be used in different ways upstream and downstream, it plays a role in seamlessly supporting the entire project. Can you share more about how using SketchUp helped you for this project? The construction for Shibuya Station on the Ginza Line, started in 2009, and the new station building was moved to a new one in January 2020. Construction on the east side was carried out while railway operations continued in the new building, and construction on the west side began in 2021. We are currently working on demolishing the buildings and erecting two new bridges. For such a large-scale project, it is difficult to get the younger staff to understand with just 2D drawings. Therefore, by using SketchUp, the younger staff can now understand the work and plans they are currently involved in. The biggest change within the company is that the younger staff can now understand the whole picture of the project "quickly" and "accurately." What role does SketchUp play in your design planning? In the railway renovation projects that I am involved in, construction is carried out while trains are in operation, so stakeholders from a variety of departments are involved, not just civil engineering and construction, but also the electrical signaling department and sales department. SketchUp's visibility and excellence as a communication, collaboration, and presentation tool make it easy to reach consensus among all team members. In addition, the use of point cloud data with SketchUp is extremely important for visualizing on-site equipment and facilities such as electric wires and utility poles that cannot be expressed in 2D drawings . It is now possible to verify on the data whether construction machinery will interfere with actual construction, or whether planned structures will interfere with existing structures. Being able to identify defects before construction is a major advantage. The more complex the construction work, the more important SketchUp becomes. SketchUp is also compatible with other tools, and I import Civil3D directly into SketchUp and use it. I also import SketchUp data into the rendering software Twinmotion when simulating it. Since I mainly use SketchUp, I naturally use software that is compatible with SketchUp in conjunction with it. What considerations should users have when using SketchUp 3D models? While 3D models are very useful, they also have disadvantages - which I call the "disadvantages of BIM/CIM." Creating a 3D model is not the goal; it is the start of the process once it is created. Don't rely too much on 3D models, and don't deepen the visualized plans ; otherwise, there is no point. As an example of a lesson learned, I would like to introduce a part of the construction work at Shibuya Station on the Ginza Line mentioned above. At one site, the people in charge were divided into different work sections, and I shared the 3D model I created with all the sections. At that time, in one work section, arguments arose such as "We should place the crane here" or "We should rotate it this way," while in another work section, it was decided that "This will be easy." As a result, the former work went very smoothly, while the latter work did not proceed as planned. The merit of a 3D model is not just that it is easy to understand. It brings to light things that would not be noticed if a 2D model were simply converted into a 3D model. I believe that this is where the benefit lies. What are your company's future plans for using SketchUp? In the past, when we only had 2D drawings, it was difficult to grasp the spatial form of the finished product. Although designers and planners could imagine it to a certain extent, there were discrepancies between them and third parties. In addition, the accuracy of consensus building varied depending on the technical level of the parties involved. Now, by using SketchUp's 3D models, such discrepancies have disappeared, and the accuracy of consensus building can be maintained at a consistent level regardless of the technical level of the parties involved. The construction industry has been suffering from a chronic shortage of a young engineers and work hours are now reduced due to government labour reforms. This also means that the time available for engineers to learn skills on the job is limited. In this situation, our biggest challenge is how to pass on skills. Realistically, I do not think we can stick to traditional methods of training our younger workforce who need to understand the process of our construction workflow.. That's why I'm working on using SketchUp. However, it's meaningless to simply acquire the skills to create 3D models. This is because you can't draw the construction steps if you don't know the construction technology itself. Even if you can draw the finished product, you can't give advice to the construction staff if you can't draw the intermediate phases. Nowadays, video tools such as YouTube have become commonplace. By using these tools in conjunction with SketchUp, a new form of training is possible. Specifically, a 3D model is created in SketchUp and a video is recorded of how each phase is handled, and the trainee learns construction techniques through hands-on experience while watching the video. I think this method is very effective for young trainees. Of course, modeling skills are necessary, but there is no point in honing them alone. Unless you acquire the actual construction skills, you will not be able to use excellent tools like SketchUp. The first step is to help young people hone their skills. This will be the first step in supporting the future succession of construction skills. 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Up your design game with SketchUp Extensions Practice your 3D modelling with a 3D Jack-O-Lantern Modeling a pumpkin and carving out a face is a great way to learn multiple workflows one after another in SketchUp! 10 steps to creating your very own 3D mask Step 1 : Create a scan of your face you can model off from. Use Structure Scanner to scan your face and then import it into SketchUp! Importing the STL file only takes a few seconds. Group the geometry and run Soften/Smooth to improve the aesthetics. Step 2: Create a rough outline of the mask on your face. To do this, align your parallel perspective camera straight-on to your face and place a reference plane (just a plain old rectangle) in front of the camera. Since I wanted to see through the rectangle, I filled it with a 50% transparent white Step 3: Draw a basic outline of the mask shape you want to create You can use  SubD  to smooth out the final mask lines. Step 4 : Ensure that the outline is made of  quads  (this means the model faces are made of four-sided shapes). You can also use component mirroring  to model and maintain symmetry for your mask. Step 5 : Use Push/Pull to extend the shape of the mask through the face scan. Since the model of the mask would eventually be intersected with the scan geometry, it is important that the mask geometry pass all the way through the head. Fortunately, pushing objects through a human skull is far easier in SketchUp than it is in the real world.! Step 6 :Start sculpting with  Vertex Tools  to shape the front face of your mask. You can also use SketchUp's native Move tool, but Vertex Tools assured that the quads were maintained. This is probably the most time-consuming step, but also the most important, as it establishes the character of the mask. Can you guess which character's mask this is? Step 7: Improve your mask geometry using  SubD . This was actually a back-and-forth process combining Vertex Tools, SubD, and the Crease Tools (in the SubD toolset). As the geometry comes together, some surfaces run back, through the face scan. T Step 8: Intersect the geometry of the mask with the geometry of the face scan. Use  Intersect with Model . After that, all of the extra geometry was deleted. Step 9: Use  Solid Inspector2  to make sure that the mask is printable. There may be some gaps in the model that had to be patched before it was a printable solid, and ultimately a 3D-print-ready STL file. Step 10: To make it "real," open the STL file in FormLabs's  PreForm  software. PreForm from FormLabs helps you orient and prepare your model for stereolithography printing. Time for printing the mask in 3D! Use Form2  to make this digital dream a reality! The precision of an  SLA printer ensures a very presentable 3D mask. T he resin used in the Form2 is sandable and paintable! If you are keen to get a trial account of SketchUp, ping us here ! Users will appreciate SketchUp's Extension Warehouse, which is an online resource full of plug-ins developed especially for SketchUp. Check it out here Find extensions for a specific application (such as drawing or 3D printing) and industry-specific tools (such as extensions for architecture, interior design, construction, and more). In the Extension Warehouse, you can Search for extensions by name or the functionality you need. Install extensions with the click of a button. Manage all your extensions from one easy-to-use location, the My Extensions page.

In today’s competitive retail landscape, the design and layout of a store can greatly influence both customer experience and sales performance. Retailers are always searching for innovative ways to streamline store layouts, improve the flow of shoppers, and enhance the overall experience to drive revenue. SketchUp, a powerful 3D modeling tool, offers retail designers the ability to craft, visualize, and fine-tune their layouts with precision and creativity. Plan your store layout and consider: Customer Flow : A well-thought-out layout naturally guides shoppers through the store, encouraging them to discover more products and increasing the potential for purchases. Product Placement : Smart positioning of products enhances visibility, making it easier for customers to find what they need while promoting spontaneous buying of featured or complementary items. Aesthetic Appeal : A beautifully designed store creates an inviting atmosphere that draws customers in and makes their shopping experience more enjoyable. Efficiency : A streamlined layout maximizes space, helping the store operate smoothly and maintain a clutter-free, organized environment. SketchUp: A Powerful Tool for Retail Design SketchUp stands out as an essential platform for creating and visualizing retail store layouts with ease and precision: Ease of Use : SketchUp’s intuitive interface empowers designers to swiftly build and modify 3D models, even without extensive technical training. Precision : With its robust tools, designers can craft highly accurate models, ensuring every element fits seamlessly into the intended space. Visualization : The software enables the creation of detailed 3D visualizations, offering clients a realistic preview of the store's layout and design. Collaboration : SketchUp enhances teamwork, allowing designers, stakeholders, and clients to share, review, and refine models easily, fostering efficient collaboration. Designing Store Layouts with SketchUp Getting Started: When crafting a retail store layout in SketchUp, the starting point is establishing the essential framework—the "shell" of the space. This encompasses the store's walls, floors, ceilings, and any permanent architectural elements. Here’s a step-by-step guide: Importing Floor Plans: To ensure accuracy and streamline the process, begin by importing existing floor plans into SketchUp. These provide a reliable reference for dimensions and layout. Drawing Walls and Floors: With SketchUp’s versatile drawing tools, you can quickly outline walls, floors, and ceilings. The push/pull tool is ideal for extruding walls to the precise height needed, offering speed and precision. Incorporating Doors and Windows: Add doors and windows using SketchUp’s extensive component library, or design custom components to fit the store’s unique specifications, ensuring the layout reflects the intended style and function. Placing Fixtures in Your Store Layout After establishing the store’s structural foundation, the next step is integrating fixtures—such as shelves, racks, and display tables—crucial for showcasing products and guiding customer movement. Effective fixture placement enhances both visibility and flow, creating an engaging shopping experience. Here's how to approach it in SketchUp: Leveraging Pre-Made Components : SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse is a treasure trove of ready-made retail fixtures. You can easily search for and import these components directly into your design, saving time and ensuring accuracy. Designing Custom Fixtures : If you require unique fixtures that align with your store's brand and aesthetic, SketchUp allows you to create custom components. This flexibility ensures that the layout is tailored to your specific vision. Optimizing Placement : Use SketchUp's move, rotate, and scale tools to position and arrange fixtures strategically. Factor in height, width, and customer accessibility to craft a layout that maximizes both product exposure and customer convenience. Visualising Customer Flow in Store Layouts with SketchUp Designing an effective customer flow ensures a seamless shopping experience, encouraging exploration and increasing sales by guiding customers through the store in an intuitive way. With SketchUp, you can strategically design and visualize this flow. Here’s how: Pathways and Aisles : SketchUp allows you to craft clear, navigable pathways and aisles that lead customers through the store. Ensure aisles are wide enough for comfort, and guide traffic toward key areas like high-demand sections or the checkout. Zoning : Organize the store into specific zones based on product categories or themes. Use SketchUp to visualize these zones, ensuring they are arranged logically to promote ease of navigation and encourage customer engagement across different sections. Focal Points : Incorporate prominent focal points, such as feature displays or promotional areas, to draw customer attention. In SketchUp, you can enhance these focal points by simulating lighting and signage, ensuring they stand out and attract traffic to critical areas within the store. Enhancing Store Visualization One of SketchUp’s most powerful features for retail design is its ability to create detailed and realistic visualizations. These visual aids help stakeholders better understand the design, facilitating informed decisions and a smoother design process. Here's how you can enhance store visualization in SketchUp: Adding Details and Textures Textures and Materials : Apply textures and materials to surfaces using SketchUp’s paint bucket tool. This includes floor finishes, wall colors, and fixture materials. Use high-quality textures for a realistic look. Lighting : Add lighting elements to your model to simulate natural and artificial light. This helps in visualizing how the store will look under different lighting conditions. Signage and Branding : Incorporate signage and branding elements, such as logos, banners, and posters, into your model. This adds a layer of realism and helps in visualizing the store’s branding. Creating Walkthroughs and Renderings Walkthroughs : SketchUp allows you to create walkthrough animations that simulate a customer’s journey through the store. This provides a dynamic view of the layout and helps in identifying potential issues with customer flow. Renderings : Use rendering extensions like V-Ray or Enscape to create photorealistic images of your store design. Renderings highlight the details and aesthetics of the design, making it easier to communicate with stakeholders. Collaborating and Iterating Designing retail spaces is typically a collaborative effort involving input from designers, architects, and store managers. SketchUp makes this process smoother by providing a range of features that enhance collaboration and iteration: Model Sharing : With SketchUp, you can easily share models via cloud storage or the 3D Warehouse. This ensures that team members and clients can access and review the design from anywhere, streamlining the collaboration process. Feedback and Revisions : Gather input from stakeholders and implement revisions effortlessly. SketchUp’s flexible tools make it simple to adjust designs, ensuring that feedback is incorporated quickly, and the design evolves efficiently. Presentation : SketchUp’s presentation features allow you to craft visually compelling presentations. By creating scenes, animations, and exporting high-quality images, you can effectively showcase your retail layout and bring the design to life for stakeholders. 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"The flexibility of SketchUp allows the entire team, including clients, specialists, and contractors to keep up." Jason Li, Head of M Moser DIST (Design Integration, Simulation and Technology) Global Group and Charles Corley, M Moser's Director of Organisational Development shared about how virtual design and construction complements an integrated project design and delivery approach. Over the past fifteen years, M Moser Associates , a global AEC firm with an extensive track record in workplace design and construction, has used SketchUp not only for design and conceptualization but as a vital communication tool throughout the project delivery process. What does the term "VDC" mean to M Moser? Charles:  It’s Virtual Design and Construction and by that we mean an entirely constructible 3D modeling workflow that empowers any stakeholder to understand and participate in a project. We can create a working virtual environment that makes everything clear to all project participants regardless of training or experience. Rather than relying on a highly coded or flat and disassembled, abstract set of documents, a visual reference is universal. A desk looks like a desk; a wall looks like a wall. You don't need an expert interpreter of construction documents in order to understand fully and collaborate. M Moser prefers to own as much of the responsibility on a project as possible. The best case scenario is we’re the designer, engineer, purchaser, and contractor. The deliverable, if you will, is the completed project. Throughout all of our offices worldwide, we use virtual design and construction out of a need to have everybody understand each other. We have an array of cultures, understandings, and backgrounds in construction. We want people to engage meaningfully and get the best out of each other’s contribution and expertise by constructing a project in SketchUp well before reaching the site. VDC is a communication tool that gets everybody on the path to the right result. What types of projects do you focus on as a business? Charles:  We design and build workplaces. Not only corporate offices but corporate campuses, laboratories, private hospitals, private education facilities, and workplaces of all types. You name it, we've done it. Using a nimble tool like SketchUp is also extremely important as these types of projects can be ever-changing. With more traditional building projects you have to nail down things well before construction for many reasons such as permitting, structural calculations, and ordering materials. But workplaces, even extremely large ones, can remain fluid in design. Even the size of the premises could change considerably. Departments can move around. Mergers and acquisitions could change the whole landscape of the office. Is there anything unique about the way you operate? Charles:  In some ways, we’re sort of the enfant terrible. We're radical about change and are constantly evolving the way we think about construction information. Where many firms are steeped in more traditional documentation, we're trying to make any record of construction information a by-product of the real collaboration and 3D work. We don't want to send out stacks of documents to people who have never seen it before and say, "Go read this and get back to us with a price." We'd rather have them involved from the very beginning. This means, all the trades, contractors, suppliers, and the client works together in 3D, from concept to completion. We're trying to shake the tree were a lot of people don't want to change. Jason and I have a lot of war stories about how people are incredibly stubborn to change and don’t wish to consider alternatives. We've broken down a lot of assumptions like, “You can't use SketchUp for official documents to send to the government,” or “It’s not accurate enough,” or “We can’t collaborate with consultants using other programs.” These arguments have melted and fallen by the wayside. Jason:  M Moser could be considered quite unique in the industry because our focus is not just on the design. We have to consider the contractors and the building. For many companies, their role ends when they hand over the designs and completed documents, whereas we handover a complete result. And even beyond that, our role sometimes continues into operation and maintenance. Your designers are charged with producing constructible models. Can they do this on the first pass? Charles: Not every designer has the experience to really understand construction. They tend to draw the design intent, then they have to work with others to discover what’s possible. As an example, just recently we had a team discussing an intricate reception counter. The contractor in the room pointed out: "If the table were four inches shorter, we could use off-the-shelf components and wouldn’t have to manufacture any custom pieces." The designer made the change right then, rationalizing that it wouldn’t really impact the overall look but offered a significant reduction in cost and lead-time. Thousands of collaborative discussions like this occur constantly, many of which wouldn’t be possible in 2D. Jason:   We collaborate on a daily basis; it's not really like a factory where I do my job and pass to someone else, or “Here's a stack of drawings, you go and do it." Projects are realized through discussion and brainstorming. People have different backgrounds and this way we can truly avoid misinterpretations of what the designer intended. As an example, just recently we had a team discussing an intricate reception counter. The contractor in the room pointed out: "If the table were four inches shorter, we could use off-the-shelf components and wouldn’t have to manufacture any custom pieces." The designer made the change right then, rationalizing that it wouldn’t really impact the overall look but offered a significant reduction in cost and lead-time. Thousands of collaborative discussions like this occur constantly, many of which wouldn’t be possible in 2D. We collaborate on a daily basis; it's not really like a factory where I do my job and pass to someone else, or “Here's a stack of drawings, you go and do it." Projects are realized through discussion and brainstorming. People have different backgrounds and this way we can truly avoid misinterpretations of what the designer intended. People will always have differing opinions, so does it always go to plan? Charles:  What you would see in our meetings would be a group of people from very different professions, looking at a model being rotated on a large screen. The person leading the meeting is not coming up with all the answers, they’re the "chief question-asker."  The team answers the issues together, marking the live model and taking screen captures. They talk about what needs to change and sometimes even make these changes on-the-fly. It's very much a team activity. The notion of success mostly comes from the client but often there are multiple opinions. One might say, "I want to make sure I have the correct amount of meeting rooms;" another person says, "I want to make sure we finish on time;" another, "I want to make sure my boss coming from overseas is happy," and so on. Those objectives blend together and form the definition of a successful project. Jason:   We're using VDC as a methodology to ensure designers, engineers, professionals, specialists, and the client can communicate on an equal platform. Our goal is that everybody understands the project objectives to achieve results. Virtual construction sequencing can save months onsite Building constructible 3D models look to be a time-consuming exercise. Is it more efficient than it seems? Charles:  Many would say that you can do something in AutoCAD faster or easier than you can in SketchUp. We have found that is not the case if you use it intelligently. There is often a false understanding of time efficiency. Hand a project to a couple of draftsmen and they may spend hundreds of hours doing the drawings, not taking the time to understand construction. A senior stakeholder would then have to go through each page of the drawings to check them, applying the required 20 years of experience to effectively decipher them. Then there are the perspectives. Visualizers can spend an inordinate amount of time setting up beautiful—but only a limited number of—renders. All those hours really add up. Jason:   VDC forces the people who are doing the drawings to think about what they're building, they can't just draw lines. With our methodology, the modeler creates everything in SketchUp. Then they split the model into different viewports in LayOut to see right away if something's not working. "The key difference is, any changes are immediately echoed through the entire set. Everybody's job is faster and easier." What perspectives can your clients expect to see in the early design stages? Jason:  We do aim to deliver spectacular visuals to help convey our idea. At one time, we had a team of visualization specialists dedicated to rendering, but it became a bottleneck because time had to be booked with the few 3D visualizers trained in that software. We now have established ways to do as much as we can in SketchUp, which is the fastest way. There isn’t a steep learning curve. Everybody can have it and everybody can use it to develop gorgeous renderings with extensions. We don't need so many specialists. In Shanghai and Singapore, we use renderers such as Enscape. In India, we lean more toward CPU-based renderers, including SU Podium. Charles:   We also had a problem with third-party drawn perspectives. A designer would freestyle to make something look better. In this process, they might have a detailed understanding of what the interior would look like, but would often leave out the air vents, access panels, joint lines, and sprinklers because they thought they were ugly. Even worse, they would enlarge or shrink objects to give a false impression of what one would experience. By transitioning to the VDC methodology, we ensure that perspectives remain true to life. We can also deliver beautiful renders instantly, so you can quickly look at things from a different point of view. There's a nimbleness that is lost when creating perspectives with other workflows where the same limited views are updated over and over again. Does your methodology transverse regions? Charles:  We developed our approach because we work with contractors trained in very different ways and to some extent that continues today. However, we think that the constructability aspect of VDC is applicable anywhere. There's a great deal of value in being able to do virtual mock-ups and say, "Are you sure this is what you want? Because look here, this could be improved." "Constructible models eliminate wasted resource and materials and allow for an unprecedented attention to detail before reaching the site." If you think of everything in a project as separate systems that must come together, there’s a huge amount of coordination required in what was traditionally called the design development stage. We now choose to call this integrated development because we are essentially combining the power, lighting, partition, and furniture systems. The integrated development stage is where much of the change occurs and decisions are made. Documentation for the record is memorializing what we had agreed during all this collaborative effort. Documents may be still necessary for now but they record what was already worked out and understood by all and don’t serve to gain that agreement. That was done through a highly constructible model—a virtual construction. About M Moser Associates M Moser Associates has specialized in the design and delivery of workplace environments since 1981, with clients from the corporate, private healthcare, and education sectors. With over 900 staff in 16 offices on three continents, the company provides a holistic approach to physical and digital workplace environments of all scales. Inspired to tackle your next great project with a smooth, effective workflow? You can have every SketchUp tool at your fingertips with a  free trial . Get started today to reimagine tomorrow!

Have you heard of escapes rooms before? Well, Nashville-based The Escape Game uses SketchUp to help design all of their escape rooms . Players range from all ages, and there are options to pick different themed escape rooms. Themes range from exciting and action-packed to silly and light-hearted. Popular themes include bank heists, prison breaks, and pirates. Here's a Q&A with the team in Nashville where they shared how they use SketchUp throughout their creative process. Using SketchUp to build out the entire New Orleans location for The Escape Game. Tell us a little bit about The Escape Game and how it started.  One of our founders, Mark Flint, played in an escape room while in Europe. To say it was a big “aha” moment would be an understatement. After returning to Tennessee, Mark teamed up with Jonny and James Murrell to create The Escape Game. Soon after launch, The Escape Game became the number one thing to do on TripAdvisor Nashville and our “I Escaped” stickers were spotted all over town. From there, it’s been an exciting time of growth —  new team members, new games, new locations, and new product offerings. Everyone works together to design and deliver epic interactive experiences for every single guest that encounters our brand. Our mission and values are our compass and unite the team across the country.  This might be pretty obvious, but what’s the idea behind escape rooms —  and why do people love them so much? I think people love escape rooms because for a period of time, phones are down and they are really connecting with friends and family. People love how interactive it is, how challenging it is, and how fun it gets when you put a group of people in a room and give them only an hour to complete a mission. There are always a few laugh-out-loud moments. Also, the idea of taking part in an adventure is really, really exciting. Where else can you escape prison, repair a spaceship on Mars, or take part in a heist? Who hasn’t wanted to be a part of a heist!? We offer people a way to live these adventures rather than just watch them on a screen! What is SketchUp used for, and how did the team get started using it? We started using SketchUp when our games became more complex. We had different departments that needed to communicate and understand the full design idea to complete their work.  Now, we use SketchUp to help us build out our warehouses, storefronts, escape rooms, and the parts and pieces that make up the escape rooms. We don’t just use it to help determine the flow of an escape room - we use it for everything, even building the final room. Using SketchUp to build out the parts and pieces including the busts highlighted here in The Heist escape room. What’s the creative process for The Escape Game?  It’s a very collaborative process and it takes a lot of talented people to bring one of our adventures to life. That being said, it always starts with the guest. We aren’t making what we think is cool, we are making what our guests tell us they want. Over 2 million people have played our games and we have watched each one of them intently to learn more about what really excites them. When picking themes, we run surveys and talk to guests before starting down any path. Once we have a theme, the game team begins working on the flow of the game, while the brand team begins working on the story and thematic elements. Once the story is ready, our designers begin designing the space and our creative shop begins R&D and building the game elements. It’s a process that involves a lot of testing and demo games. We keep working until we feel like we have it just right with the difficulty level, flow, and amount of content for the player count. During demos, we hang on to every word our testers say during and after the game. We are guest-obsessed and we want it to be perfect. What does a normal workflow in SketchUp look like for the team?  We start with inspirational images of what we want the room to feel like. We begin to use Sketchup to conceptually design our rooms from the scenic elements to the individual interactive game components. From there, we are able to show these pictures to our scenic team who will design all of the components in the room directly via SketchUp.  Before we spend a dime on materials, we want to see what it’s going to look like so we try to make it look as lifelike as possible. We use Lumion for rendering and virtual reality headsets to experience the design. Once we have all signed off, we take these designs from the production designers and send them to the shop to produce in the warehouse.  How does SketchUp benefit the design process for Escape Game? SketchUp helps us visualize and test new ideas in 3D before we build these rooms or storefronts. It saves us time and costly rework designing it upfront.  It also allows us to clearly communicate the design to different teams to ensure we are on the same page, reducing errors and miscalculations. Fabrication sounds like a big part of the overall design process for these escape rooms. How does SketchUp help with this? We build almost everything in the house  — from windows to walls to specialized pieces. Before we purchase the materials to build anything, we design it all in SketchUp to make sure everything will fit and look the way it’s supposed to. Our typical fabrication workflow is: Design it in SketchUp Purchase the materials Manufacture the components Decorate and paint the components Send it to R&D for testing Send it to the technology group for any technical requirements Lastly, ship it to The Escape Game location to use All pieces are built in multiple steps so they can withstand wear and tear from guests. Once they are all built to a standard, they are sent off to the store. Building out the escape rooms, one SketchUp file at a time. How does The Escape Game differentiate itself from other escape rooms in the industry? Unlike other escape rooms, we build most everything in-house. From the initial design concepts to the actual fabrication of parts and pieces in the room, we do it all.  We are very mindful during our design process and take into account how the guests will interact with the space. We want it special for everyone. SketchUp helps us capture what the feel of the space will be before it’s built. We want to be at the cutting edge of experiential design.  Also, our obsession with guest experiences is unique at our price point. Above all else, we serve our guests well The Escape Game not only has on-site locations but also an online escape room. Could you tell us a little bit about the online room?  We’ve put a lot of energy into online and at-home experiences. We want people to be able to experience our escape rooms in the comfort of their own homes. These digital and online offerings include a virtual game room experience, a live escape room that you can play with friends, a board game, and educational games for students. This is a completely new direction for us and we are really excited about these new products. For more information about The Escape Game, check out these important links: Official Website Digital and at-home games Online escape room-style mystery game Keen to try out SketchUp? Sign up for a free trial with us here .

Learn the SketchUp fundamentals from  this self-guided course . Reminder: it’s free and subtitled in more than 100 languages! More experienced at SketchUp? Dive into the  Skill Builder video playlists  and polish up your skills. Discover our Podcast,  SketchUp Talk!  A great companion to listen to while you’re orbiting away on the axis. Still tight on time? In under 60 seconds, watch SketchUp  Quick Wins  for some quick tips to help you out when you're modelling in SkectUp Curious about how other professionals are using SketchUp?  Learn from the best and brightest in our customer case studies . If you have not started using SketchUp 2024, you're missing out. Find out what's new and let us know if you would like to sign up for a trial version.

Our partner ACA Pacific conducted a workshop on 17 August 2023. Topics covered included : SketchUp Ecosystem Updates. New Features for 3D Warehouse Some key takeaways: SketchUp is an ecosystem of tools to create 3D designs Users love creating 3D models on SketchUp for VIsual Design (3D Design) - it's how we are experience the world The millions of assets in SketchUp Warehouse means users do not need to create designs from scratch. AR/VR/ Mixed Reality can help bring your designs to live With SketchUp for iPad - you can take your file and look at it in AR. Reach out to us if you are keen to have a free complementary training when you purchase Sketchup Pro or Sketchup Studio from us. This training would be free of charge and will be conducted online as a webinar.

Welcome to LayOut: where you'll be turning your SketchUp models into anything but ordinary documents and presentations. To get started, insert a 3D model into LayOut. A window into your model—a viewport—is placed on the page. LayOut is part of SketchUp Pro, designed to make printing, presenting and documenting your SketchUp models fast and easy. More learning, here: http://www.sketchup.com/LearnLayOut

As the only e-commerce distributor for SketchUp in Singapore, we are thrilled to share how anyone with an idea can transform their thoughts into a visual story. Whether you're a product designer or marketer, or just keen to learn more about how you can turn SketchUp models into diagrams, drawings, presentations, or even just scaled prints, reach out to our staff here at LM Technologies so we can assist you with technical support.