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Kitchen Design Plugin for Sketchup, Sketchup training.

2011 Year End Review

It's been a spectacular year for this blog.  What started out as a humble blog for Sketchup related tips has expanded into a globally read resource read by thousands every month.

Not only is this post a review of some of the high points this year, for all of the new readers it will be a great way to get up to speed on what goes on here.  Consider it a "Cliff notes" or a "Best of album" for 2011. Let's jump right in!

First and foremost, there is a lot of Sketchup content from this year.

There was a lot of coverage on mobile apps this year too:

And lastly, everything else!
And most importantly, I want to thank everyone for reading this year!

Maide: MultiTouch for Sketchup via iPad

So just the other day I stumbled across this app for the iPad:  Maide Control for Sketchup.  Basically, what this does is turn your iPad into a giant multi touch controller for Sketchup.  I have been playing around with it for a few days and so far it's pretty handy.  I have yet to really use it on a hardcore modeling project, I have just been toying around with it.

The app is very well done, and setup is really easy.  As you may know, I am a big fan of the 3D Connexion Space Explorer.  However, as great as the Space Explorer is, it's not exactly portable.  Maide allows you to make a great accessory for Sketchup out of something that you're probably already carrying around.  Check out this video to see what it's all about.  Maide works on both Mac and PC.  If you end up trying it out for yourself, let us know how it goes in the comments.

Rev A Shelf app for iOS

In the past week, Rev A Shelf has released an app for iOS.  This handy app has the entire Rev A Shelf catalog in it.  It's fast and easy to use.  With a few taps you can have any of their products displayed right on the screen in high resolution color.  I noticed to that their popular items have a lot more pictures then the paper catalog, great for giving a customer details right out on the show floor.

What's even better is that all of the relevant specs are just a swipe away for every product.
Head on over to the Apple App store and get this app!  It's better then the Rev A Shelf catalog, and it fits in your pocket.  All for the low low price of free!
Also, and Android version is said to be on the way very soon.

I'm Eric, and I used to be addicted...

...to USB flash drives.

That's right.  What you are seeing here is just the tip of the iceberg.  I had lots of these drives in circulation.  I have several different computers that I work on, all in different places.  I was constantly transferring pictures, documents, and files between all of them.  On my best days I could keep track of what was where.  When the caffeine wore off, all bets were off.

I tend to stay ahead of the curve and keep up with the latest technology.  I tried all kinds of ways to keep my files in sync.  I used to email files to myself, remote desktop into my "base" PC, I even have used cloud file strorage service like DropBox.  As brilliant as DropBox is, in the back of my mind I always wanted something that could do more.

I wanted something that I could clip websites to, write down notes, record sound, and take pictures with my smartphone.  I wanted all of this on one place, accessible anywhere.  I wanted to be able to search those notes, by text, location, and keywords.  I wanted to be able to access these notes from anything that was connected to the internet.  I wanted to be able to share those notes with anyone easily.  Well, for a long time I didn't think such a service existed until I discovered Evernote.

Evernote is the most brilliant app I have discovered this year.  It has changed the way that I work.  Evernote at it's heart is a cloud based storage service.  You can create typed notes, store documents, pictures, files, and even recorded audio to the cloud.  What can you use to create these notes?  Damn near anything.  They support all kinds of mobile devices (even Blackberry!), Mac's, PC's, even the web browser.  Let me walk you through a typical day with Evernote:

I start out my day reading the news.  Since a lot of my blog posts I write are about things in the news, I can with just a click or two, clip new articles into my Evernote.  I have a special notebook just for these articles.

Later on, I may head to a jobsite and measure out a space with my iPad.  There, I take the measurements with a drawing app, and I take pictures of the space.  When I get back to the office I send all the pictures and notes to Evernote to a notebook labeled for that job.  As I start designing the space with Sketchup, I export all the pictures to Evernote in that same job notebook.  Later, I clip all the websites for appliances into the same notebook.  I can even walk around the showroom taking pictures of hardware with my smartphone to add to the notebook. Now I've got all of my notes for a job in Evernote, accessible instantly from any device I choose, anywhere on the planet.  Say I end up talking to the client on the phone and I am away from my computer, I can just open the Evernote app and look up all the information for the job.

Evernote has one more ace up it's sleeve: it can recognize text from pictures.  Think about this, you can snap a picture of a business card and put it in Evernote.  Evernote can read the text in the picture and make it searchable.  I was over the moon when I discovered this.  I started using it for business cards, but now I use it for spec books and all kinds of other text.

Boarding passes end up in there, parking tickets, handwritten notes, you name it!  I could go on and on...

Here's what I suggest, go to Evernote.com and get this app.  It's free unless you are a total upload glutton like me, and then it's $5 per month, or $45 per year for an astronomical amount of storage space. This app has literally changed the way I work. (Nope, they didn't pay me a dime to say that either)

Rerun: WebPad for iPad

If you're reading this on Monday morning, I am on my way to Chicago for the Kitchen & Bath Design News "Leaders Conference" where I will be presenting "Profiting in the new Digital Age".


Keep an eye on the Twitter for live updates, for now, here's an older post that is still very relevant.

So to add even more awesomeness to the iPad, I have discovered a new app called WebPad.  WebPad lets you draw on your iPad, live on someone else's computer screen.  Ok, I realize that doesn't sound that exciting, so let me give you a real life scenario for this:

A customer called me a while back, I had been working on a design for them.  There was a particular detail that I was describing to them.  I had a picture in my head, and I was attempting to put it into words.  Like a lot of customers, they aren't telepathic, so they didn't understand what I was talking about.   If I was talking about this face to face, I would have fired up Adobe Ideas and draw out the sketch for them.  In this case, I didn't have that choice.

Enter WebPad:  With WebPad, I can fire it up, instantly email my customer a link.  Once they click on the link, they see my iPad screen live on their screen!  As I draw, it shows up on their screen.  AMAZING!  Virtual paper.  Watch my demo live below!