Blue Marble Project

Over the last year, we’ve had the good fortune to be members of the Google SketchUp 7 alpha testing group. Today, Google announced the public release of Google SketchUp Version 7, and with it, a highly anticipated functionality known as Dynamic Components. We’d like to share some thoughts and ideas behind why we think Dynamic Components are a big deal, especially for product manufacturers. 

Dynamic Components allow you to create configurable SketchUp components. For example, say your company has a product catalog of doors. Those doors are probably available in a variety of sizes, materials, and styles. Well, in SketchUp 7, Dynamic Components allow you to program a single SketchUp door with hundreds or even thousands of options so that a SketchUp user can configure that door’s shape, size and material using a few drop-down menus within SketchUp. To paraphrase: Companies like Marvin can now create one SketchUp model of a particular door type that represents hundreds of variations of the door. 

This is a really big deal. Previously, companies had to create, upload and manage thousands of models that each represented an individual, configured option. If they hired us for the task, that meant that we had to spend quite a bit of time and money to convert entire catalogs into 3D. Now, however, we can convert entire catalogs nearly 10x faster resulting in faster turn around times and much lower costs.

As we mentioned earlier, these Dynamic Components are brand new. To learn more about their functionality, check out the videos below as well as the info page on the Google SketchUp website.

If you are interested in a live demo, we’d be glad to show you how Dynamic Components can be used by your company to drive sales and leads for your products. Contact us anytime to set up a meeting.

Our newest addition to the Google 3D Warehouse includes dozens of SketchUp files that contain over 250 textures from the Oceanside Glass Tile Product Line. The Collection also includes textures from OGT’s Mandala product line. We are proud to have played a part in promoting this beautiful, environmentally friendly product line. These high resolution, seamless textures are among the highest quality textures that have ever been made available for SketchUp. For more information about how you can get your hands on the real thing, visit the OGT Website.

We’ve recently created and posted nearly 50 SketchUp models (and counting) for CertainTeed Restoration Millwork. The CertainTeed collections include trimboards, beadboard, full size sheets, a full line of specialty profiles and an array of accessories. CertainTeed came to us looking for 3D Assets to supplement the PDF version of their product catalog. Each of the models that are uploaded to the warehouse link directly to the online catalog, providing easy access to designers and customers looking to specify CertainTeed products.

President of BMP, Mike Tadros, was interviewed for an article about SketchUp for GigaOM. The Article talks about a bunch of great tools and plugins for Google SketchUp that allow designers to make environmentally responsible decisions more fluidly during the early stages of design. The article cites the work that Blue Marble Project has done, creating 3D models of green building products for Google’s 3D Warehouse, as playing a crucial role in the decision making process for designers who are focused on designing greener buildings.

Click Here to read the full article.

By combining Blue Marble Project’s unique expertise in developing 3D models of real world products together with SceneCaster’s simple drag-and-drop interface and new Immersiv 3D Viewer, product manufacturers, brand advertisers and retailers can now offer their customers the unique opportunity to visualize, share, and purchase their products in SceneCaster’s 3D immersive scenes or “virtual showrooms”.  This partnership provides companies with an easy and affordable way to create and promote their 3D content on both their own Web sites and on SceneCaster.com.

Download Full Press Release.

We recently teamed up with the folks at Google.org and Geodynamics (an Australian geothermal energy company), to create a series of informational 3D models and animations that illustrate the process of driling and harvesting for geothermal energy.

You can view the animation and download the models from Google.org’s website. The Models are also available for download from Google’s 3D Warehouse.

For the full run-down on the project, check out this post on our Igloo Studios Inc. Blog.

Sustainable Industries has released their annual supplemental issue - 2008 Top 10 Green Products. Blue Marble Project is proud to have played a role in the creation of this year’s issue by supplying Sustainable Industries with the 3D computer models that were embedded in the downloadable PDF version of the issue. The 3D SketchUp models can also be downloaded from the Google 3D Warehouse.

Google invited Mike Tadros and Alex Oliver to deliver a presentation at the 2008 Google SketchUp 3D Basecamp. The topic was titled ‘Promoting Your Work Using Google Resources.’ The presentation included information about the Google 3D Warehouse, Google SketchUp, and Google Earth. For more detailed information about the presentation that was given, as well as a link to the presentation Slide Deck, check out the posts that we put together for the Igloo Studios, Inc. Blog.