We were rather excited to complete this recent project for Monimos in Victoria, BC, a developer with a “mission to foster strong community relationships in order to provide future sustainable growth and development”.
This 3D rendering of a building project in Sooke was completed expediently, thanks to Google SketchUp and a 3Dconnexion Space Navigator controller… and several years of experience as an architectural draftsperson. It’s amazing how efficient and flexible modern architectural visualization tools have become. Since working with the original upFRONT software, which surely must be a direct ancestor of SketchUp, work has become fluid, immediate and direct. No more waiting to see a shaded rendered version, or carefully and slowly switching views.
It will be fascinating to see these same technologies applied to upcoming design projects. Do you have experience using SketchUp and the Space Navigator for design? Then please leave a comment!
The SpaceNavigator may be the coolest piece of computer hardware I own. Available from 3Dconnexion, a Logitech company, it’s a 3D mouse that allows 6 degrees of freedom, for fast, fluid movement in applications like Google Earth and SketchUp.
The Soundolier® duo | Wireless Speaker Lamp is an interesting convergence of lighting and sound. I’m not sure of the value of wireless speakers in a device that must be wired for power anyway, but if you must have rear speakers for your surround sound system, this may be a nice way to camouflage them.
Once you take the time to get to know the R2 Mark II Gaming Mouse it’s a great piece of hardware. It’s smooth, fast, precise and versatile, but it does take some time to actually read the manual, and maybe even create a custom hardware profile. Otherwise, the small size and circular design can throw you off, as it has the feel of the old and quite unsuccessful Apple “hockey puck” mouse. There was an announcement, or maybe just a rumour, that a Mac version of the programming and application-awareness software would be available soon, but it’s been a while and I haven’t been seeing more on that, so don’t hold your breath. In the mean time, I’ve been meaning to update my Parallels and Windows XP and try programming it there. More here, if I get around to it.