From Google Sketchup Pro 8 To Second Life

Update 2010-08-20
Immersive World Engineer & Information Consulting on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=152449234772193
Rosedale promises meshes; Teen Grid to close – Hypergrid Business
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2010/08/rosedale-promises-meshes-teen-grid-to-close/
Mesh support would allow architects to import 3D models of houses from their professional architectural design programs, would allow manufacturers to import parts from their CAD-CAM systems, allow companies to hire professional designers to produce realistic environments, and let end users import 3D objects from outside sources — such as Google’s 3D Warehouse.

Worldwide Engineering Network

http://www.wen.eu.com/

(wenCAD LITE 2010 browser-based for only € 298.00, AutoCAD 2010 compatible)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CAx_companies#Open_source_CAD_software_projects

What is Jibe? Virtual World Kit for 3D

http://3d-immersive-learning-quality.grouply.com/message/78

Update 2009-12-12:
Henshin V - From Autocad to Second Life (now to Opensim too)
http://immersive-worlds-tool-ranking.grouply.com/message/309
Exporting Objects from SL and Importing These Objects to OpenSim using Meerkat Viewer
http://immersive-worlds-tool-ranking.grouply.com/message/310

1. Google Sketchup Pro 8 (updated 2010-09-06) (Pro 6 for Euro331.00, Pro 7 for Euro381.00, Pro 8 for Euro495.00) has new AutoCAD capability: Import and export of DXF, DWG formats.

http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/product/gsup.html
http://sketchup.google.com/product/

2. Thus, it is possible to transcribe DXF data into Second Life via Henshin IV (for Linden$1249.00).

http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=572294

From this point, you need to know how Henshin transcribes the DXF file table into SL. Henshin is not a conversion program, it only transcribes the AutoCAD "DXF Table" into the Second Life "Prim Table" from within Second Life. Thus, manual mousework is reduced for design tasks within SL.

The Henshin people have actually performed this. They come from the architecture community. Here is how it looks like:

Henshin II - From Autocad to SL


Henshin III - Autocad to SL reloaded (english)


Henshin IV Demo


Here are more tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=impalah
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=henshin+second+life&search_type=&aq=f

The SL Prim Table yet sets limitations to the AutoCAD DXF Table during the design phase, retrospectively. I haven't sorted this out yet. Anyway, this makes Machinima and Building within Second Life a bit easier now.

Do you know some more tips and tweeks in the area of Sketchup and AutoCAD?

- Preliminary AutoCAD PDF/DWG Preparation for the Language Translation of AutoCAD DWF Files

- Print 3D objects from Google SketchUp

MeGlobe.com - Free Browser-based IM for Instant Translation in 15 Languages & IMTranslator's Virtual Keyboard for 31 Languages

What can you use other than Skype.com?

1. An interesting discovery for those wanting to flexibly and instantly communicate in a browser-based IM chat in various languages outside (out-world) and within (in-world) SecondLife.com (or otherwise).

MeGlobe.com accommodates 15 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italien, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Russian, Dutch, Greek, Korean, Arabic, Swedish, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified).

Thus actually more languages than all of the free in-world tools featured within Second Life (the Hank Ramos Universal Translator HUD accommodates 24 languages and must be purchased for Linden$375), and the application is also easier to handle as compared to the in-world HUD tools of Second Life. Even if Second Life crashes, which still frequently happens, you continue to remain in touch.

Indeed, this enables multi-lingual communication and training support in conjunction with Second Life. A group function will soon be rolled out, which will then significantly enable and support multi-lingual and virtual training workshops in Second Life, and in any other 3D virtual world (even for WizIQ.com, and Moodle.org).

There is no software to download and install. Just perform the registration process, verify the process via your e-mail, then login and operate it web-based from a browser.

Of course, both chat participants need to do this first, and put their mutual addresses or names on the chat list.

MyGlobe.com chat name: eurominuteman

http://meglobe.com/about

2. IMTranslator.com only offers 7 languages for the support of browser-based IM chat translation (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish), but a variety of further services may be helpful, such as the translation, back translation, voice, spellchecker, dictionary, and decoder services. This service does not connect to a chat partner, it only delivers "backoffice" support.

Yet, the most useful service in the context of Second Life and IM chat in virtual worlds would be the browser-based keyboard service, which accommodates multilingual text input in 31 languages (Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, Finish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Urdu):

http://imtranslator.com/

In summary, the advantages of both applications directly overlap for 7 languages as marked in italic. The total language sum of both applications amounts to 37 languages.

3. Follow-up chapter: Using Google Talk

http://www.googletutor.com/2008/07/11/using-gtalk-to-chat-in-different-languages/

Google Talk name: eurominuteman

4. Follow-up chapter: Using Oovoo.com

This one is a killer application for audio/video talk sessions in groups.