Desis, Start Sketching !

I was recently talking to a friend who works with 3D printing (some samples of 3D printing are here) and is thinking of starting a business of his own. He sent me his prototype website for feedback and the first thing that occurred to me was that he was working only with CAD models when a lot of modelers are switching to Google Sketchup. After his initial doubts, he started using it and now he tells me that he is amazed with its capabilities and is extremely grateful to me for suggesting it.

Like the webpage claims, you can model anything in 3D. Needless to say, a lot of people have been modeling buildings in their towns and every now and then a supermodeler is recognised and appreciated by the community. The most recent one, as far as I know, is Tang, whose goal is to model Taiwan. Check out some of his amazing models here.

So far I have seen many such supermodelers from all over the world but I am still missing someone from India. Given that India has so many beautiful places and buildings and even more talented people, this should not be this hard.

Constructing 3D buildings in one's hometown would be a great school level or even undergraduate level project. I say home town because in that case it would be easier to take photos of the buildings/monuments (to add the photo textures to the 3D model) and take in-situ measurements if there is a particularly difficult feature to model.

If enough initiative is shown by a particular school/town, Google may even be ready to sponsor some other activities in that place.

The board of tourism could use this tool to popularise some of the less known places in India Most international tourists only know two things about India - the Taj Mahal and Ayurveda. At best, they know about Rajasthan. The Karnak temple, the Vitthala temple and ruins in Hampi, various temples in Tamilnadu and so many more places can be brought to the attention to millions of Google users by means of Skechup.

The tool is free, is relatively easy to use and there are tonnes of training material and user forums available to help guide newbies...so makkale, give it a try and start Sketching !

PS: I would have loved to show a sample model that I created but certain rules in the industry I work in prevent me from doing so but I am sure Google search can help answer all your questions.

PPS: If I did miss any skechup supermodelers from India, please let me know, I will be really happy to get to know them !