3d modelling

Trimble Dimensions 2016: What a show!

What an event not to be missed. My goodness. The buzz and the build up was pretty awesome but it goes without saying with the excitement of the latest Trimble releases, the Trimble network and community are getting more passionate and excited. And this is what's really grabbing my attention. I loved every chance to network and talk with many different people. It is quite something to be in a room surrounded by innovative, and energetic people who all share common interests. Being a part of the latest in technology will always hold a certain kind of energy that’s for sure. For we are transforming the way the world works, Trimble’s ever correlating and significant strap line. With the releases of SketchUp Viewer with Microsoft’s HoloLens and the latest in autonomous robots and tractors, it was quite an exciting experience to learn about what’s new in the world of Trimble and be at the forefront of these releases.

Trialling Microsoft's HoloLens with SketchUp Viewer at Trimble Dimensions 2016

Trialling Microsoft's HoloLens with SketchUp Viewer at Trimble Dimensions 2016

Sketchup Viewer for hololens:

"awesome for everyone"

How cool is that? One of the many awesome new releases from Trimble

For me it is exciting to see Trimble combine forces with so many great companies and products. Having grown up surrounded by the survey industry and now an avid SketchUp fanatic it figures that my worlds have come together and I love the way Trimble does this. Trimble continues to expand and grow yet it maintains the companies it buys to stay true to their culture and individual brand. Growing up with laser scanning technology, I always associated it with mining, offshore oil rigs, ships and forestry, I mean… rocks! I love a rock like the next person but I wasn’t particularly inspired growing up. The industry too has always been very rigid and traditional to me. Very unlike me. But when I started learning SketchUp, that was a different story. The culture, the community and the product! This is what I am about. I’m telling you, SketchUp made Trimble cool. For me at least. And so, my interest and involvement with Trimble has increased and I now get to work directly with Trimble and Trimble Dealers through my sisters Marketing Consultancy, EBTM. I get to see Trimble from lots of different vantage points and I can tell you, I am pretty excited about what I am seeing. I believe the oh so cool SketchUp vibe is rubbing off on Trimble and I am starting to feel a community build up. Yes there are lots of traditional dudes who have very traditional views but that’s okay. Us cool kids will show you the way! 

 

My Top Three Presentations

As well as seeing demonstrations of SketchUp Viewer for HoloLens I would say I am also excited about a few other areas within Trimble. I am more of a Buildings kinda girl with an Interior Design background, so my focus was here of course. I loved all of the mixed reality around the digital workplace and where it is headed. Joseph Poskie gave an excellent presentation about this. The presentation followed the story of Wendy, a future buildings professional and how she goes about her workday. It was exciting to see how our work life might change and adapt in the future. Story of Wendy

 

Joseph Poskie, Segment Manager, Trimble Buildings Real Estate & Workplace Solutions Division

Joseph Poskie, Segment Manager, Trimble Buildings Real Estate & Workplace Solutions Division

I also loved Allyson McDuffie and Richard Hassler’s presentation on the Atlantic Slave Trade. It is fantastic to see Trimble doing some amazing things working with Cyark to help preserve heritage sites around the world.

My other favourite presentation was by David Daniels, Director of Store Design for Starbucks. What a dude! I love hearing stories from fellow SketchUp geeks and how they fell in love with SketchUp. David was firing out SketchUp quotes left right and centre. I lapped it up! “SketchUp, Making Better Designers!” YESS! And to combine SketchUp and Starbucks! Wow! Trimble you are seriously getting cool points! SketchUp Interview

Aside from Trimble Buildings I didn't attend too many other areas of Trimble product sessions, but I did prance around asking about different products and software around the exhibition hall. I got some great insights into some of the new product releases including the Trimble SX10 which combines both Total Station and Laser Scanner. An all in one solution for the 21st century surveyor. The design is pretty good too.

Photo of SX10 taken at this years Intergeo in Hamburg, Germany

Photo of SX10 taken at this years Intergeo in Hamburg, Germany

As I tend to look at things from a Marketing perspective I found myself at the more interactive booths, the forensics had a beaten up car and dummy, the autonomous robot demonstration area both inside the exhibition hall and at the offsite locations, the simulator, and of course the HoloLens demonstration area. What can I say, I’m like a fly attracted to the light, I go where the fun stuff is. 

"SketchUp Made Trimble Cool"

 

Dimensions for me this year was seeing different worlds come together. For me this is quite spectacular. I am in the mind that we should not work against each other in life, but rather we should work together to create something amazing. To advance at a quicker rate, together and transform the world.

What I would like to see more of, from Trimble and the next Dimensions

The ever cheesy video montage was a classic this year and I would love to see more of that! Thanks Bryn Fosburgh (Vice President and Executive Committee Member) for your energy to get us started for each day of Dimensions. I would like to see Trimble fully embrace what it is doing already. There was one weakness at the show and that was being unable to navigate through the booths and find what you were looking for. I mean I couldn’t find SketchUp and that is a travesty. Haha! I would like to see Trimble let their hair down and really embrace the brands they have procured and reflect that in their marketing and culture. Lets shout about it. Big flashing arrows pointing to what you want to find. No more reserved traditional business approach. I think we are all bored of that. Leave it back in the 90s folks. I loved the idea of the concert on the final night instead of Trimble’s usual Formal Gala dinner although I was a little upset I didn't get to wear my dress and heels. Haha! Not really. 

Some things I personally want to see advance at Trimble; I would like to see Trimble fully bridge the gap with a laser scanning to SketchUp workflow that is much smoother and resemblant of the SketchUp ease of use, workflow. I would love to be able to upload scan data almost directly into SketchUp without having to go through the tedious and heavy software solutions I have come to detest.

I want to see more mixed reality solutions making smarter cities and more efficient workflows. I want to see surveyors have a little more fun! Embrace their job and shout out about it. 

Omar-Pierre Soubra, Marketing Director of all things cool in Trimble, namely autonomous robots

Omar-Pierre Soubra, Marketing Director of all things cool in Trimble, namely autonomous robots

I want to see the advancements of autonomy in Trimble. I am particularly excited to see what this cool Trimbler has under his belt.

I also want to see more advances in Trimble, more collaborations with other awesome communities and companies and to see Trimble fully excel.

Trimble is on its way to being a super cool company like Google, Apple or Lego but I think work needs to be done in some areas. I think they should just go all out and push forward with the new Trimble. Embrace who they are and where they want to go. If they want to transform the world, they should lead by example not only in their amazing products and workflow solutions but in their culture and community too. We are definitely starting to feel this though as I have already mentioned. Bryn Fosburgh's influential closing keynote speech is a great example of this; 

"You are every bit a part of Trimble as the 8000 employees. You are every bit a part of Trimble as the 500+ distributers. You are Trimble". Bryn Fosburgh

I mean WOW! A powerful feeling of community is already taking a hold. I want to see it explode. I want to really feel that community strengthen and become one of Trimble's best known qualities. 

Okay I’m super excited for what is to come! I know Trimble are going to keep pulling amazing things out of the bag so keep an eye on them! They are a big deal!

 

Trimble Dimensions from a Marketing and SketchUp lovers perspective! :) 

 

Who's going to Trimble Dimensions? I am!

It's that time again! Another conference!

This time Trimble Dimensions in Las Vegas! "Designed for Trimble users to learn, collaborate and network with their peers." I am going back to educate myself with some Professional Development Classes on the workflow between 3D Laser Scanning Technologies and SketchUp Pro. I wish to work on the process of 3D Scanning Architecture and Interiors, finding a workflow that makes it cost effective and efficient, turning accurate data into a to-scale and measurement precise SketchUp model that can then be used by architects, designers, developers and other building professionals to easily work with and manipulate how they wish. 

I will also be going on behalf of my sister's company EBTMarketing, representing the team and meeting with clients who work within the geospatial industry and also Trimble users. It's an exciting opportunity to bound forward and be at the forefront of the latest advancements within the buildings industry. 

Keep an eye out for latest news on my Twitter Feed! 

 

 

Are you doing what you love? Are you enjoying life?

It is easy to get caught up in life on a weekly basis and lose a bit of that inspiration and want for life. This week I asked myself the above questions.

Am I doing what I love? Am I enjoying life? 

Well, I get to work for myself which is fun and flexible, I get to work on some fun projects with people helping them to visualize their desired interior space, I get to photograph some beautiful places and I also get to work with my sister on marketing projects. I have lots of variation to keep things interesting. Alas, 70% of the time I am working by myself and it does get a little lonely and what tends to happen is, is loss of motivation as there aren't people around to bounce ideas off of. 

Solution: work with people / a team who are working together toward the same goals. 

I ask myself some more questions;

Am I fulfilling my values in life? Is my work meaningful / making a difference?

Yes to the individuals that I get to work for, I am helping them design and plan their latest project / self-build or extension which in turn satisfies and excites me. Photography wise I am helping architects and designers market their work and with my marketing work I get to be creative and think of new ideas to market within the geospatial industry. 

So yes I am doing some good stuff and can be meaningful. 

Ok this is great but still, there is something missing. Is my work really in line with my core values? I might be fulfilling someones dream of a new extension but do I really want to promote materialism? If the extension is a need for a growing family then perfect but most often than not it is just because people want something for the sake of having it, not because they necessarily need it. Is my photography of lush interior spaces just promoting materialism? Is my marketing just helping people sell a product so that they can just make more money and buy more stuff that they don't need? This is probably a bit extreme but suddenly it isn't looking too good to me. If you couldn't tell already, I don't exactly want to support materialism but of course we all fall victim to it in this society.

Solution: Work on more meaningful projects

How do I do this? I ask myself some more questions.

Insert photograph that I took of Lost Lake in Colorado, to break up the text and give us some visual stimulation in between paragraphs. And also to ponder the questions of course :) 

What are my values? What is important to me, in life?

I want for this world to be less money focused, less greedy and more focused on what is right for this earth, what is right for animals and what is right for people. I want to work on projects that matter and can make a difference. To how we live, how we think about money, how we treat each other, how we treat our planet and all that resides on her. I want to focus my efforts on doing things for the greater good, not doing things for profitability reasons, especially if that profit goes to the wrong people who then spend it on more material efforts and not on bettering the world somehow.

Ok so this is the big picture. How can I focus it down?

I want to be a part of educating people to refocus their values in life. I want to see our whole system change. I want to see creative solutions for teaching kids and people. I want us to revolt from this hierarchy within business, I wish us all to work together to create something amazing. I want us to work as a community sharing our thoughts and ideas that will better the way we do things. That will in turn make us happier. Education systems, society, creative expression. I want to be inspired everyday by my work and I want to inspire others. And everything I do I want it to be a part of the my 'big picture'. Within my work and within my personal life. From eating vegetarian and supporting environmentalism, to working with the latest technologies, software and ideas that will ultimately help us develop and grow as a race. 

Since learning the 3D Modeling software program SketchUp, my mind has been full of the ideas and possibilities it can provide people. I follow many amazing people on Twitter who are designing their own homes on SketchUp, are using plugins like Sefaira to make housing energy efficient. SketchUp helps kids with autism express their ideas in a visual way (click here to find out more). It gives people the possibility to design future developments and express ideas and all within a sharing community whom help one another. SketchUp has endless ability to provide anyone with the chance to explore their ideas and make them a reality. I love that. It is creative, expressive, makes people happy and the community is something to truly admire and strive toward in a grander sense. 

I love to find companies that I believe in and are doing great things. They are part of this greater movement in bettering our world, the way we do things and the way we connect with each other and grow together, and this is what I want to be a part of. Truly. 

Conclusion 

To continue my connection and grow my involvement with SketchUp. To work on more meaningful, sustainable projects all round. Projects that focus on innovative and forward thinking ideas that are a part of working toward advancements for our future development.

"I want to work with people and new technologies that are working towards bettering our future and future generations. I want to work on projects that matter, that improve the planet and people's lives in a meaningful way, not a materialistic way." 

So this has helped me look at what I am doing now and re-focus where I want to put my energy. What kind of projects I want to work on and be a part of. Life is not clear and we are all human but we must always question what we are doing and why we are doing it. So truly ask yourself, and be honest - 

Am I doing what I love? Am I enjoying life? What is important to me? What are my values?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media - It's simple, why overcomplicate it?

Currently I am working on a new project with my sisters marketing firm (Elaine Ball Technical Marketing Ltd) where I will be giving social media workshops. I am super excited about this opportunity as it means that I get to travel and meet lots of new people while discussing and sharing ideas and things I have learnt about social media. I also get to be more involved in an industry that is still learning about opening themselves up to the world and perhaps make some kind of difference. It also happens to an industry that is linked with my own. 3D Modelling - 3D Laser Scanning & Surveying of course! 

Look I am so loyal to a brand I have to include it in everything I do. #iheartsketchup

I am making my way through Mark Schaefer’s Social Media Explained, I haven’t got very far but I am already inspired to write about it. What speaks to me is the simplicity of it all. As Schaefer says in his book 'people are sick of being sold to, advertised to and marketed to'. 'People want to speak to people. Social media gives people this'. 'Business is all about building relationships and through social media we can build relationships not only locally but globally.' I love this. Lets strip away all the sales chat and marketing jargon, lets be human again and simply build relationships with fellow humans.

The beauty of social media is that it is a platform for which you can be yourself and get to know people on a more personal level, moving away from the pop up ads and impersonal cold calls and emails. As Schaefer explains in his book, social media is the new town square. It is a big conversation with everyone but it can be more direct, you can actually find your customers and others interested in the same things as you, same businesses as you, but whats even better is that we are no longer restricted to our immediate circle to build trust with local customers, but social media allows us to build relationships far and wide. Simple right?

So why did we overcomplicate it in the first place? 

Throughout our education in life - school, university or simply society - we are told how to act, how to be in interviews or act a certain way to maintain a business attitude/ look or the right and wrong way to do things. It is drilled into us so much that we lose who we are. Hence why a lot of people have mid life crises or 30 something year olds still don't know what career path they should be on. This is because we have not really spent the time learning about what we want from life - we have been learning about how we should be, how we should act and what type of job we should have - we have not been focusing on discovering who we are as people and what motivates us individually, what makes our heart sing (Carmine Gallo, Talk Like TED.) Of course this is the fault of our society today and we are all guilty of falling in to the trap.

With this trait from society we over analyze everything we do. With this attitude in business we are taught to think of sneaky and clever sales tactics and marketing campaigns to cheat and trick people. We are basically taught how to be manipulative, sneaky or just simply force something onto another in order to make money. But this is unnatural (to most of us.)

DO YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR LIFE BEING SOMEONE YOU ARE NOT, JUST TO GET PAID?

Of course not. What I have learned is that we don't have to. We can be ourselves and we can interact at a human level. In order to be human again, we have to strip back to the basics. It is not about being sneaky and manipulative. It is about being selfless and helpful (Schaefer). It is all about building relationships with people. It is all about sharing and helping each other out. And thats it. Business relationships are built on trust. Why are we always looking for the quick fix of 'how can we quickly make X amount of money?' - not caring about our ethics and values while doing so? Does this make us happier? Wouldn't you be happier if you did things that made you happy, made others happy and made you money, the compromise being that it might just take a little longer? We should be working towards the bigger picture. And the question is simple- What do you want from this life? Do you want a negative, manipulative society? Or do you want a caring, helpful sharing society? A growing society? If we work on this it may take longer, but in doing so we create lasting relationships and loyal customers/clients who give us repeat business, who respect us and in turn bring the money side of things if that is what you are waiting to hear. Lets stop overcomplicating it and just be humans connecting with humans.

Its true. I am loyal to a few different brands who are based near and far solely from getting to know the people that work for the company through social media, they are people that inspire me daily and whom I want to learn from. They feel like friends, it might be as simple as retweeting one of my posts or giving me some time with a simple reply or like. With this two way connection, a relationship is building. I start to trust them and so in turn I trust the brand. I will support them as much as I would support my family. I mean this in the sense of competition. Sure there might be a better product or service out there but I have built a relationship with this particular company, my loyalty is with them no matter what. It takes time to build relationships but once you have done so, you stick by your friends. Social Media is a powerful tool and we should all be utilizing it to share who we are, by being ourselves, being passionate and building relationships. And it is as simple as that. Build a business by building on your relationships and value your existing customers. Let social media help you to do this.

‘Humans buy from humans’. Lets get back to basics.

Sometimes all you need is a block!

For a recent project, I worked with Jewellery Designer Alice Clarke. Alice is in the middle of building a new jewellery studio and workshop space. The main structure was already built when Alice asked for my help but she needed to figure out how her tools would be organized inside the space. The jigsaw puzzle pieces were splayed out and it was time to start fitting them all together. 

With all spaces, come space requirements. For Alice we needed a sink, a jewellery bench for four jewellers to work at, as well as all of her tools. We also had to think about certain work areas that required more space than others, an extractor fan and the tools that needed to have closer access to the sink for example. 

I started with a quick survey of the space and then drew the floor plan in SketchUp. Instead of building the intricacies of all of Alice's tools we built blocks. We measured each tool then built cubed shapes so that we could clearly see how much space that tool needed.

 

Building the tools this way meant that we saved hours of time while still reaching the same goal. Sometimes you don't need all the fine details - sometimes all you need is a block! 

 
"To get a quick idea of how much space I would need for each tool Elly was able to design me small boxes that replicated each tool. This helped me make final decisions on where I would work and where I would design. Elly had magically pulled what I had in my head and translated it into a 3D drawing for me to then take forward and show the building team, the plumber & the electrician" Alice Clarke

We worked around three different plans coming to a decision on the final one where Alice decided she needed to move a dividing wall a few feet, in order to satisfy her needs for the organization of the workshop. 

Alas now that everyone is happy with the walls, the furniture, and the placement of the equipment and tools, Alice can move forward in confidence knowing that her space will work. 

Sad to say goodbye.

So Basecamp 2016 has come to a close and I can honestly say it has been the best conference I have ever been to. 

When I usually think of a user conference, I think lecture learning classes, everyone dressed in smart attire and people talking shop. Yawn! Basecamp was non of these things. 

Basecamp was like summer camp - it was a place full of fun and excited people wanting to learn and express what they do, while being completely themselves. It was about being with your friends and having a great time. It was about sharing and about meeting new and interesting people. 

I cant say there has been any other conference that I have left thinking, “I will miss everyone”. To come away feeling inspired and passionate about what I do and excited to push myself further so that I can continue to be a part of something that is quite simply, a beautiful community of passionate and amazing friends. I am excited to explore and drive myself to experiment with new things so that I can in turn share my efforts and passion with my SketchUp family in the future. 

I would just like to add that I am so happy that I attended 3D Basecamp and I would like to thank all of the wonderful SketchUp people for being so amazing, putting this great event together and just being on top form throughout. Thanks to the speakers and to my new friends for being truly awesome. I cant wait until the next Basecamp. 

Over and out.