McGraw-Hill Construction has announced it will start providing 3D models of building products from the Sweets portfolio in Google 3D Warehouse. When uploading is complete, it will be the largest collection of 3D product information in Google's 3D Warehouse.
“Pardon our dust!” says a note at the Sweets3D collection home page. “This is a construction zone. Sweets is in the process of building the largest collection of professional grade 3D building product models that are easy to find and download. In May, 2007, these high quality models will be organized by the CSI MasterFormat indexing familiar to Sweets users.”
Models in the Google 3D Warehouse are stored in the SketchUp format. Because all major AEC CAD and BIM vendors have added SketchUp compatibility to their products since the Google acquisition, the 3D warehouse can be a one-stop online source for users of all design tools, not just SketchUp users.
The collection launches with 3D models from Assa Abloy Door Security Solutions, CENTRIA Architectural Systems, DuPont Building Innovations, Nystrom, PPG Industries, Sloan Valve Company, ThyssenKrupp Elevator, and Whirlpool Corporation. From Google 3D Warehouse, architects and engineers will be able to link directly to the product's web page at Sweets.com to get more detailed information including product catalogs, CAD details, and 3-part specifications.
We noted last year that Google had created a new de facto standard modeling data exchange format for AEC by buying SketchUp and launching the 3D Warehouse. McGraw-Hill Construction's move is a complete validation of this industry shift.
--RSN