Modelur is a SketchUp extension, which adds functionality to SketchUp. Its main purpose is to add architectural features to maps imported in SketchUp quickly and easily. Rather than being a modelling tool, it’s a tool for urban planning and design. As part of that toolset, users can rapidly add buildings or shapes that resemble buildings to map data.
This enables users to quickly map out real spaces in urban settings using open-source map data and the plugin.
Feelings
I tried out Modelur as one of several extensions to speed up the workflow of creating real-world environments in volumetric 3D. My main intention was to create a workflow that would enable the rapid creation of domestic spaces when news events have happened. Modelur fits this intention very well; however, it is much better when creating city or town environments where good-quality building data is available than in rural or village environments.
Evaluation
I was able to generate a rapid workflow in SketchUp using the program’s built-in geolocation options. In SketchUp, it is possible to set a geolocation and extract map data into a new model. With Modelur, it is then a one-button exercise to populate the selected area of the map with volumetric building data in GIS format from Open Street Maps (an open-source initiative analogous to Google Maps). In other words, it takes a few minutes to assemble a full 3D map containing building, road, and infrastructure data.
However, the quality of the output is highly variable when used in this way. Modelur has some deeper features and enables users to edit and assign values to building and infrastructure data within the plugin though. For example, the number of storeys in a building can be edited, the purpose of a zone or area can be assigned, and roads can be rendered in a number of different ways. The toolset is comprehensive, but much of it is not of great value to immersive journalism applications.
Application
When I was investigating these extensions to SketchUp and other tools, the intention was to develop a rapid workflow for immersive journalism purposes. Currently, the majority of volumetric immersive journalism experiences are located in virtual recreations of actual places using media gathered during the natural flow of reporting. A barrier to entry has been the development of volumetric spaces, which can be time-consuming and expensive. An approach using GIS data to generate infrastructure and buildings automatically could be one way forward. However, the variable quality of geospatial data means that, at the moment, this would still need the intervention of 3D modeling experts or, at the very least, a considerable amount of tweaking after the automated process.
In fact, a potential workflow might include a combination of sketched-out buildings using Modelur that are then constrained within explicit rules and boundaries in particular areas of interest, and then rendered and built more carefully using a photogrammetric approach.
Conclusions
Ultimately, tools like Modelur are not specifically meant for creating VR environments. Like many of the tools I reviewed, they are geared towards real-world applications related to the management of spatial infrastructure, architecture, and real estate. However, as the practice of immersive journalism becomes more established, these tools may well form the basis of a 3D toolkit used by immersive journalists and reporters. Modelur is over-specified for the purposes we’re using it for and is not ideal, but it points in the right direction.