Google has released SketchUp 7 (download), the latest free version of its 3D modeling software, along with its premium counterpart, SketchUp 7 Pro.
Like previous iterations of the software, SketchUp 7 will enable you to model just about anything you'd like as long as you start with a predesigned template. The new version, released Monday, offers simple templates that help you gauge size through feet or meters, but it also includes architectural design, Google Earth, and a product design template to aid you in your modeling endeavors.
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Google)
Once you choose a template, you're brought to a relatively simple design page that allows you to create squares, rectangles, arcs, circles, and lines, or to draw freehand to design your model. Overall, SketchUp 7 is designed well, and the icons toward the top of the template make choosing tools easy. The "Instructor" window to the right of the template helps novices understand each tool, and drawing is simple.
Aside from drawing, you can also access Google's 3D warehouse, which allows you to search for 3D models while in the software and place them into your creation. The sheer number of models is impressive. You can choose from people to buildings to cities to just about anything. I searched for a dog to place in my model and the 3D warehouse returned almost 2,000 results. Simply put, you'll be able to find almost any object without much trouble.
Dynamic Components is new this year to SketchUp 7 Pro, which costs $495. Unlike previous iterations, which allowed you to create and use models that all acted the same way during scene creation, Dynamic Components gives each object self-awareness. In other words, if you design a staircase, it will know what it is and by using the Scale tool, it automatically adds or removes steps as you make it larger or smaller. Generally, the Dynamic Components tool works well, but there were times during my testing that it failed to maintain proper scaling, which proved troublesome during the modeling process.
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Google)
SketchUp 7 is still a relatively simple tool. It won't provide the kind of modeling capabilities you'll find in high-end tools, like Caligari's software, which starts at $895. But it's a fine solution for beginners and advanced users alike who want to quickly create a model and share it through Google Earth or with others via the 3D warehouse.
SketchUp 7 does ensure that it's easy to take and attribute credit for important creations by acknowledging the designer when the models are shared. For simple dog designs, that probably won't matter much. But for professionals creating 3D models to show to clients or to show off their ability, the credit feature becomes an important part of using the product, especially as the 3D Warehouse grows.
It would have been nice to see Google add more of the "pro" features from SketchUp 7 Pro to its free software, like the ability to make presentations with LayOut 2 and the option to make your own Styles, but the free version is still a fine product for those who want to test their modeling skills and don't necessarily need top-of-the-line features.
If you're a novice modeler, SketchUp 7 is ideal. Its free version will teach you how to perform simple tasks and you can eventually choose to graduate to its Pro version to enhance your skills. And although it's just a gateway to more capable software on the market, it's certainly worth downloading and trying out for yourself.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
We all know that Google is more than capable of doing excellent webware for productivity, but isn't 3D design a bit of a stretch?
Google SketchUp for Windows and Mac is a 3D-modeling program of powerful drawing tools that boasts an intuitiveness many design programs fail to achieve. On first impression, SketchUp looks like it sacrificed function for simplicity, but that's not the case. Despite the extremely user-friendly interface, SketchUp offers a high-end range of powerful 3D-drawing tools that let you experiment and play with new designs.
Using basic shapes in 3D space for your outline, you can then extrude those shapes to make buildings, houses, or anything, really. There are a number of methods to build models, all covered by an excellent tutorial when you get started. You can pick from a number of true-to-life textures to simulate wood, concrete, grass, and several others. When your model is finished, you can save and print it, or you can even place it on a map in Google Earth.
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CNET Networks)
Long before I got into the business of writing about tech and Mac stuff, I worked with 3D graphics on Macs for my father's visual analysis firm. We were hired to create 3D models of architectural projects and superimpose them on photographs of a proposed site to study how a project would look before it was built and how it would affect its surroundings.
Create complex room layouts. You get bonus points if you recognize this living room.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Some of our clients wanted to make the project look nice for city officials so it would get approved by city planning departments, while others wanted to prove that the new project would obstruct the views for several homeowners in an effort to block the project. Either way, this meant that I spent a lot of time on a 350MHz blue-and-white G3 Mac (lightning fast!) using 3D graphics software, figuring out how to create models of houses, buildings, wineries, and even county dumps.
Once I started as the Mac guy at CNET Download.com, in addition to all the other exciting software I learned about, I was also introduced to several new and different types of 3D graphics programs. One that caught my eye right away for its unique process for creating 3D models was SketchUp. With this program you can sketch (in a manner of speaking) in three dimensions and extrude your outline to create 3D models instead of connecting vertices like in the old ray trace apps we used when I worked for my father.
You can even place your own models in Google Earth.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Pretty quickly, Google snatched up this innovative program and offered the app for free. Just updated today, Google SketchUp is made for those who like to tinker with 3D graphics and bring their ideas to life on their Macs. If you've got a home-building project you would like to see before you build it, or just want to create cool stuff in 3D (including building models you can see in Google Earth), we highly recommend this free program. Google SketchUp is also available for Windows.
MyMaps saves personalized content to users' accounts
(Credit: CNET Networks)"Google Maps is changing the way we see the world," journalist Evan Ratliff declares in a June article for Wired magazine. I couldn't agree more. Google's universal mapping project isn't just changing the portals for viewing the world online, it's also changing offline understandings of how the world is best viewed--from Google's services, of course. Google has gained influence fast, by ambitiously developing innovative, interactive mapping software; integrating multiple online services into the majority of desktop and online apps; and familiarizing users with a particular Google-branded aesthetic.
In creating a suite of map apps to encourage users to contribute to Google's greater project and personalize locally-stored versions of a map, Google is not just bringing cartography to the masses, Ratliff points out, but is getting users to help build out its universe. This, of course, makes complete sense. With Google Earth, Google SketchUp, and MyMaps (watch the CNET News.com "how-to" video,) Google's mapping software has surpassed competitors like NASA in digitizing the world. In so doing, Google has captivated the imagination of loyal users who will return to the company's Earth and maps programs to find business listings, explore culturally significant architecture, and plant personal photos and videos.... Read more
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