Google has launched a free version of the 3D modeling software it acquired when it bought @Last Software last month. Google SketchUp, which is free for personal use, includes simple tools for creating 3D models of a variety of items, including houses, sheds, decks, home additions, and woodworking projects. The software comes with a plug-in for Google Earth, so that 3D items created with SketchUp are picked-up by the service that typically provides satellite views of geographical locations. In addition, Google has also released 3D Warehouse, which is the online storage for work created in SketchUp. The service enables users to search and share 3D models.

If you’ve ever used a 3D or CAD application, SketchUp is remarkably easy to pick up. There are familiar-looking draw and extrude tools—though, as with virtually all the tools in this app, they have simpler names. Extrude, for example, which gives volume to otherwise flat 2D objects is called “Push/Pull.” As in simple CAD tools, there’s guidance as you draw lines, arcs, rectangles and circles. Guidance is key here since all your work is all done on a 3D plane, with three-point perspective. In practice, this means that as you draw, SketchUp helps you find the end and middle points of lines and squares—and end the spaces over these lines and squares—and tells you if the square you just drew is really a square. Virtually any plane you draw, on any surface, can be extruded. If you’re designing a house, for example, you might push in windows, pull out overhanging roofs or run staircases up, down or around your structure. 

In addition, Google launched 3D Warehouse, online storage for work created in SketchUp. The service also enables users to search and share models. As with Google Earth, by the way, there’s still an industrial-strength version of SketchUp aimed at professionals, at an industrial-strength pricetag: $495. Google SketchUp is available for Windows 2000 and XP. These guys really know how to do they work well…

Source: Techtree, PC World