SketchUp Hooks Up With Google Earth

zmarties writes "Having recently bought the company and 3d design product SketchUp, Google has now taken the next step of releasing a free personal version of the SketchUp software. Currently available for Windows XP, with a Mac version 'coming soon', the program allows for simple drag and drop design of 3d models - which amongst other uses can then be displayed in Google Earth. The pro version remains available for commercial use, with lots more features. Google are also introducing 3D Warehouse, designed as a repository for 3d models created in the program. The models can be viewed in Google Earth via a network link, so you can see geolocated models as you browse the world, rather than having to explicitly download them. Google has pre-populated the warehouse with a number of models which range from complete complex buildings, such as the Taj Mahal, through to individual design elements such as traffic lights and furniture."

Vs. SketchUp Pro

[chroma]

Unfortunately, the pro version offers one critical feature that the free version doesn't:

• Access to the following 3D export formats: DWG, DXF, 3DS, OBJ, XSI, VRML and FBX.

If you're going to have something manufactured from a SketchUp design, you'll need to be able to export in a format that can be read by something other than SketchUp. I'll save you the trouble of looking it up: the Pro version is $495.00 for both Windows and Mac. You can get a free trial [sketchup.com] of the pro version, though.

Guess where this is going

[gasmonso]

I'd imagine a huge opensource type project where people contribute their own models of places into this. Then eventually the entire planet will be mapped in 3D.

http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]

free trial..

[joeldg]

if you have not tried out this program.. download it now..
the push/pull tool is amazing and so intuitive it is like .. "magic".. has been a long time since I have been that impressed at a program.

read some of the reviews out there and see what people are doing with it. The online galleries are inspiring..

you can import almost any model, export to almost any kind of model..

amazing amazing program I have been using for a few months now..

SketchUp rendering

[pubjames]

Everyone should try SketchUp out. It is great - you can make a scale accurate model of your house in no time.

The only problem with it from my point of view is that it isn't really made for rendering - its output is fairly blocky visually. Which brings me to my question - has anyone successfully used SketchUp to create complex models that they've then rendered in another application? If so, how did you do it and do you have an example image on the web we can see?

This is what makes Google kewl

[GillBates0]

While there's definitely a market for a product like Sketchup, Google usually goes a step further and introduces features that may not necessarily make money for them, but are cool to use and fun to understand for regular geeks and lay-users.

In this case, it's the free version of Sketchup, the free design warehouse and "geolocation" feature within the free version of Google Earth. Quite cool, IMHO.

First Impressions

[kebes]

Just downloaded the program and am playing with it. My first impressions:

Pro:
Very intuitive interface. Unlike most 3D modelling programs, you can start creating and coloring objects immediately. You can create simple layouts very quickly, and then use the neat "tape measure" tool to measure distances. This is absolutely great for making a model of a room to consider different layouts for desks or whatever.

Con:
As in many cases, simplicity leads to limited designs. To make anything complex would be a nightmare. Also, I can't see any way to make things look "slick and cool" or to render them in anything but a simplistic cartoon-like style. It has none of the elegant programatic control of something like POVray, for instance.

Overall I think it's a neat toy that some people may enjoy, but I think anyone serious about 3D will give it a pass (including, I'm guessing, the Pro version). On the other hand, I would like to see some open-source projects get some inspiration about the interface from this program. An add-on to POVray for creating simple shapes (with the more complex work then being done in code) would be nice.

Does Google have a Linux strategy?

[erroneus]

I'm not quite as married to Google as other users although I use Google to search almost exclusively. But I'm disappointed that there is no Linux version of Google Earth. Now another Google offering that's not Linux. Frankly, I'm disappointed.

VRML back on the agenda ?

[axonis]

Maybe this is where the old VRML school of thought will pickup again, how long until avatars, proximity tiggers, animation etc are added to google earth ?. Im shure there is an advertising angle for virtual bill boards etc.

Re:SketchUp rendering

[wordsofwisedumb]

SketchUp works pretty well exporting to other programs for rendering. I am an architecture student, and many of my classmates export its models to Cinema 4D, some textures actually crossover. I have also seen exports to Lightwave and Maya, all very successful. It is best to try to find an importer plugin for the rendering program you are using as exporting from SketchUp to other programs turns all geometries into triangles. If you do not have any other rendering program, SketchUp can actually look very nice if you turn off the edges and profiles under the display settings palette. A little photoshop on the rendering can do wonders as well.

It does what it says on the tin!

[happywillo]

Although looked down on by serious modellers, I find that sketchup models are better recieved by clients. I spent years with 3D Studio and lightscape trying to make realistic models that never quite seemed believable and now use sketchup as a tool to give clients an impression rather than a finished "as bought item". I find that it is perfectly suited to my discipline as it is just a maquette rather than a "disneyfication" of reality that most modelling programs achieve. The surfaces, shadows and light refraction may look real, but in the end the building always looks too crisp against the background photos used for montage (so lets stop pretending!). Just my few cents worth as an Architect/ IT manager for a firm of Architects.

Re:SketchUp rendering

[zxnos]

that is the intent of sketchup... ...say it with me, SKETCH. [thefreedictionary.com] it isnt made for slick renderings, the point is to get a decent representation to a client for a low cost. another benefit is its sketchiness. when a client sees hard lines, they are less apt to approve something - or add input - for fear it is a final, you must do exactly this version. if you want to develop a design collaboratively, a sketch is the best thing for you.

Re:First Impressions

[zxnos]

but I think anyone serious about 3D will give it a pass

as an architect, i use it all the time. i can spend 4 hours in sketchup creating a decent model with people and trees for a client to see the massing and a walkthrough of their house or office building. all kinds of other studies can be done quickly in sketchup.

or i can spend 16 hours in formz or some other rendering program. guess what the client usually wants early in the game... ...when marketing the slick image comes in. but then i can import the sketchup image and apply textures, lights, etc.

Re:SketchUp rendering

[eMartin]

"The only problem with it from my point of view is that it isn't really made for rendering..."

That's not a problem at all.

A lot of people get into computer graphics and try to find one software package that does everything really well, but it just doesn't exist (or at least, they would get their work done a lot quicker with multiple tools).

SketchUp is a modeling program, and for certain types of work, it is very good at what it does, and offers several export formats to let you work with other programs for the other stuff (rendering, curved surfaces, etc.).

Personally, I've been using it for architectural modeling for about 4 years along with Rhino for curved surfaces and Maya (previously Cinema 4D) for rendering. No, I don't have work online to show, but you can browse the gallery forum at sketchup.com to see what others do with it.

SketchUp's sweet

[XenonOfArcticus]

It's a bunch of great guys in Boulder, Colorado (not too far from my company in Morrison). Their product kicks butt. If you want intuitive 3D modelling, get it. It's pretty cool that they have released a free version for Google modeling. I don't think it's really monopolistic/anticompetitive, because the free version ONLY works with Google Earth. It can't export to anything else useful. You still have to buy the $500 Pro version for that. And $500 is a bargain for what you get.

Yes, their freebie version is useful for people who want to model their own house and not use it in Google Earth, but really, you can't say they're shutting out anyone here by making it free -- there's Free Software like Blender and Wings3D that have been out forever that filled that niche too, and so far the market for 3D modeling tools has failed to collapse. (The difference being that ANYONE can learn SketchUp in a few hours. Really.)

Commercial diclosure and plugs: My company makes an add-on foliage library [3dnature.com] for SketchUp and a Google Earth Exporter [3dnature.com] for our 3D Landscape visualization software. But I don't get diddly for kickbacks from Google/SketchUp. I really do think they have a kickin product.

Re:Vs. SketchUp Pro

[DragonWriter]

There are free programs that import and export many of the widely-used formats, so it is not accurate to say that the formats require an expensive product (other than on the SketchUp end) to work with. Sure, the product which makes each of the big formats popular is expensive, but that's not the same thing.

Re:First Impressions

[Anonymous Coward]

I did my diploma thesis in architecture with it. This was quite a large project. When you get used to the grouping logic and the way this software "thinks", you get very quickly very far.

Your results are not photorealistic, but they neither have to be pseudo-sketchy nor comic-style either. With a bit of touching up, the pictures are not necessarily bad, just abstract - instead of the now ever-present faky glossy images. I actually really like it.

Just stay away from the hideous shingle maps etc ;-), use carefully colors and transparency, some shading...

Whats more, in my student version at least existed some export filters for 3ds or autocad, which did work quite well, so you are not limited to actually rendering your image in sketchup but can use any program you like.

I'd love to see some sort of an open source sketchup that maybe runs even under linux ... maybe this move will give the software the publicity it well deserved for the last three years, so enough addicts will give it a shot ;-) I wish I knew more programming (and had the time ...)

greetings
thamane