Tag: app-subdomain-redirection:sketchup

Google launch SketchUp 3D blog

Sketchup blog logoGood news for 3D design fans. The huge success of Google’s 3D modelling software SketchUp has prompted the company to launch a blog dedicated to the latest developments surrounding it. The blog features tutorials, tips and tricks, trivia, user stories and even jobs with the SketchUp team.

SketchUp has revolutionised 3D design by bringing complex 3D modelling to users with no prior knowledge of how to do so. Thousands of designs that have been uploaded by users can be seen at the online warehouse. Most recently, SketchUp has been integrated into Google Earth via the 3D warehouse layer so that users can explore cities with realistic 3D buildings.

The application has become so big that the company have recently released the first edition of “SketchUp for Dummies” to help users get the most out of the program.

Review: Google Sketchup

sketchup.jpgNot content with monopolizing the search world, Google is now busy making a splash in several other areas including, rather bizarrely, 3D design. Tradtionally, 3D modelling software commands a pretty high price and SketchUp aims to provide a basic alternative to industry mainstays like 3DSMax and Cinema4D – for free.

3D illustration can be a complex affair, but SketchUp keeps things as simple as possible, making for a far less daunting experience than you’ll get with many professional 3D apps. Technical jargon is kept to a minimum. For instance, the ‘Extrude’ tool is renamed to the more obvious ‘Push/Pull,’ and there are countless other examples.

The hand-holding doesn’t stop there, as the program features some rather helpful guide-snapping when you draw rectangles, and circles. For those unfamiliar with drawing in a 3D plane this is a god-send as the program helps you find the end and middle points of lines and squares and tells you if you’re on the right track. The program is able to predict where you want endpoints to meet and snaps them shut for you, saving lots of time.

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