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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."
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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 of the pro version, though.Your design to a real part online: Big Blue Saw
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/if you have not tried out this program.. download it now.. .. "magic".. has been a long time since I have been that impressed at a program.
the push/pull tool is amazing and so intuitive it is like
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..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
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?
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.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I recently wrote a KML (Google Earth) export script for Blender.org. Blender is certainly less intuitive than SketchUp, but its undeniably more powerful, as well as open source. It supports importing and exporting a number of other industry standards, so you could use it to transform models you already have.
Blender KML Export
Blender.org
I've used a program which runs on Linux called Cycas for quite a bit of scale floor plans, but have found the interface frustrating and as a result never dig into 3D much and rendering at all.
Has anyone used both? Is SketchUp useful at all for something like a detailed floorplan, or just for big primitive, blocky structures? Is it really so unbelievably easy to use that it's worth booting into XP?
TIA-
We call it return on equity. If Linux had higher market share, developing applications for it would have a higher ROE. Google develops software with other people's money. Those people do not want to see their money being used to develop a product that yields a low or even negative ROE.
You can make the argument that if more apps were available for Linux, it would have higher market share. Unfortunately, not every company is (in fact very few are) interested in evangelism.
Even if Google developed for Linux and could yield the same ROE from developing for Windows, the risk of investment would be much higher while the return would not change. Ergo, it is not a sound financial decision.
(Of course there are many other methods of measuring return, but I think ROE is most significant in this case since it represents the money that the stockholders put into the company. In other words, it is the bang for their buck.)
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.
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.
I haven't had a chance to use SketchUp yet, but from the screenshot it looks slightly similar to Wings 3d
http://www.wings3d.com/
I may be completely off comparing the two, but it's definitely a fun program to play with anyways. Open source and more intuitive than other alternatives such as blender IMHO.
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.
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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
The downside to Google's approach though is that it has a tendency to kill the competitive market for the technologies that they make available for free. On the one hand, this is an issue of natural selection, if you're weak, you won't survive. On the other hand, people have blasted companies that have monopolies in the past with killing third parties by introducing "free" or "built-in" functionality that already exsists in the market. The most obvious example being IE. As Google continues to bring about these technologies for free, it's good for the consumer in the short term, but is bad for other third party developers in the short term, and could be detrimental to the consumer in the long term.
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.
hope they used protection
Remember kids, with great power comes great opportunity to abuse that power
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 for SketchUp and a Google Earth Exporter 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.
-- There is no truth. There is only Perception. To Percieve is to Exist.
Think about it. Everything Google is building is going to allow you integrate many of the features articles are talking about with Second Life. Only you'll be able to do it over HTTP with AJAX and their web service APIs.
The map server can be used to create worlds, the 3d stuff can be used to populate them. They can create new environments based on domains, so the real world domain might only have real world details. But they could also build another model for say Google Groups Clubhouses®©. We've been seeing people use Second Life for these purposes, what if Google made it so anyone could integrate a Second Life type feature into their website or web services application?
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me