Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Ever wanted to build models? Now you can, on your computer, with Sketchup

[quote name="Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS)"]<i>Google Sketchup</i> is an application program - a computer program that runs locally on your PC as opposed to a web site - that allows you to create realistic 3D models on your PC. You can make them with as much or as little detail as you want to put into it. Sketchup brings powerful 3 dimensional modeling in an easy to use interface to the average computer user. And not only that, the program is free, and unless you have extremely high-end needs it will probably do the job. If you really have serious professional needs for this sort of application there is a Pro version that costs US$495.00, but if you needed something like that you'd probably already have something like Autocad. Unlike the open source program <i><a href="http://blender.org">Blender</a></i>, the interface is no where near as complicated and isn't of the "minimum qualification is a rocket scientist or advanced brain surgeon" level of complexity. Valve's <i>Hammer</i> editor for Half Life 2 and similar games also use an extremely complicated interface and require a very steep, almost near-vertical learning curve. Sketchup isn't like this at all. You're initially presented with a blank screen and a model of one of the developers, standing at the intersection of the X, Y, and Z dimensions. Delete him, and you have an empty workspace to start. The X, Y and Z dimensions are roughly equivalent to the length, width and height of an object. These dimensions are shown on the screen by red, green and blue trace lines. Now, you build an object by using the pencil tool to draw lines, until you create a closed object: a rectangle, or a polygon (triangle or any surface with more than 4 lines). Draw four lines and you have a square, or use the rectangle tool to make a square or a rectangle. Grab the stretch tool, point it at the square or rectangle, hold the left mouse button, and push or pull the mouse, and you've stretched a square into a cube or a rectangle into a block. Or you can use the circle tool to create, well, a circle. Stretch the circle to create a cylinder, and do other things. Take a cube, draw a smaller square on it about 1/3 of the way from each end on the X dimension, push the square with the stretch tool until the square disappears, do the same on the Y dimension, then draw a line 1/3 of the way across the top, pull on this piece and you've created a simple chair with four legs and a solid back. (Seeing it visually in a demonstration is easier to understand than describing the process.) In fact, you don't use the keyboard much with this program except for activating menu shortcuts (as opposed to stopping what you're doing to move the mouse to the menu or tool bar to select them), most all of the work in Sketchup is done with the mouse. Create a hexagon, stretch it about a 1/4" thick, go to the other side, draw a circle inside the middle of it, then pull the circle with the stretch tool, and you've now created a toggle bolt. It's that simple to create simple shapes, and from there go on to much more detailed ones. Sketchup's materials tool window includes various paint colors plus textures which can be used to create photorealistic models. You can also load your own textures from most standard image files. Sketchup also includes free access to the 3D Warehouse over the Internet, where you can freely download from thousands of prior models other people have created, either models done in Sketchup or buildings placed using the Building Creator and Google Earth. You can also upload your own creations, so if you were to draw your own house, once you think it's ready for public consumption you could include it for others to look at and use if you want, or you could use Google Earth's Geolocation function to put the model of your house on it's location in the maps of the real world. Several models I downloaded for use in a model I'm creating showing a parking garage were sign posts with realistic "do not enter", "no right turn" and "no left turn" images. If you were doing a scene where you showed someone being arrested, you could find models of police officers, police cars, an ambulance, a house and many more things, so that if you're doing something you don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you were doing a house and wanted to model the bathroom, you could download the sink, shower/tub and commode, then if they aren't exactly right, edit and paint them to get what you want. (In real life, one time my sister wanted to remodel the bathroom, it had black tile and several other dark things, so I suggested a black toilet instead of a white one. It worked very nicely in the decor.) Google includes on-line video tutorials and an extensive on-line help system for Sketchup which can be reached through the F1 key, causing it to launch your web browser. If you get involved in this amazing program and decide you want to go further, and delve deeper into making more complicated 3D models, I recommend buying a book on it, there is a very nice <i>For Dummies</i> manual I got from Amazon for under $15 including shipping, and I also picked up a <i>The Lost Manual</i> series book that also explains all that the program is capable of doing and how to use it. I mean, you can use the program without the manuals simply by seeing a couple of the videos that explain how to use the program, but what the books will do is let you learn how to be more efficient in the program, so that if you were doing a Roman courtyard you can create one column then have it automatically replicated as many times as you want as opposed to cut-and-paste copying. Also in the case of the chair example I gave above, you can do carvings on one leg to give it a decorative look, and have all the other legs automatically given the same cuts. As I said, Google Sketchup is free, and can be downloaded from <a href="http://sketchup.google.com">sketchup.google.com</a>. The current release is version 8. I think the program is wonderful, it can be addictive, and it's a lot of fun, plus it makes the process of what was normally a very difficult task - creating 3D models on a computer - extremely simple and easy to do, while still providing plenty of power for the advanced user. 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