Secret Weapon Labs

In a great and positive move, Google recently released a new and FREE version of SketchUp. The new application highlights some of the wonderful basic features of SketchUp and lets users build 3D models and render them in a sketch view, as well as add them to Google Earth. There remains a Pro version which is available for $499 which offers Quicktime export capability in addition to a slew of other nice functionality. The basic SketchUp features are:

• Click on a shape and simply push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.
• Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
• Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
• Interactive Sections.
• “Sketchy Rendering”.
• Dimension & Annotation.

There is a Mac version in the works, and seeing that the guys behind SketchUp have done a great job of maintaining feature parity with the Windows version, I’m sure the free Mac version is not far behind.  If you’ve ever seen SketchUp demoed, then you’d be amazed at how wonderfully simple and powerful it is.

You can read all about Sketchup at SketchUp.com or Google’s SketchUp page.