Product Reviews

Following its acquisition by Google, 3D modelling application SketchUp is available as a free download. Google SketchUp, as it's now called, offers almost all of the functionality of the previous SketchUp 5, which lives on as SketchUp Pro. So just what has Google done with it?

For a start, the Google version of SketchUp looks quite different from its predecessor. The default tools that run across the top of the window are replaced with icons for the tools that used to be on the main Tools palette, which is also absent. You can, however, set it up so it looks exactly like the Pro version. On opening a new document, there's now a coloured ground plane and sky, with a person standing at the origin - presumably to give some sense of scale.

Google has also added an Instructor palette. This is particularly well implemented: it gives a short, animated overview of the currently selected tool and provides a link to the relevant web-based documentation for that tool.

SketchUp is quite unlike other 3D modellers, in that it uses an inferencing system that gives you continual feedback about where components are in relation to each other. This gets over one of the biggest hurdles to designing in 3D: how to orientate yourself in a 3D world on a 2D screen. It's also unlike other 3D applications in that its geometry is 'sticky' - create an object that's in contact with another one and they'll stick together as one object. This can be a little disconcerting at first, especially if you're used to other 3D modellers, but has tremendous benefits when you have to modify models later in the design process.

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Components can also be set to insert themselves into walls, automatically cutting an opening, but there's one other component feature that the program shares with SketchUp Pro - components can't cut walls that have thickness, which can generate a lot of fiddling to get certain components - especially windows - to look correct.

Google has also taken the concept of components a bit further with the 3D Warehouse. Clicking the Get Model button will take you to this web-based repository of components. You can upload anything you create to the Warehouse and download any of the ever-growing collection of models. The Warehouse has a search-based interface, and once you locate what you need, a simple button-press will download the model and insert it into the currently open file. Naturally, all models are free.

SketchUp is now also tightly integrated with Google Earth: hitting the Get Current View button will bring the current location in Google Earth directly into SketchUp, including terrain height information. The latter can be toggled on and off to make modelling easier. You can then use the view as a template, and then if you hit the Place Mode button, SketchUp will send the model to Google Earth, where you can view it in situ. However, we found that more complex models consistently failed to export. You can also export the model as a .kmz file and share it for anyone to view in Google Earth.

Missing from the free version are the Sandbox tools - a set of routines for building and sculpting realistic terrains - and the ability to export to other 3D file formats, so photoreal rendering of your SketchUp models in other applications isn't an option. To access these, you'll have to pay $495 for the Pro version. Other than that, its capabilities are the same as its commercial sibling. Which is to say rather impressive.