On January 9, 2007, SketchUp 6 was released, with new tools and a beta version of Google SketchUp LayOut. Google acquired Software on Mafor an estimated $15-45M, attracted by Software's work developing a plugin for Google Earth. The program won a Community Choice Award at its first tradeshow in 2000. It also has user friendly buttons to make it easier to use.' SketchUp debuted in August 2000 as a general-purpose 3D content creation tool, and was envisioned as a software program 'that would allow design professionals to draw the way they want by emulating the feel and freedom of working with pen and paper in a simple and elegant interface, that would be fun to use and easy to learn, and that would be used by designers to play with their designs in a way that is not possible with traditional design software. SketchUp was developed by startup company Software of Boulder, Colorado, co-founded in 1999 by Brad Schell and Joe Esch. SketchUp can be extended using simple little Ruby scripts. These are powerful formats with broad interoperability for other applications and tools beyond Google and Trimble. SketchUp exports 3D Models as KMZ files containing industry standard COLLADA models.

If you see flickering, eliminate Z-Fighting by deleting excess faces and reducing the total number of faces.

Delete faces that are not visible and erase extra lines.

Use components for repeated features: Select geometry (location), then 'Edit > Make Component'.

Ensure faces are 'outward' using 'View > Face Style > Monochrome', and to reverse a face use 'Right click select, Reverse Faces'.

The Pro version provides high res presentation, more export formats, features, and professional support.Īlign the (X, Y, Z) axes to your subject, which should be 'cornered into' the axes.īuild for good display rendering performance with 'low poly' techniques. promote the SketchUp Pro Version heavily, giving the SketchUp free version a mildly controversial 'personal use only' license.

Information on SketchUp exports can be found here.

Download SketchUp from Trimble for Mac OS X and Windows.

Trimble sketchup free