Saturday, July 12, 2008

I wanna make 3D. "Google Sketchup makes it easier"

You don't know how to use the Autocad and 3Ds max?? You feel you have some an architect in you? Even if you don't have that feeling, once you use the Google Sketchup then you will start having those feelings. You don't need to be an expert on using the Sketchup; Google SketchUp has a very user friendly interface and training system. Google has designed SketchUp primarily to help even ordinary people model buildings with varying complexity.

I still remember those days I tried to get the grip of 3D max but failed. The 3Ds max was way too advanced for me. When using the Sketchup, I first went through the guidelines and tutorials. Then making my own designs on it went very easy to me. These tutorials help you a lot on working with software. But still, I need many things to learn from it.
This one is done by me.

The features of Google SketchUp are as follows.
1. Good GUI.
2. Availability of tutorials (Through internet). On the internet you can find large number of tutorial, from the SketchUp team and third party. The in-built help functionality gives you the basics of the software.
3. Works on low system configuration. RAM 256 (I haven’t tried it with 128 RAM yet), processor: 1.5GHz, 50 MB free space, windows XP.
4. Easy modeling. After you take a little help then making some simple models is very easy task. Getting deeper would need a little bit of professionalism.
5. You have got a measuring scale through which you can make your models precise in their size.
6. Textures to cover your models. There is quite a good range of textures for your models; e.g., water, metal, tile, ground, wood and many more.
7. Some reality effects. You can use shadows in your model which is set according to the time. You also have fogs which decrease the visibility. You can add sky to your background.
8. Many functions. Less than the 3Ds max, but there are many functions that will keep you occupied.
9. Export to the world. When you are making a real building model then you can export it to the Google Earth which shows your model in the 3D to the world.

If you still think this is small software and can’t do much, then take time looking around its works.



Essential links
http://sketchup.google.com/
http://sketchup.google.com/training/ - Video and self- placed tutorials
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ - for the 3D models from the SketchUp community

2 comments:

  1. Hi Remro,

    Did you ever consider to print your sketchup models in 3d through 3d printing at a zcorp machine?

    cheers
    rene

    ReplyDelete