Drishtikone
Google is at it again!! It has bought SketchUp – a company which gives a free version and a "pro" version of an online graphic tool for people to use.. It seems like the operating system will be made a redundant business advantage.. MSFT may probably be left holding its OS while Google and other companies will find ways to harness that to rule the desktop!
Google SketchUp Beta, the brand new, free 3D drawing tool isn’t an obvious fit for the Google desktop application canon. However, this blend of vector-based 3D drawing and CAD-like control lets you rapidly build 3D models that can be exported to numerous bitmap and compressed file formats and, more importantly, geo-coded and shared on the company’s Google Earth satellite imagery program, which is also free. So, it’s a undeniably cool, oddball app that has the potential to turn one of Google’s most popular services, Google Earth, into an even more powerful and personal tool.
If you’ve ever used a 3D or CAD application, SketchUp is remarkably easy to pick up. There are familiar-looking draw and extrude tools—though, as with virtually all the tools in this app, they have simpler names. Extrude, for example, which gives volume to otherwise flat 2D objects is called "Push/Pull." As in simple CAD tools, there’s guidance as you draw lines, arcs, rectangles and circles. Guidance is key here since all your work is all done on a 3D plane, with three-point perspective. In practice, this means that as you draw, SketchUp helps you find the end and middle points of lines and squares—and end the spaces over these lines and squares—and tells you if the square you just drew is really a square. Virtually any plane you draw, on any surface, can be extruded. If you’re designing a house, for example, you might push in windows, pull out overhanging roofs or run staircases up, down or around your structure.
Tags: SketchUp, Google, Graphic
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