Google Sketchup - Free 3D Modeling App

[zimok]

It's a fully functional 3d Modeling application, available for free. Mix this with GIMP(free 2d app) and you have a great set of tools to design anything you could imagine.

I've learned to use around 25% of what 3d Studio Max had to offer at one point, but it was so cluttered and hard to use that I found it missed the ability for you to flow creatively.

I'm not bashing 3d Max, it's amazing and has near limitless possibility, but for a regular Joe like me just wanting to do webpage design, product animation, ad art, 3d concepts etc.., it delivers.

All-in-all, even if you have no reason to use this application now, I'd still recommend you download, and play with it. The ability for you to create an accurate 3d model will come in handy at one point in your life, I guarantee it.


Download,
Google SketchUp

Training, (great set of tutorials to get you up and running
Google SketchUp

Have fun

 

[Rage9]

Have tried it in the past, but was never that impressed by it having learned and used SolidWorks and Lightwave.

It's just too rudimentary. A nice place for people new the 3d modeling to start though.

 

[zimok]

Have tried it in the past, but was never that impressed by it having learned and used SolidWorks and Lightwave.

It's just too rudimentary. A nice place for people new the 3d modeling to start though.

It's true, someone with a good foundation in professional software would never see the use in this, but for someone who doesn't want to learn 100 functions, hidden within 1000 sub menu's(fun in its own right, but not always the best solution), Sketchup does the trick, it's why I posted it.

I have no experience in design software such as 3D CAD, given the analogy bellow would you say it's in order? (In terms of getting comfortable with the software)

2d - Paint, Paint.net, GIMP, Photoshop
3d - ____, Sketchup, CAD(Design Oriented), 3d Max/Lightwave etc..(Professional)

Like you said, nice place for people new to 3d modeling, you could give this to a child and he could be making cool stuff within an hour without getting frustrated.

 

[this_guy]

Like you said, nice place for people new to 3d modeling, you could give this to a child and he could be making cool stuff within an hour without getting frustrated.

You know what's interesting, therapists have been using this to help autistic kids express themselves. Pretty successfully from what I've read.

 

[zimok]

You know what's interesting, therapists have been using this to help autistic kids express themselves. Pretty successfully from what I've read.

I went to school with an autistic kid, when I beat him at chess he cried.

Great guy though, always happy. They seem to have this aura of intelligence about them, I haven't put my finger on it, maybe because there's so much mystery to how their brain works compared to ours...

They suspect Alan Turing was autistic, I need not say more of his incredible genius, but I'd be really curious to see what he would of come up with as a child inside Sketchup, or any autistic kid of similar intelligence for that matter.