Posted: 9/11/2009 2:08:14 PM EDT
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I don't usually go out on a limb and promote or endorse something that i don't fully believe in or have tested extensively. So this free program gets my "seal of approval", my "five star rating" my "gold medal" for providing a service for the community to take and make their own.
Google, in thier infinate wisdom(you may not think so) has for a while been providing a free program called SketchUp. Sketchup is a very user friendly program that lets you build, design, test, and create 3D objects in a 3D environment. It is similar to your high dollar cad-cam applications, however it just doesn't pack the punch of a full blown, highly complicated software developement like say Autocad. BUT what the real value of Sketchup is, that it is completely free of charge. It has a enormous community backing, there are many users developing many things, that you can use and help educate yourself with, again - free of charge. Sketchup provides demensioning, unlimited build space, accurate measurements down to the 1/16" for Ft/In models and metric for those who perfer metric scale. It requires very little space on your PC and will run on a vast majority of PC's and MAC. In fact I have a value Laptop i purchased 5 years ago that runs Sketchup fairly well. Helpful features include, scale, rotate, move, push/pull, offset, protractor, demensioning, tape measure, 3d text and section planes. Lastly, you may ask yourself, do i really need this and is it worth the hassle? It is really simple to get started and there are many online tutorials to help you with simple projects, or more advanced projects when you are ready to move on. My final reason for this post is to get a sense if there is a community within this forum that uses Sketchup and thier experiences with it and if they would be willing to share with others what it has done for them or how it has helped. So if you are a Sketchup user, please come forward, share, and if you feel like it, volunteer to educate. Google Sketchup Again i am in no way affiliated with Google, i would just like to possibly educate, inform, and help those who love to design, build, prototype, or whatever they feel like doing. |
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Sketchup is highly intuitive. I like playing with it when I'm bored. I'm not a CAD expert but I will say that once your project becomes more advanced, editing/selecting in Sketchup becomes a little tricky. Sometimes I feel like the follow-me tool could work better- but it's possible that I'm not using it right. Also, Sketchup is pretty good for viewing simple textured models on the fly. Like any CAD program the more complex models you make will require a better machine for manipulating objects with lots of shadows and textures.
I give it 4.5/5.0 stars. |
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Quoted:
Sketchup is highly intuitive. I like playing with it when I'm bored. I'm not a CAD expert but I will say that once your project becomes more advanced, editing/selecting in Sketchup becomes a little tricky. Sometimes I feel like the follow-me tool could work better- but it's possible that I'm not using it right. Also, Sketchup is pretty good for viewing simple textured models on the fly. Like any CAD program the more complex models you make will require a better machine for manipulating objects with lots of shadows and textures. I give it 4.5/5.0 stars. Very true about the textures, it's also eaiser then to share ideas with others or architechs, engineers etc. I find using the section plane feature alot when dealing with highly complex models. Thanks for the input. Anyone else out there? |
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I have not used that program so can't comment on it.
I have used an HGTV program that I bought from Walmart. It works well and you can draw out your design and then walk through it to see if you like it. I would not build a house from scratch from the program but would draw my desired blueprints into the program and then see if I like everything about the floor plan or if I would need to change it. |