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100 Comments
- Dradis, on 10/12/2007, -12/+99Nah, Google doesn't seem to buy utter crap.
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19sketchup is a really easy 3D modeling program. You can download a plugin to site your building model within google earth. It will give google the ability to quickly add buildings within google earth. The deal will give @last software a huge amount of resources.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20Time to change the name before Heinz sues.
- mozillaman0, on 10/12/2007, -10/+20At this rate, they'll be buying McDonalds next year.
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10hold on?
http://www.sketchup.com/?sid=37 - SleighBoy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Sweet. I hope they drop a free version on us. SketchUP would be perfect for making 3D objects for Google Earth since it pretty much just deals with extruded surfaces. They used to have a KML export plugin, but stopped making it available.
- ob7ect, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8That's great for the sketchup guys. Here's a few comments I have:
- SketchUp is highly differentiated from other 3D programs as it is a) geared towards mostly architectural design, b) is super easy to use, c) optimizes all drawings into low-polygon objects as you work on them. I think the closest thing is 3D Viz, which is way more complicated, and is only similar in terms of target audience
- SketchUp has a scriptable API in the language de jour -- Ruby
- It is the most accessible 3D program I've ever seen, they have a great manual, but most of all, they have a TON of video tutorials online which really show how easy it is to use.
- google's overall goal is to organize the world's information, and to contextualize it in time and space. part of this means creating an interface to it (google maps), but most of all, allowing the world to easily contribute to that model. In a couple of years, expect all business with a physical presence to be using sketchup to model their physical environment and upload them into google's db.
Have you ever gone to google maps, typed in your city name (to get centered view on your area), then did a search for "starbucks"? Its kinda neat to see the map suddenly fill up with dots. Now imagine doing that in a completely 3d environment. - opnotic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Sketch Up is a great program. Wow.... I think it's great that Google bought them. When it comes to 3D design it's very easy to use. (as easy as 3d can be). I don't use it much myself simply because I've invested years into learning other things that I am more comfortable with. But it has to be said that Sketch Up is great. It has great file format support too from what I remember. The interface is very streamlined and it's one of the few modelers out there that had long-gevity. From what I remember though it's mainly for Archatectural design. I wonder if Google will buy a subdivision modeler now. Or invest in Wings3D which is most similar to Sketch-Up in style.
- caldroun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Autodesk is VERY in trenched, anyways...I know engineers who would never give Autocad up...and as long as they have been around.
Besides, I agree, not really a competitor. More of a complement. - matriculated, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Sketchup is a good program to get a rough model up quickly. I don't think it's a replacement for a true modelling package though. So is the software going to be released for free now?
- tciny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6As I understand it google bought the company for use in conjunciton with Google Earth so people could easily model their own house etc.
Would certainly make the content creation a lot less expansive for Google :) - frem001, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Oh and on the plus side no more undetailed grey 3d models, maybe google will buy tomtom or garmin.
- appidydafoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This is damn interesting... I can only imagine what they'll be doing with it, but I can't wait to see. They could address 3D content creation barriers and introduce these components through some other collaborative interface, or this could be destined for a document sharing platform for 3D environments and models. Either way, both areas have yet to be mastered and I could see Google & Sketchup tech doing a helluva job if they put their minds to it. Everything so far has failed... Shockwave isn't that great, Adobe Atmosphere (3D PDF's... hah, even worse) is a joke... now they're all the same company, maybe lidflipper is onto something with the "move against Flash"... could be.
- CompACE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5They seem to be doing what yahoo was doing a couple of months ago - I don't see this as a bad thing at all - I guess this makes sense because one of their plugins allows you to view google earth with 3D models of buildings using their software - Now they can use that software to fully integrate it into google earth.
- R4wBon3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6They are most likely picking this firm up to speed up Google Earth's 3D building representation; SketchUp's got a nice portfolio of this type of use: http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=20&gid=313#top
- mrmartini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I hope so too. Of course SU wasn't intended to challenge 3ds [aka Maya - poo Alias users] but it's a breath of fresh air to have a force in architectural software that isn't steeped in outdated spaghetti code. Unlike a lot of things Google has gobbled, the lightweight, easy interface philosophy is a good fit between the two companies. Although I do hope they don't take it away from it's architectural roots...
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I hope this will make autodesk nervous.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Check out the video, http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/training/tutorials50/movies/Mkt_B5-watch_me_first.html Careful though, it froze my Firefox.
It's been a few years since I tried a 3d program, Rhino. I gave up because I couldn't actually make anything. Seeing this makes me want to try again. My only question is if the output formats are open. It shows a couple ways it can output, like jpg image or CAD files. But I wonder if it would be ok to interpret those files in my own application, without having to pay some license fee or use their plugin or library. I've been working on an open source mapping application for a little over a year, just 2d though. It'd be great to have some 3d models, like google earth does, instead of just a dot or flat shape for a building. Havn't really looked into it. - lidflipper, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I had never heard of Sketch Up either. Downloaded it and it is a pretty slick, albeit minimal 3D program. This is pure speculation and is probably best ignored, but could this be a move against Flash? Maybe I just think this cause I've been messing with Swift so much. I don't know why they would want there own Flash, but you never know.
- mrmartini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It isn't intended to replace modeling packages. It's a design tool. Like generating hand sketches vs. building a detailed model with a laser cutter. Totally different phases of a project.
- JasonPrini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'd give them $50 for a copy.
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4dear google: please buy rhino and make a mac version!
- zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3wow this is a cool program. Whats there plan for it. I have no idea.
but i'm glad to see google buying what looks like a good company / product.
I usualy do this same type of 3d work with maya and some cleaver mel scripting.
Its nice to see a program desiged to do the same type of lofting prjection work. - tominator1983, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow! This program is really easy to use! I haven't had hardly any experience with 3D modelling but I whipped this together in less than an hour:
http://demo.tornadodesign.com/sketchup/
(requires flash 8 plugin to view video)
I know. I suck majorly at 3D. But I had fun making it anyways. - ArtVandelay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3oh, no source. I didn't mean to state that as though it were fact...it just seems like a plausible idea.
- MxHyway, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have to admit tho, this thing is frikkin awesome. I remember my first few frustrating days with TrueSpace, and I'm glad to see that someone has made an improvement. Don't know how powerful this is yet, but I'm going to keep looking at it.
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I tried it. For quick modelling I didn't find it faster than working with 3DS. It's got alot of prefab stuff for architecture though. I think non-technical artists are just intimidated by 3DS's arcane GUI.
- tominator1983, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I played with sketchup a little bit more and made a mock-up of our company logo:
http://demo.tornadodesign.com/tornado3d/
So it's good for more than just architectural stuff. Fun. - ArtVandelay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Google is going to release this for free and let it's users build a comprehensive 3-D interface on Google Earth.
- newtonapple, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i remember seeing the sketch up product a few year back. it's a really cool product. it'd be even cooler if they give it away for for free!
- riknik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My girlfriend is an architecture student and the software originally required by her school for creating mock-ups and designs and such was FormZ. Then she found SketchUp and has since bought a license. She finds it much easier, much quicker than FormZ for nearly everything once you figure out how to efficiently use how it pops stuff out and such. I don't think she's every used 3DSM or similar dedicated 3D modelling programs, so I couldn't comment on the relative abilities and goals, but I would guess as the above has said that SketchUp is mainly used for fast-and-dirty designs rather than full-blown, intricate models.
- micklerlop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3please buy IBM.
IBM has good products but always fails to advertise. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Whats next for google to purchase all those Web 2.0 sites should be excited and get their banks ready to except large amounts of cash :)
- hinten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Google, you can do the right thing with this company/product or you can do the wrong thing. This is one application from a small, independent software shop that I really admire.
I wonder if they outbid somebody else? - domokunt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4they want people to input designs and submit to google earth?
seriously how else will they harvest the worlds information with this? - llbbl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think Google hopes to create 3D view of maps.google.com like microsoft does with live.com, but I guess this functionality is in earth.google.com although you have to download /install the program.
- bugninja, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3So will it be free soon, that's the question.
- frem001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If they can make detailed enough buildings we could be able to actually take 3d walk throughs. Imagine being able to go through a gallery like the tate modern and planning your journey before hand. The could have advertising too with links to online stores.
- xdevit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3For modeling Google Earth... so that you have popup buildings and so on.. and they bought the company so that could be the only ones to use it.. being that Sketch Up is very fast at making a simple 3d world..
Now about the Google will buy McDonalds next... umm id be very afraid.. "Welcome to McGoogles, May i take your order.." "Im feeling lucky"
lol sorry.. - cochise22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's pretty good. I have yet to try sketchup (no reason to besides curiosity) but it seems like it must be a very intuitive program if you can make that in an hour with little prior experience. I am definately going to try it when I get a chance.
- bigcheez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The link below is to the google/VW gps sys. The buildings in the photo remind me of what I just ran through in the SketchUp tutorial.
http://www.autoblog.com/media/2006/02/Figure-11_lr.jpg - CheapDigWannbe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh my god I've been using Sketchup for quite few years. I'm curiosm will they do the same like they did with GoogleEarth and make stripped down version of Sketchup for Free?
I wonder...
Although I am worried about this great product, I think Google could help Sketchup to advance. And it fits great into Google with its simplicity. - gambl0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is incredible. SketchUp is awesome software that anyone can learn. Hopefully Google makes a free version of it!
- Jadix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Huh? Google doesn't develop everything from scratch...are you being sarcastic er..?
- cvh™, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Nice pictures.
+ digg for them... - fudgebrown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Google is like Pac-Man.
- grayson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Also, a little "insider" (hardly, but my Dad is the only independent dealer of SketchUp in the US) info:
I just talked to him and he said he was informed of the sale last night (lucky!). Operations will remain exactly the same. Management exactly the same, and most notably, pricing will remain the same. So, don't be expecting a free version anytime soon, guys.
Again, hardly insider info, most, if not all, was covered in the linked article, just felt I should reiterate. - randomstring, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Autodesk is so screwed by this, in the long term. The base of their market "dominance" is AEC, and this is going to make content creation cheap, which will liberate the formats, which will erode the barriers to enty, and Autodesk can't compete on the merits of their software. Oops.
- Jules, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2SketchUp is awesome, I wonder what they will try to do with it, hopefully it will still be developed.
- Adv64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The free demo version of sketchup allows you to work for 8 hours straight with indefinite breaks in between your sessions.
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