It is marketed as an easy-to-use conceptual tool with a simple interface. A well known feature in the SketchUp World is the 3D Warehouse. Users can use their Google Accounts to upload models, and then browse the 3D Warehouse for many components and models.

Some of its key features and uses include:

• A “smart” drawing cursor (inference) system that allows users to draw 3D objects using a 2D screen and mouse.
• Simple massing study capability via “push-pull”.
• “Follow Me,” which creates 3D forms by extruding 2D surfaces along predetermined paths.
• Ability to animate camera and sun movements.
• Interoperability with Google Earth

SketchUp was developed by startup company @Last Software, Boulder, Colorado which was formed in 1999. SketchUp was first released in August 2000 as a general purpose 3D content creation tool. It won a Community Choice Award at its first tradeshow in 2000. It quickly found a market in architecture and building design industries and was revised to suit the needs of working professionals. The key to its early success was in its fast learning curve, allowing for a shorter learning period than other commercially available 3D tools.

As of SketchUp 5, features were added to allow the user to extrude and widen as well as the ability for a face to “follow” the cursor around an object.

On March 14, 2006, Google acquired @Last Software, attracted by their plugin for Google Earth.

On January 9, 2007, SketchUp 6 was released, featuring a handful of new tools as well as a beta version of Google SketchUp LayOut. LayOut includes a handful of 2D vector tools, as well as page layout tools making it easier for professionals to create presentations without jumping to a third-party presentation program.

On February 9, 2007, a maintenance update was released. It corrects a number of bugs, but brings no new features.

On April 27, 2006, Google announced Google SketchUp, a freely-downloadable version of SketchUp. The free version is not as capable as SketchUp Pro 6, but it includes integrated tools for uploading content to Google Earth and to the Google 3D Warehouse, a repository of models created in SketchUp.

The free version of Google Sketchup exports to a number of 3D formats, including Google Earth .kmz files, while the Pro version extends support to include .3ds, .dwg, .dxf, .fbx, .obj, .xsi, and .wrl file formats. Google SketchUp can also save “screenshots” of the model as .bmp, .png, .jpg, .tif, with the Pro version also supporting .pdf, .eps, .epx, .dwg, and .dxf.

Ruby Application Programming Interface (API)

Ruby is a scripting language whose use in SketchUp was first introduced in SketchUp 4. Since its introduction SketchUp users have shown their creativity by creating hundreds of useful tools using SketchUp Ruby.

There is a Hello World Tutorial for Google SketchUp about creating dialog boxes.

Other Information

• Developed by  Google (previously @Last Software)
• Initial release  August 2000
• Latest release  6.4.112 (Windows) / 6.4.120 (Mac OS X) / December 14, 2007
• OS  MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Apple Mac OS X (10.4-10.5) (Universal Binary)
• Available in  English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Spanish
• Type  3D computer graphics
• License  Freeware/Proprietary

Links

• Website  www.sketchup.com
• Google 3D Warehouse
• SketchUp Video Tutorials
• SketchUp Google Group
• SketchUp - Wikipedia

Green design professionals are particularly taken with the program. Widely praised by the architecture and design community for its “intuitive” nature, SketchUp, one of the few 3D rendering programs on the market, is also by far the easiest one to use. And its integration with Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse has elevated the program from a simple design tool to a location-based, product-inclusive architectural design powerhouse. As a result, SketchUp is nurturing a growing ecosystem of green design startups.

Getting energy, water, and carbon information into the design process early on was once a costly, if not impossible, endeavor. But the sooner modeling and analysis tools are involved in the process, the bigger the questions that designers can ask, and the more impact they can have on the final design. “The software tool you choose is always going to arise from the question that you’re asking,” says Chris Meek, a University of Washington professor who heads up the Integrated Design Lab in Seattle. “What role do these tools have in their design process? What’s it going to affect in the design?”

Modeling Landscape Features

Out of the box, SketchUp offers some great features for green design, which the clean-tech-happy Google has been quick to promote. Because it integrates smoothly with Google Earth, SketchUp users can punch in the actual latitude and longitude of their project site to visualize buildings in their real-life context. That not only helps designers communicate to their clients how the project will look, but allows them to accurately model how nearby landscape features and structures will cast shadows over the building—useful for fine-tuning a building’s site orientation or window placement to cut energy use, or for positioning solar panels.

A handful of startups (and even the federal government are working to soup up the SketchUp toolbar with energy analysis plug-ins that support even more detailed information about materials used and spatial relationships within the building. For the startups, it’s a way to raise visibility for their own proprietary tools.

Integrated Environmental Systems (IES) offers VE-Ware, a free energy and carbon analysis tool that benchmarks designs against the energy reduction goals of the Architecture 2030 Challenge, as a free Windows-only plug-in. The professional versions of IES’s Virtual Environment software can provide more detailed analysis and its consulting practice can help make sense of the data analysis for those new to the world of green building design.

Pro Version Is Pricey

Demeter, an energy analysis plug-in from Greenspace, lets users dig deeper into how much energy their design might use by taking into account details such as surface materials. By gathering this kind of information, the program allows architects to quickly export the model to Green Building Studio, a sophisticated analysis program developed by Greenspace that was acquired by Autodesk in June, and run a complete energy modeling analysis report. (Since it requires users to export their data, this plug-in isn’t available for those using the free version of SketchUp. The Pro version, which integrates presentation tools and allows users to export their models into other design programs, costs $495 a pop.)

With a growing number of green designers using SketchUp, green building product manufacturers have gotten into the game as well. SketchUp integrates seamlessly with the Google 3D Warehouse, and as architects pull together models of their home designs, they can stock their models with everything from paint to doors to dishwashers from its reserves. Need a toilet for your bathroom model? Find one in the 3D Warehouse and download it into SketchUp.

For the many startup companies marketing green building products, SketchUp can be an inexpensive way to break into the market. While not every green building product manufacture is already SketchUp savvy, the easy-to-use program lowers the bar for learning. If that’s still too much of a challenge, Blue Marble Project is one startup aiming to get green building product companies into this market.

Whirlpool and West Elm on Board

Started by the guys who launched Go2School, an educational podcast series on using SketchUp, Blue Marble Project creates models of a company’s products with information about their size, shape, surfaces, environmental properties, and even their SKU numbers. The company, launched in 2007, has been gradually adding new clients, including Whirlpool and West Elm, according to co-founder Mike Tadros.

While integration with Google Earth allows SketchUp to position digital models in the real world, the 3D Warehouse lets green design move the other direction as well.

Google’s SketchUp Helps Design Go Green - BusinessWeek