Why Would Google Buy Sketchup?
Why do you suppose Google bought Sketchup? Is it to integrate 3D modeling within Google Earth? Or to help them design the next Googleplex?
Watch this insanely cool video to learn about Sketchup.
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I’m going to make a prediction based on this fun little picture I found on the Sketchup site:
http://www.sketchup.com/?id=20&gid=318#top
In case you can’t tell what it is, it’s a sketchup model sitting on top of a satellite imagery map.
My prediction is that google will use sketchup heavily with their google earth and google maps system with the goal being to recreate entire cities in 3D view.
They’ve already done it with a lot of the major buildings in the US.
Maybe they’ll give sketchup out for free to businesses who want to be represented in detail on google earth?
You could import a 3d studio or autocad drawing into sketchup, save off the resulting 3d model, and google could implement it.
It would be a cheap and easy way to get “3D” satellite imagery.
Ok. I was playing with Sketchup and I put together a fun little model:
http://demo.tornadodesign.com/sketchup/
I exported a fly-around of it as a video and put it on on the web using Flash 8.
If you go to the URL and don’t see anything, you may need to get the Flash 8 plugin from macromedia.com
Tom – How about a 3D Tornado Design Logo? 🙂
LOL! Hey I thought about it.
Still not sure how I’d make a 3D tornado though.
Ask and ye shall receive!
http://demo.tornadodesign.com/tornado3d/
Yup. Our logo. In 3D.
The video is 2.5 megs so give it a sec to load.
Wow, that 3d logo is so very unnecessary. But cool demo tho. So you just extruded the simple 2-d squiggle? I didn’t know SketchUp could do particles either. is that what the animated lines are?
Hey Ben…
Actually I completely re-drew the entire logo by hand. Just traced a jpeg. Then I extruded the surface.
For some reason, Sketchup doesn’t let you import vector objects.
The particles were done in flash.
That was too cool!
DXF / DWG are vector formats which are importable with SketchUp. Illustrator will let you export to either.
Regarding why Google, there is some information on the site which details how they came to be associated.
I can see this fitting in very well with Earth and / or maps. Say for home repair or remodeling, urban redevelopment…
Tom, that’s awesome.
Hey Mark, thanks for the heads-up about vector stuff!
If I had known that DXF/DWG was vector, I could have saved myself like 20 minutes there. *feels dumb*