Introduction

SketchUp isn't a new piece of software. It has actually been around since 2000. It was developed by @Last Software, based in Boulder, Colorado. It has won numerous awards for its innovative design and flexible implementation. Part of SketchUp's flexibility allowed it to use plug-ins to extend its set of features. One such plug-in allowed SketchUp files to be integrated with Google Earth.

The team at Google must have been impressed with the software and the plug-in because they acquired the company and its development team in 2006. Development has continued on the software and in 2008, version 7 was released. The Google team has also given SketchUp a home and an ongoing development life. We can only hope that the program will continue to improve and keep the attention of a strong corporate entity that gives it the attention it deserves.

SketchUp is quite unique from other graphics packages. It uses a paradigm that is the most accessible to all users — sketching your ideas on a simple piece of paper. I myself have sketched on my share of paper scraps, but I must say that it is easier to keep them organized in SketchUp than littering my study. My wife has learned not to throw out any papers that have odd scribbles on them no matter how strange, but I still end up losing the most important scraps unless I get them into my computer.

SketchUp removes many of the time-consuming frustrations of learning how to use the software before you can get something close to your idea into ...

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