Google SketchUp 7 is out

The new version of Google SketchUp was released this morning. The dynamic components feature, explained in this video, is really cool.

Introducing SketchUp 7

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Google Sketchup for Dummies
• Chicken tractor design

[#1 posted by Mike Estee , November 17, 2008 2:16 PM]

The really cool dynamic modeling stuff is only available in the Pro version :/

Parametric modeling is how the world is designed, and the price of parametric cad programs reflects this. To the best of my knowledge, sketchup pro may be the cheapest example out there. Maybe we'll see Open CASCADE rolled into a nice GUI editor someday.

[#2 posted by skatanic , November 17, 2008 2:28 PM]

Forgive me for being ignorant, but what exactly would someone use Google SketchUp for?

[#3 posted by TJ S , November 17, 2008 2:36 PM]

Skatanic:

Mark used it to show us the design for his chicken tractor last week. There's any number of home projects that I'd find it useful for. Example: Last summer I built multi-level odd-sized shelves in my mother-in-law's garage. The time I spent with pencil and paper probably could have been greatly reduced if I'd known about SketchUp.

[#4 posted by Ledge , November 17, 2008 3:33 PM]

@Skatanic:
I use it constantly for simple design tasks. The last couple of projects I've used it for are as follows:
1. I needed an apparatus to separate corn from chaff and finings, as my stove doesn't burn "dirty" corn well. I was able to design one that fit the constraints I needed, and determine materials required faster than I could have on paper.
2. I'm converting my attic in to a bedroom. I planned out the whole process in Sketchup, and determined exactly what I needed for materials, and verified that beds and furniture would fit in to said space, again, faster than I could have ever done on paper.
It's just slick as heck, free, and seems easier to use than I remember any particular CAD program being that I used in college.

[#5 posted by colonel gentleman , November 17, 2008 5:24 PM]

Hooray!

Skatanic,

I like to weld, and metal is expensive. I can try a bunch of different designs and then figure out the amount of materials I need. I bring a print out to the metal yard. At the end I have very little scrap.

Bonus:

After a few projects I looked at what scrap I did have and used SketchUp draw up a design using only what I had in my scrap bucket.

[#6 posted by noen , November 17, 2008 6:24 PM]

Luxology just released their import plugin for Modo. I hope this is why it was taking so long. Even if it doesn't support SketchUp 7 files you can save as an older version. Modo's renderer plus SketchUp equals teh awesome!

[#7 posted by tim , November 17, 2008 9:14 PM]

People use SU for designing lots of things. I use it to design furniture - so do many other peopler, which is why Fine WoodWorking has a section about it, why almost every woodworking blog or forum covers it etc. Architects (including mine) use it to design buildings. Stage designers and studio set builders use it. A few people even use it for abstract art work.
Many companies have provided their product catalogue in SU form for easy importing - furniture, appliances, plumbing, garden fittings, engineering components, lighting parts... on and on.
There are add-ins (many free) to simulate physics, connect to renderers, extend the drawing tools, build parts lists, blah-blah-blah.

If you can't think of a use for it, you probably aren't doing much interesting.

[#8 posted by Josh Cothran , November 18, 2008 5:33 AM]

I love me some Sketchup. I've used it to design a treehouse, a photo booth, and a ton of other crazy little projects. My friend, a designer at a children's museum, uses it to spec out exhibition spaces. I'm looking forward to finding out how easy it is to *create* and *customize* dynamic objects and how deep you have to go under the hood to make a good one.

[#9 posted by fredblotnic , November 18, 2008 7:29 AM]

Why is there still not a linux port for Google Sketchup. Tried installing it in wine with terrible results.

[#10 posted by DanKegel , November 20, 2008 9:20 PM]

If you are having problems running Sketchup on Linux, please file bugs at bugs.winehq.org. It's hard for them to fix problems they don't know about! Even small problems are worth reporting. And if it just didn't work at all for you, please report that too.

See http://wiki.winehq.org/GoogleSketchup for more info.

Thanks!

[#11 posted by fredblotnic , November 21, 2008 8:06 AM]

didnt know who to tell about problems.

[#12 posted by Anonymous , December 6, 2008 5:37 AM]

Well, I'm working in retail company & used SketchUp to plan location of my IBM POS device aka Cash Register. Currently, most of the managers especially those located at retail outlet use MS Excel to draw floor layout which I found not productive. But to them it is enough as long as they understand. But this year, I've used SketchUp & managed to impress a lot of top management. They never figure out business graduate like me knew 3D. Using SketchUp has helped me a lot in my line of work.