Theres no reason to not use Sketchup now
Well there’s no reason to not use Sketchup now. Apparently earlier today Google which bought SketchUp last month has released a free version of the program. (Only for Windows right now but they say a free Mac version is on the way).
http://sketchup.google.com/download.html
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That's good to hear and just in time too. Fortunatly I still have my Dell so I don't need to wait for a free Mac version.
What I am wondering is just what are the differences between the free and $500 version. Since there isn't a free Mac version just yet (they're probably working to make it a Universal Binary so it works optimally on the new MacIntels) I hope someone with a with a Windows computer can fill me in on the differences.
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Hi Jerald, here's a detail of the differences.
http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread.php?t=69036PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
Thanks for the link. One of the good things I think about this move that was debated in that discussion is it is going to dramatically increase the user base so the exchange of SU models, techniques, and tricks (as well as building techniques here) I think should explode.
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Sketchup Rocks. I just downloaded and started a drawing. It's going to be time consuming to switch my mind from AutoCad to Sketchup, but it looks worth it. The drawing attached, which isn't great, took about an hour to fumble through the help menus and shortcut keys.
Can't beat the price either. Although, I can see shelling out the $400 someday if it works as well as it seems so far.
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
Yeah that is a great little drawing for under an hour. Pretty kool.Although from what I've read about the differences between the free and the "Pro" versions if you want to export that SU sketch into AutoCad to produce working drawings you'll need the paid for version. "Pro users have access to the following 3D export formats: DWG, DXF, 3DS, OBJ, XSI, VRML and FBX"
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