Google SketchUp 7 Features

Google SketchUp can be used to create, edit and share 3D models of anything, like redecorate your living room, design a new piece of furniture, model your city for Google Earth. You can export an animation and share it as video.

Google has announced SketchUp new version Google SketchUp 7 available for download. Some of the features include:

Crossing lines split automatically. When you draw a line that crosses another line on the same plane, both lines are split where they meet. Most folks think this is how SketchUp should have worked from the start. Well, now it does. Say goodbye to tracing over edges to make them split.

Scale without stretching. New Dynamic Components are special: they’re programmed to know what they are. When you use the Scale tool on a dynamic staircase, it automatically adds or removes steps as you make it bigger or smaller. No more stretching, no more distortion.

Configure objects with Component Options. Some Dynamic Components are hooked up to the new Component Options dialog box. Instead of breaking out the modelling tools to make a change, just choose options and watch the component reconfigure automatically. It’s modelling without the mess.

Introducing the Interact tool. Clicking things is fun – especially with the new Interact tool. Some Dynamic Components can perform animations, rotate, move, resize, change colour or move to a scene in your model when you click on them with Interact.

Search the 3D Warehouse. We’ve added Google 3D Warehouse Search to the Component Browser, which gives you access to jillions of models (give or take a zillion) right inside SketchUp. You can also save particular searches as Favourites, making it easier to find stuff quickly later on.

Download models locally. You can save anything you find on the 3D Warehouse to your local drive, making it easy to work even if you happen to be offline. Better yet, you can download models to local collections up to a dozen at a time.

Take (and give) credit. Tag your models with your nickname so that people will know who built them no matter where they end up. And since Credits automatically keeps track of the stuff you use to build your own models, it’s easier than ever to give credit to your collaborators.

Custom Templates. You can include all of your organization’s proprietary Styles, Watermarks and components in a custom Template so that every member of your team has everything they need, right from the start. In SketchUp 7, saving custom templates is a breeze.

And that’s not all! We improved the inferences to make them more visible and easier to use. There’s a new area of the Status bar that tells you more about your model. The VCB is now called Measurements, and you can change its location on your screen. You can make textures unique, and choose to edit them in the photo-editor of your choice. You can apply anti-aliasing to textures to make them look better from a distance.