By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief
Google today opened the doors to a 3D revolution on the Web by releasing Google SketchUp, a free version of the popular 3D CAD program Google acquired last month. Google also released 3D Warehouse, a free repository for 3D content created using Google SketchUp. The two are intended to be used together to create new geo-referenced content for Google Earth, as well as non-location based 3D content, such as products or artwork, that can be searched for using Google.
“This is a wonderful day for 3D,” says Brad Schell, Product Management Director for Google SketchUp, formerly co-founder of Software, which Google acquired last month. “We want to get this out and let the fun begin.”
It is easy to dream up scenarios for this new 3D tool set. “We all get to stock the warehouse,” Schell said. In one scenario Schell shared, an artisan makes a new style of wrought iron gate. She draws the gate in Google SketchUp, and loads a model to the 3D Warehouse. Part of the upload process includes the ability to add non-graphic information, such as color or cost, as well as a Web address for more information. Anyone who later uses Google to search for a wrought iron gate can find the gate. The trick, of course, will be how well the artisan describes the gate and how well the searcher uses keywords that match up.
Google insists it has no interest becoming a CAD company, says Schell. “3D is just another way to communicate.” He expects manufacturers and the real estate industry to be the first to see commercial advantage in uploading models to Google's 3D Warehouse. But when the brainstorming starts, it is clear Google has unleashed a powerful new way for the world to communicate. A chamber of commerce could create a model to show what downtown would look like after a make-over. Archaeologists could upload a model of what an ancient ruin looked like when new; historians could offer reconstructions of cities at various points in their history. A fast-food chain could upload models of its stores, offering another way to be found through Google.
Google shared with selected members of the press a video demonstrating the process of creating a model, uploading it to the 3D warehouse, and finding the 3D content using search. It really is a simple process, given that SketchUp has the most innovative and useful approach to 3D content creation on the market. Still, creating a 3D model isn’t word processing; new users should expect to take some time to learn how to create 3D content worth sharing.
The new triad of Google Earth, Google SketchUp and 3D Warehouse will quickly become the center of wide variety of public-participation projects and marketing campaigns, as well as the usual Internet tomfoolery. A relevant, existing sample of the more noble possibilities can be found at the massive multiplayer online game Second Life. The New York City borough of Queens uploaded a digital version of Landing Lights Park to the game and asked residents to redesign it. Players from around the world are adding fountains, playground equipment and other typical park items. Later this year Queens plans to use the best ideas on display in Second Life to create a renewal plan.
Google SketchUp, released as a beta product, is “not stripped,” says Schell, but offers the most important tools for creating 3D content. It includes tools for creating, modifying, and viewing 3D geometry, plus the ability to export 3D content to Google Earth. The product is licensed for personal use only. Google will still sell and support the pre-existing version of SketchUp, now renamed Google SketchUp Pro. The main difference between the two versions is that the professional version offers file export to various CAD and image formats, animation, support for large-format printers, the Sandbox environment for organic terrain modeling, the film and stage tools, access to free technical support, and the right to use the program for commercial purposes.
Google now offers all three of the keys making it possible for non-professionals to create and share 3D content. They have an accessible (fun, actually) authoring tool in Google SketchUp, a place to share the content in 3D Warehouse, and a way to find the content in the Google search engine. All this is a boon to anyone with the itch to create and share 3D content, but it must be giving fits to every vendor in the multi-billion dollar CAD industry. Would you want to wake up to the news that your CAD company has been instantly relegated to legacy status in the new 3D virtual world order? Of course the professional CAD market will remain, and will remain strong, over time. But it has just lost more of what little cachet it previously possessed.
Google has placed a few SketchUp models into 3D Warehouse, online at sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse. The 3D Warehouse home page lists such icons as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Seattle Space Needle, the Taj Mahal, and The Pentagon. But dig deeper into the warehouse and you can find street signs, swimming pools, fountains, and a few oddball objects.
To download Google SketchUp, visit sketchup.google.com. Today only the Windows version of SketchUp is available free; the Macintosh version is “coming soon.” To download the latest version of Google Earth, visit earth.google.com.
Recent AECnews articles on Google/SketchUp/Google Earth:
Location-Based Simulation: Google Earth is the Foundation for the Next Advance in AEC Visualization
Shrewd Move: Google Acquires SketchUp
http://aecnews.com/articles/1220.aspx
@Last Software and the Great Google Rumor
Google Earth: The People’s GIS
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