For me this is really big news. SketchUp is the best new piece of software I used in YEARS. I was introduced to it by my cousin Khader, who works as an architect in New York. He told me it is the best 3D ‘sketching’ software out there and he was so right.
This news of SketchUp (the company behind it is called @Last Software) being acquired by Google is just amazing. The company is reassuring its customers (or shall I say fans!) that their mission will not change and that they will actually stay in their Boulder, Colorado offices. But it goes without saying that the Google acquisition will now unleash SketchUp onto the world. I am always surprised at how fellow architects in Jordan have never heard of this truly cool tool.
I used SketchUp to develop 3D prototypes and animations very quickly. Although I am an architect by training, I never practiced architecture professionally (i.e never worked in an architectural office), which means I never used 3D Studio or AutoCAD. I used other 3D packages for illustrations and other graphical work, but not for architecture or interior design. But in a few days I was able to learn Sketchup and produce a prototype that won my company a major interior/retail design assignment. Of course, we are working with a professional architect on this assignment now and she’s using AutoCAD and 3D Studio. But the point is how SketchUp helped translate my ideas to a 3D model (we’re now in the actual building stage, more about that soon).
So congratulations to the @Last team. You deserve the best!
Comments
5 responses to “Best tech news of the year: SketchUp acquired by Google”
hi…could you tell me from where i can get it. i’ve been asking for it for a while and nobody seems to have an idea about it.
thank you
Let them kick some Autodesk ass
Ahmad,
These are exciting times for SYNTAX! I am very very very happy that SYNTAX projects are growing in depth and in size
It is really sad that I cannot go to the SYNTAX website and read about all these developments and these fantastic projects that you are landing. I hope you invest more in SYNTAX’s web presence sometime in the near future.
SketchUp may have its supporters, but SYNTAX has enthusiastic fans like myself… please keep us posted
and hope you find some room in there to include my name as SYNTAX family/fan/friend/alumnus 
i must agree with you that SketchUp is one of the best inventions, especially when you use it to the maximum and make use of all that it can offer. But did you ever use Rhino, or see models done on it and then rendered in 3DMax? they look really good. But i guess for much less time and proficiency, SketchUp does it perfectly!