The new release of Google SketchUp 7.1 came out recently!

I decided to play with it a little bit yesterday for fun and out of curiosity. My impressions after using it is that it’s a pretty easy software to pick up and use for anyone from a beginner to an experienced 3D modeler. I believe it’s mostly due to the fact things are much more simplified compared to Blender and even CATIA. For example, SketchUp’s Push/Pull tool is an extrusion, tapering, bevel, cutout tool all-in-one.

My first attempt to model with it was a hole puncher since it was something lying around my desk and thought it wouldn’t be easy to model, yet not too hard. (But yes, I’ll agree with you that it wasn’t the most exciting model to make.)

Personally, I think I made the model in a pretty sloppy manner, but I was learning. I have yet to go through the documentation and tutorials to get a full understanding of how to use it. Also, in this month’s issue of ImagineFX there’s a feature on artist Alex Jenyon’s use of Google Sketchup in 2D digital painting compositions.

I’m certainly going to have to give it a try.