Sketchup is quickly developing itself as the workhorse of the architectural office.

The interface of Sketchup is very intuitive, which makes it a pleasant program to work with. Dragging and pulling objects is almost as easy as working with a physical model. This makes the program very suitable to use in the early design stages. The possibility of dragging and pulling has in fact proven to be so user friendly that the latest version of AutoCad has adopted these features as well.

Sketchup however is a limited program. For instance, it does not deal with double curved surfaces. Curves are segmented, though the segments are not visible due to a graphic trick, as the edges of the segments are made invisible. It is possible to work with components, which are the equivalents of AutoCad Blocks or Microstation Cells and they can be stored in a library. (These components by the way can be downloaded from the Skechup ‘Warehouse‘ website by the thousands.) But the component library can hardly be considered a project environment in which multiple users work on several models using the same components at the same time.

Rendering options are also limited. The graphic representation is very sketchy, hence the name of the program. However there are a range of plugins and scripts available from the Sketchup website, whose numbers grow every day. These compensate the limitations of Sketchup to a certain extend. Plugins and scripts also make it possible to customize the basic program to your needs, which is a trend that can be seen in more programs today.

Sketchup is limited and can impossibly be compared to the more traditional CAD programs like AutoCad or Microstation. But has conquered its place in the design process. Sketchup belongs to Google which means the availability of a pool of top developers and a firm infrastructure. It is not unimaginable that Sketchup in time will develop itself into a full grown CAD program.

There are free and Pro versions of Sketchup downloadable from http://www.sketchup.com

“Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems ” says its impressive website. The light program (8 MB) is freely downloadable.

A big pro for Blender is that it supports NURBS, (non-uniform rational b-splines) which means that curves are really curves and not segmented, which makes your model more accurate and faster. Most proprietary CAD programs don’t support NURBS, with the exception of Rhino.

The downside of Blender is its complicated interface. The dashboard sits at the bottom of your desktop, which is pleasant because it leaves you a wide working space. But the icons used in the interface are few and most buttons are texted. This means that you have to understand all the 3D technical lingo before you can start, not to mention that most designers are image oriented rather than text oriented. However it is claimed that the interface is a unique approach with which quick results should be possible once the interface is understood.

Blender, however Open Source, is a professional program. The features are numerous which makes the program very complete. But this is both its strength and is weakness. The trend is that architects offices more and more tend to use simple programs like Sketchup. It is easy to learn and understand, intuitive, and can be customized with plugins when desirable. Simplicity means not having to train people, which is an important aspect in the every day reality of personell flow through. In this perspective, Blender could be too complicated to learn.

However Blender’s results are superb. Check it out at http://www.blender.org/