Today at the NIPCC, Alex McLaren demonstrated SketchUp, Google's free conceptual building modeling application for Windows and Macs. SketchUp is designed (not for 3D art or animation but) to quickly draft architectural models (buildings) to experiment with ideas, and communicate with clients and builders. (The $500 Pro version can also export to AutoCAD, for professional designers.)

View: You can customize the extensive tool bar and views. Orbit tool (middle mouse button) trackballs view. Zoom tool (mouse wheel) enlarges view. Hand tool pans view.

Modeling geometry: The intelligent cursor makes for easy precise smart sketching and abutting (click on corner using Move tool). Push/pull tool (p) extrudes faces. (It's an easy way to model rectangular objects, or cut holes like doors and windows.)Space selects faces (?) Multiclick to select line, face, object. Option-drag duplicates objects (great for quickly crafting multiple floors, or rows of windows or buildings). Can also fill the space between two identical objects with more copies. Right mouse button deletes face, leaving a hole. Other tools create, move, resize, rotate, or measure your objects.

Alex recommends adding a human model to get an intuitive scale for your building models.

Select from built-in textures.

Create your own modular objects, adding them to the extensive online "Google 3D warehouse" library.

Finally, tweak global controls for lighting and shadows, intuitively presented as selections of time of day and year. You can even render your price models as an apparently crude sketch, for that hand-drawn look.

Sketch up is designed to be easily learnt (so it's simple and efficient, rather than complete and powerful). It includes tutorials that tell you what to do, step by step, and let you practice modeling right alongside expert examples.

Alex presented using iChat so I was able to see his presentation, and participate in the discussion, even though I was 10,000 kilometers away!

As always, it was great fun to watch Alex expertly demonstrate, like a knife-juggling samurai chef, clearly explaining the program's features and usage as he went along. Alex's enthusiasm was catchy: Immediately after the presentation, I downloaded the program and started using it!