SketchUp to Make Google Earth 3D

Today, Google made the not so surprising announcement that it has purchased friendly CAD software company SketchUp. The 3D modeling company owned by @Last Software has been friendly with Google Earth throughout this past fall--holding a conference with Google Earth experts, submitting lots of 3D models to the program, and creating a plugin for Google Earth so that users can create their own placemarks. With SketchUp, you can take 2D drawings (scanned or computer generated) then push and pull them in various directions to bring them "up"--into 3D form. The program also allows for much more complicated surface rendering, shadow creation, and other tools of 3D modeling, but here is a screencast demonstration I have created to show how SketchUp software, at its most basic level, makes 2D drawings into 3D models. The link goes to a Flash demonstration in a new window:


Click to view a SketchUp screencast demo

SketchUp is currently not free (priced at $495), though it does have an 8 hour trial version. And so begin the monetization questions:

1) Will SketchUp still be available for purchase as an independent product for non Google-Earth related projects?

2) Will Google offer a free version of SketchUp (perhaps with reduced capabilities) for users to make their own Google Earth placemarks? (It's doubtful that the entire program will be released for free as the pay version parallels quite nicely to the paid version of Google Earth--Pro.

3) Should we expect a next generation Google Earth that has many of these placemarks native in the interface?


Looking forward to seeing what Google decides! Now here's some more SketchUp fun:

Sketchup drawings on Flickr
SketchUp's video tutorial
Sketchup models gallery
Sketchup one of the coolest products at MacWorld
Sketchup drawings on Google Image Search
Directory of Google Earth placemarks, some made with Sketchup