There's not a drop of difficult CAD terminology, and you can leave open a neat, context-sensitive, animated Instructor panel for additional help if you need it. Most 3D software is complex and confusing for newbies, but immediately after loading the free Google SketchUp, we swiftly mastered the basics by finishing its three short tutorials. SketchUp can serve both amateurs and professionals, but commercial designers with sophisticated printing and exporting needs should consider the $495 SketchUp Pro 5, a higher-end modeling app that includes animation and organic terrain modeling, or the pricier AutoCAD. Installation took us just a few minutes in our tests on a Windows XP computer. You can download this 19.11MB app for free to a PC running Windows 2000 or up with at least 128MB of RAM (512MB is recommended). In turn, you can view models made by other SketchUp users and save them to integrate into your own designs. Google broadens the power and novelty of this program by enabling you to share your creations with the public online just upload your designs to Google's 3D Warehouse Web site or drop them into Google Earth. You can use SketchUp for fun to draw three-dimensional virtual neighborhoods or for practical projects, such as renovating a kitchen or building a bookshelf. Google SketchUp is a fast, flexible, and fun 3D modeling application that allows you to quickly mock up designs of objects, buildings, or anything else you dream up.

Google sketchup online