Modelling

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Google recently acquired a product called SketchUp, which is a pretty cool 3d modelling and rendering tool used mainly for architecture and design. It used to be a $500 product; now it's free. Try it out!

http://sketchup.google.com/

 

[Berg]

Looks cool...

What kind of output does it have?
Is it a model or just pics?

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

There's more at:

http://www.sketchup.com/

It appears that they're keeping the full-featured, commercial "pro" version as well as providing the free version. The big idea is to get people to build models that end up in Google Earth.

You build a model, and then it renders. It's got a bunch of cool rendering modes to make models look like pencil sketches, architectural drawings, etc. The free version doesn't export to industry-standard formats (DXF etc) but the pro version does. I dunno about importing.

UPDATE: The Mac OS X version has been released.