Google Sketchup

The book I read to research this post was Google Sketchup 7 for Dummies by Aidan Chopra which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. This book dates from 2009 so there has probably been a couple of versions since. Google purchased the company that makes Sketchup in 2006 & at that time it was an expensive program, since then they offer the standard version as a free download & there's a pro version you can buy. The pro version is aimed at people like architects. In addition there's a website called 3d Warehouse where if you do an interesting 3d drawing in Sketchup you can upload it to this website which is hosted by Google & other users can download it free of charge. Also Sketchup is compatible with Google Earth. This is a project where Google has mapped all the Earth. Each location varies from 4 years to 2 months since it was mapped. In addition Google hopes to eventually map all the major cities buildings in 3d in Sketchup. In some locations the resolution in Google Earth is so fine you could potentially see a coffee cup. Sketchup is more intuitive & easier to use than for example AutoCAD. For example to select a line you click it once with the mouse, to select a face you double click it, & to select a whole object you triple click it. To copy something you merely press the control key & use the push/pull tool. In addition to the version for Windows there's a version for the Mac with OSX.