SAN MATEO, CA (Maker Faire) May 21, 2011 - Autodesk chose Maker Faire - the annual gathering of inventor, hobbyists and craftspeople - for the public debut of 123D, its consumer design software. I didn’t know what to expect at Maker faire. Maybe Autodesk did not know either. The consumer market is fairly new territory.
Google SketchUp at Maker Faire. SketchUp is a favorite amont DIYers.
But not so new for Google, who was there in a big way with SketchUp: a trailer, a stage and several exhibits, and big crowds. It turns out that SketchUp has achieved a widespread acceptance among the attendees of Maker Faire – and judging from that, probably with the entire community of makers, as craftsmen, hobbyists, tinkerers and inventors are being called.
CAD insiders know SketchUp well for its architectural application. Its ease of use has helped to make it the most popular conceptual sketching tool in the world. For massing studies, I hear it has no equal. Like 123D, it is free.
I find John Bacus, product manager of SketchUp, to explain its accidental success with the maker audience. He is showing showing Skpr*, a spidery looking remoter controlled robot, to a bunch of kids. On the big screen is a 3D model of Skpr. But seeing is not believing.
“Is it even made with SketchUp?” I ask John, incredulously. I suspect the model to have been imported. “SketchUp is not really a serious mechanical modeling tool, right? I mean, It’s not really a solid modeler. It’s not even precise, like CAD software.”
Mechanical modeling? Yeah, we do that. John Bacus, product manager of SU.
“Yes, it was made in SketchUp,” he says, sounding as if I was not the first unenlightened person he had encountered. “It is manifold geometry, not solid. But it has all commands like add, subtract [AKA Boolean operations]. Besides, does it matter what’s under the hood, as long as it can model what you want.”
Hmm. John may have a point. But I am not ready to quit.
“But it can’t be as precise,” I say.
“It’s every bit as precise as other CAD products.” John counters.
“Can it output to standard formats?”
“Like what?”
“DWG”
“Yup.”
“But they’ve got 4,000 free models,” I say, admitting to being impressed by the amount of content Autodesk was giving away for free with 123D.
“We’ve got 4,000 chairs,” says John disdainfully. “Have you seen 3D Warehouse?”
Damn. Sounds like something I should have known about. Is it possible there is a vast repository of free 3D models? Has a parallel but invisible CAD universe been created without my notice? I excuse myself and scurry over to take a look 3D warehouse.
I’m not surprised to find many, many buildings in 3D Warehouse (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/). After all, that was SketchUp’s reason for existence. Google bought SketchUp back in 2006 to populate Google Earth with models of the built world. Therefore, there are also civil projects -- more than a few. A search for Golden Gate Bridge finds 228 models. Ok, it is the most famous bridge in the word and I shouldn’t be surprised to find so many people honing their modeling skills on it. Let’s try something rarer. Didn’t Autodesk include a model of a dolphin with 123D? A search for “dolphin” in 3D Warehouse yields 181 results. Granted, one is the Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, FL, but even after you discount such irrelevancies, there’s still a whole lot of Flippers.
And speaking of chairs...John was being modest. A search for chairs comes up with 14,317 entries. There are 34 models of Adirondacks!
Who knew? Hundreds of piston models. Google’s 3D Warehouse provides an incredible number of mechanical parts. Autodesk’s 123D will have to play catch-up.
But let’s get back to mechanical design. I look up engine and get 894 results. Some are in complete cars. Let’s drill down: pistons. There’s too many to count. Speed reducers. Only 5? What a let down.
Clearly, Autodesk has quite a bit of catching up to do. SketchUp users have been busy for years adding mucho models…tens of thousands of models, if not more --- all of them freely downloadable. Combined with Google’s unmatched ability to search, models are incredibly easy to find.
The comparison of SketchUp and 123D may be a bit more complex than I thought. These products will need to be put to the test.
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*Get it? SKP is the Sketchup file extension.
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