Now this is interesting and perhaps not good news for Trimble. According to CAD industry veteran Ralph Grabowski Google has come up with an alternative approach for generating 3D building models. Instead of SketchUp they are now using oblique photography – I wonder where they are getting that from.
In any case, according to Ralph that made SketchUp obsolete. It does not seem like a one to one trade off to me, but I am sure Google has a plan.
When I read this it connected with something I came a cross recently.
If you haven’t found it already check out this link.
http://www.pictometry.com/
Please read about Google’s announcement on Wednesday where they explained how they are making 3D models from imagery captured from imagery acquired from planes they hired. See: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/06/us-google-maps-idINBRE85516020120606
DirectionsMag’s most recent podcast http://www.directionsmag.com/podcasts/podcast-what-did-google-really-say-in-its-june-6-geo-announcement/258069 has a very good discussion on the implications of Google’s latest technology to Sketchup. Short answer — calculation made that crowdsourcing of 3D content creation was not producing as good of return on investment as using the photography will. Consequently, no need to have Sketchup for that purpose. I don’t think this renders sketchup any more or less useful for tasks outside of crowdsourcing the creation of 3D models of the real world.