If you secretly harbor the desire to design in 3D, you've probably already downloaded and explored Google SketchUp, the free-slash-500-dollar modeling tool from our buddies on the G-team that allows you to put your virtual buildings right into Google Earth. Now, as seen at Macworld, there's an interesting product that combines the free version of SketchUp 6 with lighting and rendering modules to produce something new: TurboSketch Studio from IMSI/Design.

This is a retail product (boxed and download) available in standard and pro versions for $100 and $250; the "show discount," good through the end of the month, drops the prices to $70 and $150 respectively.

The IMSI crew has the vintage TurboCAD program in the stable, so this seems like a fairly natural line extension. According to the product info, this is the first retail bundle for a Google application; it's certainly the first one I can think of for the Mac. It's not shipping yet, and the IMSI website seems to be in the reorganization process, but If we can get our mitts on a review copy we'll let you know how it rolls.

[via MacTech]

Of course, with the Universal release of Google Earth, Google has also kicked out a Mac OS X version of their recently-purchased SketchUp, a 3D modeling app for the masses. If you need a quick explanation, here's one as good as any from their site: "Adding a deck? Remodeling your kitchen? From simple to detailed, conceptual to realistic, Google SketchUp (free) lets you populate the world with true 3D objects."

This latest release also now supports textures, so "creating textured models is as easy as taking a photo and applying it to a 3D model". Sounds like a good time. Perhaps even better than SketchUp coming to Mac OS X is the fact that a powerful version is offered for free, while the pro version costs $495.

[thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Hot on the heels of being acquired by Google, the fine folks that make SketchUp have released a free version. Now, at the moment it is Windows only, but a Mac version is coming soon (and I bet it'll be sooner than most Mac products from Google).

The new version, called Google SketchUp (free), is slightly different than SketchUp Pro 5 (which isn't free). The free version is only for personal use, and you can't do things like print or export to a Quicktime movie, but you also can't beat the price.

[via Barkings]

Google's on an acquisition trend, having just purchased Writely, an online word processor, likely to compete with the Microsoft Office monopoly. And today, @Last Software, developers of the excellent 3D/CAD design software SketchUp, announced their acquisition by the search engine giant. The developers have posted a FAQ which should answer many of the burning questions SketchUp users might have. Recently, @Last developed a Google Earth plug-in that allows you to view your 3D models directly in their real environments inside Google Earth.

I wonder if this is another move for Google into releasing their own operating system, as has been rumored for some time now. They're actively acquiring desktop applications, resources, and programmers to make such a move. A free Google Linux, or even a suite of Google Web 2.0 applications that run on the platform independent Internet, would be an interesting competitor to Microsoft's stranglehold on the desktop marketplace.

SketchUp has teamed up with Google to create a beta plugin for SketchUp (a very cool drafting program). Why is this cool? You can create a building in SketchUp and place that drawing in its context in Google Earth. This is a very powerful concept and I'm sure lots of small Mac shops are rejoicing about this plugin.