Hand-Sketch vs Sketchup: tools for helping designers

In the architectural design process there are three stages - schematic, development and documentation.

Prior to the digital revolution, architects spent the preliminary part of the design process using pen or pencil to sketch on paper, translating design concepts from the designer's mind into 2D or 3D images that could be easily understood by the architect himself or by others. Physical or mock-up models also helped.

With computer technology, architects began to develop designs and create construction documents, but the schematic design process was not really computerised.

By the 1960s, however, computer-aided design (CAD) began to take shape as a new line of research that was quickly applied to the architectural practice. By the 1970s, CAD programs began to be commercially produced and sold.

In the 1980s, while personal computers began to develop, Autodesk Co was established, with made-for-PC programs such as AutoCAD Release 1 coming to the market.

Design, both architectural and engineering, began to be computer-aided. However, the early generations of CAD programs remained largely drafting tools on PCs, as they were developed by engineers and researchers who were not designers themselves. They did not have much understanding of the minds and working process of architects. Architects needed not only an aid for architectural drafting, but also for architectural design.

In 1999, a group of researchers, both architects and software developers, began to search for an alternative program that catered better to architects' needs than CAD. A company called @last Software was established and designers' hand-sketching and design processes were studied to develop a sketching/designing program. In August 2000, SketchUp was born.

With full understanding of architects' needs and work methodology, SketchUp is an easy-to-use program that works on quick 2D sketches that can be projected into 3D form very quickly. The award-winning program caught on and now is widely used.

In 2006 it was sold to Google, which turned it into what we now know as Google SketchUp. It is now very easy to design, create forms and exchange information about these forms over the Internet. With free use for the basic-level program, Google SketchUp is commonly used by not just architects and designers.

As it was based on AutoCAD, SketchUp's interface is fairly similar, with the same set of basic functions, command icons, and form-creating, manipulating and rendering commands. These commands are not complex, with just enough options to generate various forms, with many styles of effects. Those already familiar with AutoCAD can easily learn to use SketchUp.

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Hand-Sketch vs Sketchup: tools for helping designers