SketchUp is a 3D computer aided design program that many professionals use. The type of engineers that use this program the most are mechanical, architectural, and civil. SketchUp is fairly similar to the CAD program SolidWorks; except I think that SolidWorks is easier to use. This may be because I’m more familiar with SolidWorks, but I’ve been starting to dislike SketchUp more and more each time I use it.
One of the main reasons I like SolidWorks over SketchUp is because you don’t have to make groups. If you forget to make a group in SketchUp and you want to go back and change something, it is very likely that you must delete everything you’ve done after that mistake in order to fix it. In SolidWorks, you can just click on “edit sketch” or “edit part”, which makes it a lot easier to change a mistake
Another reason I prefer SolidWorks is because of the features that it has. All of the features are easy to use and there are so many to choose from. For example, in SolidWorks, if I wanted to cut a hole in an object all I had to do was press “cut extrude.” In SketchUp, it took me about a half hour to figure out how to cut a hole in the floor of the house I was building. If SketchUp just added a few easy to use features, it would be just as good a program as SolidWorks.
Now, an aspect of SketchUp that I love is the 3D warehouse. In the warehouse, you can find just about anything you want and download it into your sketch. SolidWorks doesn’t have anything quite like this. This is a great feature to make your project look fancier and better overall.
In my opinion, SolidWorks is easier to use and has a better selection of features. On the other hand, SketchUp is very similar but could use a few adjustments in order to make the program easier to use and understand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SketchUp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolidWorks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimble_3D_Warehouse
hmm
Never thought about comparing them. woudl you draw a house in SW and add people and trees?