I've been looking for software to replace Blender which has been crashing each time I try to render an image. So looking around I came across Google Sketchup and noticed that there's a free version and a paid version which supposedly offers more. I don't mind paying if the program is good for 3D modeling but I don't know . . . Have any of you used the paid version of Google Sketchup. If you have, would you say it's better than the cheaper alternatives out there?
Depends what you're modeling. Blender is great and its better than sketchup at certain things but it shouldn't be crashing. Sketchup is more specialized for architecture. Blender is better for all around 3D modeling.
All depends on what you will be doing with it. If you are planning a house or doing architecture work then its the way to go. However if you are doing something for film or games then you are much better sticking with Cinema 4D, Maya or 3DSMax.
I'm not into architecture so Google Sketchup certainly isn't going to be of any help at all to me. Thanks for the suggested software Guru but since I'm not creating animations or 3D models for commercial purposes, I wouldn't buy expensive 3D Modeling/Animation software. I could still stick with Blender but the image I've created can't be rendered. I don't know know, maybe I could save a raw .blend file and use a third party renderer to do the job?
I hope you can get help and find out why blender is crashing. It could be your hardware or something or anything. I don't know any other free programs for rendering. If you are a student and register on the Autodesk website you can use their programs like 3Ds max. If you need the model rendered for something you can post the .blend here and I can render it for you.
Sketchup is a fairly good 3D modeling software, its easy to use and understand, the UI is clean, its very flexible and has a decent array of rendering software support like Vray and Maxwell Render. But Google Sketchup is mainly for architectural and hard surface modeling and not much for character and organic modeling. If you're looking for a more robust 3D application, I suggest you go check out 3DSMax and Maya (although they're not available for free, you can get a 3 year student license from Autodesk if you enroll as a student absolutely free of charge, but you can't use it for commercial purposes though.) There are a ton of free 3D modeling software out there but Blender is probably the best of the bunch.
Thanks for the offer mistymi but I got myself a new PC, downloaded blender again and it's working just fine. So I figured my old machine was acting up or the system I was using had been invaded by a virus. I'll never find out for sure.
I have a friend who has been using it for a while and now and his reviews are that the software is great so if you are still going to use it then you will be impressed. Personally I have not used it as am not a big fan dealing with 3d modelling softwares.
