Google Sketchup :

[YouGroove]

I mainly used Blender, than i given a try to Google Sketchup.

And yes, i find it incredibly fast to use and make things, like we would be drawing.

 

One point , it is for hard surface things like 3D assets, outdoor buildings etc ...

But it is not suited at al for making characters even low poly, because it lacks lot of basic things like : loop cut, Edge/Face loop select etc ...

 

What must be done , is to import your final model to Blender or another program to Merge all Duplicated vetex, caus depending on what you model, you can see

different objects Snapped with lot of duplicated vertex. So you welld all into one Object than Merge the vertex.

For making outdoor buildings, 3D assets , it is very fast and fun to create with that tool, it can be used to make 3D assets also, it's fun to use.

[YouGroove]

It is possible to use Sketchup basic for BLender ? i don't think ?

Caus i find the pro version too much expensive and prefer to keep Blender for modeling even if Sketchup is great !

[paramecij]

Try exporting from sketchup as google earth .kmz file, then rename the .kmz to .zip. Inside you should find a collada file which you should be able to import in blender.

[Richard Simpson]

Sketchup 8 allows export to DAE in the free version.

[paramecij]

Even better then! (guess their page is a bit misleading, it only mentions .dae export under pro features)

[Richard Simpson]

Oh :S Probably a sneaky tactic to hope people wont notice!