Model Your Home, Plan Improvements in 3D with Google Sketchup

Link via Lifehacker

My wife and I just moved to an apartment with a great backyard, but neither of us think spatially. Using Google Sketchup, it’s been easier than I’d imagined to plan our Ultimate Patio 4000.

If you’ve got a similar kind of project that you want to mess with in three dimensions before buying or modifying anything, Sketchup is a free solution that might work perfectly for you. It’s powerful enough to garner an intrigued look from the one SolidWorks-using engineer I know, but user-friendly enough that liberal arts majors like me can put a 3D model of their house on Google Earth, model things to build, or, as we’ll detail below, recreate any space, indoors or out, to inspire an Extreme Makeover: Geek Edition.