Acquired by Google in March, SketchUp (available in Windows now, with a Mac client coming soon) is a simple yet powerful tool for designing and rendering 3-D models online. Originally intended for professional designers, the tool has proven accessible and popular with amatures as well.

Google's acquisition and subsequent release of a free entry level version has only accelerated that trend. Already, Google has taken steps to increase integration of SketchUp with Google Earth (their more powerful download-version of Google Maps). Even better, they're now offering a searchable SketchUp Warehouse that allows people to upload and download 3-D objects to share and build on with others.

For example, the folks over at MAKE Blog has started a regular feature that highlights how people are using SketchUp to design and then build things like http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/04/workbench_plans_made_with_sket.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890">a workbench and a bar.

Here at Houseblogs.net, our members have make occasional reference to using SketchUp for modeling home improvement projects as early as 2005. (You can find references by doing a search for the term using the houseblogs search tool.) There's also been some recent chatter about the tool over in the Houseblogs Forum.

The possibilities of a mass-market tool like this is are pretty inredible. It seems reasonable to expect that the archive of freely-available objects will become a great resource for DIYers who are remodeling or even just redecorating to quickly design a room and then use lamps, couches and a a piano that others have created to quickly and easily mock-up furnishings.

If you're interested in learning about SketchUp, Google has posted a nice overview of the tool and has also set up a SketchUp discussion group where you can share questions and ideas.