SketchUp vs AutoCAD

With the advancement of technology, different sectors are evolving to produce quality work, such sectors include the civil engineering sector and the animation sector which are evolving at a fast pace. Designing and constructing buildings, houses, railway platforms, and animation assets like guns, clothes, armour etc is not an easy task and requires a lot of resources and time, so to ease the designing and modelling work many companies released different software, two of the most used software in these fields are SketchUp and AutoCAD. They are used by different organizations for different purposes ranging from civil designs to high-quality games and animations, so we will see a detailed comparison between the two.

SketchUp is computer software which is used for making 3D designs and modelling 3D assets for different purposes like animated movies, games etc. It is one of the best software which comes packed with a robust toolset using which anyone can create 3D models of interiors, machinery,  products etc. Initially, it was released in 2000 and its stable version was released in 2019.

Advantages of SketchUp

• It comes with pre-built doors, roofs, walls etc to ease modelling work.
• It allows putting building models on actual sites using google earth.
• It allows third-party plugins for supporting advanced features.
• It has 2D modelling functionality along with 3D modelling.

Disadvantages of SketchUp

• Realistic photo rendering is not available in this software.
• It does not have any feature to automate tasks so everything is needed to be done manually.
• Community support for this software is also low.

AutoCAD is computer software which helps in drafting and designing different types of computer applications. CAD is an acronym for Computer-Aided Design. It was developed by Autodesk. It is compatible with different operating systems like Windows, MacOS, iOS etc. It was first released in 1982 and its stable version was released in 2021. It is available in many languages. It provides robust tools for easing the work of designing.

Advantages of AutoCAD

• It comes with advanced features which help in the accurate and precise designing of civil infrastructures.
• It allows importing files from other platforms to work on pre-built designs.
• It allows to easily share files without any data loss to multiple parties simultaneously. 
• Calculation of Area, Center of Gravity, Mass, Volume etc is very easy.
• It provides enhanced image tracing functionality which helps in converting handmade designs to digital designs.

Disadvantages of AutoCAD

• It is not suitable for Building Information Modelling (BIM).
• It supports limited file formats to import into this software. 
• It is heavy software which requires high memory and disk storage.

Following is a table of differences between SketchUp and AutoCAD:

	SketchUp	AutoCAD
1.	Sketchup is also known as Google SketchUp is a 3D designing and modelling software which provides easy to use tools for modelling	It can be understood as computer-aided design software which is used in construction, designing, and drafting 3d models.
2.	It was developed by Trimble Incorporation.	It was developed by Autodesk.
3.	It comes with good rendering features.	It provides advanced rendering features which makes rendering fast and detailed.
4.	It is available in only two languages English and Swedish.	It supports many languages like English, Polish, Dutch etc.
5.	It has a small number of plugins.	It has the Autodesk Exchange App store which provides a large number of integrations.
6.	It has a simple interface which makes it easy for beginners.	It is a bit difficult for novice users.
7.	SketchUp Shop is available at $119 annually.	It is available for $220 monthly for a standard licence.
8.	It provides a student plan at $55 annually.	It is free for students.