As read on http://www.rickyjordan.com/2008/05/3dvia-shape.html, 3dvia provides a free modeling application, called Shape, which resembles SketchUp.

It requires the user to be online and is Windows-only.

Maria

Vaclav Chaloupka created a three-part video tutorial, explaining how to use Blender for a full architectural visualization animation.

http://www.vimeo.com/785249

The acquisition of Caligari (creators of Truespace) by Microsoft has lead to the release of Truespace 7.6 for free.

Microsoft hopes it will help people to create content for their Virtual Earth system, not unlike the use of the free version of SketchUp to create models for Google Earth…

This is a full version, including modeling, animation, rendering and customization, but for Windows only. And you have to get used to the icon-based interface (hundreds of icons for most functions. The interactive widgets in the viewport and the realtime rendering features in the modeling view are compelling features.

Go to http://www.cadhistory.net for a link to a free e-book on the history of CAD (mostly oriented towards Mechanical CAD, but there are chapters on different companies).

You are encouraged by the author to donate for the research on cancer.

Antics provides a solution to develop realtime animations. It is used for pre-visualization, machinima and general multimedia purposes.

There are two versions: free and pro, with different content available and with better integration in the pro version.

http://www.antics3d.com

Available for Windows only.

There are different free CAD applications, which might be worth to keep an eye on. Some of them are actively being developed, but not fully usable yet.

• wildcat full CAD system, using MCAD concepts, but in early development (no end-user application yet)
• CADEMIA 2D generic CAD in Java, an academic research project
• thancad 2D CAD for engineers, using Python
• PythonCAD 2D CAD in Python
• JCad 2D CAD in Java
• QCad 2D CAD in C++
• Archimedes 2D AutoCAD-clone
• FreeCAD 3D MCAD in C++ (feature based parametric modeler)
• B-processor Building Information Modeling in Java, an academic research project
• BRL-CAD general Solid Modeling and Raytracing by the US Army

Most of them are cross-platform. Some of them exist in a free (and Open) community edition and commercial add-ons. But it might be an approach to build further on an existing toolset.

Maria