Had a look at Sketchup recently, as I found models for the Rietveld Hillebrandt bench I was looking to make, obviously I am doing everything wrong, but I could not make heads or tails of Sketchup. Granted, I use PTC Creo Parametric / Pro/Engineer professionally (or at least, used to, manager now), and that is such a breeze now, quite a learning curve though. I think there is a free educational version, or maybe you only get that if you take one of their trainings ($$$).
With respect to 3d modeling, as mentioned above, it is universal now, still a firm believer in 2d drawings though, there are some trials going on to do 3d drawings, in the model itself, but I always ask those proponents, "what if you want to print something out and take it to the workshop to discuss and mark-up?". Making a 2d drawing from a 3d model is not that much work, gives you something to communicate, and it is still part of the contract with a supplier (but they always ask for 3d models...., even though there is no geometric tolerancing on those :roll: ).
