Using Google SketchUp for Electronics Projects

You might find Google's free 3D software, Google SketchUp, useful for your next hardware project. Here are a few examples from Google's 3D Warehouse design repository.
This single board computer model was created by special computing for an embedded computer board.

This Calao Systems Single Board Computer has a 200Mhz Atmel AT91SAM9263 ARM926EJ-S, 256MB flash, 64MB SDRAM, EEPROM, U-Boot, Linux 2.6, 4 USB ports, 1 programming/debug, 2 stacked host, 1 mini device, and an expansion connector (for I2C, Audio and Video).

It was pretty easy to for me to use SketchUp to manipulate the 3D model to see all of the components. You can also export any view as a 2D image or an animation to show customers your designs. It didn't take me long to create an animation once I learned the basic controls.


Here is another example of a 3D model created for a PCB layout.