Google 3D Warehouse

The Trimble 3D Warehouse (formerly Google 3D Warehouse) is an accompanying website for SketchUp where modelers can upload, download and share three dimensional models. The site was created on April 24, 2006.

The site enables modelers to create collections of models and uses algorithms to determine similar models. Individual models can be viewed in 3D from within a browser. PC World reported in 2008 that 3D Warehouse allows users without significant artistic inclination to make and populate 3D models.

The New York Times reported in 2008 that 3D Warehouse had become a virtual "dictionary" of 3D vocabulary, reporting its suitability in film making, for example:

... you can find insanely detailed three-dimensional virtual models of most major building structures of the world. Need a street in San Francisco? Here’s a filmable virtual set. With powerful search and specification tools, high-resolution clips of any bridge in the world can be circulated into the common visual dictionary for reuse. Out of these ready-made “words,” a film can be assembled, mashed up from readily available parts. The rich databases of component images form a new grammar for moving images.

Read more about Google 3D Warehouse:  Google Earth