Program for @Last Software. We were acquired by Google in March of 2006. The thing about being a part of Google is that it's forced me to think very differently about SketchUp's place in the world. With a free version available, and with Google's reach, we have an opportunity to do a lot more for the design profession than just be a useful 3D modeling tool. I think we're in a position to change the way everyday people think about communicating complicated three-dimensional concepts. The more people understand about space and form, and what it takes to work with it, the better off we'll be as architects, engineers and designers. Better-educated clients makes for better design. And ten years from now, when every young person with a computer has interacted with (and maybe even created) a 3D model, who knows what we'll be able to imagine? That's my dream, anyway.

CatchUp: So about 3D Basecamp. What was the original intention to create a 3D Basecamp event?

Aidan Chopra:It's pretty simple, really: Back in 2005, we knew that we wanted to get our best and most dedicated users together in one place. The people on our forums were a big part of our success as a product, and we wanted to see what would happen if our user community actually met up in person. The original Base Camp was seen as much as a party as it was an educational event, and it definitely came off that way. We had a ball, and we think the people who attended did, too.

It's taken us a while to get our act together in order to have another one, but here we are. SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2008 is set to take place in about a month, at the Googleplex in California. About 40 of us from the

Boulder office will be there. The free nature of the event necessitated a random selection process for invitees, which means that the tone of this Basecamp will probably be different from the one three years ago. Back then, we knew a lot of the people who came. This time, most of the faces will be completely new. It's hard to know what to expect, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.

CatchUp: About this years event, we know you like surprises, but there is no mention in the current planning about any introductions for new software, or a preview of SketchUp 7. Can you give us a 'likely' or 'not likely' answer as to what to expect for the event news-wise?

Aidan Chopra: Here's what I can say: 1) We've been working hard on SketchUp 7 since we launched SketchUp 6. 2) It's coming along nicely. 3) We want to tell people what we're doing so badly it hurts. 4) We can't tell people what we're doing because software development tends to be very unpredictable and we don't want to promise anything we can't deliver. 5) We called the Program on the Basecamp website a "partial list" because we wanted to leave room to be able to show things we can't publicly describe right now. 6) It's possible that we'll show something new, but we haven't decided yet if we will.

The funny thing is that for most SketchUp users, there's at least some aspect of the existing software that's new to them. An expert in modeling might know nothing about scenes and animation, and an animation expert might be completely in the dark about working with photos and textures. Almost all of us are experts at some things and beginners at others, so while showing new features is exciting, I don't