Every few years the idea of using an existing modeling package for a game editor pops up at the places I work. I personally enjoy SketchUp more than Max or Maya, but I believe all three of them would ultimately collapse under the weight of handling thousands of objects in a scene.

I know metadata (attributes) can be associated to unique components, so that takes care of baseline game needs. Plus the component architecture is really nice at mimicking game prefabs. I'd love a reason to spend more time inside of SketchUp if I think it can deal with a variety of primitive objects that represent game logic objects and the intertwined game data they hold.

OR, on the flipside -- has anyone had success in mimicking the simplicity of SketchUp model creation inside of Max or Maya (as a plugin)?