Hi
Just like to say hello. My name ios Kevin Hallsworth, I am a furniture designer/maker and educator. I use sketchup a lot in illustrating my ideas, preparing design sheets and also as a tool for making, e.g for templates , for laser cutting etc. I also use Podium as a renderer.
I also encourage my students to use sketchup as it is a really good tool for quickly converting ideas before they get lost.
Please check out my stuff at http://www.kevinhallsworth.co.uk.
I welcome any comments