I just got the Sketchupdate :( and send Adian a mail
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Hi Adian,
although I love to get these updates, me and some of my fellow architects who have been using Sketchup since the beginning are frustrated with Google's lack of interest. These updates show no further developments in the software itself. It has been a standstill since Google took over. Its nice that Sketchup is still on the road but nothing new is happening. For years now, no further developments. That was not the case some years back when every Sketchupdate was full of promise and ideas about CAD. Now I am reading about trainings, shows and Google earth related matters.I am sure for Google SU is just a funny way to support Google Earth but before Google took over Sketchup brought a revolution to the world of architecture. I miss the days when Sketchup was still Sketchup with a brilliant team of software engineers totally devoted to CAD. Today Layout is still beta and the bugs of years back are still there. I feel like the most brilliant kid in the class has fallen asleep because the new teacher has lost interest.
Kind regards, Francois Verhoeven
Architect. -
Know how you feel
lots more reading on the subject (there isnt any hard news in there, just to forewarn you): http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=9569
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I'm sure I'm not the only one to have this thought, but what if they open-source'd the SketchUp code? They code keep Layout and the exporters proprietary, and sell them as the "Pro" version plugins. Just open-source the base code, and SketchUp would kill everything else out there in about 1 year.
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Hi Jim,
Yes, I think you are right. Google should just Open the doors.
They clearly are not that interested in making money from SketchUp
sales, if they were there would be no free SU.Advertising is Google's business not CAD and Google Earth is one
of their vehicles for advert revenue generation. I have no problem
or complaints in this area but wish they had a little more foresight.With an Open Source SU I believe you are right in saying that, we would
see a lot of wonderful developments in a very short time frame AND
this could only enhance and consolidate Google Earth's place in the
marketplace thus increasing advert revenue for them in turn.The best part of the deal for Google is that it would not cost them
a cent for the indirect services and lots and lots of Programmers.
Now, please let me that they are not being shortsighted
Mike
PS: I wonder if any of the Google Guys are reading / listening
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Jim,
A really interesting creative idea well worth exploring.
I think a lot depends of whether Google has been doing any serious work on the core of the program. If they have, and we all end up being reasonably happy with the improvements, then the rationale for open sourcing SU will be less compelling. If they really have not been able to make much progress with the core then open sourcing becomes much more attractive.
Fred
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Open source SU would be the shit, to put it bluntly.
I tihnk i might actually take up programming if that ever happened.
go open source -
@jim said:
I'm sure I'm not the only one to have this thought, but what if they open-source'd the SketchUp code? They code keep Layout and the exporters proprietary, and sell them as the "Pro" version plugins. Just open-source the base code, and SketchUp would kill everything else out there in about 1 year.
I brought it this topic up a while back in the old SketchUp forum. The Google team made some remark that amounted to, "Well...no."
On the other hand, open source projects are not always miraculously wonderful. Do you really want to see SU turn into Blender because the "lords of coding" decided this was good? Keep in mind that for five years or so the Blender team refused to institute a "Ctrl+Z" undo, because it made the code "messy."
It's still not well done. There's an undo for mesh editing, and outside of editing mode there's another undo stack. If you quit editing mode and hit undo, it undoes everything you did during that edit, no matter how complex the mesh editing operation was, and the entire history of mesh editing is lost forever.
But maybe the code looks nice to the lords of coding. And there are lords. Or may we should call them the "Techno Elite." Open source projects are driven by the code contributors, not the users. If you use a lot of FOSS software (and I do, and I even sometime contribute financially to them), you sometimes get the impression that the coders think general, non-coding users are inconvenient at best, or parasites at worse.
Just think...SU could be "GIMP-ified."
Would you prefer that to Google's neglect?
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Lewis, both the GIMP and blender have bad UIs, but i think thi is more a result of poor planning rather than not wanting to have a good UI. As SU is already pretty well developed in this area id say it's unlikely anyone would actively make it worse.
More generally i think SU is a pretty well developed program. i think if it was to go open source people would have the good sense to try and stick with the general ethos of the program, i.e. concentrate on quick and easy architectural modelling rather than turning it in to something else.
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thanks for the support.
Open source might revolutionize the app further but I think it sort of needs the brilliant team of visionairs it was born from. I use Vectorworks on a daily basis and that package was also sold some years back when it was still MiniCad. Only Vectorworks was bought by a CAD company and they have actually improved Vectorworks a lot. And are still upgrading and developing it. I have thousands of hours invested in VW and so I am lucky VW is still there. I am not so confident anymore with Sketchup. Have moved over to Modo and Maxwell for modeling and are still on Sketchup for as long as its around. Lots of CAD application developers are familiar with Sketchup by now and I hope some of them will incorparate the SU way of modeling. I don't even think open source can still be in time to rescue SU. I have learned a good lesson that most of us already knew. Google or any other big firm not related to the profession is never a good party to get bought by. By now I have much less apreciation for Google and those who sold their ideas and clients to them. -
pretty new to these forums, but have been using sketchup pretty regularly for the last few years. I am in the videogame/film/tv industry and have found sketchup to be heavily used in the design process. It's a similar industry to architecture, considering the needs for conceptual, photoreal designs. I have been waiting for sketchup to take the next step in terms of modelling and am hopeful that 7 will address some of the issues. I hope Google understands the widespread use of Sketchup in diverse industries. If in the next update there is little to address the need for better modelling, and maybe even more extensive lighting options (like the light up plugin) i think i'll have to bite the bullet and learn modo...ouch. I hope not because i love sketchup and am heavily invested in it. just my two cents.
i love this board by the way, have learned an amazing amount and am constantly inpressed with the quality of the work displayed!
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