SU8 - WISHLIST

Gaieus · 15 May 2009, 14:39

Ni Michael, I didn't mean a sort of license we could buy but something that existed for GIF files and which limited its use by 3rd party applications / programs / developers mainly (not end users) - but as Thom pointed out above it's run out already

mpowell1234567890 · 15 May 2009, 16:10

@gaieus said:

Ni Michael, I didn't mean a sort of license we could buy but something that existed for GIF files and which limited its use by 3rd party applications / programs / developers mainly (not end users) - but as Thom pointed out above it's run out already

Ok. Didn't know till now. Sorry for the mix-up.

EscapeArtist · 23 May 2009, 15:56

I don't know if anyone's put this on the wish list, but here's another one I'd like to have:

A generic "STOP" button for script/ruby plugins or tools.

As I try to make more and more complex models that use some of the great plugins here that folks have made, I think I probably push the calculative ability SU too far. I wind up staring at a screen that may do nothing for several minutes, or alt-tab over to Firefox and do some browsing, come back to SU and nothing has happened 15 minutes later. Yep, it's my fault for not keeping the poly count down, but it sure would be nice to have a "Stop" capability to tell SU to quit the calculation and "undo" or ignore any changes so that I could find some other way to accomplish what I want without having to kill the SU process and cause it to crash, along with the added annoyance of having to rearrange my toolbars for the 10th ^&*(%$# time that day ("Lock" or "Save toolbar config" is already on the wish list).

mpowell1234567890 · 23 May 2009, 17:27

I like to add this to Sketchup 8 Free version list:
~The ability to create 3d games.
~Import and export 3d game level maps "Quake, Myst ETC.. for example"
~More free exporter's and importers.
~The ability to increase or decrease gravity in the collision detection.
~The best for all - more surprizes.

plot-paris · 24 May 2009, 09:41

@escapeartist said:

A generic "STOP" button for script/ruby plugins or tools.

1+
thats a great idea. or just pressing the ESC button brings up a prompt "Do you want to cancel the process" or something like that.

@mpowell1234567890 said:

~The ability to increase or decrease gravity in the collision detection.:

something really funny would be a gravity mode: with the gravity-mode switched on you can still draw as usual. but the moment you create a group/component, it is affected by gravity and falls to the ground. use the entity info window or context-click to exclude a group from the pull of gravity... so this is a bit like sketchy physics - just a lot more intuitive, because you can draw in a scene that is instantly affected by physics...

Gaieus · 24 May 2009, 09:45

Drop.rb would (well...) "drop" things onto the ground - true that not instantly, "on the fly".

I could imagine this being a pin though; you start drawing something, finish the first face and when you want to ad the second, it disappears and gets stacked on top of something metres below. Now start searching...

plot-paris · 24 May 2009, 11:22

thats why the gravity only affects groups and components. thus you can model whatever you want and then group it to 'place it in the world of gravity'

mpowell1234567890 · 24 May 2009, 16:25

Cool.

mpowell1234567890 · 25 May 2009, 18:29

Any news of when Sketchup 8 is coming? I'm very excited about it.

Wacov · 25 May 2009, 18:29

Like LittleBigPlanet!! That'd be pretty good

remus · 25 May 2009, 18:39

@mpowell1234567890 said:

Any news of when Sketchup 8 is coming? I'm very excited about it.

Nope, google never give details of planned release dates.

Gaieus · 25 May 2009, 21:33

@mpowell1234567890 said:

Any news of when Sketchup 8 is coming? I'm very excited about it.

Michael, you were very excited before SU 7 came out (not too long ago actually).

I doubt however (and it's a personal "guess") that SU 8 will come out this year so I think we can all relax a little bit and take our time to make good wishes.

utiler · 25 May 2009, 22:48

Agree Csaba, It hasn't been long since V7.0 so I wouldn't think it will be anytime soon....

mpowell1234567890 · 26 May 2009, 04:06

@gaieus said:

@mpowell1234567890 said:

Any news of when Sketchup 8 is coming? I'm very excited about it.

Michael, you were very excited before SU 7 came out (not too long ago actually).

I doubt however (and it's a personal "guess") that SU 8 will come out this year so I think we can all relax a little bit and take our time to make good wishes.

Cool.

Jaycephus · 19 Jun 2009, 02:03

How about a 7.1 release before the end of the year that fixes all the obvious bugs?

I just read this thread and I have to say that I agree with DacaD and kwistenbiebel the most.

But I also believe that the Warehouse should be massaged into something more like 3DContentCentral for SolidWorks, which isn't about advertising... It's about Design, and not wasting Time redrawing the wheel. 3DContentCentral has user contributions as well as corporate models, but it is all there for making the designer's job easier and faster, not for generating advertising revenue for SolidWorks' parent company.

Much of this thread tried to address the profitability of SU, and seemed to be mixing up the for-free product model metaphor with the standard for-profit product model. BUT I'M PAYING GOOD MONEY FOR SKETCHUP! For all the money I've paid, I expect it to handle AT LEAST as many polys or entities as $180 subdivision modelers. How about ZBrush? For the same money as Sketchup it uses multicore processing to great effect, realtime shadows, a full 4GB of RAM even though it isn't 64-bit yet, and easily handles well over ten-million polys without sweating, billions with some craftiness. Can SU even load and function with a model that requires 100 measly MB of RAM? In ZBrush (poly with subdivision smoothing and realtime self-shadowing) or Solidworks (b-spline with poly realtime rendering, including shadows and other shader effects such as ambient occlusion), I can basically have models so complex that all available RAM is used up, but the programs are still responsive!

If Google is expecting people to pay $500 to $800 for SU, then they need to make something that provides increases in productivity, plain and simple. That's how to be profitable! That's why I got SU Pro 5 in the first place. Solidworks '07 was SLOW to do factory automation layouts, but as Solidworks has increased their UI interaction speed, workflow speed, and operations speed, and 3DContentCentral has grown into something Google Warehouse wishes to be SOME day, the benefits of SU are slipping away. Yeah SU's still cheaper. Is it still faster? For some limited things, maybe, but its debatable. If I try to add Warehouse or converted CAD models, SU quickly becomes a narcoleptic turtle on morphine. But expectations are increasing. Blocky, flat-shaded models aren't acceptable anymore. Simple shadows are old-school, and it's becoming increasingly hard to claim they're 'real-time' shadows anymore.

I noticed that Google turned the once-very-nice SketchUp website into what amounts to just another Google Beta Software page. Since Google themselves have obviously confused THEMSELVES on whether SU is being developed under a free-product model or a for-profit model, and they may in fact view it as a "blurry object on the horizon", maybe I should just hook me up a morphine drip and learn to live at SketchUp speed.

mpowell1234567890 · 19 Jun 2009, 03:03

Cool, Sounds great. I like the idea.
I cannot afford $500 to $800 for the Pro Version though - takes too long to accomplish that..
However, I do wish that the free version has what the pro version have in the program...

mpowell1234567890 · 8 Jul 2009, 07:43

I have several things to add to Sketchup 8 free wish list:

Creating 3D Games in Sketchup.
In "Make unique texture" command - A way to fix the smear in the image.
More 3D Cad functions.
Wall Tool "Like what other 3D Designing programs have".

Pixero · 13 Jul 2009, 06:38

I'm hoping to see a working fbx import and export.

mpowell1234567890 · 13 Jul 2009, 08:23

@pixero said:

I'm hoping to see a working fbx import and export.

Cool, that would be great in the free version of Sketchup 8 along with 3D Max functions.

kwistenbiebel · 13 Jul 2009, 14:18

My wish:

A rewritten solid Sketchup core, adapted to nowadays technology and conceived as an open source platform.

Plugins could still be commercial. Google can decide to make their own plugins or let 3td parties develop them.
Those could be called 'apps' and sold in an I-tunes kind of web system. (game development apps, modeling apps, rendering apps,3D physics simulation,3D scientific apps,3D medical apps, etc..etc...)

Google is doing it with Android and chrome OS, so why not an open 3D platform?
Hasn't been tried before....might work!

Besides the commercial plugins, maybe even some obscure ones? I can imagine someone fixing the carmack shadow bug as an underground project

This all might be the best solution for Sketchup to have a future.
Let's face it: Sketchup as a tool for Google Earth won't make it. Nowadays there is better technology (ask Thomthom) to get a 3D world built than doing it manually. Besides, it would take a 1000 years to get the world populated with 3D manually.

And I don't see Google engaging a market they don't know anything about, which is the CG, graphical and architectural world.
Producing SU as a solid open source 3D platform might prove to be a viable option and could open '3D' up in ways google didn't even think of.

Time for Google to take a chance and innovate.