A new home for SketchUp

jeff hammond · 27 Apr 2012, 00:55

[off:eewee5ag]oh hell yeah..

HAMMOND
Gender: Masculine

Usage: English (Rare)

Pronounced: HAM-ənd [key]

From an English surname which was derived from either the Germanic given name Haimund which meant "home protection" or else from the Old Norse given name Hámundr which meant "high protection".

anyone need to buy a little protection? [/off:eewee5ag]

jeff hammond · 27 Apr 2012, 01:07

i guess at first glance at trimble as a company (today is the first day i've ever heard the name), there's a sort of wishy washy taste left behind..

meaning, their website was the first impression for me and it just feels.. i don't know.. stuffy?

like a website that a bunch of engineers instead of a bunch of architects might put together? if that makes any sense..

or maybe something along the lines of how i'd expect a global shipping & logistics type corporation to present themselves..
like i said.. i don't know exactly.. just something..

hopefully the new boulder offices will still be populated with those mac boys, in which case, everything should be ok

ishboo · 27 Apr 2012, 01:19

@unknownuser said:

i guess at first glance at trimble as a company (today is the first day i've ever heard the name), there's a sort of wishy washy taste left behind..

meaning, their website was the first impression for me and it just feels.. i don't know.. stuffy?

like a website that a bunch of engineers instead of a bunch of architects might put together? if that makes any sense..

or maybe something along the lines of how i'd expect a global shipping & logistics type corporation to present themselves..
like i said.. i don't know exactly.. just something..

hopefully the new boulder offices will still be populated with those mac boys, in which case, everything should be ok

I agree their site could use a fair bit of makeup...

pbacot · 27 Apr 2012, 01:26

Surprised more aren't familiar with the name. They make serious survey and GPS equipment and are in the GIS and remote sensing fields.

But I gather that many other "products" are run by subsidiaries and not necessarily connected. They talk about integration but it doesn't look like the different products they have are so closely and centrally controlled, at least for now.

jeff hammond · 27 Apr 2012, 01:41

@pbacot said:

Surprised more aren't familiar with the name. They make serious survey and GPS equipment

they're probably just out of my league.. i'm more smalltime.. i mean, i own/use a basic transit and i can see where i'm at on my phone but besides that…

@unknownuser said:

and are in the GIS

when i see GIS, i'm automatically thinking 'these are the people that need to be converting us hard headed americans to metric!'.. a global measurement standard.. but maybe i'm just weird

jeff hammond · 27 Apr 2012, 01:54

@hieru said:

@solo said:

Found this on Time online....
@unknownuser said:

......It’s nice to see Google moving on without leaving anyone in the lurch.

Anyone else really annoyed about this comment from Time?

nah.. the writer is just saying that he's glad google didn't just leave sketchup to die.. they at least had the decency to sell it to someone else that is interested in continuing development

(ie- the product, if left in the hands of google, was dead (and it must of been the vibe around the sketchup offices the past year or two although the users were basically unaware.. though some have speculated as much))

Hieru · 27 Apr 2012, 01:58

@solo said:

Found this on Time online....
@unknownuser said:

......It’s nice to see Google moving on without leaving anyone in the lurch.

Anyone else really annoyed about this comment from Time?

Edit: I might have misread that. I assumed they were saying that 'real' modellers wouldn't use SU in the first place. Putting my paranoid tendencies in check, they could be saying that SU looks to be moving on without neglecting its user base.

I suppose we will just have to wait until the handover has been finalised.

mitcorb · 27 Apr 2012, 01:59

Well, it does seem a bit slanted. But maybe the journalist(?)is unaware of the whole spectrum?

utiler · 27 Apr 2012, 02:28

@al hart said:

@unknownuser said:

No, but I just registered trimbucation.com

How about TrimbleUp and SketchUTrimble?

It sounds like 'SketchUTremble' for the moment....

wyatt · 27 Apr 2012, 02:41

I don't personally use it, but we use Trimble software and survey equipment in our office. I haven't heard any big complaints in that regard. I'm interested to see how SU is integrated with/into Trimble's other software packages.

Ecuadorian · 27 Apr 2012, 02:57

"The friendly place for your Trimble SketchUp needs" sounds odd. Better make it
"The friendly place for you SketchUp nerds"

Abe Megahed · 27 Apr 2012, 03:02

<sigh>

The world just doesn't seem to know what to do with 3D. Sad, sad, sad. So many missed opportunities.

SketchUp could have dovetailed nicely into Google's offerings in ways far deeper than just a tool for Google Earth, but it would have required cooperation and communication between Mountain View and Boulder, which never was to be.

Google's ad based model could have fit perfectly with SketchUp. In the late 1990s, with Hypercosm, we built a web based viewer / simulation platform and an ad server that served up advertisements while the model downloaded. We implemented web based 3D search in ways that tied together 3D models and 2D web pages together. Google had the muscle to have made 3D simulation a web supported media type. There are a zillion ways that SketchUp's mission and Google's mission could have been made to align. But, it would have required people to talk.

So long, SketchUp, it's been good to know ya.

-abe.

Abe Megahed
founder, Hypercosm (1998-2011)

solo · 27 Apr 2012, 03:19

Get used to the term BIM, as it looks like SU and BIM are gonna meet @ Trimble. Great news for some that have been wanting this for a while. Hopefully they keep the free version or have an optional version for the modeling masses that have no need for BIM. If these guys know what they are doing and it seems they do as I could not find much negative on them (or much of anything for that matter) they could elevate SU into something awesome with an even wider and tailored appeal which will finally rid it's distractors and software snobs.

Krisidious · 27 Apr 2012, 03:55

wtf? is it april first?

Gaieus · 27 Apr 2012, 04:05

Good evening, Kriss!

Mark H. · 27 Apr 2012, 04:08

Hey everyone,

John and I were sitting together for most of the day, so I've been plugged into the dialogue here, and I have to say that the inspiring part of working with the SketchUp team is that threads like these echo beyond these forums. We're definitely encouraged by the confidence you all have in SketchUp, and we also understand the skepticism around this news. Ultimately, it's up to us to show you why we're excited for SketchUp's future. To wrap, I wanted to share a comment that was left on our Facebook wall, because it has really resonated with our team today:

"I think part of this worry is that users could be afraid that this move is really to compete than to innovate. Just remember those numerous plugins by your biggest fans. And because of these fans, your software has the be ability for complex modeling, BIM, rendering and animation. So, in a way it is limitless compared to the $3,000 drafting programs! Now that I think about it, what makes SketchUp so unique is that it has nothing to do with technology, it's community. People work so hard on new plugins because they believe in your software, they even offer to help and inspire newcomers. This is pride, and I recommend your team lets that become your navigation as SketchUp develops further. Good luck!" -- Christopher Vela

Mark

agamemnus · 27 Apr 2012, 04:14

Excellent.

The complex plugins are still horribly slow on my relatively new Asus G74. Maybe now this new company can advance the plugin API and make plugins faster (compiled?). The Sketchup plugin developers have done so much with so little. Now perhaps they can do a lot more with a lot...

petersaal · 27 Apr 2012, 04:23

I hope this means that SketchUp will finally be ported to run on the Commodore 64. There's a huge community that's been waiting for it. For decades. We're getting old.

jeff hammond · 27 Apr 2012, 04:30

if I could offer one piece of advise on making this transition, from the user point of view, be a welcomed one.. it would be to make sure all the license transfers and whatnot go smoothly.

it's probably one of those weird situations when someone has to do a lot of work in order to create something that more/less goes under appreciated or unnoticed by others but if that work wasn't done, it's gonna be gripefest2012.

(or hey, maybe google just loads up the license hard drive and ships it over to trimble and everything stays the same.. ha. I don't know how this stuff works)

fakircho · 27 Apr 2012, 05:24

I really think that the next step has been long overdue for Sketchup, i just hope this is the right one, good luck to the Sketchup team