A new home for SketchUp

[sorgesu]

So Trimble Stock closed up 2.5% today. I knew it, I knew it.

[thomthom]

Thanks for the chime-in Brad.

[Daniel]

It's 8:30 and I just finished a 12 hour day (but at least I ended it designing with SU!), and I find 22 pages on this out-of the-blue news; oy vey. BTW, is this a record for the most pages generated in such a short time? At last, I have something I can post in the gallery, but everyone is distracted so I'll wait . Anyhow, this reminds me of the time when Google bought SU, and there were predictions of it's eminent demise. So, I will take them at their word and believe/hope SU continues as the great program it is, and maybe will be improved in time. I find it optimistic that the SU team of developers is migrating to Trimble with the program, so it should be in good hands. At least it wasn't bought by Autodesk! Ciao!

[SurfingAlien]

oh my... I so love SketchUp the way it is now (I mean all round: cheap/free, tons of plugins you don't even need to install/uninstall, lots of 3rd party renderers, clean and "generalist" approach... etc) I am also worried as many of you

I am not afraid of the change itself but please don't make it another revit/archicad (for both price and complexity)

I just hope 8.x will still work with all my plugins for a long time in the worse scenario...

...and you should see what my 12yo students can do with it after a few lessons!

[publied]

@solo said:

Time to learn Blender.

Oh shit! and now?

[raineysky]

Just heard the news and read all of the previous posts. Thanks John and the other members of the Sketchup team for coming on this forum and easing some of the concerns many of us had/have. I have literally dropped everything (spare time wise) since discovering Sketchup one year ago and have been learning how to use it efficiently. My heart was in my throat when I first read the news.

Sketchup is the best thing since sliced bread.

It is the missing link I have yearned for. Visualization is made easy with Sketchup and that is something that's been needed since the Cave Man days. Please, Please Trimble, don't make us go back to the cave man days. Remove that ball & chain (Google Earth?) from John and the team and let them go full steam ahead. Best Wishes Guys!!!

[bmike]

So, just in case, how do we download, save and archive an install package (Mac) of Pro8 (SU and LO - I need them both) - and ensure they will run if reinstalled at a later date, assuming licensing goes awry?

Blender? What is this blender?
Easy to use?
Mac like?
Anything like LayOut out there... Ugh.

Sigh.

Here's to change. I guess.
Really hoping this turns out well. Time will tell, I guess.
I only open up AutoCAD every once in a great while, and would prefer to keep it that way.
Currently teaching a class on using SketchUp to do timber work, using various plugins, but also because its so damned accessible. Hope that doesn't change. Hope that we don't go from an approachable (if dated) interface and selection of tools, to something one would find on a Windows 95 machine. That Trimble website is obtuse to put it politely.

[alexschreyer]

Here's my five cents worth...

301 Moved Permanently

(www.alexschreyer.net)

I am quite excited by this. Maybe the second default exchange format will now be IFC in addition to DAE. Lots of possibilities. Also curious how point clouds will get implemented...

Cheers,
Alex

[panixia]

I wonder in what way this will affect the developement ov VFSU 1.5

[Alan Fraser]

There's some out-of-touch clown in the comments section of this article who's "kicked the tires" and deemed SU to be nothing more than a toy. Go sick 'em boys.
It was heartening to see how many people put him straight on the subject.

[bmike]

@alan fraser said:

There's some out-of-touch clown in the comments section of this article who's "kicked the tires" and deemed SU to be nothing more than a toy. Go sick 'em boys.
It was heartening to see how many people put him straight on the subject.

yeah, horrible posting over there.
good to see folks sorting it out.

its funny to see folks get so worked up about tools...
whatever did folks do when we only had pencils?

[charly2008]

Hi,

I note that this message still generated quite a stir. Maybe we should wait till it’s finally clear what Trimble intends with Sketchup. I can only hope that Trimble-Sketchup is retained as a separate program, possibly with some improvements. What I can think of so far is:

Of course, "Trimble" will integrate the program into its range of products. This assumes that Sketchup may receive a similar appearance. The menu structure may also be adapted to other programs in the product range. It will certainly also include interfaces to exchange BIM data with their programs.

I would hope that there are at the end two Pro versions, one version with BIM functionalities or BIM interfaces, and one Version without and of course a free version.

The most important thing is that the program continues to remain intuitive. That is the great advantage over all other 3D programs.

[Mike Lucey]

Some interesting comment there Alan.

Yeah, the retired 'tyre kicking' architect is getting a bit of a taking down because he is describing SketchUp as a toy. It seems that many users take great insult when their 3D design tool of choice is referred to as a toy. It was SketchUp toyish simplicity that attracted to be to it in the first place as I could find no other application with this built in fun appeal.

I had to laugh at the 'person' comments. I suppose his user name tells a lot! Anyway his comment was,

*%(#0000BF)[Oh BOY. I can't WAIT for Trimble SketchUp! Rude customer service, crappy activation codes and customer service portals..and of course we'll have SketchUp Standard for $500 and SketchUp Professional for $1200...and we can't forget about those extended maintenance certificates...paying for incremental updates is just awesome....it makes a SketchUp fan just GIDDY!

Looking forward to the renaming....Trimble WretchUp...]*

WretchUp! What a plonker

It seems that many feel the SketchUp name, then Google SketchUp will automatically change to TrimbleSketchUp! There is no evidence or apparent Trimble policy for this type of product naming that I can see so I imagine SketchUp will be reverting back to SketchUp with possibly a 'by Trimble' tagged on. I doubt they have the need to push the Trimble brand name the way GOOGLE does.

[jeff hammond]

@bmike said:

whatever did folks do when we only had pencils?

pencil fights..
of course.

[speaking of which, i haven't had a good pencil fight in a few years… anyone want to do battle? ]

[jbacus]

Ralph Grabowski, long time CAD industry watcher, has weighed in with an opinion on our news . I'm not sure he's ever really understood what we're doing with SketchUp. Maybe you guys can help him out in the comments?

john
.

[jbacus]

@unknownuser said:

@bmike said:

whatever did folks do when we only had pencils?

pencil fights..
of course.

[speaking of which, i haven't had a good pencil fight in a few years… anyone want to do battle? ]

My Mirado Black Warrior can take your puny Dixon Ticonderoga any day. Bring it on.

john
.

[jeff hammond]

@jbacus said:

@unknownuser said:

@bmike said:

whatever did folks do when we only had pencils?

pencil fights..
of course.

[speaking of which, i haven't had a good pencil fight in a few years… anyone want to do battle? ]

My Mirado Black Warrior can take your puny Dixon Ticonderoga any day. Bring it on.

john
.

ouch!.. you obviously haven't been keeping up with the latest & greatest.. nearly 1/2" across and triangular shaped.. this is gonna be easy!

[but ok ladies.. deadlines are approaching.. i'm turning off the internet now.. ]

[thomthom]

[off:3lynobv5]
@unknownuser said:

[speaking of which, i haven't had a good pencil fight in a few years… anyone want to do battle? ]

I'll bring my waterproof marker.[/off:3lynobv5]

[Al Hart]

From: the Boulder Daily Camera:

(www.dailycamera.com)

@unknownuser said:

Trimble to open Boulder office to house SketchUp operations

Trimble Navigation Ltd., the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based positioning technologies firm that acquired the Boulder-based SketchUp unit from Google, plans to open a Boulder office, said Scott Green, Google Boulder's site director.

The “vast majority” of the SketchUp team accepted offers from Trimble, Green said, declining to disclose specific workforce numbers. Trimble officials are looking for an office in Boulder, Green said.

“SketchUp's a really impactful product; it's instrumental in a lot of professionals' daily lives, kids love it and, at this point, it's the most widely used 3-D software in the world,” he said. “What Trimble will be able to do that Google had a hard time doing, is investing in it. The core area of its strength is you can draw anything.”

Google was interested in SketchUp for 3-D buildings that could be integrated into its Google Earth mapping product, Green said.

“That's a fairly narrow aspiration for this product,” he said.

The SketchUp team's involvement in Project Spectrum — a program created by Google to help people on the autism spectrum develop life skills and express creativity through SketchUp — is expected to continue, he said.

A local official for Trimble was unavailable for comment.

[IdahoJ]

“That's a fairly narrow aspiration for this product,” he said.

My attitude towards this acquisition just did a 180 turn ...