Sketchup 9 - a long wait.
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Marcus,
Is this STL plugin usable for the casual (layman) user or is this something that only developers would be interested in at this stage. Asking as someone who know little about STL or 3d printing.
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@pbacot said:
Marcus,
Is this STL plugin usable for the casual (layman) user or is this something that only developers would be interested in at this stage. Asking as someone who know little about STL or 3d printing.
The extension is usable.
SketchUp (with permission) has re-licensed and packaged together 2 long available community plugins into the extension. One plugin is my jf_stl_importer.rb importer and the other is the guitar-list dxf_to_skp.rb exporter.
Right now, the main difference between the individual scripts and the scripts in the extension is that skp_to_dxf exporter now creates its menu under File > Export STL. STL Importer is still available from the File > Import menu. Otherwise, no new functionality has been introduced beyond what has already been available.
If you install the SketchUp-stl extension, you can remove the other 2 scripts.
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Yep, what Jim said. I'm a long time user of the STL Exporter, without any knowledge of Ruby.
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@d12dozr said:
Attendees of Basecamp this week tell us that there will be no "Sketchup 9". Instead, Sketchup will update yearly, with the next version being Sketchup 2013 next year.
Hmmm, what does that mean for pro licensing? An annual upgrade fee? Subscription? I keep thinking of getting pro sometime, but this would add to the calculus of whether it's worth it or not.
Andy
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@phillip said:
I can only hope the old Sketchup team has remained intact up to this day
It pretty much has. And now, under Trimble, we'll see more progress to the actual application. Google pretty much shackled SketchUp for it's own integration with Google Earth/Maps.
And the integration Trimble will do with SketchUp will be in the form of Extensions (plugins). So expect SketchUp's core nature to remain.
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@thomthom said:
And the integration Trimble will do with SketchUp will be in the form of Extensions (plugins). So expect SketchUp's core nature to remain.
Ugh, this is what I was afraid of...
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@jason_maranto said:
@thomthom said:
And the integration Trimble will do with SketchUp will be in the form of Extensions (plugins). So expect SketchUp's core nature to remain.
Ugh, this is what I was afraid of...
? Afraid of what?
That SketchUp remains the same? And whatever Trimble wants to integrate comes as extension packages for those who needs it - leaving SketchUp untouched. ?? Did I not udnerstand you - or did you misunderstand me?
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I suppose maybe we misunderstood each other, but I think it may be a difference of opinions about how exactly to interpret that comment.
You see SketchUp staying the same as a desirable outcome -- I do not. Furthermore, since the bulk of Trimbles interests will be represented as separate "extensions" the bulk of the development time and energy will be expended on those extension instead of on making Sketchup itself better.
The SketchUp I see is already many years behind, looking like and working very much as a pre-2006 era tool... I blamed this on Google, and had hopes new ownership would rectify the problem.
Best,
Jason. -
@jason_maranto said:
Furthermore, since the bulk of Trimbles interests will be represented as separate "extensions" the bulk of the development time and energy will be expended on those extension instead of on making Sketchup itself
No - the SketchUp team will not be doing the integration work for the rest of the Trimble products. They will make it possible for them to integrate. And that means more attention to the Ruby API for instance - and everything that the other Trimble products uses to integrate with SketchUp will be available to everybody else.
@jason_maranto said:
You see SketchUp staying the same as a desirable outcome
I did not mean that SketchUp would not gain features etc. But most people has been afraid that Trimble would transform SketchUp into a different product - it will not.
@jason_maranto said:
I blamed this on Google, and had hopes new ownership would rectify the problem.
Exactly, Google was only interested in SketchUp as an integration to Google Earth/Maps. They retrained further product development.Having talked, a lot, with the SketchUp team at Basecamp I'm very excited about the future of SketchUp. They are preparing to get very busy - they already are. But as you can see on the Trimble website, they are hiring quite a few people.
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@thomthom said:
Having talked, a lot, with the SketchUp team at Basecamp I'm very excited about the future of SketchUp. They are preparing to get very busy - they already are. But as you can see on the Trimble website, they are hiring quite a few people.
I'm more positive about SketchUps future than I have been these last years when Google owned it.
So, Thomthom, will you move over there? -
Wouldn't that be nice
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@thomthom said:
Wouldn't that be nice
**After **you finish your latest new plugin
IMO you should change your avatar to a picture of you wearing your "iconic" hat you had on at Basecamp
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I would hope that existing issues with sketchup (Known by everyone here so no need to repeat them) would be addressed before adding more features but it seems not to be. More and more I come to the conclusion that the core free edition should have proper fuctnionality and the pro should have the additional features to bring greater difference from the free version. Not suggesting that the free version should be dumbed down but if folk want more and more features they should buy a level of the pro version, this is done in many cad programs already and works well.
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@mike amos said:
More and more I come to the conclusion that the core free edition should have proper fuctnionality and the pro should have the additional features to bring greater difference from the free version.
They did say at Basecamp that there will be bigger differences between free and pro in the future.
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d12dozr
Thanks for the info on the yearly updates for Sketchup starting 2013.Andy
Musing about what flavour future Sketchup licences will take is possibly putting yourself through the mill for nothing, the update to Sketchup 2013 could arrive as late as December next year. Enjoy the day.Thomas
Its heartening to hear that Sketchup team is still intact. Perhaps I differ in the value placed on Googles involvement with Sketchup, under their umbrella Sketchup became very much mainstream and for that i am grateful. It is easy to find people proficient in Sketchup.Jason
I share some of your concern about the Trimble's likely desire to place a heavy emphasis on integration on their existing products - it would seem to be the obvious thing for them to do, although they could equally see Sketchup as a vehicle to broaden their product offering in disciplines they are yet to exploit.Mike
A more up to date robust Sketchup would certainly be better than more features, particularly as the timing of the next update is so vague - sometime in 2013. The speed of Sketchup has never been a major concern for me, integration with other products in the workflow has, that includes compatibility with the hardware other software needs to run.Thank you all for your responses, they have given me a better idea of what is happening. Best regards.
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@phillip said:
Thomas
Its heartening to hear that Sketchup team is still intact. Perhaps I differ in the value placed on Googles involvement with Sketchup, under their umbrella Sketchup became very much mainstream and for that i am grateful. It is easy to find people proficient in Sketchup.I terms of marketing Google did very good for SketchUp - I agree. But in terms of developing the core application - they did badly.
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@thomthom said:
I terms of marketing Google did very good for SketchUp - I agree. But in terms of developing the core application - they did badly.
How true... I came along right after Google bought SketchUp and was enthusiastic about having such a well moneyed and powerful company behind the product... won't make that mistake again
Best,
Jason.
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