SketchUp 2016 is here....

Rich O Brien

LOL

derei

As I remember there was a HUGE list with SketchUp 2016 Wishes; Even I wrote some in there... And the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the new cool features was "oh my, really? So many people wanted Layout Dialogs and extra inferencing instead of really useful features?" - I mean, I really couldn't believe that Trimble would ignore so big time THE SKETCHUP FORUM (a.k.a SketchUcation), ok...they built theirs(forum)... not sketchucation, but sketchup. And they have their own Extensions Warehouse, not Extension Store... but come on, who is using sketchup?

I had a big rant when they took over and the first thing they did was to CHANGE THE ICON - wow, such feature. No, it wasn't a "feature", it was a way of saying "is ours, this is our mark". Then was the price increase that happened really recently. Again "we spent money in acquiring SketchUp, we have to recover them, so we raise the price" - good marketing technique!

And now, the mighty SU2016 - following the Wishlist NOT. As a matter of fact, the contributors to all the wishlists until now are sketchup users with cumulated years of SketchUp experience more than Trimble will EVER have (unless they have a secret recipe to last like Roman Empire).

So enough with ranting... let me judge some facts:

they already had all the inferencing code - how difficult was to add some new inferencing rules to that? I believe not "that difficult". Experts welcome to comment
the "Layout Style" dialogs code was there too (in Layout source code) - how difficult might that have been to be translated into SketchUp? I bet it took them about a week of hard work (one person, between coffees and other breaks).
Even my sister which doesn't even know to draw a square in Sketchup can come with a folder with textures and to copy it in Materials Folder in Sketchup. - genius

Let me not be completely mean... they spent some time to add some improvements to Layout... for those who actually use Layout. And the improvements are not even so great.
I bet they completely left untouched all text-related bugs and issues that were driving everybody crazy and there were several more things that made any Layout user to want to smash their computer in mid-project.

So: 25%+ in licensing costs, some inferencing tools, some dialogs that were ok as they were, some textures (cgtextures.com, i don't need yours) and completely ignoring the real issues. Does it sound like Corporation? ah, i forgot: extra trouble for plugin developers. As there wasn't already a bunch of great people giving their time to offer lots of great things for free, make it harder for them, Trimble... make them pay for their generosity, if possible.

What's wrong with this world, guys?

RogerB

@unknownuser said:

What's wrong with this world, guys?

Once you realize we are living on a farm, being farmed, and understand the farmer do not have the same interests as his livestock has, things make a whole lot more sense.
And making better decisions will be much easier.

kaas

@jql said:

@kaas said:

you can leave the Outliner open when running ruby scripts. Up to v2015 that could make your ruby go very slow.

It still runs much slower... Where did you find differences?...

I just tested it again with a custom plugin and opening or closing the outliner doesn't make a difference in V16. It does run a lot faster in V16 though. Must be something in my crappy code thats bugging less in v16.

I also tested it with another plugin that creates a lot of geometry as well: TIG's extrude tools - loft. The results in v15 and v16 are about the same and closing the outliner in v16 almost takes half the time.

So my initial remark seems to be wrong: it still can take extra time if the outliner is not closed before starting a ruby plugin. Too bad it still hasn't been fixed

hris

Sorry guys from Trimble - THIS IS NEW VERSION ??? 2016??? It's a small SERVICE PACK - not a UPDATE!!!
No new tools for modelling, no new features from wishlist...are you listening users or no??? My company has 8 licenses with subscription - why we paid for this? It was unnecesary to pay subscription because it's a joke..Sorry guys - 4 last years are lost for SKetchup
Only free plugins from Sketchucation forum are saving this software from dead - but funcionality and amazing new features should be done by Trimble team - not by users for free. SKetchup community is great and still growing - this is amazing FEATURE. Software development has been slowed down 4 years ago.
This is my opinion.
Chris

JQL

There was one major thing that made all the difference for people using complex stuff and rendering... 64-bit...

That soothed a lot of criticism but since then all seems to be about sketchup plugins: creating the right enviroment for plugin developers to specialize sketchup.

Quite frankly I can understand why. Sketchup is used by too many people with too many scopes.

What the trimble folks could do is, keep doing that as a side task but select from the stuff all people are needing, no matter what they're doing, and develop that way.

Things that have been suggested here and have been on wishlists forever seem to be pointing there, however and unfortunatelly, it seems those things are being regarded by trimble as utopic.

Sincerelly, the problem is that Sketchup simply works and even if it could be way better than it is, it is still fit for everyone.

Trimble are certainly aware of that.

rv1974

The new 'feature' Default Tray wasn't so smart decision. It steals tons of display area being pinned;
and being on Autohide mode it doesn't show the windows I demand via shortcuts (say Cnrl+1 for Entity Info) I have to digg in with the cursor. And finally there's no option to drag this damn tray to the 2nd monitor

kaas

@rv1974 said:

The new 'feature' Default Tray wasn't so smart decision. It steals tons of display area being pinned;
and being on Autohide mode it doesn't show the windows I demand via shortcuts (say Cnrl+1 for Entity Info) I have to digg in with the cursor. And finally there's no option to drag this damn tray to the 2nd monitor

I agree I prefer the old trays/panels on windows way better. The one thing that had to be fixed was the Outliner - having that one open could make your ruby plugins twice as slow.

You should be able to drag the tray to the second monitor though.

sketchuh

i always think the strength of sketchup is it's simplicity and the weakeness of sketchup is it's simplicity. I always hate it and love it at the same time.

until there is SERIOUS competition from another new and similar software, Sketchup will always bring NO real updates to people who are screaming the loudest in the wishlist topic.

Do you guys think is it possible any company would develop a software that is more like a hybrid of sketchup/3ds max and or modo or etc...

I really want a software that is easy to use like sketchup but has all the traditional 3d software functionality.

again, I don't think Sketchup has real competitions out there. 3ds vs maya? apple vs microsfot? xbox vs ps,... Sketchup vs who??? I should stop here.

JQL

I guess it's sketchup VS everything else!

holmes

Please tell me I'm missing something positive...

I don't see any mention of network licensing - is it still as broken as it was on release with v2015 ?!

And it seems it's even more restricted in v2016 - this from our licence e-mail, confirming same as earlier poster:

Single user licence - once your 2016 licence is authorised, your 2015 licence will not be able to be installed on any new computers (but will continue to run as an existing installation).
Network licence - Authorising your new 2016 licence on a single machine starts a 60 day countdown, after which 2015 will be disabled on all machines. If you wish to test version 2016, it is highly recommended you use the trial version to do so.
We cannot reactivate a 2015 licence once it becomes inactive after the 60 day period.

Seriously?!

ken

Installded 2016. Now trying to get plugins to work.

One thing I have noticed is the icons for the tool bars are larger. (Yes I have it set not to display "large icons". This sure messes up my screen layout.

Finding some plugins not working, like Matt 666 "Toggle Units". Darn.

Ken

sfto1

Boy this is tough. I want to be excited about this version, but....

It's like having a bad holiday meal at your Mom's house. You do not want to tell your Mom she cooked a stinker. You don't want her mad or embarrassed. You don't want to get scolded by your siblings for telling the truth that most everyone is thinking. You shudder at the notion your friends will think you are a jerk for saying something. But, this has been happening for the past several holidays. Somebody has to tell Mom, right? Hey Mom, you have done better and I was really looking forward to your legendary cooking. I mean you spent a lot of money and time on it, but this meal was not good at all. Then comes the other truth that you don't want to admit. Your Mom has been losing her hearing.

How was the holiday meal?

You answer and run for cover.

solo

@sfto1 said:

Boy this is tough. I want to be excited about this version, but....

It's like having a bad holiday meal at your Mom's house. You do not want to tell your Mom she cooked a stinker. You don't want her mad or embarrassed. You don't want to get scolded by your siblings for telling the truth that most everyone is thinking. You shudder at the notion your friends will think you are a jerk for saying something. But, this has been happening for the past several holidays. Somebody has to tell Mom, right? Hey Mom, you have done better and I was really looking forward to your legendary cooking. I mean you spent a lot of money and time on it, but this meal was not good at all. Then comes the other truth that you don't want to admit. Your Mom has been losing her hearing.

How was the holiday meal?

You answer and run for cover.

Hmm, dunno if this analogy works, Has your mum's cooking gotten worse? or are you just not happy that she is not cooking the Thanksgiving dinner the way Martha Stewart would? The way I see it the Turkey is cooked the same traditional way as it always has, and being the showcase of the table i would not want it to ever change, now there are some that asked for Sweet potato casserole with melted marshmallows on top but did not get it instead a slightly improved normal sweet potato side.
We did get an improved presentation, lets call it the table decoration and we got a better stuffing, this time it was cooked separately as a side so it's not as soggy as traditional stuffing.
Then you have the other part of the day (layout) before it was passing out on the couch watching your football team lose, this year you get to pass out on a comfy lazyboy and your football team actually winning (unless you are a Dallas cowboy fan).

andybot

@holmes said:

And it seems it's even more restricted in v2016 - this from our licence e-mail, confirming same as earlier poster:

Single user licence - once your 2016 licence is authorised, your 2015 licence will not be able to be installed on any new computers (but will continue to run as an existing installation).

Seriously?!

Hmm, guess I'll have to try 2016 on a secondary computer just as a trial. Not liking the sound of the toolbars getting bigger.

Wonder if there's any limit to how long you have before "upgrading" to 2016. I'd like to wait until the plugins are generally up to speed before messing with the update.

Wow Pete, your analogy stretched around my screen several times

solo

The tool bars are not bigger see image, top is new 2016 toolbars and lower are the 2014 toolbars

toolbar sizes.jpg

ken

@solo said:

The tool bars are not bigger see image, top is new 2016 toolbars and lower are the 2014 toolbars

Solo they are larger on my computer.

Box

@unknownuser said:

@solo said:

The tool bars are not bigger see image, top is new 2016 toolbars and lower are the 2014 toolbars

Solo they are larger on my computer.

Have you tried to Untick "Use Large tool buttons" In Window/Preferences/Workspace

solo

@unknownuser said:

@solo said:

The tool bars are not bigger see image, top is new 2016 toolbars and lower are the 2014 toolbars

Solo they are larger on my computer.

I'm using Win 7, so not sure about win 10

Box

Nor on win 10