SketchUp 2017 Wishlist

utiler · 26 Nov 2015, 01:13

Modulus operator in Dynamic Components. Please. It would make some of my formulae infinitely less complicated.

What's a modular operator?

ashscott · 26 Nov 2015, 09:27

What's a modular operator?

One of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulo_operation
(I still have no idea)

Doesn't Simfonia Animation Tools have a modulator function so you can create wave signals (possibly completely unrelated).

Wishlist for SU 2017:

FEA (just kidding, but not really)
To incorporate this into the software: http://sketchucation.com/plugin/803-coastalconcepts_editflag
Some way to not have segments in arcs
STL export
+1 for publicly listed roadmap of development
Regarding the nesting of layers - isn't this effectively BillyBob's [url=http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=53906:36c9x8qg]Layers Panel Plugin?[/url:36c9x8qg]

JQL · 26 Nov 2015, 11:30

@ashscott said:

@utiler said:

[*]Regarding the nesting of layers - isn't this effectively BillyBob's Layers Panel Plugin?[/list]

The problem is that jiminy had to come up with so many workaround methods to create Layers Panel, that even he got confused and eventually stop supporting it, in order to have time to create skatter.

I believe he'd gladly welcome a native solution to this...

JQL · 26 Nov 2015, 13:05

I'd say JBB-Layers Panel is as usefull to me as it is to you!

ashscott · 26 Nov 2015, 13:13

I'm impressed that he even got it to work as someone who was teaching himself Ruby as he went.

I cannot say how useful it has been using Layers Panel in conjunction with scenes to create complex construction documents in Layout.

I arrange every view I need as a scene in sketchup with the appropriate layers on/off (some models have 30+ layers so doing this without Layers Panel is extremely error-prone), send to layout, place the scenes, dimension and add notes, export, build.

Its standard functionality in photoshop etc yet does NOT add any unnecessary complexity to a new user

EDIT: Grammar

HornOxx · 26 Nov 2015, 20:11

I´ve just copy pasted my little wish from the SketchUp 2016 Wishlist

I want an improved 2D pixels export - regardless of the width/height-size of my currently used SkUp viewport. (As if I would adjust the output resolution within any render plugin)
I want that other SkUp users with their own viewport sice can export exactly the same file resolution as I do. Interacting by repeating the same output results with other users would be so much easier ...

Even if there is a plugin for that, SkUp should at last be able to do this "out of the box"

jiminy-billy-bob · 26 Nov 2015, 21:11

@jql said:

I believe he'd gladly welcome a native solution to this...

I'd very much indeed.

I'll soon make it completely open-source, so that anyone can update it, even try to make money out of it, whatever.

sketchuh · 27 Nov 2015, 06:25

Guys, Trimble Won't improve anything you wished here, since we are only 0.0001% of the market...haha.
But Plugin authors are the best here! Thank you all for the great plugins!

HornOxx · 27 Nov 2015, 07:38

@sketchuh said:

Guys, Trimble Won't improve anything you wished here, since we are only 0.0001% of the market...haha.

well written

@sketchuh said:

But Plugin authors are the best here! Thank you all for the great plugins!

I agree!

ashscott · 27 Nov 2015, 09:00

Speaking of which, I'd pay someone to clean up Layers Panel and make it as robust as possible - I just can't pay enough to make it worthwhile - on the other hand, if there were a number of us willing to pay...

jiminy-billy-bob · 27 Nov 2015, 15:59

@ashscott said:

Speaking of which, I'd pay someone to clean up Layers Panel and make it as robust as possible - I just can't pay enough to make it worthwhile - on the other hand, if there were a number of us willing to pay...

You could start a kickstarter or similar

ashscott · 27 Nov 2015, 16:04

Who would be able to do the coding really well?

kaas · 28 Nov 2015, 06:29

Now, a week after the V16 release, I have similar thoughts. LayOut was improved so that's really nice. In SketchUp I'm struggling to see improvements to me besides the added inference option.
... I'm actually considering using a LO16 & SU15 combo at the moment because of the new interface & a few bugs in them that break my workflow....

I would be very very surprised to see a UV map/unwrap tool, quads, nested layers panel etc etc coming from Trimble in a next V17 release. If you, as a user, really need those tools - get started learning Ruby yourself or pay somebody to make the tools for you. My guess is: they are targeting the average user who just needs an interface to a pro-package (Revit, Maya, 3dStudio, Rhino etc) if they need the pro-tools.

...I hope I will be just as happy with a future update for SketchUp as I'm with this Layout update.
In the mean time, many many thanks indeed to the plugin developers over here that have added so many invaluable tools that make SketchUp a joy to use!!!

TommyK · 30 Nov 2015, 11:27

@ashscott said:

Who would be able to do the coding really well?

Hmmm... I might be tempted. I'm not bad at JavaScript.

I would want to change it a little though. I would prefer to group layers according to its prefixes (separated with a hyphen), ala vectorworks and autoCAD. That should make imports from dxf and other formats cleaner without having to rearrange. Would that break the workflow for current users of layers panel?

Back on to wishlists, mine are:

CIRCLE GUIDES / TRUE CIRCLE INTERSECTIONS - I now do my surveys in sketchup. I know true circle geometry is too much to wish for, but being able to use intersections with true circles would really help. No plugin can truly provide this (TIG does have a tool that helps you, but it clearly is a workaround).

LAYERS IMPROVEMENTS

ability to eye-dropper/bucket layers in color by layers view.
Layers management improvements, as have been mentioned.
Support full spectrum of colours and materials for layers, including transparencies (although I know skalp relies on a few bugs to make things work for them). Sketchup needs a proper API In this area too.
Line-weight by layer? Think about it..

MATERIALS FOR OS X

I want a better materials palette for os x. Keeping materials organised in Mac is futile currently..

REALTIME ANTI-ALIASING

Is current computing power not ready for this yet?

JQL · 30 Nov 2015, 15:16

@tommyk said:

@ashscott said:

Who would be able to do the coding really well?

Hmmm... I might be tempted. I'm not bad at JavaScript.

I would want to change it a little though. I would prefer to group layers according to its prefixes (separated with a hyphen), ala vectorworks and autoCAD. That should make imports from dxf and other formats cleaner without having to rearrange. Would that break the workflow for current users of layers panel?

I think it would...

Current LP functions allow freedom. I need that from LP.

I would however regard that prefixes functionallity with welcoming eyes if, having a prefix, would immediatelly arrange a layer in premade group.

I could then have a mix of prefixed layers with auto behaviours and other layers with manual grouping.

TommyK · 30 Nov 2015, 23:06

I checked Layers Panel with 2016. It works fine. Seems some people are having some problems, but I haven't come across any.

I also had a look at the code on github. It's clean code but there is a lot of it. I am a little put off the idea of helping supporting it with all of its features, and I understand why jimneybob isn't all that keen either.

oceanembers · 15 Dec 2015, 13:28

@ashscott said:

@utiler said:

What's a modular operator?

One of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulo_operation
(I still have no idea)

Doesn't Simfonia Animation Tools have a modulator function so you can create wave signals (possibly completely unrelated).

Sorry for the (incredibly) late reply. Were you ever taught about "remainders" as a kid, before you learned to divide into fractions/decimals? Modulus is that - so 15 mod 4 = 3

that is, the remainder after you took away as many fours as you could. It's usually written as a percentage symbol. This is very useful when you're working with discrete numbers.

To be honest, I'm not sure why it's not already in DCs, since ruby does actually have support for it.

2Harry · 28 Jan 2016, 04:56

Well the enhanced arc/circle inference snaps in SU16 came a baby step closer to better snap control but is still not there so that is one of my wishes.

But my most fervent wish (still unfulfilled after more versions than I can count) is a fix to Boolean operations that turn Components into Groups. This is such egregious behaviour that I consider it a major bug. It destroys all the efficient and productive effects of using Components.

Please Trimble. Please fix this.

greatoe · 31 Jan 2016, 14:53

Tag/Keyword system for organizing layers

say I assign tags 'wall' and '1F' to a layer named '1F_wall', then, on the layers panel, when I click the tag 'wall', the layer '1F_wall' will show up, together with other layers tagged with 'wall', like '2F_wall'. and when I click the tag '1F', layers like '1F_wall' and '1F_floor' will show.

db11 · 31 Jan 2016, 17:17

@greatoe said:

Tag/Keyword system for organizing layers

Great idea — would obviate the need for Layers Panel type hierarchy and would be more flexible / powerful. And maybe easier to execute? (compared to the complexity and related stability issues of the Layers Panel plugin)