Will SketchUp Ever Wear Big Boy Pants?

david_h · 17 May 2018, 20:44

Big Boy Pants

maybe Someday. . .

Someday.

chippwalters · 18 May 2018, 03:15

I'll probably release my version in a few months, just need to have enough free time to concentrate on resolving a few issues to run the last mile(s).

Fredo

I look forward to that day.

valerostudio · 18 May 2018, 12:35

@pixero said:

Sketchup is saving all the textures inside the SU file which makes it bigger.

Agreed that most of the time it is textures that come in with the model. 36MB OBJ imported with no textures, blew up to about 60MB. So it is not as dramatic as I made it seem, but it still is an issue.

valerostudio · 18 May 2018, 12:39

I have also heard a lot of "we went with Revit" and I do think thats appropriate if you are producing construction drawings on large scale projects. What I am primarily talking about is from a viz artist point of view. Producing high end visuals using V-Ray and Thea and soon to be sending things out to Unreal (which actually might solve this whole problem). It's the detailed furniture and decor that really make a rendering sing.

kyeric · 18 May 2018, 13:36

SketchUp, in my own personal philosophical sense, is a lot like me. I can think quickly and creatively at many different scales and represent an idea to someone else via a sketch or narrative (written or in person - with a lot of hand gestures!). The making of a 3D model is always easier for me in SketchUp, because at its core, it wants to keep things simple. I know of no other program that has a nearly intoxicating effect for presentations on clients and contractors alike. It is fine to point and grunt at some paper with 2D black and white plan diagrams, but open a SketchUp model and nearly everyone goes "Oh! Now I get it!" It has become my de facto tool for more than a decade that helps describe ideas to someone else. Still, to this day: it is transcendent.

When we continue to think that SketchUp should be anything and everything from a high-poly 3D modeller to a complete BIM package, then we reach a place of deviation from our different backgrounds, approaches and needs. "It can't do what you want, because I want it to do what I want!" That path leads to complication, unnecessary features, and bloat.

What I truly believe the solution will be is the interoperability of software and users. What I see happening in real-time 3D rendering programs is exciting. From Thea Render, Podium Walker to Lumion LiveSync, we are now at an age of easily linking a model to another program for a re-presentation of that idea. Take this a step further and we should be able to have SketchUp models link between other software for a real-time update/collaboration. From 2D CAD drawings, syncing to a more robust 3D/rendering package or just more "I" in BIM, SketchUp can become a bridge to add value to a working process, rather than another jeweled island in the sea of 3D. Combine this with having a model be accessible online and in any browser for the designers, consultants and clients to comment is fantastic. This is beyond BIM and having a project, at any scale, be a sort of wiki-based approach of hyperlinking thought with ease of delivery (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, paper, etc...) is the future.

Apologize about the ramble, and I know I probably derailed this thread, but I am more hopeful than ever that we are more near an age of true sharing of ideas than ever before! But, before that happens, can we have just have LayOut link to .dwg files with correct line types?!

chippwalters · 18 May 2018, 17:39

To me, that's a bit like saying, "Asking my flip phone to be able to view emails adds too much complexity to a simple product and will eventually make it more difficult for everyone."

Times change. Products evolve. People's needs evolve. Asking SketchUp to do beveling on objects or work smoothly with large poly scenes shouldn't be asking for too much.

Stinkie · 18 May 2018, 22:45

@chippwalters said:

Times change. Products evolve. People's needs evolve.

Sure. But whatever companies do with their products, is their prerogative. The opposite is socialism, isn't it?

Sorry, Chipp. I couldn't resist.

chippwalters · 19 May 2018, 05:24

Stinkie, you need to review the difference between socialism and a free market capitalist society. There is no "law" that SU has to conform, other than the law of free people making up their own mind whether to use it or not. They are welcome to provide whatever product they want, just like Visicalc, Lotus 123, Kodak and many other companies who didn't shift with the times and customer needs.

Stinkie · 19 May 2018, 09:15

Joking, Chipp, joking.

unearthed · 22 May 2018, 10:55

The other day I needed to decide if a project was viable i.e. whether I could represent my client in a hearing. I needed to see if the site could be seen from a hilltop 15km away on another peninsula

so:
Quick download of DEM from Linz
Use QGIS to get some real contours
Import into sketchup and let it run,
5 mins later I had a decision that supports taking job to next level. It is called sketchup, it's the goto tool for thinking. While I still start with a pencil, if I want 3D my next stage is Sketchup.

Sketchup just needs a shp importer (and a DEM importer then I wouldn't need QGIS) - I understand 6 had a shp importer and they removed it. Why ever?

juju · 22 May 2018, 11:30

@unearthed said:

Sketchup just needs a shp importer (and a DEM importer then I wouldn't need QGIS) - I understand 6 had a shp importer and they removed it. Why ever?

halfway there...

screen grab from SU2018Pro import dropdown menu

Derek Edison · 22 May 2018, 11:46

I would qualify unearthed's request with a DEM importer that will deal with modern file formats. Most DEMs available these days are raster format. At least the ones I would use.

kwistenbiebel · 24 May 2018, 00:59

I had this question back in 2007 and it was a growing frustration going forwards. I relied my career on Sketchup as I felt it was the only tool that let me focus on the subject (architecture) and not on the tool itself (the complexity of other software).
Frankly, I felt not smart enough and not very willing to switch to the complex software (Revit, 3Dstudio, even Autocad).
In 2012 stepped out of the “industry” as I couldn’t catch up.
Mind you, I come from a time as a student in architecture that I experienced the transition from hand drawn to CAD only, which was already a tough nut and changed things from artistic/creative to more of a technical office job.

cuttingedge · 24 May 2018, 03:29

We all hoped that SU will one day transition to a "can do" to a "do it all" software. While other pro CG artists can smile at what SU have achieved so far (credits to independent plugin writers).Being realistic about it, SU has achieved what other had about decades ago. Expecting them to jump over will be a move backwards. Many of my colleage still thinks Sketchup is a joke...and wont fit their standards.

And so we were excited about SubD and UV unwrap unveiled in the recent years which has been there 15 or 20 years ago in many 3d platforms..

SU will always be here for the ease of use. But I agree that major overhaul is needed. Having said all this.. I still love SU and would like to hear the future plans..

Mike Amos · 24 May 2018, 08:56

Sketchup has a lot of potential but have come around to a viewpoint that there will always be a lot of things that just will not work within the original framework. Frustration is a hard task master that has led me to criticise Sketchup unfairly but the past is always 20/20. I doubt that the product will catch up with software alternatives any day soon, just too big an ask and the program shell too 'bastardised' to adapt much without a total rewrite from scratch. Perhaps that is already happening, or not.
A lot of years ago I got into computer gaming and in particular, 3d 'adventure' type games and there was a particular piece of badly written code that had five different timelines. The problem was it had more bugs than an ant farm, a cell in Colditz castle was supposed to be escapable but the hidden tool needed was no there. If you open the window leaf you ended up in another timeline. I talked to the programmers (Bullfrog in London) and the guy I spoke to said, "So? I stopped counting bugs at 200". So, the Sketchup team are way better than that approach.
I wish that Blender had a ui attachment like Sketchup so, I have to admit that Sketchup IS pretty good at what it does best, just a little too buggy from years of patching.

valerostudio · 24 May 2018, 14:24

I guess we wait for the day that Autodesk makes Trimble an offer they cant refuse and then we all die a little inside that day.

andybot · 25 May 2018, 13:54

@valerostudio said:

I guess we wait for the day that Autodesk makes Trimble an offer they cant refuse and then we all die a little inside that day.

Lol! You want to pay all your subscription fees to AutoDesk, don't you

valerostudio · 30 May 2018, 11:30

@andybot said:

@valerostudio said:

I guess we wait for the day that Autodesk makes Trimble an offer they cant refuse and then we all die a little inside that day.

Lol! You want to pay all your subscription fees to Autodesk, don't you

I's prefer to pay fees to a company with a soul, like the SketchUp team. Just really need to push things to the next level and in order to do that, I need MORE POLYS!!!

JQL · 30 May 2018, 12:27

What people seem to fail to see in this thread is that Skechup already wears big boy pants.

Sketchup is probably the most widely used 3d software on earth. There isn't a bigger boy.

So, we could reverse all this discourse and say: why aren't the other 3d modellers intuitive like sketchup?

Blender, 3DS max, Autocad, Revit, Archicad, Rhino…

They all fail much more than sketchup.

andybot · 30 May 2018, 12:36

@jql said:

What people seem to fail to see in this thread is that Skechup already wears big boy pants.

Sketchup is probably the most widely used 3d software on earth. There isn't a bigger boy.

So, we could reverse all this discourse and say: why aren't the other 3d modellers intuitive like sketchup?

Blender, 3DS max, Autocad, Revit, Archicad, Rhino…

They all fail much more than sketchup.

Wide adoption is not equivalent to high performance. I like and appreciate the intuitive interface of SU, but it would be a lot more useful for me if it were the front end of Blender. I think the point here is that SU fails to match the performance standards of other current 3D software, not about how widely it's used.