True Layout Improvements?

Matte

Good Day to all, I have a Layout 2017 Pro.

Has there been a "radical" improvement in the "newest" version (2021?) Assuming you can buy it.... (I greatly dislike and stay clear of "subscription" versions).
So not sure if what I have is the last one we were allowed to buy?

I am curious about major text editing things, like bullet type creation and spacing?
I muddle thru bullets by setting up in MS Word and cutting and pasting into Layout, sort of backwards way, but it does work.

Or any other "must have" reason to spend the $$$ to "buy" (if allowed) a newer version?

Thanks to all for your advice !!!
Mattee

Dave R

Well, first, you can no longer purchase a Classic license. They are only selling subscription licenses now.

As for improvements, I'd say yes, there are some substantial improvements since LO2017. My SketchUp models are much simpler than they used to be with fewer scenes and no more than one style. The dashes option for tags is selectable in LayOut by viewport so there's no need to set dashes in SketchUp.

I don't remember when Scaled Drawing was introduced but maybe after 2017. That's a useful feature if you are drawing in LO. There's other stuff, too. Rendering is faster. zoooming is faster.

Matte

Thanks Dave, I need to do some more on-line research. I was mainly curious about the text improvements... Like bullet modifications, indenting options, all the "normal" things. Not too much of a problem. If I set it all up in MS Word as best as I can, I can copy past, and try my best to tweak things around. Seems to be working well enough. Thank you for your advise, it is always quite valuable! But I guess my questions ar moot, as They will not sell me a newer version, I think 2017 pro version was the last time we had the freedom to do so?
Thanks Again !!!
Mattee

Dave R

@matte said:

If I set it all up in MS Word as best as I can, I can copy past, and try my best to tweak things around. Seems to be working well enough.

It's generally not a good idea to copy from other applications and paste into LayOut. You would do better to save the Word file as .rtf and insert that into LayOut correctly. If you later need to make changes to the text, do so in Word and update the reference as you would for changes to your SketchUp model.

@matte said:

But I guess my questions ar moot, as They will not sell me a newer version, I think 2017 pro version was the last time we had the freedom to do so?

Do you mean they won't sell you a Classic license? If that's it, no. the only option now is to go to the Subscription license. That essentially went away with 2019.

The Subscription includes more stuff than the old Classic license did and if SketchUp is a part of your business, the price of the subscription ought to be covered easily enough by your clients.