Google Sketchup Pro 7 is out

Gaieus

I know that the ASGVis people, making the V-Ray plugin, has been struggling to get all info about the model processed by the render engine. Has there been big changes under the hood that unleashes more control to third parties?

This is an interesting point and question, Tom.

Plugins (and the ability of SU to communicate with them) started with SU 4 (although I didn't use it then only since SU 5) but what I know is that they have been adding different (and more and more) possibilities to SU to be able to communicate via plugins.

One big step forward was webdialogs in SU 6 (afaik) which opened a whole new arena for plugin developers and we can all see and enjoy this. It must have included some hard work on the SU backend and base code as well.

Now I can nimagine (but of course do not know since I am a total non-scripter) the same with DC's; they wouldn't work in SU 6 because they had to change the base code of SU in order that they can operate.

Obviously we don't know yet what other doors are opened now for newrs plugins but hopeully the gurus will discover that area as well. Tomasz already found one and hopefully he will be able to exploit it for the su2kt exporter - just to be specific with a render engine as a 3rd party software.

pilou

What is exactly the "Shadow bug"?

baz

@stu said:

@baz said:

@stu said:

I just cant think of a good reason to spend that $180AUD or so....Anybody?

hi stu, I havent tried v7 yet, but if the improvements to layout are as they say, it will be worth the 180 for that alone, i hope to throw the other cad apps away for ever!

baz

Baz, I can operate ACAD LT in my sleep and from the reports coming in about Layout 2, dont throw away your cad apps yet

well I wont of course, but I live in hope and anyway I have to wait for chief australia to get up to speed with the update.
baz

herodes

You can witness the Shadow Bug in all its glory in the following picture. The red circle is my edit. BTW this is from the Sketchup 7 demo.
This has to do with the camera frustrum clipping volume and the shadows calculations.

I also found this post from past May,... I am really annoyed now... http://bit.ly/AjoH

Shadow Bug...

Pixero

@unknownuser said:

Compare the jaw dropping amazement and excitement of the release of Tools on Surface, Subdivide and Smooth etc etc etc with Su7!!.....It's just embarrasing!

Well said.
After a first quick look I can't see all that much new. What HAVE they been doing all this time?
About the shadow bug still beeing there it IS a major thing. It means doing animations in Sketchup is NOT possible without an external renderer. I dont believe a professional software should be called professional with such a major bug not beeing fixed. Nuf said.
I'm kind of hoping some ruby gurus would start a opensource app project to be what SketchUp should have been.
We havent seen any feature list yet but things are so far NOT looking good.

ilay7k

about toolbars, 1. if put new script(or group of scripts) with iconic toolbar, modify workspace of sketch-up...need configure again. 2. But if you remember several attempts to put toolbar in right place(or under other) , i can it from 1st in 7-n
And if we are beginning to compare applications, this "feature"(messing with toolbar) is in rhino3d too(even it has sticky feature to lock position of toolbars)

i found that wxRuby-framework is fast load in 7-n than 6

Sorry for my bad English

Mike Lucey

Hi Guys,

I've read everything with great interest. I do appreciate that the overall consensus is a but that's the problem a great product often has when it comes to releasing improvements.

When SketchUp opened its doors to Independent Ruby Scripters it may not have realised that this could have been a two edged sword! I think they now realise that this was in fact the case. But at the same time it was the proper and mature action to take as it allowed for market driven Rubies to be put on the shelf and they are being loaded up there at a great rate! Maybe SGU should form tighter working relationships with the Independent Ruby Scripters at least to the extent that each party would know what the other is doing.

I am a SketchUp 'Die hard' simply because I have not as yet seen a better option that offers me the same easy of use. If and when one comes along I will give it very serious consideration but I see nothing on the horizon at present so I most definitely will continue using SketchUp even if it still has the much mentioned shadow fault and lacks the desirable speed. Both of these problems can be lived with and worked around although it would be nice to see the end of them. Google would do themselves and the general community great if they advised a date for the resolution of these problems and I feel it would be greatly welcomed by many Pro Users.

So all in all I suggest that we look at what we have in SketchUp V7 and discover new uses and ways we can leverage these features in our work flow at the same time as requesting the shadow and speed issues to be resolved. I am sure they will be sorted at some time but again it would be nice to have a date.

Mike

fakircho

Well after all this waiting, i have to say i was expecting more from the PRO version.
I think the update is fine for the free version.

I really would like to see more emphasis going towards Sketchup PRO. Like the previous posts
point out, we have been shown some amazing stuff by the ruby community and surely Google needs to better that. In this release they have not even come close to matching it.

Have say that the application feels more responsive but need to do some real work over a period of time
to be able to say fr sure.

A lot effort has gone into Layout and it shows. However that is how it should have been released in the first place.

I see a lot of people are disappointed because they were hoping to see certain features implemented, and i am one of them. However i have to say that i am glad they are still developing Sketchup coz after taking so long with version 7, i was having doubts if we were ever going to see another version.

I will reserve my final judgment for a while until i have put it through its paces, but so far feels like 6.5

silver_shadow

tadaaaaa sketchup 7.5 lol
just teasin. Listen guys, in the end, sketchup is sketchup, we do what we can and even stretch it capabilities, and in the end...its probably the community that makes sketchup a better program. If it were not for the rubie script writers, to whom i bow, this would not be so super. What is nice tho, every one can sort of customise what they need and only load that into their su. i think its awesome. alot of programs dont allow you to be that flexible.
To su 7, its not bad, even thru all the time we waited, it still turned out to be a better version of su 6, a bit faster tho,graphics was the first thing i picked up, cleaner and nicer look to the models, and maybe down the pipeline...so other needs will be filled.
From me to su 7, and yea i made some harsh comments, they made it better
and thats prob in the end... all that counts.

free agent

in the Ruby discussion forum, theres the ruby wishlist by that guy from google, can anyone confirm that ruby scriptors will be able to do more than they could with su6? or that any of the wishes were implemented>?

JuanV.Soler

Well,
after all is not that bad.
The rectangle_selection issue seems to be solved.
It is nicer and better the way you can now draw. Origin is clearer and the references to axis works better.
Moving objects keep the axis references better.
I have not yet found how it works the Dynamic Components but it must be cool.

And Layout works as it should. Pity the dimensioning, but...

So i would say that SketchUp has now stabilized.

Google, we are now ready for the new features

herodes

@juanv.soler said:

Well,
Google, we are now ready for the new features

Well said!

pichuneke

I have a doubt about the patents. The patents like the one that doesn't allow Google to fix the shadow bug... are just for the United States?

If so, there is a solution for the rest of the world. Implement the fix, and in the United States don't allow to download a version with the bug solved. Google does it very well with youtube, I can't see the italian videos of Ancient Rome by RAI

If the problem is what I say, patents are very dangerous if they can be used like this. I am going to patent the "+" symbol. See you later!

linea

Layout is still raster though isn't it? The ability to draw a 0.1 line in Layout would have been great, I cant really see how I can drop cad for Layout yet, much as I'd like to. Or am I missing something?

dacad

This must be a joke...
For the ones saying this was a good release:

New modeling tools: NO
new animation tools: NO
new uv maping tools: NO
new engine that suport more heavy scenes: NO
new engine that do better images and shadows: NO
new (even very basic) ways to simulate diferent light sources from the sun: NO

Now even photoshop with the CS4 version can handle better 3D models and do better renders that sketchup (for the ones not seeing how serious this is i remember we're talking about a 2D image software...)

But hey at least we have something that could be done with a ruby script called dynamic components...oh and we can link textures to a 2D software because in version 6 we just didn´t already did that in one way or another...and layout now doesn't has beta in the name, still it won't do much (with heavier stuff specially) but hey at least now after 2 years it's not beta...

They just didn't listen to the users because they think they know better what we need...they could be a litle bit more humble...

Don't update and make them see this is wrong or we're never gonna be heard...

lewiswadsworth

I was actually thinking of applying the upgrade fee to a full license to MOI instead.

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

This must be a joke...
For the ones saying this was a good release:

New modeling tools: NO
new animation tools: NO
new uv maping tools: NO
new engine that suport more heavy scenes: NO
new engine that do better images and shadows: NO
new (even very basic) ways to simulate diferent light sources from the sun: NO

Now even photoshop with the CS4 version can handle better 3D models and do better renders that sketchup (for the ones not seeing how serious this is i remember we're talking about a 2D image software...)

But hey at least we have something that could be done with a ruby script called dynamic components...oh and we can link textures to a 2D software because in version 6 we just didn´t already did that in one way or another...and layout now doesn't has beta in the name, still it won't do much (with heavier stuff specially) but hey at least now after 2 years it's not beta...

They just didn't listen to the users because they think they know better what we need...they could be a litle bit more humble...

Don't update and make them see this is wrong or we're never gonna be heard...

That's a nice breakdown. UV mapping was one of my top wish-for features.

Gaieus

Now it's officilly out and announced:
http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/

jstanton8869

I share the disappointment that's been expressed here about v7. There are some nice features and to me it appears marginally faster but nothing amazing considering the wealth of ideas out there that could have been included.

It does seem however that I'm unusual in that I do use Layout and the improvements here have been great - the frustration is now that the arc tool, line tool and editing functions in Layout are BETTER than that in Sketchup. This seems ridiculous.

Have a look at the Line tool and Editing, Scaling and Rotating in Layout - you'll see what I mean.

After all this time this looks like a point release rather than a full new version. Sorry Google - Try Harder

solo

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