Looking ahead to SU 8.
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Good topic, Pete. I was going to start one along the same lines...
Let me start compiling my list!!!! [for both GSU and LO] -
Am I the only one whose problems with toolbars were fixed with 7.1?
Now I can move them wherever I want and they stay in place, unlike 7.0My only wish for SU8 is: Whatever you do, keep the UI as simple as it is right now. Most programs become very unwelcoming to newbies after a few iterations, but SU still follows the "K.I.S.S. principle" in its 7th iteration.
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A big thumbs up for better UV tools from me, and i'll add to the list better animation support. A very broad topic i know, but being able to trigger DCs through scenes would be a very good start.
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Better and more complex UV Mapping is definitely on my priority list as well and it's a promising thing that even the SU developers think they could (should) make some improvements in this field.
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(animation anyone?)
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Combined Layer Manager,Components Browser and Outliner into ONE
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Something that really bothers me is the initial startup screen. If I really want to change the unit of measure, I can do it later, but I do not have to select my unit of measure and style every single time a go on sketchup.
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Lot of good ideas, here. Cast my vote in favor of the one that opposes complifying the UI. Now, the two other things I want for Christmas:
A <sketchup> tag in at least one HTML rendering engine. Maybe the engine that powers Chrome and Safari. With scriptable animation so we can have some serious fun.
And how about a material that renders scriptable HTML (including the <sketchup> tag, of course)? (TBD's idea.) That billboard you see as you enter your SketchUp town becomes compelling when it shows an animation. (Probably dangerous if placed on a real highway.)
That puts the web inside my model and my model inside the web. Just two things (and almost all the code is already written). Those would make a great Christmas.
For my birthday, I'd like to be able to export my animation to .GIFs. That could really spruce up your emails, no?
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Better vertex manipulation and control, including soft selection.
Texture layering and blending
UVW Mapping
Better selection tools (Select ring, select loop, freehand selection window, select all in bounds/crossing bounds toggle, etc.)
Snap/Inference on/off toggle
Keyframes and animation timeline
Animated texture support
Support for Spherical background images directly in SU
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@smokinbakin said:
Something that really bothers me is the initial startup screen. If I really want to change the unit of measure, I can do it later, but I do not have to select my unit of measure and style every single time a go on sketchup.
Im sure theres an option to disable that somewhere. I dont suppose theres a little tick box on the bottom of the window?
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Mike, actually you can import TIF images in SU.
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@unknownuser said:
How about the ability to import TIF images.
As far as I can remember (back at SU 5 when I started), importing tif images has always been a feature - just like now.
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@remus said:
Im sure theres an option to disable that somewhere. I dont suppose theres a little tick box on the bottom of the window?
Curious so I looked and took a pic
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@unknownuser said:
Better vertex manipulation and control, including soft selection.
Texture layering and blending
UVW Mapping
Better selection tools (Select ring, select loop, freehand selection window, select all in bounds/crossing bounds toggle, etc.)
Snap/Inference on/off toggle
Keyframes and animation timeline
Animated texture support
Support for Spherical background images directly in SU
But if all this shows up I'll have to ask myself why I paid $800 bucks for modo.
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Above all else I would like to see Google buying shed loads of all the plugins out there, polishing them and incorporating them properly into the core product. No need to reinvent the wheel.
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@linea said:
Above all else I would like to see Google buying shed loads of all the plugins out there, polishing them and incorporating them properly into the core product. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Personally i think thatd be really bad. It would make SU incredibly bloated and introduce a lot of tools that will go unused in the majority of cases. Much better (in my opinion) would be to introduce some way of easily accessing plugins from within SU, so beginners dont have to make the leap of looking for plugins and working out how to use them.
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A native "plugin manager" similar to the component window, with access to the "plugin warehouse"?
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Something like that. The tricky bit would be maintaining the quality of the plugins though.
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@linea said:
Above all else I would like to see Google buying shed loads of all the plugins out there, polishing them and incorporating them properly into the core product. No need to reinvent the wheel.
I don't want that. I want to pick the plugins I want - adapting SU to my needs.
I'd rather see SU developed further as a platform with more power to plugin makers. With that a menu and toolbar manager where each plugin register it's menus and toolbar buttons and the user can pick and choose which one to use. -
Well i've just been busy with (too much
) work but finally i have time to post here my opinion.
I really liked this update and it seems that slowly we are going in the right direction now
, but i also think everyone needs to stop acting like with these released sketchup it's perfect now. It's far from this, and if sketchup 7.0 had been launched like 7.1 it would still be a weak release. The speed increase is great but we still need 64bits and multicore etc etc etc, and please for everyone saying that 64 bits it's just good for big textures that it's a (and i'm sorry about beeing really direct here) a LIE. You have to keep in mind that everything takes up memory including a line, a face, a polygon, everything, the diference is that it's easier to use more memory with textures than meshes, and that's why in software like mudbox, 3DS, Maya etc you can subdivide (or open) meshes to 12 million polygons and keep modeling in real time with 32 bits version, but the limit with the 64 bits it's just limited by your ram (there's people subdividing meshes to 32 milion!!)But as i said i really liked this update but sketchup for me needs more polished tools and more professional features too. so here are things that for me i think it should be in the next version:
- Line tool: update to the same has layout;
- Pushpull tool: update to use with multiple faces ant to choose to work like in joint pushpull;
- Vertex tools: vertex should be used like lines or faces, or should be able to select them,pushpull them, move them etc;
- Select tool: More seletion options including loop select;
- Shadows: At least fix the shadow bug, and for a real update gives us soft shadows or ways to simulate other lights;
- Sandbox tools: more stable for bigger models, and improved for organic modeling (for example the "add detail" should subdivide when meshes are selected or triangulate when faces are selected);
- Maping tools: UVunwarp tools, Cilindrical and spherical maping options, Layer textures;
- Animation tools: save position of components, faces, lines, and points (this way allowing even some deformation in animation);
- Import/export options: Obj import for meshs and textures with correct mapping and every other exporter importer working as it should, and give better tools for developers doing better integration with other apps;
- Hardware support: Use of full capabilities of current OS, Graphics Cards, and CPUs;
- Sales strategy: separate the sales of sketchup from layout (right now looks like everyone that bough SK was paying to evolve Layout and not Sketchup and that's just wrong, besides there's people that don't want layout; do a bundle for who want both);
Sorry for the long list but as you can see some are just more polished tools. But no matter what new feature they implemet, it should always be easy to use and understand, as that has always been the base of SK.
David
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