Looking ahead to SU 8.

brodie

Indeed, it would decrease the usability of the free version to the point that it is essentially useless for getting anything done, and would thus force huge number of users to switch. And losing large portions of the user base isnt a good thing in my opinion.

jakob, what would happen with upgrades to the plugin? who would be tasked with going through the code? itd be a monster job and one thats better left to plugin developers themselves, in my opinion.

Personally i think whats needed is a better way of downloading and accessing scripts, theres plenty of them out there most of which are readily maintained by willing authors, so why go to the trouble of devoting precious resources to redoing whats already been done and what already works. Basically the point im trying to make is why should google take on these plugins when they already exist in a very usable fashion at the moment. What would be gained?

I disagree that without rubies SU is essentially useless for getting anything done. There are people on this very forum who don't use rubies and produce very good work whether it simply starts and ends with SU or even for renderings (I seem to recall that Richard doesn't really use any rubies. correct me if I'm mistaken). I think SU on it's own is quite a powerful tool actually. As I mentioned perhaps there are a couple rubies that should have been integrated with SU long ago and should be in the free version but I don't think there are many. If you NEED jpp, subdivide and smooth, copy along path, etc. you're probably the type of user that would get there $500 worth out of buying SU Pro.

As for what would be gained by integrating the rubies into SU, I'd say there would be stability improvements and UI improvements. SU almost never crashes for me unless it's because of a ruby. And integrating rubies into the UI has long been a headache. Perhaps that's something that could be fixed without direct integration but I think more integration is always better and tends to be more streamlined.

-Brodie

remus

I agree it is possible to work without rubys, it is certainly not an efficient way of working though. To be frank i think the power of SU lies in rubys and by forcing people to shell out $500 for that power your going to seriously slim down the number of people who use SU. Its also worth noting that it would be impossible to render anything beyond the straight SU output without the ruby api.

I dont agree that large stability improvements would be made by integrating some plugins in to SU, as any instability is most likely the cause of a wayward bit of the api and as such should be addressed whether or not it is being used by an 'official' ruby.

I also dont agree there would be much in the way of UI improvements. The main problems at the moment (from my point of view, at least) is sheer overcrowding of menus and toolbars. This wouldnt be fixed by internalising the better ruby scripts.

Master

@numerobis said:

64 bit!!!

multi core support! ...the GHz race is over - now we're on the core track (for several years already). or what should we do with the other 31 cores sketchup doesn't use next year?!?

better texturing tools!

better file handling - it's really annoying to have 200mb files that need 5 minutes to load or save... 3dsmax can do it within a few seconds

Those are pretty much the only things I look forward to. Everything else is fluff IMHO.

Gruff

[quote="plot-paris"][remus, I think gruff ment 'construction planes' as opposed to 'section planes', similar to construction lines but only as planes

I've been in solid modeling for many years.

The biggest pain I have with Sketchup is the fact that think you have drawn a flat sketch but when you rotate the model parts of your sketch fly off in z or other directions.

By construction Plane I mean a see through plane you define in space that you may draw 2D entities upon similar to drawing on a model face. They would need a toggle to lock/unlock the 2D sketch tools to them. infered snap points from the model would be projected to the plane.

Redefining the 3D Axis in Sketchup sort of gets you there except it doesn lock you to the plane.

Construction plane creation

Parallel at a distance. (Similar to push/pull but without the join)
Angled from (Select an face or plane an axis to rotate about.)
Three point
Line and a point
two lines

ScottPara

Texturing tools (UV unwrap)
Layered textures

The shadow bug can be a killer but I do not see this one being fixed anytime soon.

To be honest I think Google needs to take a look at how well Luxology has done with Modo. Set aside the rendering capabilities of modo and just look at the modeling and texturing. It is a very well rounded program and if very user friendly. I also like the ability to completely customize the UI.

I do not think Sketchup needs to add in a photoreal render solution. Having more than enough integrated or external render options in every price point from free to ridiculous is fine to leave them separate. I would much rather see Google place their efforts into the modeling aspects of the program and not add too much fluff.

Scott

remus

Cheers for explaining gruff, see where your coming from now

as an intermediate solution, tigs 2d tools may be of use: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=22091

plot-paris

@remus said:

jakob, what would happen with upgrades to the plugin? who would be tasked with going through the code? itd be a monster job and one thats better left to plugin developers themselves, in my opinion.

fair point there, remus. absolutely true. the big ones, that really add completely new features to the program are probably better kept in the hands of the ruby coders.

Aerilius

Include "repair broken lines", repair broken polylines, arcs and circles.

I still use many older versions depending on the purpose, especially important: the different collada exporters and the different handling of models on upload to 3d-warehouse.

genma saotome

Global option to toggle on/off the line-break-at-crossings feature that was implemented in version 7.0; I'm still using version 6 because I've got too many older models that rely upon the non-break "feature" of version 6(and earlier).
Much improved UVW features. My models are exported for use in PC games and in that environment performance is highly influenced by the number of individual texture files (fewer being far better). It's really hard to use non-tiling textures in SU right now.

plot-paris

in the material section I would like to see a few additions.

apart from better uv control and layered textures (these would be awesome!)
glossy materials would be really cool. they don't need a lot of rendering power, because they only have to show highlights (unlike reflections, that need a lot of machine power).
another one that would make SU images a far more interesting is roughness of a material. especially with transparent materials you could create frosted glass!

jeff hammond

a simple one that i really wish they'd fix - (or maybe my technique is wrong.. if you have a way of doing this, please share! )

inferencing while rotating doesn't work right.. i feel like i should be able to rotate this cube and have it's corner end up on the line.. can't do it though because i can only rotate in degrees of 0.0 instead of freely.

[flash=640,385:jftx8ijz]http://www.youtube.com/v/q_UIu84_89g&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6[/flash:jftx8ijz]

remus

Sketchup->model Info->units->angle snapping (turn it off.)

jeff hammond

oh man, i was so hoping that was going to do the trick but nah.

i have my angle snapping at 15⁰ so i don't think that's going to matter anyway.

likewise, i have my line snap set to 1/2" but i can still inference to an infinite amount of points regardless of the length my line will end up (it could be 30 27/1024" for instance)..

i dunno, try a quick drawing like i've shown in the video and you'll see that the inferencing system won't grab the line.

remus

Damm. As a crappy workaround you could place a point on the line, but its not the same as being able to infer straight on the line goes in search of feature requests

Gaieus

This is old, guys. You cannot snap to an edge that is on the rotation plane when rotating. Too bad, I know (it would make modelling a whole bunch of otherwise hopeless geometry).

jeff hammond

yeah Gai, i've been using su since v4 and noticed this in either 4 or 5.. i figure i might as well wait till v8 before i start asking for someone to fix it or to see if i'm doing something wrong

i have a way to deal with this if need be but it's 6 or 7 extra steps.. sort of a momentum killer when you're in the middle of drawing..

[actually, i think this might be solvable via ruby.. can ruby do trig functions and/or a²+b²=c² type of stuff?]

remus

@unknownuser said:

actually, i think this might be solvable via ruby.. can ruby do trig functions and/or a²+b²=c² type of stuff?

Yep, ruby can do trig functions. What did you have in mind?

Gaieus

I believe ruby can do all sorts of calculations but my knowledge is lesser than my belief.

jeff hammond

@remus said:

@unknownuser said:

actually, i think this might be solvable via ruby.. can ruby do trig functions and/or a²+b²=c² type of stuff?

Yep, ruby can do trig functions. What did you have in mind?

Something along these lines.... [that's just the way i think it could happen ... but it does kill two birds with one stone.. in SU, it's also a lot harder than it should be to draw a set length in between two other (non-parallel ) lines...

remus

I think you need to get your calculator out jeff