SketchUP 8
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@cadmunkey said:
Jeez.. no 64 bit version in 2010? C'mon Google you've dropped the ball! You beta testers couldnt persuade them?
What benefit do you hope to gain from a 64-bit version of SketchUp? This is really this question that needs to be discussed.
john
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@johnsenior1973 said:
@frederik said:
@notareal said:
...but a major version release - it does not add up.
Couldn't agree more... This should have been a v.7.2 or something...
~ v 6.4 for me.
SU7 and SU8 are just point upgrades from SU6 IMO. Sketchup is still an awesome programme, but it is pretty much as good as it's ever going to be.
You're just making semantic judgements- that doesn't have anything to do with our decision to increment the version number. We increment to a major version number when we think that we've made enough changes that users will want to keep both the new version and the old version installed side-by-side. If we made this release "7.2" or something like that, you wouldn't be able to keep your 7.1 build installed at the same time.
john
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@panga said:
The worst thing in Google developpement process of SU, is that they maintain a big silence before each of their release for finally releasing just some powder (despite their mutiples polls) , making SU a google earth plugin !! Com'on, is that serious ?!!
We don't, as a matter of policy, discuss unreleased features in any Google product. Similarly, we didn't pre-announce features in development when we were @Last Software. We do listen to user input, but it doesn't guide 100% of our development effort. We also have our own ideas about features we'd like to add to SketchUp next.
Generally speaking, I think we've got a good release when we've got something that the user community asked for, something genuinely new on the market, and some basic improvement to the core application. I think we did all of that with this release.
john
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@fossa said:
SU's future development is crystal clear as far as I'm concerned. Someone said earlier "google earth plugin", and I couldn't agree more. Until one of the other companies decides there is enough revenue to be generated by adding some SU like tools into their product line we are stuck with SU as it currently is.
Better learn to love it as is. Its not going anywhere.
Correct. We're not going anywhere. We are planning to continue developing SketchUp as "3D modeling for everyone." Exactly what we've been doing for the last ten years. Happily, SketchUp usage continues to increase at a respectable clip every month, and we're finding new users in all kinds of unexpected markets.
We don't have plans to shift our roadmap to more completely duplicate the capabilities of either the large DCC apps (like Max, Maya, Softimage, Cinema4d, or Lightwave) or the BIM apps (like Revit or Archicad). But this shouldn't really come as a surprise to any of you that have been with us for a while.
john
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@rickgraham said:
Having been on the beta test process for several Autodesk products, I can say with 100% certainty that requests won't go unanswered. In one of them, they even personally emailed me for more information and how I would use it in my workflow.
I think if you were a part of our beta program, you'd find that we are similarly responsive there. There's a difference between the level of communication possible behind the protection of an NDA and a open public discourse like we're having here– but I think we're pretty open regardless. Of course openness means we'll discuss issues as we see them, not that we'll implement 100% of your feature requests. We're not a huge team, and we have our own ideas about where we want to take SketchUp.
btw: this "SketchUp is nothing but a Google Earth Plugin" meme some of you are promoting is really a bit short sighted, and I hope it doesn't prevent you from taking advantage of the cools stuff we're able to build leveraging Google's vast collection of geo-data for architectural design and planning.
john
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@diego-rodriguez said:
a question.
if google decided to upgrade pushpull.
why not add more options?I agree that Push/Pull operations from multiple pre-selections would be a neat thing to add. We might do something like that in the future, but it wasn't possible to do so for SU8.
john
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There is another point. Modeling for everyone is quit different to GE. Layout can be used by everyone. As an interior designer and product designer I don't need GE and
all the Geo stuff. It is only for some people - and not 3D for everyone.Rendering, Modelingtools, UV mapping ...are basics which can be used by all modelers, if they are interested. But I do not change my profession to find GE usefull.
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Thanks for that John.
I still think you would be hard pressed to put forward a good case for upgrading.... to SketchUpers who dont use GE or Layout...[and these seem to be in the majority in this thread]
The general consensus seems to be that there hasnt been a lot of signifigant development in 3D modeling....which is really the core of SketchUp. -
@unknownuser said:
We added a feature in SU8 that allows you to save and restore toolbar configurations. Was this not the error you wanted corrected?
I sortof laughed a bit when I saw that feature actually. It's really more of a workaround than a fix isn't it? Fine for a point release but underdeveloped for a major verion release. For a version release, I'd expect to see a fix that would make "restore toolbar configurations" irrelevant. And perhaps an added feature in the Pro version so that you could toggle between, say, 3 different user defined toolbar configurations.
@unknownuser said:
If you are an architect, it may be interesting to know that we have just granted you convenient access to Google's complete collection of geo-spatial imagery for more or less the entire world.
This is probably the most helpful tool(s) for this release to architects (less-so for those of us who do renderings as the details/quality is still to low). I think the real issue is that no one really seemed to be clamoring for this. As a matter of priorities there were features that were far more important.
@unknownuser said:
Many users prefer that the look of the UI not change dramatically from release to release.
Strawman. No one said that it should change dramatically. Personally, I like the SU UI better than most programs, but it is nice to see a little aesthetic change with major releases.
@unknownuser said:
What benefit do you hope to gain from a 64-bit version of SketchUp? This is really this question that needs to be discussed.
Speed (particularly with plugin routines) and the ability to carry higher poly counts without considerable slowing. SU can't handle more than 1 high poly tree or car for architectural renderings.
@unknownuser said:
We increment to a major version number when we think that we've made enough changes that users will want to keep both the new version and the old version installed side-by-side.
This is an easy one. Users neverwant to have multiple versions of the same program installed. If I have multiple versions of the same program installed it's because there is something wrong (removed features I see as necessary or bugs). I think a better goal would be to wait to put out a new version until you've successfully made the old version redundant and inferior.
What about this release made you think that users would still want to use the previous version? The only thing I can think of would be the DWG import. If that's the case then how about simply leaving dwg import in to solve the problem?
@unknownuser said:
I agree that Push/Pull operations from multiple pre-selections would be a neat thing to add. We might do something like that in the future, but it wasn't possible to do so for SU8.
Not "possible" seems like pretty strong language, particularly considering someone already figured out how to incorporate it (Joint Push/Pull).
-Brodie
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@unknownuser said:
@unknownuser said:
What benefit do you hope to gain from a 64-bit version of SketchUp? This is really the question that needs to be discussed.
Speed (particularly with plugin routines) and the ability to carry higher poly counts without considerable slowing. SU can't handle more than 1 high poly tree or car for architectural renderings.
64-bit processing will have no benefit to managing higher poly counts without considerably slowing. Performance in this area depends either on the capability of your GPU, or the clock speed of your CPU. Memory is not the bottleneck for these kinds of operations.
john
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@jbacus said:
We added a feature in SU8 that allows you to save and restore toolbar configurations.
This for me was huge and it works great. Thank you so much.
@jbacus said:
If you are an architect, it may be interesting to know that we have just granted you convenient access to Google's complete collection of geo-spatial imagery for more or less the entire world. In many parts of the world, you can now build a site model with accurate terrain, aerial and street-level photography and rough massing models for adjacent structures in minutes... without leaving your desk.
john
.Working for an architect I see this as a huge improvement as well. I was able to generate the entire site for a local airport we are working on in only minutes. Wow I say, wow.
It may seem that this release has been geared more for Google Earth but all the added functionality I will be able to use in my workflow and I have never contributed to Google Earth.
Although I might soon enough.
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@unknownuser said:
@unknownuser said:
I agree that Push/Pull operations from multiple pre-selections would be a neat thing to add. We might do something like that in the future, but it wasn't possible to do so for SU8.
Not "possible" seems like pretty strong language, particularly considering someone already figured out how to incorporate it (Joint Push/Pull).
I think you misunderstood my point. I don't mean that it is impossible for someone to write a push/pull operation that operates on multiple pre-selections. Instead, I meant that it was impossible for us to do so in the time available before the release of SU8. Simply put, it wasn't something we wanted to work on instead of the other things we did work on.
john
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@jbacus said:
@krisidious said:
I used the DWG Export in Layout3 and it seems to be kinda fake... it does export the layout lines to Auto-CAD and it converts text to actual Auto-CAD text, however the Sketchup model itself does not export out of layout as vector lines. it comes out as a referenced image in the dwg file.
LayOut is exporting the exactly what has been rendered in the model view. If you want vectors in the exported file, be sure that you have vector rendered the model view.
john
.Took me a while to find that Vector Option... Excellent Excellent Excellent. this alone may make 8 Pro worth the upgrade fee... not fake at all. this means the image export into dwg is just an extra feature not a substitution. very nice. and perhaps this vector option will help me with dimensioning precisely... very nice. thanks John.
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@jbacus said:
@unknownuser said:
@unknownuser said:
I agree that Push/Pull operations from multiple pre-selections would be a neat thing to add. We might do something like that in the future, but it wasn't possible to do so for SU8.
Not "possible" seems like pretty strong language, particularly considering someone already figured out how to incorporate it (Joint Push/Pull).
I think you misunderstood my point. I don't mean that it is impossible for someone to write a push/pull operation that operates on multiple pre-selections. Instead, I meant that it was impossible for us to do so in the time available before the release of SU8. Simply put, it wasn't something we wanted to work on instead of the other things we did work on.
john
.I understood your point but perhaps I didn't word myself well enough. From a user's perspective who makes the SU8 deadline? You. For that matter who decided that the next version would be 8 rather than 7.2? You. So when yousuggest that the deadline didn't allow for a much requested feature it comes off as ingenuine.
-Brodie
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@jbacus said:
What benefit do you hope to gain from a 64-bit version of SketchUp? This is really this question that needs to be discussed.
From what I understand, it will allow rendering larger models inside Sketchup without running out of RAM.
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@d12dozr said:
@jbacus said:
What benefit do you hope to gain from a 64-bit version of SketchUp? This is really the question that needs to be discussed.
From what I understand, it will allow rendering larger models inside Sketchup without running out of RAM.
High resolution image export, especially when antialiased, does require a considerable quantity of memory. But a shift to 64-bit processing probably isn't required for improvement in this area. It would be useful to hear the actual image resolution you're trying to achieve so we can better study the problem.
john
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@jbacus said:
@unknownuser said:
@unknownuser said:
What benefit do you hope to gain from a 64-bit version of SketchUp? This is really the question that needs to be discussed.
Speed (particularly with plugin routines) and the ability to carry higher poly counts without considerable slowing. SU can't handle more than 1 high poly tree or car for architectural renderings.
64-bit processing will have no benefit to managing higher poly counts without considerably slowing. Performance in this area depends either on the capability of your GPU, or the clock speed of your CPU. Memory is not the bottleneck for these kinds of operations.
john
.Yet there are, in fact, other programs which can handle polygons in the order of magnitudes more than SU with a decent gaming GPU and multiprocessor (ie. low clock speed) processor. If the answer to that isn't 64-bit then so be it (there are 32 bit programs which handle many more polygons as well), but the issue can't be pawned off to GPU and clock speeds. All the empirical evidence points to a SU programming issue rather than a hardware one.
Your argument has remained the same for some time now (64 bit isn't needed and may even be bad for SU users). What would be more welcome is for you to improve the aspects which cause people to request 64-bit and point to THAT empirical evidence, showing that you can give them the speed and poly enhancements they desire without 64-bit support. So far it's just been an intellectual argument without any evidence that SU actually can make significant improvements within the 32-bit realm.
In fairness, v7 was a nice step up both speed and poly handling. However it's just still so far below where other programs are currently at (or have been at for years) that the frustration will remain until "significant" improvements have been made.
-Brodie
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John,
I should have been more clear, I meant rendering with a plugin inside Sketchup. I use Twilight, I understand Vray and other render programs have similar trouble. Depending on model size, trouble can start at 2000 px.Thanks for replying.
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@jbacus said:
High resolution image export, especially when antialiased, does require a considerable quantity of memory. But a shift to 64-bit processing probably isn't required for improvement in this area. It would be useful to hear the actual image resolution you're trying to achieve so we can better study the problem.
john
.FWIW, Windows users can only export up to around 4000px wide images. I've never needed more that, but other users (recently Pixero) have mentioned needing larger exports than that.
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I suspect many people are mis-using the whole '64 bit' thing.
Changing a program to use 64 bit sized pointers may well slow it down since you now have to move around twice as much data for every operation. Whether that is a noticeable effect depends a great deal on the exact operations involved and the precise details of the machine you are using. And what other programs are running and how much real memory they are holding on to and how much vmem thrashing that causes.
Changing a program to use the 64 bit instruction set available in the recent intel cpus is a different thing. Hidden under the ugly lump of crapulence that pretends to be a Pentium 17 or whatever it would be by now is a reasonably well thought out RISC machine with a lot of capabilities, many more registers than the stupid x86 instruction set and potentially better performance.
It's like the whole 'why isnt SU multicore' outcry. Not every algorithm is sensibly parallelisable, nor easily. A pity, since massive parallelism is the only way we are likely to be able to take advantage of future benefits of Moore's Law. It may even be that in order to use hundreds of cores we have to change to much less 'efficient' algorithms from the perspective of a single cpu.
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