CatchUp Edition 3

Rich O Brien

Thanks John.

dale

I'm looking forward to reading it. These are really well done. Thanks for all the effort.

SketchUpNoobie

Thanks John.

Nope, not me. Thanks to these guys for making this happen:

Mike Lucey - Managing Director
Csaba Pozsarko - Training Director
Octavian Chis- Technical Director
Richard O’Brien - Quality Director

Moderators:
Pete Stoppel
Chris Fullmer
Dylan Morton
Dave Richards
Eric Lay
TIG
Thomas Thomassen
Jean Lemire
Jim Foltz
Eeva
Edson Mahfuz
Majid

Contributors:
Eric Lay
Mike Lucey
Al Hart
Thomas Thomassen
Bjorn Kare Nilsson
Dave Richards
John Higgins
Thomas Thomassen
Csaba Pozsarko
Dennis Fukai

Thanks everyone!

thomthom

Yea - I work so hard I even get my name listed three times!

Rich O Brien

thomthomthom

thomthom

Aye!!! I burned my bacon! Cursed you SCF!!

thomthom

@unknownuser said:

thomthomthom

Full name is: thomthomthom-de-thomthom-di-thom

thomthom

I was really looking forward to bacon with my pancakes...

hmmm... baconware...?

bjornkn

Lots of interesting reading

BTW, for those who wonder about the new version of Photoscan, the problem with axes not aligned with the SU axes is now solved. No more problems with Sun/shadows and orbiting
Regarding the unusually high price, $999, it is expensive for a SU plugin, but it is pretty cheap for a photogrammetry program. The only(?) currently freely available competitor today, Photomodeler, costs almost twice as much here in Norway (cheaper in US/Canada though - I had a friend in Canada buy it for me...) for the base version. With Scanner module (similar to Image-based surface matching in PhotoScan) it would cost $2600 in USA, and ~$4300 here (incl 25% VAT & freight from Denmark)

Pixero

@thomthom said:

Full name is: thomthomthom-de-thomthom-di-thom

thomthom

@bjornkn said:

...costs almost twice as much here in Norway...

grumble mumble ..Norwegian taxes... grumble

bjornkn

Well, it isn't only the taxes...
If you get a box shipped from abroad you'll have to pay the VAT anyway on top of the price...
Like so many companies do, including Adobe, Autodesk, Maxon, Realviz etc, Eos (who makes Photomodeler) thinks that Norwegians (and other Europeans) are so much more wealthy (or stupid?) than Americans and Canadians that they can charge us much more for the same piece of software, even when downloaded from the same server
Even Realviz, the French company that made ImageModeler, which was bought by Autodesk, used to charge much more from Europeans than from USA/Canada. I had a dispute with them because I found a webshop in US that sold it to me for the US price. As all packages were shipped from Realviz/France anyway they "spotted" me, but after a few emails I ended up paying the US price anyway.
AFAIK SketchUp is still the same price worldwide? And so is PhotoScan - which is great

Gaieus

@bjornkn said:

AFAIK SketchUp is still the same price worldwide?

Not if you buy it from a local reseller. They have to charge the same, local taxes then. See here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?hl=en&tid=496b43593f40b5ca

Ah and another thing: here we are forced to buy in Euros. And somehow the exchange rate is not the same according to the SU Web Store than in the bank (meaning we pay more). Good that when I bought Pro, I could still buy in $.

TIG

If you buy from Google.com direct they'll charge VAT if your address is within the EU based on the Irish rate [Google's EU HQ is in Dublin]... unless you have a local EU VAT reference code when it's deducted and you have to pay it direct to your own revenue office if applicable - talk about complicated

tfdesign

@thomthom said:

Aye!!! I burned my bacon! Cursed you SCF!!

Burnt bacon is awesome! Since starting the Atkins diet, I've been feasting on bacon and 3 eggs for breakfast everyday! For 6 months!!

Porridge is now a treat, and no longer a type of "torture"!

solo

@unknownuser said:

I've been feasting on bacon and 3 eggs for breakfast everyday

Heart attack waiting to happen mate.

Rich O Brien

Don't encourage him Pete or we'll have 'Mountains out of Muesli'

You should try the Windows 7 diet Tom. Your so busy getting things done on PCs that you forget to eat/snack/get fat. Whilst on Mac you afraid to touch them so you sit and admire while munching Jammy Dodgers.

bjornkn

@tig said:

If you buy from Google.com direct they'll charge VAT if your address is within the EU based on the Irish rate [Google's EU HQ is in Dublin]... unless you have a local EU VAT reference code when it's deducted and you have to pay it direct to your own revenue office if applicable - talk about complicated

Lucky that we're not a member in EU then We're supposed to pay VAT when buying downloadable software abroad, but I doubt that many people contact the tax collector and asks if they can pay BTW, as a company/freelancer you get the VAT back anyway, but you're still supposed to pay it in the first place!

But the price for SU is the same all over the world, isn't it still?

Gaieus

@bjornkn said:

BTW, as a company/freelancer you get the VAT back anyway, but you're still supposed to pay it in the first place!

Here I can opt out of this whole VAT thing. I cannot reclaim VAT but I do not even have to charge (so basically can be 20% more competitive than others charging VAT). This is up to about € 20,000 turnover a year only though.

@bjornkn said:

But the price for SU is the same all over the world, isn't it still?

Well, yes, apart from these regional VAT issues, I guess so.

jeff hammond

@unknownuser said:

You should try the Windows 7 diet Tom. Your so busy getting things done on PCs that you forget to eat/snack/get fat. Whilst on Mac you afraid to touch them so you sit and admire while munching Jammy Dodgers.

mmm.
those jammy dodgers are looking good

**off to search the yellow pages for a local supplier.

..oh. props on issue3
i like how fast you guys are getting these things out.