Dassault buying sketchup?
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Dassault has yet DraftSight in 2D and 3Dvia Shape as free programs
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Wow Tom! I bet you feel better after getting that off your chest
However I think you might be a little hard on the current dev team. I know for a fact that they do their best with what they have, particulary John B.From what I can see, with my very limited understanding of the SU innards, they have to work with a system that was never intended to be doing anything like it currently does. I've been using SU since v1 and remember the rejoicing when transparency became available.
It's been mentioned many times here that SU probably needs a major change of engine to bring it where it should be going. I'd compare it to a suped up 4 cly 1600cc racing car that is competing with v8 3000+ cc super powerful racers. It's in the race and doing well but the hell is being tweaked out of it and there is only so much tweaking can be done. However, the team owners, Google, are happy as it really only needs it to get around the track, not win any races, because they are not in the racing business. As we all know, they are in the advertising business
So maybe a new racing team that racing is their sole core business takes over ownership and provides that badly needed engine change we would be looking at a winner! I imagine the new SU with the v8 could still carry plenty of adverts AND they would be seen more as they would be in the winner's spot more often
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I imagine the first thing that would have to be dropped is the Google Earth-centric mindset/toolset.
From there it would have to be driven by the primary markets that are paying for continued development via SketchUp Pro and the tools they want/need.
If you are a Google Earth modeler this could be a bad thing -- if you are an Architect/Arch Viz specialist this could be a good thing... but it certainly should be obvious that something big has changed behind the scenes if it were to come to pass.
Best,
Jason. -
Hi folks.
A few ideas.
Dassault system is the publisher of Catia.
Actually, Catia is at V5 with V6 around the corner, if not out already.
I saw a demo of V6 a few years ago and it showed a feature that looked identical to SU'S Push/Pull tool. Maybe they cannot copy that since there must be patent or copyrights of this feature, among other things.
Maybe the only way to be able to use that is to buy SketchUp.
I hope not since this could be the end of SU as we know it. They would probably incorporate it inside some larger scale software like Catia.
Catia's price is close to 20000 $ per licence if you add all required modules to do something useful.
Catia's is very slow to start, is complex and couterintuitive. Its learning curve is very steep.
Unless they propose a free simple program, we may see SU disapear.
And, finally, it will not appeal to the vast majority of people since many do not know Dassault System or think they are providing only professionnal programs for professionnal users.
I hope it is an unfounded rumor.
Just ideas.
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@mike lucey said:
Wow Tom! I bet you feel better after getting that off your chest
Yes I do Mike! ...but you know really deep down, I wont give up on SketchUP
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Since I already pay for SketchUp Pro I'm not concerned if the free version disappears -- although I seriously doubt it would. And I have no fears of SketchUp being destroyed... It would be foolish for any company to turn away over 1 millions users, many of whom might be converted to a pro/pay package at some future date.
My concern would only be whether they intend to keep what is already good about SketchUp and improve what is not -- a commitment that Google seems to be lacking in either the will or resources to make. Dassault has the resources and the will to create professional 3D packages... something Google (apparently) does not, so in that sense I am for such a sale.
Much more so than I would be if SketchUp was sold to a company like Autodesk.
Best,
Jason. -
I'm not buying this rumor.
Two words: Google Earth. nuff said.
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I would agree except Building Maker has made SketchUp largely irrelevant for Google Earth... except for the occasional prestige items.
That said I also do not buy the rumor, however it certainly is intriguing.
Best,
Jason. -
@jason_maranto said:
Since I already pay for SketchUp Pro I'm not concerned if the free version disappears
Best,
Jason.That's kinda cold, Jason. Very few SU users can afford the pro version
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Let me ask you -- do you care if the Pro version disappears?
I know we have had this conversation before
However you may be right, my wife thinks I'm pretty cold in general too... I rather think of myself as being pragmatic -- business is business.
Best,
Jason. -
@jason_maranto said:
Let me ask you -- do you care if the Pro version disappears?
I know we have had this conversation before
Best,
Jason.Yes, I would care about those that use the Pro version. I would also care because if the revenue producing version disappeared, the free version would soon follow.
But, having said that, I don't want to become one of those that jump on anything anybody says about anything, there's way too much of that happening all over the web nowadays. So how about we just end this here.
No offense intended.
Steve
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@jason_maranto said:
Let me ask you -- do you care if the Pro version disappears?
However you may be right, my wife thinks I'm pretty cold in general too...
Jason.Very funny.....It seems this was never a problem, when we were all newly weds
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Yeah, her pet name for me is Spock because she thinks I have the emotional range of a Vulcan, in her eyes I'm too logical
-- but we've been together for nearly 15 years so I think we are doing OKBest,
Jason. -
that's too .... too funny, your in the wrong business, you should be writing one Liners for Leno!
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@jason_maranto said:
I would agree except Building Maker has made SketchUp largely irrelevant for Google Earth... except for the occasional prestige items.
That's nonsense. Do you know how extremely few places BM is available? Also, a good BM workflow also incorporates SketchUp as you need to tweak that model to be really good - if you care about the quality at all.
I do not think that the free version made any "harm" to SketchUp. In fact, the free version was that made it well known finally and one of the most used 3D modelling software in the world which resulted many-many 3rd party developers to (also) develop tools for SU (exporters for their products, built in stuff etc.), make skp or collada or any other native SU generated file types usable in their applications - even plugin developers would not care that much (in fact, many of the authors on our forums do not even have the pro version).
Also, if there is not the free version, I would not be here either. I had not even heard of SU before Google released the free version. What a loss would it be!
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I wouldn't give any credence to this rumour either. As far as I can see, the only reason that Dassault would bother to buy SketchUp would be to kill it off. They have their own version...3DVIA...complete with their own version of the 3D Warehouse (Link). 3DVIA also uses their own 3DXML format as its primary form, which I'm sure they would want to retain.
The only use they would have for SU would be to cannibalise some of its more useful and user-friendly features before casting it adrift.As a side issue, I'm not certain about the continued love affair between SU and Google Earth, at least in the long term. We've already seen on these forums a number of mapping softwares that use auto-generated 3D buildings of entire city districts. It's still in its infancy, but the results are very impressive and almost certain to get better and more affordable. Long term it's difficult to see how laboriously building cities by hand could possibly keep up, however enthusiastic the userbase of contributors or the usefulness of apps like Building Maker. I mean, much of the aerial data on GE is already almost a decade out of date.
Building Maker itself is really only of any use where you have the 4 different Iso views available; and frankly these are almost as scarce as the areas covered by the auto-generating systems. There are only 4 available locations in the entire British Isles...and even London isn't one of them.Of course, as Gaius points out, to produce really good results of 3D buildings on GE, you need SU anyway; but this is really a pro or semi-pro architectural use of SketchUp...not the mass-effect, populate-the-globe use of SU that Google originally envisaged.
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@gaieus said:
That's nonsense. Do you know how extremely few places BM is available? Also, a good BM workflow also incorporates SketchUp as you need to tweak that model to be really good - if you care about the quality at all.
I do not think that the free version made any "harm" to SketchUp. In fact, the free version was that made it well known finally and one of the most used 3D modelling software in the world which resulted many-many 3rd party developers to (also) develop tools for SU (exporters for their products, built in stuff etc.), make skp or collada or any other native SU generated file types usable in their applications - even plugin developers would not care that much (in fact, many of the authors on our forums do not even have the pro version).
I think you may be misreading what I have said -- Building Maker is a better near-term fit to the purposes Google had with SketchUp... they could easily part with SketchUp at this point and still be able to work towards their goals.
I never said the free version did any harm, but certainly the development has been primarily geared toward GE application -- which has hindered (IMO) SketchUps potential development towards a better/more complete modeling package. So while I'm not saying the free version has done any harm, Google have not proven to be particularly good at managing further development of an existing package which had great potential.
In short, Google's goals/vision for SketchUp and my own do not match... and based on what I have read over the last several years here that is true for a good many users (probably more than the majority of even free version users).
My point was simply that I would care as much about the free version disappearing as I would if Maya or 3DS Max were to disappear -- I don't use it, so why would I care? My only motivation for caring would be the concern over how it might effect future development of software I own and use.
Now I have two options, I can choose to move on from SketchUp (which I have been tempted to do) -- or I can hope that development will regain a focus on tools for professionals. I went through a similar problem with Corel Painter, which for several version catered to hobbyist photographers... I was severely annoyed. However when they realized how ill-informed that choice of directions was they returned the focus to developing tools for professional artists (and it shows in version 12). Therefor my faith in Painter is now restored.
Also it should be said that free version users can move on from SketchUp much more easily than I can since they have far less invested than I (or any other Pro version users) do -- there are alot of free packages out there and I imagine if SketchUp were to become pay-only some users would upgrade, but most would simply move on to the next free package that suited them.
Best,
Jason. -
Maybe I did misread but I still have to contradict. Just a couple of tools that have been created/implemented by the developers since it's been Google and that has nothing to do with GE (and the majority of which is for the Pro users only):
- sketchy styles (not as if I used them a lot but there are people who do) and accompanying Style Builder (for Pro users only)
- LayOut (again, Pro only)
- Dynamic componants (Pro only)
- Revamped Camera tools (Pro only)
- Solid tools (Pro only)
- Fixing the shadow bug
- Considerable speed improvement (with rewriting the whole rendering engine) from 7.0 to 7.1
- Lately, during a "simple" maintenance release, revamping the collada exporter in favour of users trying to export into 3rd party apps (not GE - that used to work fine)
Probably there is not a single user who would exploit all these tools (to be honest, apart from a couple of occasions when I need to export to some other formats, I hardly use ny of the "Pro" tools).
And I have to agree with Alan: any change in the "owner" would just bring the risk that the only real reason is to "shelve" SU and kill a competitor.
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@jason_maranto said:
Also it should be said that free version users can move on from SketchUp much more easily than I can since they have far less invested than I (or any other Pro version users) do -- there are alot of free packages out there and I imagine if SketchUp were to become pay-only some users would upgrade, but most would simply move on to the next free package that suited them.
Jason - you keep discounting the value of SU free version. I would pay for the software in a heartbeat as it is essential to my workflow. But it's free and the uses I have only require the free version. Why would I pay for things I don't need? Just because you bought it doesn't mean others don't value it too.
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@andybot said:
Jason - you keep discounting the value of SU free version. I would pay for the software in a heartbeat as it is essential to my workflow. But it's free and the uses I have only require the free version. Why would I pay for things I don't need? Just because you bought it doesn't mean others don't value it too.
You have made my point for me -- you are exactly the type of user that would make it a wise decision for SketchUp to become pay only (most likely with a tiered approach). You use the free version because you can get away with using the free version... if you could not then you would be forced to either financially support the software or move on. I imagine in your case you are tied to SketchUp partially because you own other software that needs SketchUp to function (V-Ray for SketchUp).
Other users who are not so financially tied to SketchUp could easily move onto other packages, of which there are many to choose from.
Best,
Jason.
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