A new home for SketchUp
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jgb - You mention IBM & Lotus. I've been through this before with IBM when they sold our division to a Wall Street leveraged-buyout firm. Things looked bleak. We negotiated usage of said Lotus products (Notes, 1-2-3, etc…). But we started with a couple billion dollars in debt, assuming we'd be split up and sold off. In about 3 years, the debt was paid off and the company still is going great guns 20+ years. Thank you John Akers, who licensed NeXTSTEP 1.0 at IBM and stopped, and sold me.
So I went to work for NeXT. We were trying to go public when some on-the-downhill-slide Fruit Company bought us and an operating system we were throwing in the trash. They added some spit and polish to us, and FruitCo is doing pretty well these days, no?
On to my third major buyout of SketchUp by Trimble. You're entitled to your opinion, and I'm entitled to ignore your opinion based on my personal experiences.
What's happened in all three cases, and part of what attracted me to this kind of company, was that some outsider finds some technology that another company owns (my current employer), but does not provide the proper value to that technology. The outsider realizes that this is a bargain, and just like picking up a pound puppy, they provide a little love and care, the technology grows up to be a REALLY NICE dog, er, technology. Geez, I think I've just written half of my first children's book.
b
@jgb said:
YIPES!!!!!!!
Couldn't spend the time reading all 25 pages, but here is my $0.02.
I have seen too many instances where a company acquires the competition for various reasons, NONE of which were to benefit the customer or end user. Witness IBM buying over Lotus, which I will use as an example. Wordperfect is another, as are all the Canadian income tax programs.
The reason for acquisition is either to pillage the patents, corner the market, eliminate competition, grab the super skills, and to upgrade their own products, until the competitive distinction is moot.
Then KILL the acquisition. IBM wanted Lotus Notes. IBM now uses MS EXCEL internally, not Lotus 123, which was exclusive at IBM prior the takeover. Neither of which exist today. I was on contract to IBM at the time of the takeover as a Lotus 123 developer. A year after I left they wanted me back to convert all my 123 spreadsheets to EXCEL.
If Trimble is planning to incorporate the SU engine into their products, where will that leave SU in the future? Except for being free, there is no competitive advantage for Trimble to keep SU, free or Pro.
They will probably release Ver 9, as it is well down the pipeline, but what about Version 10 or 11?
Google has the great reputation of being a great place to have ideas and try them out. Does the new owner have a similar environment?
Google has some reputation of listening to outside ideas, maybe not so much in the SU community via these forums, but better than most companies.
IBM would only listen to clients who were willing to pay to have their ideas implemented. What about Trimbles track record??Be afraid, be very afraid.......
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@unknownuser said:
I can't imagine Google giving away Sketchup. (and similar sentiments)
i can.. from what i gather, google's mission is to collect and provide all of the world's data (you know, over the next 300 years
)and, from what i gather, the 3D models on google earth aren't actually providing much usable information at all.. if i need information about a building or building site, google earth is not going to give me anything usable other than "where's the closest coffee shop so i can go there on break time" ..
but the building's model itself is going to likely be inaccurate with no details of the innards of said building etc.. i can't use it for construction purposes..
the idea that we could see a city on our computers with 3D shells of buildings, while it sounds kind of cool, isn't really worth anything.. there is probably technology now (or soon) in which satellites can scan a city and provide more accurate info than what we're seeing on google earth.. and at the same time, give more details than 'an army of sketchupers' will ever be able to provide..
i just think google saw sketchup as a deadend street with regards to their original intent so they've simply decided to let it go to a company that will be able to make better use of the app.. and it's a good decision in my opinion..
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barry,
thanks for the reassuring post. best wishes on the move.
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@unknownuser said:
@unknownuser said:
just think google saw sketchup as a deadend street with regards to their original intent so they've simply decided to let it go to a company that will be able to make better use of the app.. and it's a good decision in my opinion..
Plausible, but remember the 'deal' as we have been informed. The Pound are holding on to the Puppy Dog's tail to possibly ensure that the Garden (3DWH) gets regular fertilizer
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Meh, I have no issues with their products. I start the day, fire them up, do my work and go home.
@valerostudio said:
Autodesk or Adobe are the only two company's I think should have got their hands on this.
SketchUp is being used every day to make design decisions, visualize ideas, and document creative thoughts. I think a company that is closely aligned with this industry should be handling what happens to it after Google.
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@unknownuser said:
Meh, I have no issues with their products. I start the day, fire them up, do my work and go home.
@valerostudio said:
Autodesk or Adobe are the only two company's I think should have got their hands on this.
SketchUp is being used every day to make design decisions, visualize ideas, and document creative thoughts. I think a company that is closely aligned with this industry should be handling what happens to it after Google.
Their products (at least the ones I use: CS5 and ACAD LT 2010) are great, it's just their product acquisition history is not.
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I knew I would stir the pot with that Autodesk comment.
Do I love Autodesk, no.
Are they pure evil, kinda.
But all I am saying is that I would rather trust the future of SketchUp in the hands of a company that deals with this kind of software. I don't know Trimble from a hole in the wall. I have never ever heard of them mentioned on this forum or any other site for that matter. From the looks of their website, I fear for what SketchUp will become. I trust AutoCAD and 3D Studio and Photoshop to do its thing day in and day out without fear that in 2014 the software is no longer available or gets turned into a land surveying program. That's all.
I just want my little old SketchUp friend to be safe and unharmed.
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Ah, for example my old friend Lightscape -- look what Autodesk did to it... I'm of the opinion Google's benign neglect may have been preferable to some active discombobulation. We shall see in due time where Trimble's acquisition falls on the scale.
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No more evil than Apple, Adobe or MS. All 4 are pretty much the same imho (the big players). AutoDesk has done better with recent products. 123D suite, AutoCAD WS (web/iOS/Droid), SketchBook mobile and so on. I think they need to look at LT's price again with recent free LT clones in the wild. Hard to pay for LT when DraftSight is free (unsupported).
But yes, they do their job.@valerostudio said:
I knew I would stir the pot with that Autodesk comment.
Do I love Autodesk, no.
Are they pure evil, kinda.
But all I am saying is that I would rather trust the future of SketchUp in the hands of a company that deals with this kind of software. I don't know Trimble from a hole in the wall. I have never ever heard of them mentioned on this forum or any other site for that matter. From the looks of their website, I fear for what SketchUp will become. I trust AutoCAD and 3D Studio and Photoshop to do its thing day in and day out without fear that in 2014 the software is no longer available or gets turned into a land surveying program. That's all.
I just want my little old SketchUp friend to be safe and unharmed.
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@bjanzen said:
On to my third major buyout of SketchUp by Trimble. You're entitled to your opinion, and I'm entitled to ignore your opinion based on my personal experiences.
What's happened in all three cases, and part of what attracted me to this kind of company, was that some outsider finds some technology that another company owns (my current employer), but does not provide the proper value to that technology. The outsider realizes that this is a bargain, and just like picking up a pound puppy, they provide a little love and care, the technology grows up to be a REALLY NICE dog, er, technology.
I have no reason to believe Trimble will do good
or do evil 
with Sketchup.I do not know the company other than they do great stuff in the GIS spectrum. I would love to believe they acquired SU for the reason you quoted "some outsider finds some technology that another company owns, but does not provide the proper value to that technology". And perhaps that may prove true.
But my experience says otherwise, that when a company buys into technology that is outside their frame of reference, there is an ulterior motive.
I do hope I am wrong on this acquisition.
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I, for one, welcome our new overlords.
From an ArchViz perspective I think many of us here seem to have forgotten the frustrations of Google's ownership. We'll never really know how much control Google had over SU's development but since Google's acquisition, has not each release been fairly underwhelming? Some nice tools have been added: solids, dynamic components,...I'm sure there must be others, but over the last several years I don't remember ever seeing an update and being really excited to try out a new feature.
The Warehouse has been nice and I hope it continues in some form, but it too has hardly developed since it's inception although it has a lot of room for improvement.
Google used SU to build there Google Earth empire and pushed its development to that end. But that was THEIR goal, and it rarely aligned with many of ours.
I know little of Trimble but the speculation I'm seeing suggests they purchased SU for somewhere between $50-$90 million. That's a pretty significant investment so you have to assume they have some plans to develop it further. I also hear they are somewhat involved in BIM which is something I see a lot of requests for around here.
-Brodie
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Another good perspective from the CAD industry press. I'm sure Roopinder would appreciate it if you guys read his post and gave him your thoughts on the deal.
john
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@jbacus said:
Another good perspective from the CAD industry press. I'm sure Roopinder would appreciate it if you guys read his post and gave him your thoughts on the deal.
john
.Ha, "the AEC cOmmunity might not have jumped on SketchUp to create the built world"...
How far 'inside' is the CADInsider that this is a belief?
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from a few of these articles, I get the sense that the warehouse is the "face" of Sketchup to the uninitiated. Of course
@unknownuser said:the DIYers sure jumped on it to make whatever whirligig, gizmos, low-riders, furniture, or whatever crazy contraption that was in their head
Really, if all you look at is the warehouse, you'll get a rather slanted view of Sketchup and it's capabilities. In my neck of the woods, most architects I know have used Sketchup. I think the AEC adoption is quite high. I do have to agree Autodesk would have been wise to buy it, from a market standpoint.
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@jbacus said:
Another good perspective from the CAD industry press. I'm sure Roopinder would appreciate it if you guys read his post and gave him your thoughts on the deal.
john
."I had to make a factory layout. Let’s see, should I make each machine in 123D, even if was free and easy to use (supposedly)? Or should I use models from the SketchUp library. I found Bridgeports, lathes, drill presses, tables, even a water jet cutter in the SketchUp library. In less than one hour, I had a reasonable attempt at a factory layout. In fact, every tool and machine I needed was there. How deep was this library? Out of curiosity, I looked for Adirondack chairs. There were dozens of Adirondack chair designs, for God’s sake."
He clearly has a higher opinion of the 3DW than most of Sketchucation.
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@johnsenior1973 said:
He clearly has a higher opinion of the 3DW than most of Sketchucation.
I'm not saying the warehouse itself is crap, just a large volume of models in it are. Do you not agree that it takes some sorting before one finds usable models of any particular thing. See this related thread
Andy
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@andybot said:
@johnsenior1973 said:
He clearly has a higher opinion of the 3DW than most of Sketchucation.
I'm not saying the warehouse itself is crap, just a large volume of models in it are. Do you not agree that it takes some sorting before one finds usable models of any particular thing. See this related thread
Andy
I think that there are hundreds of thousands of models that are crap. But I think that it's relatively easy to sift through and quickly find fantastic models that are easily usable.
Personally, I think that there is a snobbishness towards the 3DW that is similar to the snobbishness towards SU. I would instantly ignore anyone who referred to SU as a toy, but I think that SUers who refer to 3DW as a "repository of crap" are just as ignorant.
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@unknownuser said:
I would instantly ignore anyone who referred to SU as a toy, but I think that SUers who refer to 3DW as a "repository of crap" are just as ignorant.
Okay! potato potaato.
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@johnsenior1973 said:
I think that there are hundreds of thousands of models that are crap. But I think that it's relatively easy to sift through and quickly find fantastic models that are easily usable.
OK, so you agree.
But sometimes those fantastic models are just not there. That's why there's formfonts
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@mike lucey said:
I doubt very much there was ever a chance that this could have happened. To 'buy' something, it has to be made available to one in the first place at a consideration!
Mike, EVERYTHING is for sale!!!
I can tell you a stack of stories of knocking on people's doors to ask if they want to sell out to a developer and it almost always starts with "NO!". A few weeks later the surveyors are on site!
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