A new home for SketchUp
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@andybot said:
Anyway, free was part of Google's philosophy, including pro uses.
I think it is more a case of free at a price is part of Google's philosophy. I have no problem with that however and even find the side bar adverts in my gmail quite useful at times.
Not even charities can give away things for free, someone / thing has to pay for it. Even the air we breath is not free. The price we have to learn to pay for it, is not to pollute it nor decimate the rain forests.
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@dan rathbun said:
Why do think that the DXF/DWG import and export was removed from the Free edition in 7 ??
IMHO.. too many companies / users were using the Free edition for commercial work, when they could / should have bought the Pro edition.
Dan - I'm not saying having to pay for pro functionality is a problem, I'm just concerned that if you look at Trimble's pricing structure for their other products, cost may be a serious issue for continued adoption of SU. It may become a niche engineering tool.
Anyway, free** was part of Google's philosophy, including pro uses.
**Edit: Right Mike - Free as in price...
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http://www.hallway.com/companies/trimble-navigation-ltd-employee-reviews?nt=5961
I hope this really is a bit of frustration of those who got fired. But I think its a good time to start looking around a bit, other modelers and so on. After 20 years in CAD I have seen its never a good thing to get too dependent on a single tool. The less you look around the more difficult it is to make a change once you need to.
But of course Trimble Sketchup could be a great combination giving us lots of what we never got from Google. The real problem is of course @Last. They should never have taken the money...
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@findthong said:
I'm convinced that I should plan for some options, just in case.
Rhino3d - very complete package for anything when considered plugins, got a lot of useful AEC function and plugins like grasshopper, visualarq, rhinoBIM and etc.
FormZ 7/Bonzai3d - powerful, not hard to grasp, have a lot potential for concept,presentations and BIM, which is to come. But it have small ecology, communications maybe a problem.
Moi3d - it's sketchup for nurb modeling. Again, small software ecology and plugins. But export really clean, working with other software is convenient.
SolidWorks Live Buildings - never know it would happened or not. But if it come, it's likely what Lumion do with tradition rendering technology.
Project vasari - far from easy to use, limited workflow.I want to use SketchUp 9,10,11 and so on. IMHO Price is not that big problem, it's about dev direction and API. And for the worse case, I just have to use 3DS Max, that's it.
Anyway, it's up to Trimble decision
.You left out Blender! That's a big one with lots of features and developments.
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I'm convinced that I should plan for some options, just in case.
Rhino3d - very complete package for anything when considered plugins, got a lot of useful AEC function and plugins like grasshopper, visualarq, rhinoBIM and etc.
FormZ 7/Bonzai3d - powerful, not hard to grasp, have a lot potential for concept,presentations and BIM, which is to come. But it have small ecology, communications maybe a problem.
Moi3d - it's sketchup for nurb modeling. Again, small software ecology and plugins. But export really clean, working with other software is convenient.
SolidWorks Live Buildings - never know it would happened or not. But if it come, it's likely what Lumion do with tradition rendering technology.
Project vasari - far from easy to use, limited workflow.
edited: Blender - I still never looked into it much, but a lot of potential. IMHO still not sure how to use it for concept modeling.
Spaceclaim - SketchUp for solid modeling. Gosh ... it so smart and very SketchUp, I wish they would tap to AEC space too!I want to use SketchUp 9,10,11 and so on. IMHO Price is not that big problem, it's about dev direction and API. And for the worse case, I just have to use 3DS Max, that's it. A lot of SketchUp plugins trained many aspected of 3DS Max to me already
Anyway, it's up to Trimble decision
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@unknownuser said:
Project vasari
@unknownuser said:
The Project Vasari technology preview is licensed for a limited term and for a particular territory as referenced in the End User License Agreement. The technology preview executable expires on August 31, 2012, and the program will no longer operate after that date.
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@findthong said:
I'm convinced that I should plan for some options, just in case.
You left out ViaCAD 2D/3D! That's a direct NURBS surface & volume modeler with new push/pull modeling, 2D drafting, SU import and all common 3D CAD interfaces (STEP, IGES, Acis SAT etc.) available under OSX & Win for pocket money.
Norbert
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@charly2008 said:
Hi,
And for the worse case, I just have to use Sketchup 8 with the plugins.
But I'm not a professional, I use SketchUp and other 3D programs only as a hobby.Charly
I wish I could do that too! Too bad we need to keep up with things, which I dont' think current SketchUp 8 can hold it longer than 4-5 years at best, when we have to make money and compete
sketch3d.de,
Thanks for your infos! I've limited knowledge, that's why I love this place! -
Professional or hobbyist, it seems a bit premature to be seeking out alternatives to SU. V8 is perfectly adequate for most purposes; and for some time to come...unless you really need NURBS, in which case you probably ought to be using something like MOI anyway. V8 will also likely get better through the efforts of the Ruby community, regardless of what happens in Boulder.
Of course it all may go pear-shaped, but given the stated aspirations coming from both sides in this marriage, the potential for SU could be tremendous. If enough R&D money was pumped into Layout, for instance, it could become the new de facto standard for CDs in the digital/handheld age. Why is that standard still reliant on hatching from the pen and paper era, when rotateable 3D detailing is possible which could offer materials or BIM information on mouseovers or r-click?
I think this is maybe why Trimble is so interested in the huge userbase; it has the leverage to make the skp file format totally ubiquitous. Being the best isn't good enough, you also have to be a household name. Remember VHS and Betamax? Betamax was decidedly better, but you just couldn't find many tapes for it.
Interestingly, Paul Morrel, the UK government's construction advisor, last year warned architects here to adopt BIM or "...be Betamaxed out."The natural consequence of being an industry standard is that you need to be that for everyone...including the likes of Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid...and that would necessitate better built-in functionality which would benefit every user.
I personally don't expect to see much in the way of shiny new toys for a while (but happy to be proven wrong). I think the SU team will have their work cut out getting the fundamentals of integration right. I suspect it's not something that would be very easy to revisit and reverse engineer some point down the line.
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@unknownuser said:
The natural consequence of being an industry standard is that you need to be that for everyone...including the likes of Frank Gehry
I was with you until here. Gehry will find his own solutions. He certainly could make some use of an "industry standard" but we're talking different buildings, process, and resources. The other 99% should be a worthy goal.
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@alan fraser said:
I think the SU team will have their work cut out getting the fundamentals of integration right.
The hardest thing I foresee is having the engine code be compilable for the "base" SketchUp with Ruby wrappers, and also without, for other Trimble Pro products that will not have Ruby scripting (unless Trimble thinks to extend all their other products with an embedded Ruby interpreter.)
Imagining the amount of conditional statements that would need to be added to the "engine" code makes me dizzy.
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Yeah, okay, I'll grant you that Peter. Replace said example with 'Bendy stuff."
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@alan fraser said:
Professional or hobbyist, it seems a bit premature to be seeking out alternatives to SU...
I completely agree. Regarding BIMers comments, none of us can pass judgement without knowing all the background. Some companies that are bought are purchased because they are well managed and have huge upside potential. Others, while having an upside, are purchase because they have been poorly managed and as a result undervalued. They ladder group of companies, often have to go through some tough measures in a take-over. That Trimble is concerned about running a tight ship and is in a position to make aquisitions should be encouraging to some degree. I think the secret truth is Autodesk is scared of Sketchup. As a one who also uses Revit, I have had to sit through hours of Autodesk University sessions. I have been struck by 2 things. In sessions about Rendering and creating graphics that pop, it come out that improvements in the graphics within Revit, were the direct result of Sketchup's popularity Architects saying they preferred the interface & grapic quality of Sketchup. I am also struck with how AU speakers really go out of there way to not talk about Sketchup or try to speak negatively about it. I don't think you will ever see an AU session 'Integrating Revit with Sketchup (or Rhino) in you project workflow'. I find Sketchup to be a great companion to Revit. Sketchup's greatest strength is it's popularity and user base. Is it safe to say it is the Facebook of the 3d world. Google has tried to compete with an alternative to Facebook, but has largely been unsuccessful because of Facebook's popularity. In the same way, Autodesk has attempted many alternatives to compete with Sketchup; Vasari, Impression etc. None seem to me to have been very successful.
The potential of Sketchup integrating with BIM software like Archicad and Revit is enormous. Tekla is an example of a trimble company that has been sucessful at this. I am not suggesting that Sketchup becomes another BIM software, but that the workflow and translation would become seemless. Certainly Sketchup could become more BIM like, but to try to make it another BIM software would be a mistake in my opinion. As one who spends a lot of time using both Revit and Sketchup, I am glad Sketchp is not Revit. Likewise I am glad Sketchup is not Revit. Sketchup is much faster, intuitive, and iterative when it comes to the schematic design process. When it comes to visualization, for most Architects, time and and budgets are crucial on a project. Most owners don't have lots of $$$ to spend and most Architects are reluctant to blow fees on $$$ renderings. SU with a good rendering plugin delivers within those constraints more effectively.
I recently had to develop 8 design iterations of a school project that was being documented in Revit. I kicked the Revit model into Sketchup and rendered the options with Podium in a fraction of the time it would have taken me in Revit. The benefits of SU decrease the further you move away from the schematic design stage. I know some have tried to produce CD's using layout but that is nothing close to how Revit documents - Revit is bi-directional, Skethup is not. For Sketchup to become Bi-directional I think it would take considerable effort.
The strengths of Revit / BIM are in its ability for coordination across disciplines over the course of a project, provide clash detection, the speed of documentation during the Design Development and Construction Document phases, with bi-directional associativity in Revit is huge. Information richness is also a huge benefit when it comes to pricing and analysis. Revit's benefits increase the further you go into the design process and are probably least in the initial Schematic Design phase. One of the greatest strength of Sketchup is Revit's Achilles' heel: It's ease of use. The learning curve and the change implications of Revit / BIM can be almost insurmountable for a many firms. The other Achilles' heel of Revit is its price and it's lack of 3rd party API development. As others have said Sketchup's greatest strength may well be it's price and it's plug-n-play plugin platform and the community that drives it.
If this buy-out could take the best strengths of Sketchup and combine them with some of the strengths of true BIM, increasing Sketchup's effectiveness further into the design process, at a cost architects, engineers, and professionals in smaller firms, working on smaller projects, could afford - that would be amazing. As someone from an Architectural background that would be my wish. I think there is a lot of reason to be hopeful. Somoe of the 'BIM like' ruby scripts and things that Turner construction is doing with Sketchup are very encouraging.
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@bimmer said:
The real question is what was the environment like with Google? That's something none of us can answer, if it was similar then experience may be a rewarding one for the SketchUp team and positive for community.
My thoughts exactly!
@alan fraser said:
Professional or hobbyist, it seems a bit premature to be seeking out alternatives to SU. V8 is perfectly adequate for most purposes; and for some time to come...unless you really need NURBS, in which case you probably ought to be using something like MOI anyway.
...or bezier patches...
(Pre-emptive reply to Rich: Yes - I am working on it! Put the whip away! Actually - it's a good thing to keep prodding me about it. )@jdagen said:
I don't think you will ever see an AU session 'Integrating Revit with Sketchup (or Rhino) in you project workflow'.
There is a few videos on how to import SketchUp models into both Revit and 3DsMax - they started adding support for the .skp format a couple of years ago. But - only as import though.
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This is just not right - at all ....
I have been using SketchUp for year's and I'm a huge fan - it is the best, and it was the future, until 26/4. I haven't posted much here - but it has been an absolute goldmine for me over the years as a user, and as an individual, that depends on SketchUp, I have read ALL 593 previous comments.
As many have said - SketchUp is great - but it is the community that make it what it is - not Google.
The problem is that we have seen it as an "almost open-source project" - it walks like a duck - quaks like a duck - it must be a duck.
But the painful truth is that Google made a mistake - they did not consider what is best for SketchUp, the community or the 30 mio users ...
It is obvious to all that SketchUp could not have a future with Google - it just couldn't fit into the big picture anymore - But how in God's did someone at Google come to the conclusion "Trimble is the right solution"!!!! - they might as well have sold to Autodesk - so they could arrange a decent funereal - and everybody could start prepare for life after SketchUp.I for one was glad to read BIMMER's comments - because it made me wake up and face reality.
29.9 mio none-paying customers is of no use to Trimble - what-so-ever, they paid nothing for the user's - they paid for the source code, and they got it cheep.
The source code will now transform into whatever fit into Trimble's need - and that does NOT include an API or a useful free version, if anything happens to the benefit of the 99%, it will be because it could NOT be avoided. This is just pure logic ... they have no need for a community of people with an "open source mind-set" - Im sure you can't event say the word out loud at Trimple HQ.From Trimble we have seen only a press release with exactly the mumbu-jumbo you would expect, when you don't want to say what its all about.
If you were the happy new owner of SketchUp, wouldn't you as a 1. priority make public to all you new customers what to expect, as best you could, instead of keep them hanging confused and clueless.What happened to all the other obvious possibilities Google had:
- The SketchUp foundation (ala blender)
- Selling it back to the good people at Sketchup (Google dosen't actually have liquidity problems!)
- Charging $10 or $20 for the free version to raise the money - if Google really feel they need it.
- and many other solutions (BEFORE you arrive at Trimble!!) I can't think of right now.
This cannot have been what Google really wanted - it MUST have been a mistake, there is NO reason to be evil.
Sadly, the truth properly is that Google just couldn't be asked to do the effort and find a decent solution.
They for sure didn't need the peanuts on the bank account for next month bill's.So is this a done deal? NOOO - its time for some USER-POWER ....
I would really like to why Google suddenly discontinued "Don't be evil", but it could prove difficult to the get their attention - but try this:Uninstall your chrome browser - use Firefox instead.
Use Thunderbird instead of Chrome for your Gmail.
You don't actually have to install Google Drive when it is launched - there is still Dropbox and lots of other alternatives.
If there really is 30 mio users - it should do the trickThere must 1000's and 1000's of people who build their livelihood on SketchUp. 593 comments on this thread, most negative and confused, proves the passion and need for SketchUp, as it is and evolving from a point of the 99%. Why couldn't the solution be one that made most people smile instead of tremple? Why did Google suddenly have to become evil - ignorance, lazyness? - I just don't get it.
This is just not right ... at all
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@moghouse said:
The source code will now transform into whatever fit into Trimble's need - and that does NOT include an API or a useful free version,
Now, why would they announce that they will keep a free version - and use SketchUp as an platform?
Most of the comments in this thread is speculation - the very small concrete info we have from Trimble, contradict what you claim right there. -
why be mad/boycott google over this?
if they killed sketchup then yeah, maybe..if they were still super excited about sketchup and wanted to allot more resources etc in order to further its development then they would of done so and definitely wouldnt be selling it.
I think it's safe to say this transaction isn't simply a money related thing (as in, it's highly unlikely the reason behind the sale is because google needed the money)
so google selling sketchup says a lot about how they felt a about the app and it's progression.. personally, I'm excited about it being out of their hands and into the hands of a company that's excited about it.
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@moghouse said:
But how in God's did someone at Google come to the conclusion "Trimble is the right solution"!!!! - they might as well have sold to Autodesk - so they could arrange a decent funereal - and everybody could start prepare for life after SketchUp.
I really don't think that the Google hierarchy came to the initial conclusion that SketchUp should go to Trimble. I have a feeling that paths widened over time between the SU Dev team and Google / GE as to how SU should and would be developed.
I would not be surprised to learn over time that it was the SU dev team that bartered the deal we now see advised. Its a strange enough one when you examine it closely, the first of this kind I have seen. Added to the fact that Big G doesn't sell products makes it more unusual.
I would 'speculate' that a simple Win, Win, Win deal was put in place by the SU dev team that made sense all round.
Google get what it wants in relation to GE / Advert revenue generation by way of close links with a company that can help to populate GE quickly before others get into the act and their are others looking at this revenue stream!
Trimble get what they want, a 'super glue' of an application that can be used to enhance many of their software apps and also broaden their user base not to forget the ready made community in very diverse disciplines, Worldwide, which can only further broaden their manufacturing activity.
The SU Team get what they want, 'serious' backing and freedom by a 'building tech company' to bring SU where it should be, going towards the No.1 spot!
As regards the current users, okay, I'd imagine SU Free will not continue to be developed in parallel with SU Pro. I can see it being taken in a different direction to cater more for casual users while SU Pro splits into a number of different flavours to keep professionals happy.
As regards Bimmer's thoughts on Trimble. I have been looking around the Net and located what looks to be an independent site which offers reviews on companies.
glassdoor (an inside look at jobs & companies) says that reviews are posted anonymously by employees!
You can check out the Trimble review Visit here , Its not in the Top 50 but maybe SketchUp will in some way make it a better place to work, after all not many software applications make people smile
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@mike lucey said:
As regards Bimmer's thoughts on Trimble. I have been looking around the Net and located what looks to be an independent site which offers reviews on companies.
glassdoor (an inside look at jobs & companies) says that reviews are posted anonymously by employees!
You can check out the Trimble review Visit here , Its not in the Top 50 but maybe SketchUp will in some way make it a better place to work, after all not many software applications make people smile
Ouch, so far the reading isn't promising, seems to confirm that management is heavy-handed and not good at developing/ supporting staff.
for example:
@unknownuser said:
Trimble Navigation Anonymous: (Past Employee - 2010)
“Kind of like military housing.”
Pros
Some interesting business sectors. Work schedule allows time for family. Some people have made their whole career with this company.
Cons
Old fashioned policies and procedures, below average pay, not employee focused, not much fun, not much opportunity to advance or improve yourself. Some bad bosses, some difficult people to work with, some management decisions don't make sense, some acquisitions don't make sense, they don't spend money on employees, tools, or infrastructure.
Advice to Senior Management
Many small or new companies believe their strength is their people. Trimble has lost that connection. Happy people are productive people. If you had a better reputation, you would attract better people.
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