A new home for SketchUp

ArCAD-UK

@mike lucey said:

I suggested that I collect 5 -6 Wish list items that are high priority and maybe quote them under a new thread for John to take up and comment on.

I will try to collect them here in this post first or you can PM them to me.

+1 for what bmike said!. Layout really is the weakest but very valuable link in the chain. On top of what was said please please please can we have vector hatching!

The most significant improvement in SU would be true arcs, that would move it into real "Pro" territory.

caronte01

++++++1 for layout improvements!

Some kind of component/block implementation.
Support for auto fields (auto date, page number, page name, scale, etc)
Improvements in dwg export (better handling of text styles, export layers from sketchup to dwg, convert layout dimensions to dwg dimensions.)
Vector and raster fills (currently limited to solid colors, and no, clipping does not count)
Pdf import in layout for windows
Better compatibility between layout mac and layout windows (currently, text does not render the same in both platforms)
Some kind of plugin/scripting support
A simple way to select items by kind, selection filters (dimensions, vieports, text, etc)
Array copy like in sketchup

Layout is the perfect companion tool for sketchup, if you need to generate some kind of dimensioned drawings out of your design.

Santiago

Mike Lucey

@jgb said:

This is NOT the thread for advanced and needed upgrades to SU.

I agree with you to a certain extent Joel. But we have been told by the SketchUp Team that they can't comment on the long term policy of SU for the time being at least.

This thread can keep voicing speculation but I don't think it will achieve much.

At least having John B offer some comments on various Wish List items might help to alleviate concerns among the membership as to the direction SU could be taking.

Also I will leave it up to John if he wants to comment on them here or on a new thread.

Mike

chad3006

I'm making me a backup copy of SU8 and all my favorite plugins ... just in case.

jeff hammond

@chad3006 said:

I'm making me a backup copy of SU8 and all my favorite plugins ... just in case.

that theory will only work for a year or two on Mac
unless you don't do OS updates.

jeff hammond

@bmike said:

LayOut LayOut LayOut!

honestly, i think it'd be sweet if they gave layout a decent little drafting toolbar.. then an API so a more complete toolset could be made / customized if wanted..

then the ability to send to sketchup..

(or is that asking a lot? ..as in - a serious amount of work to get something like that going? (but i imagine they've (suteam) had a basic prototype of this already? if so, maybe mess around with it a little more)

[EDIT].. for speculation purposes…
or does layout go belly up under trimble?

pbacot

pop out tool bars... (collapsible)

Starling75

@unknownuser said:

@chad3006 said:

I'm making me a backup copy of SU8 and all my favorite plugins ... just in case.

that theory will only work for a year or two on Mac
unless you don't do OS updates.

OT

iOS isn't backward compatible?

jeff hammond

@starling75 said:

@unknownuser said:

@chad3006 said:

I'm making me a backup copy of SU8 and all my favorite plugins ... just in case.

that theory will only work for a year or two on Mac
unless you don't do OS updates.

OT

iOS isn't backward compatible?

not always.. same for OS X.. depends on how the apps are written I guess but I generally have 2-3 apps that need updates upon an (major) OS upgrade

Jim

@dan rathbun said:

How many of you know that IMSI DoubleCAD XT already has purposeful workflow with SketchUp built-in, as well as the same Ruby engine in DoubleCAD Pro ??

I would think.. if there were any "CAD" company interested,.. that it would have been IMSI, rather than AutoDesk.

[off:3rgjop74]Is the free version Ruby scriptable or only the Pro?[/off:3rgjop74]

Dan Rathbun

@jim said:

@dan rathbun said:

How many of you know that IMSI DoubleCAD XT already has purposeful workflow with SketchUp built-in, as well as the same Ruby engine in DoubleCAD Pro ??

I would think.. if there were any "CAD" company interested,.. that it would have been IMSI, rather than AutoDesk.

[off:3tqa6aad]Is the free version Ruby scriptable or only the Pro?[/off:3tqa6aad]

[off:3tqa6aad]Only the Pro. I did send feedback that they should have a Ruby capable edition for say $100. I made the argument that the $700 Pro edition had features that the hobbyist would not need or wish to pay for.

Also I have not tried v3, .. only played a bit with the last v2. There was a weird thing in which it looked to me like all the API classes within the Sketchup module, got defined within the toplevel ( Object.) Do not know if they fixed that in v3.[/off:3tqa6aad]

SUFractal

@thomthom said:

What worries me here is that I don't see the relevance of what they do with what I'm used with for SketchUp.
Will SU transform into a different type of solution? Will it fragment into specialized editions?

Agree TT, but what was the relevance of what Google does (or did) with a company that produces 3D modeling software? I remember being worried/curious about that purchase years ago, but things seemed to have worked out fine since then right?

Having said that, I'm curious/worried too.

findthong

@mike lucey said:

@jgb said:

This thread can keep voicing speculation but I don't think it will achieve much.Mike

I agreed. So here is my best SketchUp wish:
http://youtu.be/TDqbbxwLq7E
An Algebraic Model for Parameterized Shape Editing
It's exactly what I think, Dynamic Components that play as a team. No BIM is needed.

For this feature, I could live with whatever issues for a few years

dale

@findthong said:

@mike lucey said:

@jgb said:

This thread can keep voicing speculation but I don't think it will achieve much.Mike

I agreed. So here is my best SketchUp wish:
http://youtu.be/TDqbbxwLq7E
An Algebraic Model for Parameterized Shape Editing
It's exactly what I think, Dynamic Components that play as a team. No BIM is needed.

For this feature, I could live with whatever issues for a few years

Woah! this works!

dbaird

All Caps & Bold intended-

TRIMBLE- PLEASE MAKE SU 64 BIT

genma saotome

FWIW I expect there will be a Sketchup 9 -- both free and payware and that 9 will be the last free version containing any new features (as in: 10 and beyond, if issued as freeware, SU freeware will only have some bug fixes).

Unlike google who just wanted to populate the G-Earth presentation (somehow related to advertising), the new owners want to make some money in the marketplace they serve. I just don't see how that overlaps with giving away freeware for use in any other market.

Whomever is on the SU team yesterday will figure out pretty soon they're not in Kansas anymore and so I expect few to none won't be around in 2 years, probably considerable less.

findthong

@dale said:

@findthong said:

@mike lucey said:

@jgb said:

This thread can keep voicing speculation but I don't think it will achieve much.Mike

I agreed. So here is my best SketchUp wish:
http://youtu.be/TDqbbxwLq7E
An Algebraic Model for Parameterized Shape Editing
It's exactly what I think, Dynamic Components that play as a team. No BIM is needed.

For this feature, I could live with whatever issues for a few years

Woah! this works!

And later make this model talk to BIM package and make documents automatically with Tekla.

Few click architecture, with defined architectural library, is almost possible.
It's like architects define buiding elements using their preferred and defined language to get the look applied to buildings, whatver size it is. Remember those Richard Meier house?
So users can use parametric to get the design to meet the look they want faster, with less time on manual modeling.

I know one day we would get automation to the ultimate, when production time is 10X -100X better than at the moment.

jeff hammond

re: genma

free apps are great advertising/marketing (at least from a non advertiser/marketer pov )

even if only 10% of the free users eventually buy the full version, you're still making out, right?
plus it just gets the name out some..

I'd say a million or so people have been introduced to Trimble since around the time this thread was started.. and another million that have heard of trimble before have given the company a harder look..
and the majority of those people are probably people that wouldnt have been accessible had it not been for google's free version..

if I had to guess, I'd say the free version will continue on..

thomthom

@dbaird said:

All Caps & Bold intended-

TRIMBLE- PLEASE MAKE SU 64 BIT

Why? Do you ever experience SketchUp running out of memory?
Because all 64bit does is let you address more memory - there is no magic speed improvements in 64bit.
See this commend: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=44881&start=225#p401063

frv

Speculation is the result of curiosity. No problem with that.

I think from what I've read sofar, in other forums as well;

Skethup was sold since Google now also understands that modeling the whole world is a bad concept. Scanning is the future.
Trimble is a CAD company so this is a major advantage over Google.
Trimble is big and without much of an creative drive, so that's bad. Creativity driven companies are usually better capable of expanding success than the typical "takeover" companies.
Lets hope I am wrong and Trimble is actually not just a business model but a true and devoted CAD developer that will take on Revit and its competitors.