A new home for SketchUp
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Wow, can't say I've really posted on this board since the @Last Forums, but this was a shocker for me today when I was perusing for new plug-ins (which I use a lot - Special thanks to all the developers over the years and the core team that allowed the software to be flexible). Looks like the "Trouble with Trimble" seems to be the main fear here (rather than a TOS Star Trek episode), but rightly feared or not it's not going to be addressed until the final paperwork is done. Personally I am more concerned about my software license being handled correctly in a corporate transfer (Google did bring more than free users into the fold)! Just glad the main managers are still onboard is all so far.
Loosing Google is not a good thing (mainly name/capital), but agree that development on the core functions stalled somewhat (or rolled out version imporvements we already had coverd by the plug-in writers and nobody get credit for making software run smoother, that's expected weirdly enough when it actually happens). I am not really woried about Trimble's websites, Google's for Sketchup really wasn't very good either, but I am concerned about new development, especially in making the product more dificult to use (something easy to an engineer is not easy to others, and I have an Architect background). One of the great thing I like about Sketchup is the vast uses for it outside of traditional architectural design development, something that I hope the new company takes a least somewhat into account. In addition to the software's intended use, I use it for art design, 3D printing (including base-modeling for Zbrush), CNC/Laser cuts, as well as a host of other simulation experiments thanks to our robust developer community. Hell, did you know that both Marvel and DC Comics artists make use of Skethup so much that it's in their artbooks as a recommended program? Really the program is well past the toy or just Architecture stage, something a lot of competaters really can't compete with. Just hope this isn't lost is all I am saying.
Oh, and for the love of God more polycounts please!!!!! Sure I'll just try to criple the new system.....
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if Autodesk got this program the price would quadruple and the useability would decline by half. and they would engineer it for commercial architects and engineers only. they care nothing about building designers, residential architects or builders.
on another note... 380 comments? 8000 views? damn.
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@krisidious said:
if Autodesk got this program the price would quadruple and the useability would decline by half. and they would engineer it for commercial architects and engineers only. they care nothing about building designers, residential architects or builders.
Very much so...
A colleaugue I work with decides to work on his own.
He shared me the biggest investment for him is a Revit license... a 18000 dollar to cough up is a lot when starting up small. And then the yearly updates etc...
I find it such a strange thing that making software overcomplicated and frustrating, and at the same time charging unreasonable money for it seems to keep Autodesk in a comfortable seat...Anyway, it's a different discussion
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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!
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@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.
Are you smoking something?
Autodesk - those people who introduced the cut down version of their main app, and then simultaneously increased the prices of both their high end and low end applications, introduced annual updates with file formats which are incompatible with older versions, then introduced annual licence fees for upgrades and support. Now their entry level app is more expensive than some of their fully-featured competitors.
In addition they have swept up a load of competing and complementary companies and absorbed them into one large, corporate anonymous whole, with crap customer service, and zero understanding of what most of their customers really want.
They have improved since Carol Bartz left, but not nearly enough...AutoDesk would have been the absolute worst nightmare for SketchUp users!
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So I've been reading bits and pieces of this monster thread and as shocked as you all are, I'm getting over it.
I've been ware of Trimble for some time given that they are in the GIS game and so I think this could be cool. I did see this the other day which made me think what could also be possible:
Redstick CAD
http://www.redstickcad.com/It's a 'site to office' process of measuring and modelling buildings....
Way cool.
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Google paid the anti to get into the phone business....The phone business has brought the biggest giants to their knees.
I can't imagine giving away Sketchup. I think that Google is floundering internally..there would be no reason to sell other than to shore up a cash-flow blip on the near horizen. I'm not on topic here but it will be interesting to see what happens to the cash...if we hear nothing, it was necessasy to keep their metrics looking strong and keep the stock floating....with emphasis on float! -
I just Googled "Trimble" and read this following post. Interesting to say the least, and maybe, just maybe a ray of hope for the future of SU.
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@unknownuser said:
Google paid the anti to get into the phone business....The phone business has brought the biggest giants to their knees.
I can't imagine giving away Sketchup. I think that Google is floundering internally..there would be no reason to sell other than to shore up a cash-flow blip on the near horizen. I'm not on topic here but it will be interesting to see what happens to the cash...if we hear nothing, it was necessasy to keep their metrics looking strong and keep the stock floating....with emphasis on float!Google's market capitalization, it's value in other words, is $196 BILLION. Hang on, the share price has just gone up a bit and it's $197 billion now.
Selling Sketchup would be completely insignificant if Google needed cash. It would be like spending an hour to get the nickle in the back of the sofa, and having to damage the sofa to get it.
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I don't see why anyone is dubious of Trimble. Okay if people would have preferred a more design-oriented company, fair enough. But forget all of the marketing stuff around SketchUp. What's there, which is SketchUp's style of interface and modeling tools etc. will stay there (or they would have just made their own software from scratch). Isn't that what makes SketchUp so great? It's not like Google were the perfect people for the job! It's the great software that held everything together.
Both Trimble users I know (both spent an absolute fortune on Trimble stuff!) seem to love the company and it's products, which is a good sign too.
And yes, I'm glad it's not Autodesk.
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@johnsenior1973 said:
Selling SketchUp would be completely insignificant if Google needed cash. It would be like spending an hour to get the nickel in the back of the sofa, and having to damage the sofa to get it.
From what I have picked up in various blogs here and there and if it can be believed, the 'sale' figure looks to be between $1 and $90M. A big difference there, but as you say, nothing when compared to $197 billion ..... probably more as I write
The 'dots' need to be joined to see a more credible picture/ reason for the change and I doubt cash had anything to do with it.
I think its more a case of possible technology 'cornering' as far as Google is concerned at this point in time. That's what the 'big boys' do when they don't need any more cash.
As I said, join the dots! BTW, SketchUcation will possibly be doing an article on how we see this move effecting the SketchUp Community in the next edition of Catchup
So make sure you are on the mailing list!
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Wow, just got back from a long weekend to this news. Wasn't expecting it at all. Will be very interested to see where this leads.
Now, just the 26 pages to go back and read through.
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@unknownuser said:
@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 being provided by '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..
jeff,
I think you have a point there. -
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.
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@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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