SketchUp 2013 Gripes & Bitchin' ONLY ;)

jason_maranto

I'll relate a story to you -- perhaps this will clarify why I do some of the things I do:

Frank Frazetta was a great fantasy artist, but because he was so successful and because things came to him fairly easily, he was not the most motivated artist. Once he had achieved a certain level of success he would "coast" for long periods of time... the only thing that would shake him out of these creative stupors were the critics.

What I mean is, as long as people remembered how great the work he put out was, people would leave him alone and he could be comfortably "lazy". But after a while people would start saying things like "He's lost it" or "He's not that good, it was only a fluke"... etc.

Invariably, this would inflame his sense of pride and he would then produce a series of masterpieces just to vindicate himself (in his own eyes, as well as publicly).

After he had successfully re-established his dominance he would begin to coast again and the cycle would repeat.

I heard this from Frank Frazetta's own lips when I met him in person as a younger man, just as I was starting my own artistic career -- this encounter made a great impression on me. What I took from that is: even the best of us need to be pushed if we want to achieve our true potential.

I push hard -- even relentlessly. Myself, as well as those around me... it often makes me a difficult person to deal with, but I see it as vitally necessary.

Best,
Jason.

Frederik

I fully understand where you stand, Jason...
I just don't get why you continue this personal vendetta against "darling" here at the SCF...
What for...?
To get "believers"/followers...?

Do you believe that just by shouting louder, people will tune in and become disciples of your vendetta...?

A lot of your points are very valid - IMO - however, voicing all the negativity toward one single individual just won't break the ice, hence I can only encourage you to voice your concern directly to the Trimble Board of Directors...

If "darling" is the kind of person you claim, then I'm sure he will be made redundant, if you manage to get the Board of Director's attention and make them focused about a possible issue they have within a part of their business...

thomthom

Thanks to the new nick "darling" I have now associated John with Captain Kevin Darling from Blackadder... ...and I suspect that image will stick forever in my brain.

jason_maranto

I guess you don't really understand -- I'm trying to wake him from his stupor.

By calling him out as thoroughly as possible I am putting the onus on him to prove me wrong... if he has any personal pride in his work he will respond. If not, then he will shortly be removed and I will not have to do anything about it anyway.

I'd prefer that he step up his game -- Layout was enough to convince me he has it in him, but he needs to prove it again and again to show it wasn't a fluke.

Best,
Jason.

Frederik

@jason_maranto said:

I guess you don't really understand -- I'm trying to wake him from his stupor.

You're right, I don't understand...
Why shouting for a person who obviously isn't here...??

So far all the good efforts you have put in this, doesn't seem to have paid off...
The last time "darling" spend his precious time visiting this community was back in March...

We're all aware that members of the TSU Team has been lurking in these threads, but perhaps you've managed to scare "darling" away, which is contrary to what you're trying to achieve...

Perhaps a slightly different tactic is needed now...?!

jason_maranto

I don't believe that for a second -- I think he has seen every word I've posted.

If I really did scare him away then he is already a lost cause, and I misread his potential.

As I said though, there is a limited time frame for the validity of this -- and the window is closing rapidly, at which point I will go quiet on the topic again. Striking while the iron is hot is worthwhile, but droning on and on is waste of everyone's time. I've said my piece, he'll have 12 months to put together his response.

In case you are wondering I also have my own critics, and I definitely put effort into responding to their criticism via my work. Talk is cheap, if you've got something to prove you must show it.

Best,
Jason.

jason_maranto

Do bear in mind though that there are two separate parties I am criticising -- Trimble and "darling"... and I do keep them separate in my mind.

My gripes at Trimble (corporate) all have to do with bad licensing/naming/etc. decisions... These are things I can't really hold "darling" accountable for.

On the other hand, the development buck stops at him (as the lead) -- I think he can do much better, and I think he should do much better -- whether he will is the question.

Best,
Jason.

bob-designer

Lets assume (I know) that there are things within basic Sketchup that need fixing. But basic Sketchup is no longer in the "development stage" it is finished. If you want to keep the development team you have to find something new on which to work. Enter Layout.
They can show a profit from the sales of "Layout" and creating Sketchup Pro and keep paying the programmers to add other new features.

The other problem is bug fixes or things that just do not quite work in Sketchup. You cannot show a profit for paying programmers to fix problems once basic Sketchup has been released. Who should pay to fix basic Shetchup, we should. That said, how many hours have we spent trying to get a Sketchup feature or tool to work properly; so we can complete the model or design. I for one, would be will to help fund a programmer whos sole purpose would be to fix the the know problems and improve the overall performance of basic sketchup.
It some point there would be a pay back for the funds spent in faster model creation. The idea is not perfect, but it might be a direction forth checking out.

Bob

Dan Rathbun

@Frederik: PLEASE do not start a flame war.

I, repeat I started THIS thread to be a place for negative bitching, without having the "fanboys" jump on people wanting to air their gripes, and so these gripes would not yank the other thread off topic. (Which they were doing.)

As I said in the first post:

WARNING : Leave now if you don't like to read negative comments about SketchUp !

And... then the other topic will remain mostly bitch free.

Frederik

Dan, I have absolutely nothing against Jason or his opinions and I didn't mean to start a flame war...
Please read what I wrote in a previous post in this thread...
All I wanted was/is to make Jason aware that his personal vendetta doesn't seem to lead anywhere, hence he should perhaps try an alternative approach...

jeff hammond

@bob-designer said:

Who should pay to fix basic Shetchup, we should.

honestly, i'd be a happy camper and would gladly pay my upgrade fee if many of the bugs and/or iffy UI stuff was taken care of..

my post in the su9 wishlist thread:

@unknownuser said:

honestly, at this point, i just wish they'd fix some things that aren't (or never have been) working properly..
(i guess most or all of this is mac related but...)

• material browser -- sketchup uses the osx color picker but instead of adding its own palette, it hijacks an existing one... the one that displays a list.. and the devs don't allow for a list of materials/colors to be shown so we can only see thumbnails (or hover for a popup which will display the actual name).. fail.

• launch sequence affects the display of our custom toolbar.. if you have a custom toolbar, you have to open another new window after launching in order for the icons to display.. those icons should be present in the first window created..

• this is probably on the ruby writers side but it seems as if sketchup itself could make a sweeping trap to prevent it.. certain plugins will 'do something' to a fresh window which means we can't just close a blank document without being prompted 'do you want to save the changes...?' .. 'as?'
(so this compounded with the prior bullet = immediate frustration upon launching sketchup..)
so hey.. if the user hasn't done something to the file then obviously they don't want to save the changes made..

•thumbnails.. come on already.. check out collada files in quick view (select a .dae and push the space bar).. give us that with .skp.. or at the very least, a shot of the model.. 512px minimum if not more.. so what if the file size goes up 100kb or whatever

• the window panels (entity info etc) could use some love.. (but then again, they aren't exactly broken so i guess i'll leave them out of this wish list.. the other stuff is broken though)

• fix the printing.. (and not 'well, use layout for that'.. why?).. the sketchup printing setup is flawed.. bottom line. (for instance, it ignores wether or not a specified printer/paper has borders when doing it's scaling calculations.. it treats everything as if it's a borderless print but then you go to print and it spills out onto multiple sheets even though the sizing/scale are correct for a single page--- amongst a few other things.. too long to list at this point)

i'll probably edit/add to this in a minute but for now...

(add) • full screen-- why exactly hasn't sketchup been hooked up to full screen yet? [edit] oh wait.. that's a wish-- not a fix ..srry

(add) alpbehizeta when appropriate ..(prefs->extensions for instance)

(add) • hook up to osx versioning and autosave already.. it's there for you devs to tie into so do it.. with the apps i use which are tied into the OS regarding this, i haven't lost one single bit of work yet.. even in the event of a crash, the file will save prior to crashing.

i mean, i think my 'real' wishes are too unrealistic and/or in a direction i think the devs are trying to steer clear from.. and i'm cool with that.. i understand.. i still have a lot of uses for sketchup and i'm becoming ok with the idea that 1 app can't do it all..

but the app could certainly use a tidy up of the existing functions/features/controls.. looking back to 2005 or so, there's no way i could of imagined that some of these things would still be present in the app..

can someone explain why these types of things are simply being ignored?

Rich O Brien

@unknownuser said:

alpbehizeta when appropriate ..(prefs->extensions for instance)

mission accomplished.....go upgrade

although alpbehizeta....is that a sandwich? maybe it's a new mineral? Or a new kickflip?

jeff hammond

yeah, it's a sandwich.. similar to a BLT except it's lettuce_tomato_bacon instead.

jpalm32

@unknownuser said:

@bob-designer said:

Who should pay to fix basic Shetchup, we should.

• fix the printing.. (and not 'well, use layout for that'.. why?).. the sketchup printing setup is flawed.. bottom line. (for instance, it ignores wether or not a specified printer/paper has borders when doing it's scaling calculations.. it treats everything as if it's a borderless print but then you go to print and it spills out onto multiple sheets even though the sizing/scale are correct for a single page--- amongst a few other things.. too long to list at this point)

OMG! I got slammed for mentioning this by some cult leaders awhile back.
Printing truly sucks in SU. It's like a leap back 30 years.

Gareth

@jpalm32 said:

@unknownuser said:

@bob-designer said:

Who should pay to fix basic Shetchup, we should.

• fix the printing.. (and not 'well, use layout for that'.. why?).. the sketchup printing setup is flawed.. bottom line. (for instance, it ignores wether or not a specified printer/paper has borders when doing it's scaling calculations.. it treats everything as if it's a borderless print but then you go to print and it spills out onto multiple sheets even though the sizing/scale are correct for a single page--- amongst a few other things.. too long to list at this point)

OMG! I got slammed for mentioning this by some cult leaders awhile back.
Printing truly sucks in SU. It's like a leap back 30 years.

good point....I'd forgotten about that....I surrendered a long time ago and began printing via Layout instead, but that isn't ideal when I am rushed. Thanks for reminding us...!!

arail1

@unknownuser said:

yeah, it's a sandwich.. similar to a BLT except it's lettuce_tomato_bacon instead.

That was quite funny ... it went by me the first time around.

arail1

@unknownuser said:

aside from that, they're really open to user feedback..

it's just a completely different vibe, you know? .. they want to make something awesome and don't come across as "oh.. you don't know what's best for the user-- only we do" (or whatever)

[it's not so different than the interaction you'll see around here between the & ... and it's good that way (imo)]

To clarify: Jeff's comments above were made in reference to Rhino.

Agreed. Especially considering that McNeel has Pascal Golay on the newsgroup and forum working with users to find solutions to their problems right up to the extent of writing code on the spot. It would be as though SketchUp had someone, officially, on the forum every day, talking directly to users and writing Rubies right then and there to improve the program. Probably not going to happen.

chicos

I created an account here at sketchucation just so I could bitch! let me start with a brief synopsis of my feelings: Sketchup 2013 is a complete embarrassment and a disaster! Almost 3 years and this is what we get? Its not like version 8 was specimen of ambitious software development. Just look at the features that Trimble is touting for this release: numbered pages, dashes in dimensions, copy array in LO, curved leader lines, video export . . . holy cow dung I would be embarrassed to put that in my list of improvements, let alone 5 of 11. Even the big ones are let downs: extension warehouse is nice but merely simplifies functionality I already had and Pattern fills as far as I can tell are just added textures. Supposedly speed in layout is improved, but I may never know if I decide to switch to FormZ. Whats $1000 after you blow $95 on the biggest letdown in recent memory.

-chico