Sketchup 7?

[otb designworks]

For me, there are four critical things that Sketchup needs to fix.

1. Animation export on Macs still doesn't work at all. It is unbelievable to me that this hasn't been fixed yet in 6, but I sure hope they have it right by 7.

2. STOP THE BRUTAL CLIPPING!! I fecking hate clipping, hate it hate it hate it!!!

3. multi-threading. I am about to spring for an 8-core Mac Pro, and it is depressing knowing that SU will only be using 1/8 of the available power.

4. better handling of high poly models, especially the Achilles heel of foliage.

Even though SU6 was free (which was awesome, of course) I would be very very happy to pay for a nice and meaty (read not geared for google earth populating) update.

[kwistenbiebel]

Did anyone already mention the wish to have support for directX 10 in SU7?

DirectX 10 should be much better and would solve the trouble we all seem to have with OpenGL.
Faster viewport panning/zooming etc....

I'm not sure if the Apple users would be happy though....

[ilay7k]

@unknownuser said:

Did anyone already mention the wish to have support for directX 10 in SU7?

I don't think that DX will be influence to OGL...
It's different shading engine from MS
So only need to create 2 or 3 shading support: OGL, Software(DX) and Hardware....Dev.team(from Autodesk, Maxon..) make this feature for viewport... user can chage it, if his videocard is support it

[Edson]

one of the key issues, if google wants SU to grow up, is to make it take advantage of the machines available. it is ridiculous to have a core 2 or core 4 chip and not to be able to use its processing power to the full when modelling in SU.

[juju]

@unknownuser said:

one of the key issues, if google wants SU to grow up, is to make it take advantage of the machines available. it is ridiculous to have a core 2 or core 4 chip and not to be able to use its processing power to the full when modelling in SU.

I couldn't agree with you more Edson. As a matter of fact, since all the new generation GFX cards will have DX10 support and less so for OpenGL, I believe there should be some enhanced support in SU for it. As for the scaling with the CPU count, that will be a blessing, could possibly help with the large polygon count models that SU seem to have some problems with.

[kwistenbiebel]

Now, let's hope the Google-SU-developer-team is watching this thread, as it seems we all share the same needs...

[ilay7k]

I share skp's intall dir and find it Program Files\gsu6pro\glcards.dat
with this info

// Case doesn't matter.
// Partial strings are enough to make a match.
// HW == Use Hardware OpenGL
// SW == Use Software OpenGL
// any|ANY matches any Renderer.
// Format-
// Acceleration|Vendor|Renderer|Support File

// Defaults first.
HW|ATI Tech|any
HW|NVIDIA Corp|ANY

// Then Specific cards.
//SW|NVIDIA Corp|5200 

How it work?
Why?

[kwistenbiebel]

Sketchup will make use of all 8 cores (just not optimised which makes a big difference).
So you won't be running Skethcup with 1/8 of your CPU(S) power.

However, the multicore architecture makes it possible to 'split' several tasks and spread them over the 8 cores in an optimal way . Your software needs to be adapted to that and the code optimised.
Skethup isn't written that way so in no extent optimised for multicore.

[thomthom]

Not everything can be made into multicore. Some task simply can't be split into multiple threads.

[juju]

What I've done is to assign my apps to certain cores. The program needs to be running when you do this.

Windows only:
Open up Windows Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del - once only) > go to processes tab > select process > right click on it and a window will open up with the following options: End Process / End Process Tree / Debug / Set Priority / Set Affinity. You select the "Select Affinity" option > a window opens that shows you the number of cores your machine has, starting at zero up to whatever a quad core machine will show you 0/1/2/3). Make sure the cores you want the process to run in are selected.

That is it!

[Fletch]

SIMPLE FIXES TO THE GUI DESPERATELY NEEDED FOR SU7:

ability to resize the %$#@ scene dialog. If you have more than 7 scenes, EVERY TIME you change a name of a scene in the dialog as it is now, when you hit <enter> it jumps back up to the top of the list. Some animations I have more like 40 scenes! Now I have to manually scroll all the way back down the list...

Keep my focus on the model window PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. It drives me absolutely in%$#@sane that every time I go to paint a material the focus of my keyboard input jumps to my materials pallette. So after choosing the paintbucket, if I hit any of my 100 shortcuts it actually starts changing the name of the material or the size of the .jpg of the material or some $#@% thing in the material editor.

I have a quad core Boxx and a $900 top of the line Vid. card. When I go to save a .jpg w/AA at 2800px with Shadows on, and all sorts of geometry, textures, etc... it can take up to 2mins to export the .jpg So I echo all other comments on multi-core processing support for rendering animations and stills...

sorry for the anger... I've just finally had enough today... some days I can spend more than 12hrs/day on SU for many days in a row... so these things are very important little things that really kill an experience.

[tomsdesk]

Fletch...
Dead on with #2 (pun demanded :`) drives me nuts!!!
#3 is more of an SU6 thing (I mainly use 5, but have been exporting some out of 6 for the sketchy edges: a 30sec export in 5 will take twice as long, at least)...so I sure hope they fix what they broke!!!
#1...as little as I've used 6 this has still been a pain!

Hoping for a 7 as good as 5...

[Unknown Target]

PLEASE give us animation and organic modeling support! Beveling edges would also be great. Also, optimization for handling high-poly models with large textures would be a great addition as well.

Also, for the "Follow Me" tool, could we have it where we can assign multiple lines on one face to multiple lines. So for instance, if I want to extrude a face along a curved line, I c an also set the bottom of that face to extrude along a straight line, so I can actually create the top and bottom of the shape. Does that make sense?

EDIT: You know what would be amazing as well? Being able to extrude lines. Let's say I create a complex 2D line and want to create a 3D object, but don't want to close the shape. I'd love to be able to pull the line out like I was push/pulling a face.

[Boogster]

@unknownuser said:

I have no idea what's going to be in SketchUp V7. My money would be on these features:

• Features that are aimed at the populace and that make it easy for them to populate Google Earth
• Annoyances and bug fixes fixed
• Dumbing down hard to use features
• Dare I suppose it.... lockable .skp files
• Fat Faces perhaps

Todd

And don't forget the 3D Warehouse that is needed to be supported from other browsers, such as Firefox. It only supports IE.

[CraigD]

@boogster said:

@unknownuser said:

I have no idea what's going to be in SketchUp V7. My money would be on these features:

• Features that are aimed at the populace and that make it easy for them to populate Google Earth
• Annoyances and bug fixes fixed
• Dumbing down hard to use features
• Dare I suppose it.... lockable .skp files
• Fat Faces perhaps

Todd

And don't forget the 3D Warehouse that is needed to be supported from other browsers, such as Firefox. It only supports IE.

Noted. A workaround is that you can access the 3D Warehouse via Firefox (or Camino) and upload and download to your heart's content. We've added an Upload button to the 3D Warehouse...all you have to do is log in.

Hope that helps!

And all of the other feedback is great! Keep it coming! We're listening!

Cheers,

 - CraigD

[alexander]

What i like to see in a new version is:
an easy way to get from a 3d the 2d vieuws in layout
Like iso / rightvieuw / topvieuw etc. and a easy way to do the measuring in the same.

[crc]

Most things I think should be addressed have been mentioned here; ie, higher poly-count modeling, better curves, stronger "engine" underneath with fewer crashes.

A few tweaks I'd like to see that I've been trying to keep track of in my daily workflow:

edit:DOH!

-ability to view components/materials with the thumbnail and the name of the component beneath it. I know that if you hover over it, the name pops up, but this doesn't work that well, sometimes it hangs on one of the components displaying it's name even when I move to another component and sometimes it takes a long time to show the name. just doesn't work that well.
also, ability to sort alphabetically/numerically in this list.

-ability to drag and drop the scene tabs where I want them, and to double-click on a scene tab to rename it. I know about the scene dialog box, but why go to a dialog box what could be done right in the modeling window? also, you have to sit there clicking the up and down arrows to re-order the scenes. Sometimes I have quite a few scene in my models.

-I am a big fan of the Outliner and would like to see it enhanced. Not sure exactly what those enhancements would be but it is a great tool!!

-I'd also like to see the "Flip Along" command change with the axes of the component. As it is, it stays with the global axes.

• don't see a need for a renderer, there are some great ones out there that work well with SKP!

These are just a few, I'm sure there are more.

[cdubea]

I would like to see local help. I do a lot of work not attached to an internet connection and this makes help a non-entity.

chris

[Tim Danaher]

Support for multi-threaded OpenGL:

Mac Gaming and Multithreaded OpenGL

Arstechnica and InsideMacGames write about some OpenGL optimizations which were privately announced at WWDC two weeks ago. According to the articles, the new Mac Pro already incorporates the new multi-threaded OpenGL in the pre-installed version of Mac OS X (10.4.7). The official release of the new version of OpenGL for existing Mac owners remains uncertain. According to some people I've talked to, multi-threaded OpenGL games will see huge gains in performance.

MacRumors (www.macrumors.com)

I'm hoping this would make the glacial animation export faster...

Support for 'baking' shadows into a material's texture. It would get rid of the reverse-flickering shadows problem. I started a thread about it here:

301 Moved Permanently

(www.sketchucation.com)

Fix the ¢¢∞∞¶•ª Mac Outliner. It blows chunks.

[solo]

Did I mention tools for organic modeling?

NURBS!!!

All I ask is for nurbs and higher poly support for them.