Interesting. Thanks for taking the time..
Let me refine my question because it strikes me we have an interesting mix of individuals that should be able to get some traction on this...
I posed the question "Where does all the time go?" because I've become increasingly concerned that, with a scripting language like Ruby under SketchUp, it's possible to do pretty much anything you want. Launch Microsoft Outlook and send emails, send stuff to websites, look up databases, generate new geometry - whatever.
But there are two related issues.
First, if a task makes up 5% of the total effort of a project. Having talented individuals pour passion and effort into making rubies that make it 100% faster seems a bit of a waste to gain 2.5% productivity.
And on a related note, we run the danger of losing the simplicity and clarity of a workflow built around a small number of powerful tools that is the bedrock of SketchUp. I guess I struggle to 'get' how people work with dozens of these (admitted very groovy) ruby plug-ins in practice.
Take a slice through the cake that is a 'time spent on a project' and you find its not uniform; different phases of a project need different tools. What are those phases? Can they be broadly grouped? If they can, perhaps we should focus all these Extension gurus (hey and Google guys too) on providing 'palettes of tools', choose a palette of tools for each job/phase in hand and not this insane sea-of-buttons I've seen posted a few times now when users show screenshots.
So back to my question. [And if there is a better way of forming this, do go right ahead.]
Where does all the time go? Can we squint a little at the problem and define broad outlines of a project in which broad classes of tools are appropriate?
Or do we leave SketchUp as a thing of beauty and top and tail it with other standalone applications that fulfill different phases? So, some kind of Content Management thing at the beginning for pulling together assets, a 'Sketchup classic' phase, visualization phase, export to raytracers, plotters, cutters etc.
Some ideas anyway. And I know it will be easy for the reader to nod and say 'yep, thats sounds ok'. But I'm interested in your thoughts! So, if you have the time (and I've gotcha because you read this far!) reply with some thoughts - however big/small/unfinished.
Or am I totally in the long grass here? I honestly don't think so, but I'm happy to hear some home truths!
Have a good weekend!
Adam