To Krisidious
Google used SU as a tool. That is to let a 3D world grow by itself using millions of users to model. That worked to a certain degree. But as a 3D information model for the planet the concept failed. Scanning these days does provide the info and incredibly fast.

To Starling
Skunkworks could work very well. But @Last and Apple and many more had or have a "skunk" at the top leading. I am sure lots of skunkworks achievements in so many of companies see their work dismissed. I remember the iPad being reviewed and dismissed by CEO's of a majority of IT companies.

Imagine Apple taken over by Hewlett Packard a decade ago with Steve in a "skunkworks" arangement. Or Facebook by MS with Mark in charge of the skunkworks group of enthousiasts.
The fact is that, however great Sketchup is and was, the founders were not of the same quality the former mentioned ones are. Steve and Mark could not be bought. Another example is Drew Houston (http://www.simplyzesty.com/technology/how-dropbox-turned-down-steve-jobs-and-apple/). Mark, Steve and Drew want to be independent to make the best product they can because they know that is the only way to feel the same drive.

The fact remains however optimistic you are that Sketchup has a developers team that is not independent. They dance to the music as set out by Google and now Trimble.
As a positive note, I think Trimble sounds better.

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

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

1. Skethup was sold since Google now also understands that modeling the whole world is a bad concept. Scanning is the future.
2. Trimble is a CAD company so this is a major advantage over Google.
3. 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.
4. 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.

http://www.hallway.com/companies/trimble-navigation-ltd-employee-reviews?nt=5961

I hope this really is a bit of frustration of those who got fired. But I think its a good time to start looking around a bit, other modelers and so on. After 20 years in CAD I have seen its never a good thing to get too dependent on a single tool. The less you look around the more difficult it is to make a change once you need to.

But of course Trimble Sketchup could be a great combination giving us lots of what we never got from Google. The real problem is of course @Last. They should never have taken the money...

TIG
one of the problems when Google took over, it did not get worse, or better, but also not different..... for years and years.

I think Google strategicly sold to Trimble, who sells Tekla that competes with Revit. Sketchup in Trimble's hands will not be handed over to AutoDesk anytime soon. Probably the makers of Archicad, Vectorworks and so on in the CAD market were not expected to be able to buy Sketchup. Others might have been tempted to speculate on selling later on to AutoDesk.

I think the Sketchup team did not want to be part of AutoDesk and they might have had a say in this. With Trimble the Sketchup team has a good chance of staying intact. Trimble has no comparable product that can absorb Sketchup. So a good chance is that Sketchup will simply develop further and now with more recources.

Francois

Good news Sketchup moved away from Google. Google was not in any way a CAD company. I see that Trimble also has Tekla. Tekla has a good reputation here in the Netherlands for Civil engineering software and is the biggest competitor for Revit. That is for the field of construction and engineering. From what I have heard Tekla has better integrated 3D modelling and 2Doutput than Revit.

With 30 millions users things are not going to change overnight. I hope the long term brings us a much better 3D modeller in terms of speed and integration with renderapplications and 2D output. Revit is showing architects are more and more involved in 3D modeling combined with BIM engineering. Sketchup has not evolved at all in that direction yet. With Trimble we might see a more serious attempt to model and engineer with Sketchup.

Hi Brodie, tx
the winner is
http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/photo.asp?iNID=28741&PhotoID=229015

I think they won because of their strong conceptual sketches. We focussed a lot on the building itself. A mistake we often make. Its often better to set a design into its environment with a visionary conceptual idea. No need to render or get a lot of CAD involved. Our design has a lot of thought going into details, materials and techniques. Too much maybe. But we the jury told us they had a hard time choosing between us and the one who has won. The building itself is just a pumphouse and a hotwater barrel of about 16m. height and 22m diameter.
Francois

Hi, its always nice to know about a small succes with Maxwell in combination with Sketchup.

In a competition with 68 registered architects we were selected among four finalists and came out second in the second round. We almost won the competition according to the jury. Second is obviously the worst place to be really in architecture but still its mentionable. All modeling was done in Sketchup and renders in Maxwell. We did however study the design in Modo.

here is the link to the design.
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/dhub_3.0.html

The surface of the vessel was done with the plugin Soap Skin& Bubble. Later I realized I could have done that with a displacement mapping as well, and probably with less effort.
The design was about a building for a heat exchange station and heat storage vessel.
Francois

Tx for the reply, sorry for the double post.

I installed in wrongly. Had to put the .rb file outside the folder of the SK&B plugin in the plugins folder. That was unclear to me.
Francois

Hi, I am an in the middle of a competition and need the Soap Skin & Bubble plugin. I used it before when it installed in the tools folder of SU.
But with SU8 I no longer see that folder in my library or the SU application folder.

Any help is very appreciated. I have this weekend left to finish my work though. Hope there is someone here that can help out installing.
Francois

Brodie, congrats from Holland as well. You are a justified winner. Interior scenes with white ceilings and a generally convincing lighting are not all that easy to do.

I have a cliënt who wants a floor, fireplace and kitchen just like on your image.....
Is it your design ?
Francois

Maxwell does lighting through emitters. That's a little less intuitive. But emitters have the advantage that they behave as materials on any surface. Emitters are also editable as materials to suit your lighting specifics. Its a bit difficult to explain to a newbie. At least I did not understand the meaning of all this. Only after a year or so my renders came to benifit from all the options I feel I can not do without now.
After some time you will become really good at rendering images. I feel the energy spent on an application that can only bring you so far will frustrate soon or later.

Limited material settings is a concerning flaw. Rendering is all about materials.
Francois

SRX, what do you mean by a faster IR engine than Maxwell ?

ZOOM123,
the problem is that that are hardly any people who are equally experienced with both app's. I know Maxwell very well, have a look at our website http://www.fillieverhoeven.nl and http://www.3dfv.nl and see that all renders are Maxwell and a lot of models done in SU and Modo.

I have tried many among them Vray. If you have any questions concerning Maxwell I can answer them for you.
Realistic light with Maxwell is very simple.
Maxwellrender has a great forum. Especially the Sketchup forum is very fast in answering any question, friendly as well.
Maxwell does X & Y as well, assuming you mean rendering an elevation without perspective. Set up a camera with a long focal distance. I render many floor plans and elevations.
Maxwell SU free version is limited for resolution as I understand.

If you are interested in a render application you will not make you final decision when still a newbie. After some time, maybe months or years later you will. For me it became Maxwell since it produces superb render quality with a minimum of setup. It also works like a virtual world as far as lighting and camera setup. I almost feel like I am not really rendering but just putting my models in the sun or under a real light. I also like Maxwell for starting up a render very quick for a first look. Most other app's I used take more time from pushing the render button to the first rude image. This makes Maxwell for me a perfect design tool, even more so than just a render app for the final presentations.
Francois

SRX,
maybe you should explain "lots of limitations" and "half way"when you post "With Maxwell for SU you can do it half way...(low resolution, lot of limitations...)"
You also post Maxwell Studio is better. Most Sketchup users for Maxwell never use Studio. Its also not better but something very different for a different purpose.

There is no such renderapp which is the best. The are all different and depending on your goals and needs you will choose a render app that fits your workflow.
Since there are free versions try them all before you spend months, or years mastering one of them. Do not let someone tell you which one to use.
Francois

TX Tomankubik..

Fo members output,
Here are some typical renders I do with Maxwell and Sketchup.

Francois Verhoeven

great news of course. Have been doing paid SU-Maxwell work for a few years now and NextLimit even put a few of my images on their site.
Anyhow, Maxwellrender is great for SKetchup since JDHill has been on it, writing the current plugins. The current plugins for Sketchup are fantastic.

But I have seen the Adventures of TinTin in the cinema a few hours ago, I wonder how they do all that while I am struggling on an 8-core Mac to get decent simple buildings look realistic.

Francois Verhoeven
http://www.fillieverhoeven.nl
http://www.3dfv.nl

tx again.

Well, the new plugin for Maxwell actually renders while you model. So, instant previews, not just the material. Very handy for hdri lighting and sunposition, material adjusments and testing for good camera positions. Its a very addictive feature of Maxwell in Sketchup.
Francois

tx for the compliments.
Maxwell is really very different these days. Its even very reliable. All tx to JDhill who wrote a great, actually superb plugin. You can even render SU typical 2point perspective.
Now that it renders a preview realtime setting up a render is faster than anything I have ever used before.
Francois

Hi,This is a table design I made and put in on our web site.
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/architektuur/tafel_3.0.html
Maxwell render and modelled in Sketchup.

I am totally taken by the Maxwell plugin that since recently renders realtime in Sketchup. So, I model, make changes and see the rendered preview as I go along.
Times have changed a lot in the past few years.
Francois

Hi, recently I finished this project for a client.
Modelled in Sketchup, rendered in Maxwelled and painted in Photoshop.
Everything is modelled in SU even the birds, nothing added in PS.

The rendered images were combined with SU sketchy lines in PS.
link to images
http://web.me.com/fillieverhoeven/bouwen/V-zevenhuizen.html

Francois