@thomthom said:
I think the key item that's been missing from this SU7 release is information. We've not known anything about what SU7 would bring. We've not known what direction Google is taking SU. We haven't heard anything about what issues the team focus on. We don't know what they are working on next. We don't know what issues didn't make it into SU7, but is slated for later release.
There's been a whole lot of nothing in regards to information, except that SU7 would be superduper, leaving a void that's built anticipation
I don't know how much under the hood is done. I don't know how much work had to the stability, I don't know how much had to be done to get parametric done.
That's why when I first heard of SU7 this weekend and I rushed to download and install it I was puzzled when I opened SU7. It was not as expected. I look back on the website to find changelog, but no detailed log exists. What I do see on the What's new page, http://sketchup.google.com/product/newin7.html is that Layouts list of new features are much longer. And when I try to look up detailed information on dynamic components I'm faced with "Under construction" messages. Fair enough, SU7 wasn't announced yet, but even now after the SU blog has announced SU7 the information is missing.
I know that the information will be up there shortly, but I'm just pointing it out to show that the flow of information has not been great across the whole line. Now, I do know that the SU team asked in the Ruby section for feedback, so I'm not oblivious to that fact. But on the whole, information is serverly missed. It feels like the information lock down Microsoft has been following in the past. But they have in fact improved greatly the last couple of years. Many Microsoft teams now have very interesting blogs that allows users insight to where the product is going and what are some of the challenges the teams are addressing. There's a very good visible dialogue there which I'm sorely missing here.
I'm changing my top wishlist from the SU team to be information. I'd just like to know what they are thinking, because I'm feeling that I'm not in tune at the moment.
That's been my 2 cents, with inflations interests. I finish of by thanking for SU7 and especially dynamic components (one of my top wishes). This thread can't be what you hoped to see as a reaction to years of hard work. It's easy to be critical and it's easy to forget the good parts. But this is an indication that we're not all on the same wavelength. None the less, the critics are also an indication that people care about the product. I for one find SU to be the best mesh modeller. Other modellers feels awkward now, and I've only used SU for a year.
Totally agree - great post