@sketch3d.de said:

@masterpaul said:

Is there something that is essentially stopping us from developing our own opensource SketchUp "clone"?

lightyears of knowledge in highly complex development of a 3D kernel as well as an accelerated OpenGL display output, glueing a programming API and last but not least connecting/developing vector-based 2D/3D data exchange interfaces for multiple platforms... just to name the most difficult stuff.

I think I would rather pay developers to create an opensource alternative than to pay that yearly for pro every year that brings nothing new to the table.

Edit:

There's a destructive push pull in development:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beZau_wpR-U
https://blenderartists.org/t/destructive-extrude-beta/678275

It seemingly has components like in SketchUp that can be edited all at once. It's lacking the UI, and perhaps with the upcoming blender, it will be possible to clone SketchUp's UI layout to help out with people wanting to migrate. Perhaps that could be done with a separate install exe so that beginners don't have to mess around with preferences or anything. I'm not sure how much more work would be needed to get everything sorted. I never used blender before. So I don't know what else would have to be done/coded in.

@juju said:

@masterpaul said:

Is there something that is essentially stopping us from developing our own opensource SketchUp "clone"? Except for time and money?

copyrights and patent infringements

What is copyrighted? Don't software patents expire after a while? Copyright doesn't really apply as we wouldn't be calling to SketchUp! All icons would be different too. LibreOffice doesn't get sued into oblivion, gimp exists too.
The style of SketchUp UI has been around since paint, so I think we could have a very similar UI too.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6628279 The only thing that is tricky is the push-pull, but I've seen other software try and attempt that and plugins on other programs (I think).

If it's possible we could actually get a lot of things built in from the start, a built-in curviloft feature, features like fredoscale a built skatter like feature for exporting images and rendering etc. So we would have the standard toolbar which would have a very similar feature set as the large toolbar as in Sketchup and an advance toolbar with all those more "complicated" commands. Eventually, a simple to use built-in render and most important actual, support for large heavy models.

Is there something that is essentially stopping us from developing our own opensource SketchUp "clone"? Except for time and money?

@kimi kimi said:

I'm waiting for a few developers to join together and make an alternative to SketchUp. I'll pay filthy money for it. Just do it. Make yourself rich. You know what it needs to be.

Like Shape? I dunno how its gonna turn out, it's not out yet.

Page not found - AEC Magazine

AEC Magazine (aecmag.com)

and there's also

301 Moved Permanently

(www.formz.com)

but I never used it.

@jql said:

@deadtaco said:

There were so many things requested in the 2018 wish list forum post on the Sketchup forums. Did they even look at it?

I'm lead to believe they couldn't as Make was standing in the way.

LOL

Now seriously. Sketchup 8 is still free to use commercially. Make 2017 will be free to use for several years for hobbyists (though it's used by pros too, and that's the reality). Sketchup Free will keep being around and developed. Eventually it will get extensions too.

Let the focus be on Pro.

I'm an architect by the way. Layout is a main part of what I do. It's getting better by the year.

I also see better plugins every year and most of them solve most things being said here. These happen, I believe, due to a lot of work on the API side.

Sketchup free will take more resources away from the offline PRO. It is a completely different beast, most likely runs on a different code (html5). Not to mention that if they add extensions to Free, they will most likely be incompatible with the offline PRO. It would split developers between two bases.
Make was just pro with layout, style builder and a few features locked behind a paywall; that barely took any resources away.

@pbacot said:

As a business, I suppose they don't have any other reason to make moves other than business moves. I think the free version was good for business, but I suppose they've done more homework than simply "I think...."

There been quite a few cases were businesses got it completely wrong with dire consequences.

They are trying to force people to eventually buy the pro version. Sketchup Make will eventually become obsolete and inefficient compared to the newer versions. Eventually, newer plugins will become incompatible with the old SketchUp make.

Let's not kid ourselfs. Sketchup free is NOT a replacement for make (at least in its current state). They completely misunderstood what made SketchUp so attractive in the first place; it was its ease of use and how powerful it was thanks to its plugins. Without these extensions, sketchup would have been forgotten in obscurity and it would have never achieved the acceptance it has today. Only simple models would have been possible and it would have been too inefficient for anything more complex. These extensions were easy to use and fit into SketchUp's philosophy well.

Sketchup free is a purely business move. It has been completely gimped in order to force people into pro subscriptions. They took away features under the excuse of making it easier and more accessible to use. While truthfully they made complex models even harder to create. Even an advert supported Sketchup make 2018 (advert on startup) would have been a better idea then the online free version.

The current trajectory will most likely lead to a reduction of hobby users which would eventually reduce the number of extensions in development. Which will lead to a decline in pro users. Even kids will move on from FREE as they eventually will want to create more complex creations (when I was 14, it was only a week before I downloaded my first plugin).

And even if someday they add extensions to SketchUp Free, it's online only.

Yep its busted.

I wish they released the program as opensource.

C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/Extensions/IRExtension2015x64.so>
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/RubyStdLib/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb;54;in `require'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/RubyStdLib/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb;54;in `require'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_initialize.rbs;67;in `<module;ImgTecVis>'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_initialize.rbs;10;in `<main>'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;5;in `eval'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;5;in `require'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;5;in `<top (required)>'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/extensions.rb;197;in `require'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/extensions.rb;197;in `load'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;25;in `register_extension'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;25;in `<module;ImgTecVis>'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;14;in `<top (required)>'
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `get_imgtec_rnd_api' for nil;NilClass>
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_initialize.rbs;23;in `irapi'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menu_commands.rbs;26;in `<module;ImgTecVis>'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menu_commands.rbs;10;in `<main>'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menus.rbs;9;in `eval'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menus.rbs;9;in `require'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menus.rbs;9;in `<main>'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;6;in `eval'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;6;in `require'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;6;in `<top (required)>'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/extensions.rb;197;in `require'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/extensions.rb;197;in `load'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;25;in `register_extension'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;25;in `<module;ImgTecVis>'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;14;in `<top (required)>'
Error; #<NoMethodError; undefined method `enable_statistics' for nil;NilClass>
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menus.rbs;93;in `<module;ImgTecVis>'
c;/programdata/sketchup/sketchup 2017/sketchup/plugins/imaginationvisualizer/iv_menus.rbs;12;in `<main>'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;6;in `eval'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;6;in `require'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer/iv_loader.rb;6;in `<top (required)>'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/extensions.rb;197;in `require'
C;/Program Files/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/Tools/extensions.rb;197;in `load'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;25;in `register_extension'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;25;in `<module;ImgTecVis>'
C;/ProgramData/SketchUp/SketchUp 2017/SketchUp/Plugins/ImaginationVisualizer.rb;14;in `<top (required)>'

Hi,
I've been searching for a plugin that would automatically 2d export in the background every *set period" of time from a specific scene at a specific file format and resolution.

So far I've been unsuccessful but It would help a lot with trying to explain your concepts and decisions and showcase how the project evolved.