@pixero said:

If it could host a Titan X it would be great for rendering with Thea.

Using the Titan X would really rock but leave a big hole in the pocket.

@roland joseph said:

It is really a good idea but the analogy that comes to mind is buying a new car and then adding a motor. I'd be a little embarrassed if I was the car maker.

I take your point but maybe another way of looking at it is adding an 'extra' motor to the car for times when you want / need that extra boost. Not everyone will of course just the specialists.

Hi Guys,

For any of you using a MacBook as your work machine you might be interested to learn that there possibly will be a way to seriously beef up the graphics end of things if the Bull.Box Kickstarter campaign is successful. Details of campaign, here, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bullbox/external-graphics-card-for-macbook/description

Bull.Box intend to offer MacBook users an option for an external graphics card. The selection covers from an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (£399) up to the GeForce GTX 980Ti (£999). Specs on the cards can be located here, http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_family.html

Mike

@juju said:

sounds like a solution, but yet more admin

EDIT
and in South Africa patents to designs last 10 - 15 years (depending on the type of design), provided you pay the annual fee.

Juju,

It does involve some admin but if it protects a design and discourages copyright infringers it would be worth the effort.

Hi Guys,

I have been checking out the procedure involved in registering a design here in Ireland but think it could be applicable to any country except China from what I see

The link to the Irish Patent Office is here, http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/design_classification.aspx and from there you can link to your own particular country.

In the case of building design plans the 'Class' is,
Subclass 08
OTHER PRINTED MATTER
A0186 Architects' plans P0454

This information may be located at the World Intellectual Property Organiszation http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nivilo/locarno/index.htm?lang=EN

Costs / fees in Ireland are €70.00 in the case of a single design plus €25.00 per design after that. It looks like an effective way of securing design ownership and further deferent to copyright infringement.

Mike

Just spotted a brilliant new shower design, the Nebia Shower. Not only is it a beautiful design its also a huge water conserver which uses up to 70% less water used in a normal shower and folks are raving about the actual shower experience which delivers atomizes tiny water droplets.

The Nebia Shower will also be a DIY retrofit which makes it even more appealing. Detail may be found here,
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1499369835/nebia-shower-better-experience-70-less-water

[/quote][quote="Mike Amos":3e8dwvm5]The plight of the humble bee is something we all need to look out for ways we can contribute. We have a lot of wood bee's here, the smaller solo living bee that will live alone in a small hole in the ground or in tree's. I was lucky enough to spot a humming bird moth ONCE in a friends garden but this has not been repeated sadly. If Monsanto et al get their way the only insects we see (or hear) will be mosquitos or horse flies.

As for reviving burnt out bees, a little sugar, dissolved in water and left on the thumbnail can be just as good. I used this last year and it does work, revived bee flew off after a few minutes thumb rest.[/quote:3e8dwvm5]

Mike,

That's interesting. I must try that and have a bee land on the thumbnail and feed.

[quote="Gareth":3e8dwvm5]Bees seem to be doing ok here Down Under.

I understand that a lot of money is spent keeping the threats out of our country.....but it makes me wonder how vulnerable we are.

On Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia, we have what is believed to be the purest stock of Ligurian Bees on the planet.....I hope they can keep it that way !

<span>For a brief history, here is a link > <a href="http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/hogbay2.htm" target="newWin">http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/hogbay2.htm</a></span>[/quote:3e8dwvm5]

Gareth,

The Ozzies and Kiwis run a tight ship when it comes to keeping non indigenous animals and plants out. I hope they keep up their vigilence when it comes to bee killing chemicals.

Thanks for the link to the Ligurian Bee.

Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, is continuing his battle with Monsanto and it looks to me that he is winning little by little. To me his major win to date is that Monsanto have not managed to bankrupt him and his wife.

This video tells his story,
Monsanto Documentary - This is a shocking video about the company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0om5L4Bhg

At the end of the video Percy explains how he has set a legal precedent whereby a non gmo farmer can possibly force the gmo seed producing companies to remove invading gmo plants from their land. This could get very costly for these chemical companies.

Mike

@joewood said:

Feel free to pick up my tab anytime.
...joe

Well done Joe

@emerald15 said:

Lots or reasoning going on here.

All I can say is that my first thought was how would my clients behave if I presented them with a 35% increase (after VAT) in my services? They might accept it... they would probably expect more/better services... they would very likely look around at who else might offer the same service and what they might charge.
For the first time ever... this is how I have felt about SU. I know its not likely I'll find better for the same or less cost, but it has made me consider looking!

Fair point Fiona.

Many would say that its not great business practice the way Trimble SketchUp are going about increasing price and I imagine this might well sour some Pro users but I honestly feel that SU Pro will still be good value at the new pricing. Its just a pity that better PR wasn't brought into the matter.

I also agree with some above comments that its always good to offer / include more value or even perceived value in the price increased product as we all like to feel we are getting a fair and good deal no matter what we buy.

Mike

@oceanembers said:

I don't think there's any doubt that Google kept the price fair. I just think that with Sketchup's particular userbase, a lower price would be beneficial - reason being the huge number of Make users (no doubt including many small businesses who should be on pro) can essentially be seen as potential buyers who can't afford pro. I'd be incredibly surprised if the gain in pro users wouldn't make up for the price drop involved.

Of course, this is all conjecture, really, since the decision is ultimately about what is least risky for the shareholders, but it's nice to dream. Personally, I'd like to see a blender-shaped initiative to develop an alternative, but that's wishful thinking at best

Company profits, shareholders dividends etc aside. Trimble SketchUp is trying to service designers of all types with just two products, Make and Pro. The Make users appear to be happy on the price front, free, whereas the Pro users want more 'bang for their buck'.

Its been said before on SketchUcation that whats really needed is a range of Trimble SketchUp products that aims to cater for all needs and budgets. A tall task but nonetheless it could be an objective.

I take your point about there being potential Pro buyers that can't afford Pro. I've been thinking about this and while there is no easy solution there might be ways to satisfy a large portion of this user base.

One solution might be to do what vehicle manufactures and for that matter a broad range of manufactures do. Take a car user needs a vehicle to get him/her to work and back every day, a two or three mile trip. The low cost 'bottom of the range' car would do the job perfectly but the same low cost vehicle would not suit the person that needs to travel hundreds of miles each day.

In TSU's case in might be a matter of having different sized engines or even a 'governor' installed to a single broad spectrum engine. As the user requires more 'power' they pay accordingly. Why would a 3 mile a day commuter require a v8 engined car when a three cylinder .9 litre would do the job needed.

@oceanembers said:

Mike, it's a bit fallacious to try and discredit Derei based on him not paying for a pro license... Your arguments have a good point, but let's leave the one-upmanship out of it?

George, I was not trying to discredit Derei and definitely not being fallacious. As for 'one-upmanship', I'll leave that to you I was just sticking to facts, figures and on the ground reality as I see it.

@oceanembers said:

For my part, I'll say that I don't think the price rise will help Trimble - it will just drive people away from pro. They'd do better to leave the price as is, imo, or even look into dropping it to entice those sitting on the fence.

I disagree with your suggestion that Trimble should leave the price for SU Pro as is or drop it. It looks to me that they may have possibly inherited the 'free ethos' brought in by Google that, it seems, were not that interested in making money on SketchUp. It looks that Google were more interested in the bigger picture, pushing / developing Google Earth etc.

I wonder what kind of app SU would be and at what price level it would be at if still under @Last Software ownership. I doubt we would have a free version and I'd say they would not have been able to freeze the price for 15 years.

Mike

@derei said:

Good boy, Trimble... let's see why one should be happy about this:

SketchUp is a very professional tool that:

• allows UV mapping
• doesn't do bugsplat when having the Outliner window opened and SU does recursive operations
• Scene manager doesn't have bugs at all (eg. renaming scenes if there is something written in the Scene name field and the user clicks on another scene)
• The Warehouse doesn't take ages to initialize, is fast and sleek

And then let's talk about Layout. Layout is the best, working perfectly in conjunction with SU

• Is fast, renders the images instantly, doesn't feel lag at all
• The text from SU is identical in SU and Layout; the rendering of text is flawless. One doesn't have to make tiny dimensions (5-6pt) in order to see them decent in Layout.
• Text written in Layout is very simple to edit. Selecting all text and pressing BackSpace will delete the marked text. Also, many other very intuitive text functions (mainly like any text editor).
• The best part is still the speed, no lags, no annoyance of any way.

And many more could be said about SU + Layout.

So, yeah Trimble... your price rise is justified and earned. Good job! Expect for many people to buy licenses, because your software gets better and better.

**Leaving the irony aside, all the updates and improvements that Trimble did so far to SketchUp are welcomed and very good. BUT they merely made SU decent... like not CRAP anymore. From this to a PROFESSIONAL Software that grants speed and makes sense to pay a load of money for it is a LOOOOOONG way.

Dear Trimble... want money? We'll be more than happy to pay loads of money for SketchUp. Just make it worth that money.**

Cheers.

Derei,

It looks that there has been 38.6% general inflation since 2000, the year SketchUp was launched at $495. It was great value then and in my opinion is still great value today at the new prices.

From my calculations the new prices are an increase of 26% for SketchUp Pro 2015 and 35% for Annual Maintenance Renewal, both below the inflation rate.

I, like most others, don't like price increases on things I purchase and it would be great if these things were free. Oh!!!! SketchUp Make is free and I see this is what you use.

SketchUp, just like SketchUcation, is free to the vast majority of their users /members. Its lucky for these users / members that they have SU Pro purchasers and SketchUcation Premium Members to subsidise this.

Mike

@dale said:

I'm a Bee-liever.

Very good Dale. Yes, recognising the various types of wild bee populations is key to helping them to continue helping us.

I'd really like to do a course in beekeeping if one was nearby. I must start searching around.

Here is a bee related project by Chester Lee that is worth supporting
Colony Collapse Disorder is SOLVED with the Bee Pole!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1497454442/colony-collapse-disorder-is-solved-with-the-bee-po

Fiona, Its good to see folks interested in bees. I'm sure that bumble bee you revived is still thanking you!

I just had a quick look at the rockeries and there are plenty of visiting honey bees. Here is a picture of a bee I just took with my iPhone on zoom. Its a bit blurry but possible to make out the little pollen baskets!

It seems honey bees are fairly fussy when it comes to pollen and like chemical free flowers. The sedum that invaded my rockeries seems to be high on their list of plants. Check out Plants for Bees, here, http://www.drought-smart-plants.com/plants-for-bees.html#axzz3h0wf7hLQ It offers a good guide to suitable plants that don't need much care.

@dale said:

This may have made the 3D printer threads, but certainly deserves a mention in the realm of Fine Design.
Could be the basis for a great challenge, or think tank topic.
http://inhabitat.com/sketchups-open-source-3d-printable-wikihouse-snaps-together-like-lego-bricks/

Yes indeed Dale, it really would be an interesting challenge but for what type of structure? I would be thinking along the lines of a garden studio / office that could also act as occasional guest accommodate.

It would be interesting to hear other ideas and then decide on something. If we can get this far I will rustle up some competition prizes.

Mike

Hi All,

Since I learned a few years ago of the dangerous situation that bees and butterflies are in worldwide, I'm always trying to make people more aware of our little friends. If they become extinct we will be in deep trouble.

My house plot is on a limestone karst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst and when building I decided to have no grass only rockeries. There is one to the front and another to the side of the house.

I covered the areas with sandstone pea-gravel and just let the limestone outcrops protrude. I then filled in here and there with some low cover plants that are suited to acidic conditions. The only maintenance involved was a few days a year pulling weeds. I'm NOT a gardener!

Last year an invader took hold in the side rockery. I didn't know what it was and was about to uproot the 'weeds' but when I looked closer I noticed that there were a load of bees taking pollen from the little pinkish / white flowers. I left well enough alone and the little invader has now taken over most of the two rockeries.

I have identified the plant is Sedum Anglicum (English Sedum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedum_anglicum. In winter it becomes a nice low carpet of succulent green/gray plump leaves and in summer it comes alive with in sea of flowers with a multitude of visiting bees and the odd butterfly. Today I counted well over 80 bees and the odd butterfly all busy working away.

I'm leaving the 'invaded' alone and hope it helps the local bee population also the butterflies and other pollinators to continue working hard for us even though we appear to be doing our best to make them extinct.

Here in Ireland more than half of our bee species have undergone substantial declines in their numbers since 1980.  The distribution of 42 species has declined by more than 50%!

Great efforts are being made my our National Biodiversity Data Centre http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/projects/irish-pollinator-initiative/ to raise awareness with novel approaches which should particularly appeal to kids and adults alike.

Plant something that bees and butterflies will like and enjoy watching them at work, it very relaxing

And please let me know how YOUR country's bee and bug populations are doing?

Mike

Hi Guys,

I know that many of you like me are fascinated with cars but in most cases its from an onlookers perspective as we can have virtually no design input to what we would like to be driving.

This could soon be about to change with a brilliant concept by Kevin Czinger. His proposed new and innovative vehicle building system uses 3D printing technology that could quite easily bring vehicle building to small communities. He says, using his system that a car producing plant could be set up for $10m as against up to a $1b cost which only the big players can afford these days.

It looks that in Kevin Czinger's case its been a, 'if at first you don't succeed, then try, try and try again'! His first car building venture, Coda, went into bankruptcy but I think his new company, http://www.divergentmicrofactories.com will be a huge success.

The basic concept is quite simple as is often the case with great ideas. Its simply to build a chassis using 3D printed aluminium 'nodes' which are connected by carbon-fiber tubes to form a very strong frame. The rest of the vehicle is formed using not overly complex and costly traditional methods.

A solid point he makes is that building vehicles this way reduces the energy and costs involved in current manufacturing methods. This in turn makes this system much cheaper also 'greener' and that is to be welcomed.

It looks like 3D printed building are definitely coming of age with a major initiative of the ‘Museum of the Future’, part of a larger partnership between Dubai and WinSun Global - a joint venture between Chinese 3D printing technology firm WinSun and international investors - along with leading global architecture and engineering firms Gensler, Thornton Thomasetti, and Syska Hennessy.

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7565251-dubai-first-3d-printed-office/

Hi Guys,

Just learned about the Halo Back , an iPhone 5, 5S, 6 and 6 Plus screen protector with a built-in 'back button'. I will no longer be jealous of Samsung 5 users
Click gif to see it in action.

This is the Halo Back makeup, clever idea or what?

Mike