After reading this thread with great interest over the last week, the 64bit question seems quite emotive, perhaps because it in some way encapsulares the frustration which stems from uncertianty as to the direction Sketchup will take. A vague promise of an update sometime in 2013 does little to ease the dissonence.

Those more confident about a 32bit future seem quite defensive, moverover they also seem to be those closer to the development team, which in its own way can be taken as both reassuring and worrysome - i am sure the ambiguity is not lost on most. I get the distinct impression that for some this is a dicussion we are not meant to having.

Unlike some, I would place compatability and robustness above speed for Sketchup moving foward.

Apart from the discussion there are other indicators, the amount of advertising on here for render engines experesses the most obvious Sketchup functional shortfall, while the odd advertisement for Bonzai3d circles like a vulture awaiting either Sketchups demise or the fallout from all the uncertianty.

Perhaps a robust release of a Luxrender plugin and a plugin organizer as an interum update for both free and paid versions of Sketchup, together with a future roadmap for Sketchup would placate most, certainly me.

d12dozr
Thanks for the info on the yearly updates for Sketchup starting 2013.

Andy
Musing about what flavour future Sketchup licences will take is possibly putting yourself through the mill for nothing, the update to Sketchup 2013 could arrive as late as December next year. Enjoy the day.

Thomas
Its heartening to hear that Sketchup team is still intact. Perhaps I differ in the value placed on Googles involvement with Sketchup, under their umbrella Sketchup became very much mainstream and for that i am grateful. It is easy to find people proficient in Sketchup.

Jason
I share some of your concern about the Trimble's likely desire to place a heavy emphasis on integration on their existing products - it would seem to be the obvious thing for them to do, although they could equally see Sketchup as a vehicle to broaden their product offering in disciplines they are yet to exploit.

Mike
A more up to date robust Sketchup would certainly be better than more features, particularly as the timing of the next update is so vague - sometime in 2013. The speed of Sketchup has never been a major concern for me, integration with other products in the workflow has, that includes compatibility with the hardware other software needs to run.

Thank you all for your responses, they have given me a better idea of what is happening. Best regards.

"This is an old topic, please inform yourself." Aerilius

This seems a little disingenuous, perhaps spawned from a noble attempt to in some way defend the developers, though to cast dispersions on another as a defence would seem to water down that nobility considerably.

Sketchup does not run in isolation, as the virtual world moves forward one has the right to hope that each part of their solution will move forward with it and just as importantly - to voice their concern when it doesn't. I did do my homework, not only here but in the other place, the mainstream Google forum - though even if I hadn't that should not render any Sketchup user mute.

From my reading at least, the same concerns are shared by many, moreover there are also those with contemporary hardware purchased as a result of the demands of their other software finding difficulty running Sketchup fluidly. That's a concern for any office that includes Sketchup as part of their solution.

Sketchup as an anachronism will benefit no one, moreover it will remove the most intuitive design tool available from the design scene without the prospect of a mature alternative for some time. Not good.

Further, the design phase usually involves a concept and sometimes some mild construction drawing giving direction as to the likely direction for tricky documentation - layout is a good mechanism for the latter. The glaring omission from Sketchup's package is a means of fluidly rendering the concept at world standard to communicate the concept professionally - that will likely call for a 64bit render engine with the full power of current technology.

In summary then, although most Sketchup users would find an inbuilt plugin organizer a quantum leap forward, it is likely to be of little long term consequence if Sketchup doesn't keep abreast with changing technology.

Perhaps anyone with a multi core processor, multi channel ram, graphics accelerator or modern operating system despatately needs support.

The list is quite long, i last posted on here in 2009 and the now redundent hp xw9300 workstations from that time saw Sketchup no where near touching their potential - little has changed. These workstations were 3 years old back then.

Thats very disappointing - bolean solids and better layout capility without added mainstream hardware support is not a lot to add in that time frame. Sketchup needs a new engine with graphics cards support (multiple), multi cpu core support (at least 8 core) with at least 8 channel 64gb ram support, a hq rendering component and 3d scanning support,

Even the bizar sketchup plugin management ommission has not been seemingly addressed in the interum 3 years.

The heartening thing on my return visit to this place is the continuing enthuiasm of the user base.

The sketchup office seats are the most creative, generate the most excitement and ensuing enthusiasm within an office community, its therefore a very valuable slice in the sucess mix. Accordingly Sketchup itself, with its ongoing lack of capability to capitalize on even 2006 technology (hp xw9300) is a cause for great concern.

Perhaps the biggest area that Sketchup is trailing is that the software is not keeping up with the hardware capability.

Modern workstations such as the hp z420 offer multiple core processors, multi channel ram and powerful graphics processors - even a base workstation with 4 core xeon, 8gb ram and an nvidia q600 is not used to anything like its potential when using Sketchup 8.

This is frustrating and does little to endear the product going forward, particularly the professional 8 version. Better hardware merely sees a brute force improvement rather than that seen in other drawing software, even the benefits of a 64bit operating system are not being fully utilized.

To a lesser extent, as shown in recent unusual micro scale project, Sketchup showed an unwillingness to respond consistently in fractions of a millimeter, scaling up solved this - though it did further highlight the growing limitations of Sketchup's aging engine.

Perhaps then a lifting up of the underlying Sketchup code to a 2012 level, fully taking advantage of current common hardware technology without any modeling features being added would be best.

With an impending windows 8, a tablet orientated operating system hailing in the promise of a wacom tablet/workstation hybrid, the opening casm between sketchup and hardware/operating system advances is likely to broarden to an abyss. Its that prospect that concerns me most.

Its easy to find sketchup wizz help, the program has a great user base upon which to draw, all mostly self trained via the free version or the very low price of the proffesional version. Sketchup as a future annacronism will see this resource disappear - it will be back to the awkward days of expensive training and worse, the lack of trully intuative seats in the modern drawing office.

Its been a long time since i posted on here, from memory contributing some dynamic components as a thank you for all the plugins that have been leached.

Thought i would post as it seems an eternity since version 8 was released.

With Google having dropped sketchup and engineering based Trimble taking it up, one cant help feel that the Sketchup progress under the Google business model may faulter or change direction. The silence from the Sketchup development team has been deafening of late, perhaps as they come to grips with the broad range of Trimble offerings that they may need to be integrating.

As this place is not awash with engineers and the like I imagine many here are keen to see what Sketchup 9 brings, not only in terms of features and capability, but also as a flag for any direction change.

Sketchup is a remarkable tool, its capability/price point and intuitive interface see it stand alone in a market flooded with 3d offerings. A development step sideways could see this change, the silence from the old Sketchup team does little to a lay the dissonance naturally felt - i don't see Sketchup 8 as a definitive solution nor do I relish the prospect of finding a replacement.

I can only hope the old Sketchup team has remained intact up to this day and are being left to determine the direction of the product, though as time passes I am becoming more doubtful.

Best regards to you all.

Here is a link to a window set for Picture, Awning, Hopper, Casement, Hung, Dual Casement, Sliding and Louvre Dynamic Component windows. Included is a back plane cut-out Dynamic Component that once placed behind the window can be moved and stretched from the front wall plane.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

Each window can also be placed in a pre cut hole in a wall.

Size the window “Wall Thickness” setting to the frame depth. Cut the hole in the wall. Place a grouped plane recessed in the hole. Stick windows on the group plane. Erase or hide the recessed group plane.

The window frames are slabs with holes cut in them rather than the usual corner blocks, top, bottom and sides. These examples demonstrate the inclusion of a subtractive synthesis approach to design combined with the more usual additive synthesis approach. SketchUp Push-Pull allows both.

Here is a link to a window set for Picture, Awning, Hopper, Casement, Hung, Dual Casement, Sliding and Louvre Dynamic Component windows. Included is a back plane cut-out Dynamic Component that once placed behind the window can be moved and stretched from the front wall plane.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

Each window can also be placed in a pre cut hole in a wall.

Size the window “Wall Thickness” setting to the frame depth. Cut the hole in the wall. Place a grouped plane recessed in the hole. Stick windows on the group plane. Erase or hide the recessed group plane.

The window frames are slabs with holes cut in them rather than the usual corner blocks, top, bottom and sides. These examples demonstrate the inclusion of a subtractive synthesis approach to design combined with the more usual additive synthesis approach. SketchUp Push-Pull allows both.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d03a77af6892c0bf894cb90eb44e6cf1

Hello Chris. I have just uploaded some simpler stylistic bock versions of the Table Layout Dynamic Components. 100 table layouts should now generate in 15-35 seconds on a hp Compaq 8510p notebook with 4GB of Ram. Square table layouts are fastest.

Larger layouts on the same notebook took 3 minutes to generate 700 tables covering 4025m². 1024 Tables processed in 4 minutes 40 in an area 80m x 76.3m being 5888m² ( over 63,000 ft² being 262 x 250 ft ).

One way to make this process less cumbersome as the coverage increases is to break the area up into smaller more manageable regions.

Simple block Dynamic Tables and Chairs Layout Components can be downloaded by following the links below. They are a further example of how the SketchUp Dynamic Component feature can be used for simple table and chair layouts

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=dc71d29bbc448493894cb90eb44e6cf1&prevstart=0

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=af64ff6d0970b4bd894cb90eb44e6cf1&prevstart=0

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=592969f9a492d5d1894cb90eb44e6cf1&prevstart=0

Simple block Dynamic Tables and Chairs Layout Components can be downloaded by following the links below. They are a further example of how the SketchUp Dynamic Component feature can be used for simple table and chair layouts.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=dc71d29bbc448493894cb90eb44e6cf1&prevstart=0

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=af64ff6d0970b4bd894cb90eb44e6cf1&prevstart=0

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=592969f9a492d5d1894cb90eb44e6cf1&prevstart=0

Gus, these works are beautiful.

Here is a link to a Dynamic Circular Table and Chairs Layout (Diagonal) Component download as a another example of how the SketchUp Dynamic Component feature can be used for table and chair layouts.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a50e9cc0d06455ac6b046f8933fbbfde&prevstart=0

Here is a link to a Dynamic Circular Table and Chairs Layout (Diagonal) Component download as a another example of how the SketchUp Dynamic Component feature can be used for table and chair layouts.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a50e9cc0d06455ac6b046f8933fbbfde&prevstart=0

Dynamic Table & Chair Components corner error corrected and links re-posted.

Dynamic Table & Chair Components corner error corrected and links re-posted.

Here is another link to a Dynamic Table and Chair Layout (Diagonal) Component download as a further example of how the SketchUp Dynamic Component feature can be used for table and chair layouts.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

Here is another link to a Dynamic Table and Chair Layout (Diagonal) Component download as a further example of how the SketchUp Dynamic Component feature can be used for table and chair layouts.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)