I’d like to make one more argument for providing existing Pro users free access - at least for a year - to SketchUp Shop:
Support in this forum!
Most, perhaps all, of the Sages, and many of the Learned Ones took the time to familiarize themselves with SketchUp Free (and it’s beta form, my.sketchup) in order to better answer questions from new users - users who might not have a computer, just phone, tablet, or chromebook.
How are these helpful people going to familiarize themselves with SketchUp Shop in order to provide assistance?
I’m not going to get a trial use which expires in two weeks, do a few long days to familiarize myself with the new version, then try to give help once my trial expires - as the details of the feature implementation can change at any time, and since I my trial is expired, I can’t learn this!
And I’m not going to pay for the Shop license until I have a critical need for it in my hobbyist workflow.
Thus I’m not going to try to help when Shop users start to post here. At most, if I see a question where the answer might be: “You might be the perfect user for SketchUp Shop”, I’ll answer it with a link to the details of Shop features.
So if Trimble wants to continue to rely on this forum community for many of the user issues that otherwise would take up their staff time, then they need to find a way to let the users of this forum (at the very least, the Sages) use Shop for free.
If nothing else - Trimble should acknowledge the individuals who are helping others with free access to Sketchup Shop for as long as they keep supporting new users.
I agree that experienced SketchUp users would probably pick up the Shop version very quickly. I wouldn’t expect Trimble to give out licences for free though. SketchUp Pro users get help here from other users that have paid for a licence. The only difference with Shop is that it’s new. If it takes off then there’ll be experienced users of Shop here to offer help.
If Trimble wants to give me a free licence I’ll delete this post.
Which is why I explicitly called out the Sages as the ones who should first be considered for free access to Shop (with a weaker, but similar implied case for people with the Learned One badge). There are the people who have proven their ability and desire to help others.
Maybe it’s best left to private treaty rather than some official position. There is mention of a “sages program” but I don’t really know what all that might mean. I’d assume Trimble makes some effort to help sages be all they can be.
These are the people who least concern me regarding their ability and need to get help. It’s the new users - especially ones whose first exposure to SketchUp is through web use - and most especially ones with no computer that can run SketchUp Make or Pro (their only computing devices are phones, tablets, or Chromebooks) - who will, I expect, need the most help.
I am definitely missing something in this whole discussion/topic. If I am a Pro user, why would I want a Shop license?
If you are a Sage (which I am not) who regularly answers questions in this forum to help users who have the Shop version, then I think that Trimble should help them out with a license. However, that is strictly between the Sage and Trimble and the arrangement does not have to be disclosed to the public. JMO
Until the debut of Shop, the Pro user had access to all variants of SketchUp applicable to their hardware. So with a Pro license, a user has their choice of platform to the limits inherent in the platform. (I’m ignoring network licenses of SketchUp since it has no functional difference to single license Pro, and SketchUp for Schools which has, admittedly, minor differences with SketchUp Free)
My more specific case:
I’m a Pro user, but I’m not a professional user. I’m a hobbyist. I want a Shop license so that, while I’m working in my woodshop, I can refer to - and CHANGE plans on my Android tablet. Free can do most of this - and I’m already using it for that purpose, but there are added features in Shop (like Solid Tools) that would be useful to me.
I’m also designing a tiny home on wheels that I eventually intend to build. I frequently go to gatherings of friends, family, and tiny home enthusiasts and I take my tablet in order to show off my progress. I’ve occasionally had suggestions to see how a different material will look. Shop would allow me to immediately find/create that material and try it out in my model, with immediate feedback to the ones who suggested it.
OK - you make some valid points that I had not thought of. In what your are mentioning, if you are paying for a Pro license/maintenance fee, I would agree that if should be included. IMO, after reading your reasoning, then I think a Pro license should give you access to the entire SketchUp tool set.
I too just “get by”. My touchscreen works for clicking (including double and triple clicks), but I need to use the toolbar to have any chance of panning, zooming, or orbiting. I really miss the mouse (actually mice: Logitech 3 button trackball + 3DConnection Space Mouse Pro). So I’ll never give up on my locally installed Pro - it’s FAR better for intensive modeling.
I personally think that Dynamic components need to play a part in the online version. They save time and give Sketchup the extra functionality required to have options managment functionality.
I recognize the value that DC’s bring to SketchUp, particularly as a way to share configurable BIM data with folks who want to assemble complex scenes from component parts. Given that our current DC implementation requires Ruby to run, we don’t have a way to support it in our browser-based SketchUp versions at this time. But we’re releasing new features all the time, so stay tuned for future developments.
Remember- you can still use our desktop releases of SketchUp, either SketchUp Pro or SketchUp Make if you depend on features not yet available in the browser.
