Sketchup needs to be a dynamic, virtually collaborative platform. Google Slides, Docs, & Sheets were gamechangers for professional teams that could edit pages and files around the globe at the same time. Just as Revit’s collaborative editing worked well for Architects and draftsmen, Sketchup should take the reigns on that opportunity to allow users to brainstorm and edit models together, simultaneously. Use Revit as your muse and create this now. Being in the environment design field with big brands, I can assure you Trimble will have more global companies flocking to your products than you can imagine. Thanks.
You mean like a multiplayer-like collaboration?
You see a little character and a dot on a surface to represent where their mouse is?
If anyone at SketchUp sees this, please consider this a possibility for SU2027.
(BTW, for those desiring to feel old, this was the year that the movie iRobot with Will Smith was set in. )
I could see a little @Box floating around while he’s modeling a glass spaceship.
Yeah exactly! The group/component the user is working within could be greyed out or locked until they exit the group. Likewise, another possibility could be that all changes are saved to a personal file and synced to a community shared master file every few minutes so it is updated for everyone to see. The gif you shared is exactly what I mean. It’d make our work as designers much more collaborative and accessible for everyone to be part of that process.
Currently, we only present our work when we deem it ready, lacking the ability to share our thought process in real-time without a third-party screen sharing function, akin to looking over a peer’s shoulder IRL. This limits collaboration and potentially results in wasted time on unnecessary tasks. Enabling real-time sharing would facilitate continuous learning and collaboration among team members.
This would be a game changing feature. Hope they implement it in some way in this year’s release.
I find the share model feature in SketchUp for Web extremely useful. Wherein clients get real time updates as we update the model.
But it would be even better when I can share this model to colleagues who can simultaneously work on the model on the web.
It’s already there, Trimble Connect toolbar.
I used it for years for collaboration.
Trimble Connect, from what I’ve seen of it, is more of a project management tool and model viewer rather than a dynamic, collaborative modeling tool. Sure, you can have a manager or coworker redline areas on a 3D model project or create a To-Do list for their team but they’d need to use the Connect interface, outside of the Sketchup UI. That’s not what we’re talking about. The GIF LinearGraphs posted, is exactly what I was referring to, with Revit’s collaborative Worksharing function as a model for developing this workflow.
FWIW, the Revit worksharing functionality is based upon having a Central model and having worksets for participating stakeholders, where they can edit/add certain objects.
The Central model is in the ACC cloud, stakeholders need an extra subscription (~$1000 p/y) to engage.
Stakeholders work on a local version of the Central Model and upload/download changes to the central model.
Tekla also offers this kind of functionality, btw.
So, definitely not ‘live sharing, all modeling is done locally on the client.
In that sense, collaborating via Trimble Connect is exactly the same, but one would have to split up the ‘Central’ model and think of how to divide it into worksets, oneselves. (No additional costs!)
The ownership (who gets todo what) in Tekla and Revit is fairly easy to implement, because this kind of software is mainly a database with categories, families, types and hierarchical structures (Assemblies, levels, grids)
Non of such is available in SketchUp, since it primarily used as a concept tool and basically consists of edges and faces.
Because of this usage (Design and see whatever comes up) it should actually be live and direct, as seen in the GIF, and there are certainly use cases for this kind of sessions, where 2~5 designers agreed upon meeting and collaborating on a specific time in their agenda, while another stakeholder (the owner?) can view what is happening.
But in how many cases would you proceed the same way of meeting, once the lines are set out and basically everyone knows what to do?
Some folks work better alone, they might take a walk and come back with a great idea or have a sleepless night and continue working on a specific detail.
What kind of specific collaborating do you need? To be actually live, it needs to be done in the browser and we do not have extensions, for instance)
For instance, do you envision or need specific ‘roles’,
What kind of projects are you talking about?
Note that Revit has different kind of files to open (Project or Family/Template)
When speaking of a SketchUp model, do you actually mean ‘Project’?
Etc…