I have been using Sketchup for a long time. Mainly for woodworking and house renovation projects. I have used it for designing pergolas, very large, multi-story decks, furniture, etc. I love it. I had Pro for several years. However, this last renewal I passed. I don’t see much in the way of development or future.
I have 35 years in software development as so-so developer but mainly in product management and as president of a big-data software company. Have always jumped on the leading edge and seen many products slowly disappear due to a variety of reasons.
So what is the future? Why can’t Trimble tell us? The last post I found on this issues is years ago. One of the add-on developers recently contacted many of told us they were no longer supporting us, made the code open source, because they see little future.
I love Sketchup. Having used AutoCAD since it was first released on floppy disks, various others over the years, there is NOTHING better for quick 3D mockups. Please, tell me there is a future. I want to believe!
No one can say. Even Trimble employees, were they allowed to say, may not know. Could be a moving target.
I believe the history of SU is that of much modern software. Started by a (no doubt) small but highly energised and capable bunch of programmers who produced something fresh that burst onto the scene about 20 years ago. Gets noticed by one of the big boys (Google) who snap it up for a king’s ransom but toy with it like a lion might a mouse for a while and then toss it aside. Picked up by another big boy (Trimble) who at least have a more commensurate stable of products but who may not really know what they want to do with it and in any case have much bigger fish to fry.
If this is anywhere near accurate (but hell, it makes a good story anyway!), the suspicion has to be that it will be kept on life support for a while but may then either be shuffled off again, or events will overtake it by something better from a competitor coming along.
But here’s the thing. The original concept was so good and so well implemented that what is basically 20 year old software, designed to run on machines of the day, is still very handy (compare and contrast with the phone industry). Small incremental improvements will probably keep coming if only because users expect it, but whether any serious upgrades ever come is moot. So a user has to decide whether those small improvements are worth investing in or whether just to stop at the latest version.
That’s a pretty good summary, I have not used Pro for almost 17 months now (if I ever will again) but the iPad version was what I was waiting for so now I am back, hopefully now its public they will continue that, what isn’t yet apparent is how the pricing structure will indeed work for that. My fear is that the iPad version may be an extension of a Subscription, if so then it makes it less desirable than something like Sahrp3D, time will tell I imagine.
Simon, this is probably a very realistic projection, but it is a bit depressing! Unfortunately, SketchUp is not one of Trimble’s “bigger fish”, so it may indeed get “fried”!
I was hoping for "SketchUp Pro 2 or something … ?
Thank you guys for replying. The iPad version does not work for my style of working. It is a pity to see such a fine tool languish. A lot of thought went into it. I just worry I will pay the license fee only to see another year pass without a significant, if any, update.
最好支持安卓版,毕竟安卓也是谷歌的系统.
且受众更广,这样就更为大众所接受的.
It’s best to support Android. After all, Android is Google’s system
And the audience is wider, so it is more accepted by the public
there is no any future! i believe that there is no future. why? because from 2006 till 2021 there were no any changes. (only changed logo and 3dwarehouse dark theme and ipad version, no one cares about this version) sad but true))
i use Sketchup during 13-14 years and thats why i say what i said. yes, during 14 years, i did not see any reason to have an optimistic mood. thatssad but real. but i still use this software because i know what i do, i know how to use it for my art. but we have to say, it is very sad that there is no any features, add ons. i see how blender, c4d, max and etc are growing and improving. i am not the enemy of the Sketchup and a team, who creates this soft. no, i love Sketchup and i really want to see this software more sophisticated and developed. also they can improve quality of 3D art in Sketchup with challenges. overall now Sketchup is what was in begging.
wish all the best.
I think the basic underpinnings of Sketchup were fully optimized quite a few years ago. Why fix that which is not broken?
Yes, SketchUp can always use a few more tweaks and additional features but the basic 3D drawing environment it creates is near perfection in my opinion. I’ve used a lot of CAD softwares in my time and when it comes to 3D modeling SketchUp is easily my favorite and more intuitive than everything else out there.
Moving forward I think SketchUp is still in a solid position however the two areas that could use more improvements and tools are the following:
1.) Layout: More robust, more speed. I want a 2D drawing environment that can rival AutoCAD but leverage all the power of SketchUp.
2.) Extensions: In my opinion this is where the true power of SketchUp really is. More specialized and in-depth extensions that literally turn SketchUp into any program you want it to be. In my opinion SketchUp could easily rival and surpass products like Revit, AutoCAD, Chief Architect and others.
I dont not understand why you are upset? This is a healthy critique and not a bad one. I complain about a lot of things.
For example:
The program is not Smooth. (it crashes very often)
There are no brushes to make the expression of an ornament, scratch or any other detail as easy as in other programs,
there is no texture unwrap ( i dont mean some silly plugins)
round corner plugin that works primitively,
The reason are too many. I use different programs to create details for models and then i import them in Sketchup.
I love the software ‘‘Sketchup’’ and i talk about what i want to see in Sketchup, in future. thats all.
You should not be offended by my criticism, on the contrary it should be acceptable for you to improve the program in the future.
with a love your user
I think you need to dive deeper into SU. You make statements like it hasn’t changed since the beginning (it has drastically, obviously), it crashes all the time (it doesn’t), “some silly plug-in”(SU is designed to be as big or small as you want it to be.). Seriously dive in deeper and you likely will find the things you need.
Improvements are always welcome for sure, but some of your statements are indicative of a mis-understanding of the software in general regardless of how long you’ve been using it.
i think you really need to dive in to different softwares capabilities. do you really think that you wrote clever answer? i think the conversation makes no sense. i see, you think Sketchup is more sophisticated and developed, then Blender, Max, C4d and etc…
okey people dont worry, Sketchup is N1 soft in the world.
Round Corner is an old version of Fredo’s plugin. I understand FredoCorner is more robust. This is a difficult task. It is a built-in feature of Rhinoceros but even with its more advanced geometry, it is far from perfect and subject to frequent complaints.
