The drivers mentioned in this thread.
Are you referring to the graphics cards that are no longer supported? They arenât supported by their manufacturers either because they are old and have been replaced with better devices.
So what? The people who are using sketchup and have a lot of content are all of a sudden left in the lurch because a
company has no consideration for their user base. They canât just run out and buy new hardware just because the
company, or more likely, the junior programmer has no concept of who will be using the software or how many years of
content that has been developed because trust was placed in the company.
Please donât tell me that it canât be done because many companies are able to release new software without breaking the
existing software or existing content.
Iâm confused here,
I can still create a model in SU v6 on this 11year old mac an open it in SU v20,
I can also create one in v20, use Save As v6 to go the other wayâŚ
the computers âdriversâ have no effect on thatâŚ
john
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Since you are still using SketchUp 2016, what difference does it make to you that SketchUp 2019 doesnât support ancient graphics cards that arenât supported by their manufacturers.
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Iâm not sure Trimble could afford selling the program for a 6th or a 12th of the prize. Even if the functionality was limited, a lot of customers that now happily pay the 600 would use a cheaper version. I agree 600 is too much for e.g. a parent or child, but for someone using the software to make a living itâs actually quite cheap. This is why i loved the Make/Pro division; use it for free as a hobbyist and pay once you use it commercially. Sadly way too many people used Make commercially even though it was explicitly forbidden.
Agree. Even if the software itself is quite small and could be cached on the client machine, all the models going up and down the wire could be quite intensive.
I think this is a bit unfair. In 2020 the long dreaded super sensitive camera movement was fixed. I think this issue was in the same league as the dreaded clipping plane. 2019.2 was full with workflow improvements, like drag and drop importers, an import dialog where you could select All Supported Formats instead of having to check the format of the file you wanted and set a dropdown menu to match each time. Trimble has also put in a ton of work in refactoring and cleaning up old code, which isnât immediately visible to the end user but required in the long run, and sadly seams to have been neglected by previous owners.
Danielâs workaround sets the near front clipping plane to avoid visible clipping at the cost of having geometry in the distance bleed together. Iâm sure this is very helpful to a lot of users, but itâs a bit too crude to fit into the native product. If you download it separately and look at a short video or read the description, youâll understand that you have to do this micro management and why, but if it was native to SketchUp and it was one of those buttons you just stumble upon and try out what it does, it would be quite confusing. I hope this can one day be fixed, e.g. by using a data type with more precision or dynamically setting the the clipping planes based on the closest and furthest visible geometry rather than the model bounds, but that is quite a bit more work.
1 Like
It wouldnât be a bad idea if some (further above) in this thread come off the high horse. Maybe one needs to change perspective to actually see how this thread reads. Is that the SketchUp community who responds here?
Besides that,
A programmer does not decide about features or use of newer/incompatible technology, nor has an intention to do so. Before starting to judge or blame, it is better to get your view right about how software development works.
Existing content isnât broken (SketchUp can open even skp 3 files). The key points of the discussion are that integration of web services into Make 2017 breaks and that the web version is not considered a suitable replacement if there is no constant internet.
To be honest, even as a so-called âsageâ I donât have an answer to this, and surely I cannot reconcile it with my conscience simply implying you live in the wrong country.
4 Likes
Exactly.
I am in the group of people that think that the deprecation of Make 2017 (to the last available free desktop version) in favour of the web version was a poor â or at least, premature â business decision. I think it has repercussions in both short and long-term to the SU user-base and eco-system.
It seems increasingly clear that Trimble is pushing SU to eventually end up as a fully web-based subscription service (SASS). When and if that point comes, I will have a decision to make about whether I continue to support and use it.
But obviously my opinion on this subject (or any other) has little bearing on Trimbleâs chosen direction for SU, so while it may be legitimate for me to provide my feedback / express my concerns, it should be with tempered expectations â and language.
There is zero excuse for being rude or condescending â let alone feeling fully entitled to free software of my preference â while doing so.
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Whatever. From my âhigh horseâ, itâs disgusting to see companies who have no consideration for their users when they do
a release. Breaking their customers content is not thinking about their customers. Dropping support for drivers, which
breaks their customers content, is also not thinking about their customers. Releasing software that has issues and then
not offering customer support is not thinking about their customers. Buying a product that was initially a very low
priced and then monetizing it heavily is not understanding how the customer base developed.
And, finally, people, who canât see beyond the end of their own situation, who can afford to upgrade their hardware
regularly, who cannot understand why someone wouldnât want to yearly shell out money for new features and fixes to
existing problems, who cannot understand why someone wouldnât want the latest whizbang on a yearly basis, and who cares
not for backward compatibility, definitely are not thinking about any perspective save their own.
Clearly there is an issue here. How does a company continue to fund improvements to a product when their customers
already have most of the product? And how do they support their existing customer base, many of whom either do not want
to or cannot afford to shell out yearly or do not need the new features?
instigator of this thread and I support his position.
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I recently proposed what I think would be a nice breakdown of products and possible prices.
What do think ? If these editions were available, which one would you buy ?
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Get used to it, This has been the case with computing since the beginning, and will always be the case.
It matters to me because I may at some time want to upgrade again and donât want to upgrade with a company who isnât
considerate of all of their customer base. I attempted to upgrade to 2017 but really didnât like it for reasons that I
donât remember now.
Just because hardware, drivers, and software are not âsupportedâ anymore doesnât mean that they are not used anymore. It
is possible to do a release that will install with the proper drivers, that will work under previous operating systems.
It has been shown to be possible by other companies who do it. Regularly.
A large portion of the makers who are using this software were lured in to the promise of being able to draw up their
gizmo and print it and wonât be upgrading their hardware anytime soon.
Lastly, as I mentioned in another post, I was just supporting the instigator of this thread and had gone through some of
the issues he faced when I attempted to port 2016 to my new computer and found that the 3d warehouse was no longer
âsupportedâ for 2016. I read that it âis now brokenâ not that it is ânot supported anymore.â
And thatâs not even going into the whole developers for the 3d warehouse who have enhanced sketchup greatly. They have
made this program a community which Trimble is regularly disrupting with their policies and releases.
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BS. Not all companies do this. You sound like Jimmy Carter who said that we had better get used to double digit
inflation.
thats the isue. i think technology has come far to let hardware (also software) have to be changes annually. or they can not be used again. it looks like they made them not to last. or they made it to last but should not to be used as long as it should.
i remember the time when if you buy a hardware and u use them for like 5 more years.
Still doing that. Considering the resource and energy consumption in production and impact of disposal, I would feel irresponsible if I would aim for less. One needs to be open to accept minor nuisances and not always owning the newest device, just as much so that we can reconcile our consumption habits with our conscience.
As much as web-integrated features have benefits for faster feature delivery and from a product development stand-point and keeping stronger connections to the customer base from a sales stand-point, it means also that Trimble fuels the culture of short-lived technology. Think of an archived SketchUp version in a âsoftware museumâ, once the web services are changed, it wonât work anymore forever where as the radio from 1900 works still in 2020.
This is not a problem if users can continuously have the latest software without barriers (like replacing hardware).
But this thread raises concerns because some users meet now such barriers: unaffordable price for some regions (where there is no US-like income) and use cases (hobbyists), or where the web version is an insufficient replacement for offline use.
Can SketchUp still âand does it want toâ cater for all people who have been SketchUp users until now?
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Youâre mistaken in several of your arguments, but itâs really a waste of time on both sides to belabour the points youâve made.
Seeing as youâre so unhappy with SU Free / SU Make 2017, maybe youâd be better off migrating to to a different platform:
FormZ has a free version and is similar to SU in terms of approach: formâ˘Z Free, by AutoDesSys
BricsCAD Shape is also very SU-like and is available for free: BricsCAD Shape | Free 3D design & modeling software
Blender is the Swiss-Army knife of 3D apps and (being open-source) is the most powerful free app out there â as long as youâre willing to put in the time to learn it: https://www.blender.org
SU isnât â or is no longer â for you. Accept it and move on to something that will make you happier in use.
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Donât think I was wrong but agree that my points were made and itâs time to move on.
Iâm using Sketchup 2016 Pro and had upgraded to Sketchup 2017 Pro. Might try an upgrade to 2020 Pro. I was simply
supporting the instigator of the thread.
Appreciate the information you took the time to provide.
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I worried about this stuff in the past (the future of the software in which I am investing time and money). I used to think: âI learned to use a hammer, it costs about the same every year, and it always worked on nailsâand now you are changing the hammer and charging me more, while i have to learn how to nail all over??? and I need a new nail belt besides or the hammer wonât work???â
But really it hasnât turned out like that. I am using the same software Iâve used for DECADES, including SketchUp. My computers keep up for years. SketchUp IS the most expensive to keep going, for what it is, but not as much I could spend on other modeling software.
And I appreciate it is too expensive for some, but if it works for the company, what can we do? Use Blender for âfreeâ, which is undeniably more powerful maybe.
short of line time to finnish 1st post to a genuin suggestion . I only mention that
I had read that TIMBREL was not happy with SU ,as it made sense to me ,
they mentioned that there were not so many PRO liciences @ $600 as mostly
free make users the point is personally I feel compromised by FREE and was happy to find one of my DAW 's @ $60 for LOW INCOME userâs. this subsequently was replaced with a new $60 version I BOUGHT to be sold out
after 30 years 1 week latter,the new owners handing out the free $300
version ,that I rather not have. point being that thousands of affordable
sales add up âŚnext point is trying to find out if I can show my work on youtube
,as manny MAKE users do ,I am still not sure ,to promote and maybe get
help with large original work. maybe even financial assistance and then
$600 IS SO SO SO SO CHEEP you all seem to forget , a music studio like my DAW cost a MILLION tto build and THOUSANDS to hire, and my drafting board in 1984 cost 400 POUNDS so for now ,so as not to compromise MYSELF ,
I THINK the agreement wording would be far more commonly understood
if it said YOU MAY NOT SHOW ANY FILES YOU CREATE TO ANYONE.
,Jon trying
now yes this is really helpful solution of my concerns. and i am really considering them. however, i have use sketchup from its google origin until now. it is like in the process of breaking up with a good friend.