You are not being forced to upgrade to a new version. That’s entirely your decision. You can continue using the same old version if you wish. You are also free to discontinue using SketchUp altogether if you decide it doesn’t suit your needs.
When you watch NBC you have to put up with advertising. Advertising is sold by the network and the local stations to pay for the staff and the overhead to keep television free for you to watch. Maybe Trimble could sell advertising that pops up every 10 minutes or so while you are working. The advertisers would pay for SketchUp development so you don’t have to buy a license.
Again, missing my point. I agree, no one is forcing me to upgrade. But if I choose to skip three upgrades because I do not think the new features are worth it, I should be not be FORCED to pay $360.00 for upgrades I skipped to re-new to the current version. I get to choose as a consumer what version to upgrade to, not Trimble. I hate paying for something I did not use.
Yes, I always go to consumers desk whenever there is a ‘Buy 2 get 3’ bargain and claim to only use the third (free) item. Part of their reply is that the other 2 items ‘are part of the ecosystem’ and that item 3 would not even existed etc.etc.
My point is, when you take part of something, you agree to the ‘rules of the game’
Again, I do not want the ‘2 for3’ as you state it. I do not want the first two but I have to pay for them to get to the 3rd version. Why is this this so hard to understand? In the past, I could skip version 7 and go from version 6 to Version 8 and pay 95.00. Why did not that seem fair to you?
because users skipping upgrades to new versions do profit from the further development of every version but do not pay for every version. Customers buying constantly maintenance resp. upgrades must not subsidize version hoppers saving money on their disadvantage.
In the channel; customers who did not have bought anything since 2-3 years are no customers… thus all this subscription stuff initiated by the big boys for generating a constant revenue.
I can see Mr_Man’s POV. Usually licensed version hoppers do so because they do not require the new features introduced (I do that often with CorelDraw)… , however, with subsequent releases, licensed users may find new features introduced with that release that they desire and would justify the upgrade for them… while there is no way of policing that concept, it is basically those new features that they want to pay for and NOT the useless/redundant features introduced in “an immediate previous” release(s).
People use the argument that a lot of plugins are not built into SketchUp because not every one wants to use them… Well HELLO, not everyone needs new release features. OK, they don’t have to upgrade, however, there should be a more subtle way to penalise them for not wanting to initially buy what they don’t need.
Though I am a private user with no commercial intent, I purchase Pro for just a few features I need that I could not get in the free version and no easy acceptable plugin (more so to do with Layout). I see no reason in people forking out their valuable shekels for WHAT THE WANT/NEED. I for one have not found anything new in 2018 that has personally justified my recent upgrade…, however, having said that I did upgrade when my license expired as I am nothing but a sheep and don’t want to go through the same faecesMr_Man is now facing and may face in the future.
Another reason that one may justify license renewal is to have access to the SU Support team, however, in the past I have found that to be of diddly-squat use to me after failing to satisfactorily solve an issue I had, using this forum, a few SU releases ago (and is still outstanding).
Mr_Man you have this black sheep’s sympathy riding with you.
….Well-articulated. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I would rather have Trimble call it a yearly subscription, much Like Office365. That would be totally understandable and honest. Cable companies are basically going thru the same thing with providing ala carte vs. block packages of programing. In the early days of SU I was not ‘version hopping’ thinking I was ‘beating the system’, but felt the features were not there to justify the upgrade. Just spit balling here, but if you want satisfied users, respond to the wish list of features that many forum members request.
I will forever sing the praises of SU. As an older architect trying to navigate the tech world the SU GUI was easy and intuitive to learn and a fantastic tool to present ideas on the fly to clients. And it’s come a long way. So, I look forward to upcoming versions. I am not asking SU to make me breakfast in the morning, just make it feature rich.
every new release contains countless bug fixes and feature improvements under the hood which obviously need to be developed too and every professional user is typically keen on… read further here.
but as always, take it or lapse it but accept then that conditions of maintenance/upgrades are still defined by the maker and not the user.
“Every new release contains bugs and fixes”… Gimme a break… Bugs and fixes should be free and not have to be paid for… secondly if there are bugs that people are prepared to put up with they should not be forced into upgrading to fix what should have originally been fixed…
“improvements under the hood”… please point me to a comprehensive list of all the improvements in 2018 that an average Joe would be interested in… I’ve yet to find it. On the SketchUp Home page there are 3 new features listed that I have no idea what they mean let alone intend to use them… where else do I look? Maybe on the side of a Wheeties packet?. With past releases since I have been using Sketchup, I was inundated with articles about the new release features. Somehow such enthusiasm seems the have been lost with 2018.
Oh yes… “Our fastest version ever” I read… so we pay for the upgrade so that the new WEB version responds better. I cannot see any performance improvement in 2018 in my PC version, in fact I think it loads slower than 2017. But then again my PC is now older and therefore must be getting slower.
“maintenance/upgrades are still defined by makers and not the users”… Word for word that is true, but are you serious…without the users… the makers would be on the dole queue.
I am concerned… not because of having paid the upgrade fee, but the path that SketchUp seems to be taking is ringing the death knell in it’s wake and thereby putting it’s future and my continue use into jeopardy.
Agree 100%
If I’m paying $700 for software patches for bugs should be free. The gaming industry provide patches for their $60 games all the time, why should this be any different?
For that reason If I decide to Pay the $120.00, I will wait to the end of the grace period to pay for what is “free” with other software. The first year should be FREE, the Extension of that is what should cost $120.00!
There’s a misunderstanding of terminology here. “Maintenance releases” are minor version numbers such as 17.1 vs 17.0. A Pro license for SketchUp 2017 covers all 17.x versions. “Upgrades” are new major version numbers such as 18.0 vs 17.0. Each major version has a separate, version-specific license that won’t work on any other major version.
Consequently, maintenance releases are included in your original Pro license purchase with or without the support fee because the same Pro license works. Upgrades require that you purchase the support or pay reinstatement fees later because you will need a new license for the new major version.
For better or (I suspect most of the posters here would say) worse, Trimble has a long practice of resisting maintenance releases. They prefer to hold most bug fixes off until the next major release, doing a maintenance release only for extremely widespread “show-stopper” issues that somehow leaked past beta testing. So, in that sense, the answer is “you won’t get most bug fixes without the support fee”.
You have put into words what I have been alluding to. I believe that is what forces many non-commercial users into “uneconomical” continual upgrades. This same argument is the basis behind people choosing to release hop, however, they are then lumbered with a “retro” fee.
While this topic is primarily “transparent” to me as I religiously upgrade my Pro license every year, not everyone is in my situation and I do find sympathy in the cause of the silent majority.
the vast majority is upgrading to Pro because of the additional functionality (mainly vector-based exchange formats but LO and solid tools too) or going professional/commercial.