Eh, come again? I have six deaf cousins, so you can sign that as well if you’d like.
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I have a more than a few models in the warehouse that are very poorly drawn, but they have gotten thousands of downloads, so I don’t delete them from the warehouse, for that reason. I figure someone out there must like them.
I have become more and more careful about what I upload to the warehouse, I personally want people to like and use my models successfully.
But, I will say, I have found lots of poorly drawn models that I like…the ground work has already been done, I can modify, build upon them and use them saving me time in the long run. I also find overly complicated models that I can simplify for better use. (like a refrigerator with its interior drawn in and every nut and bolt).
When I first started using Sketchup I uploaded a few awful models, but back then I was proud of them. I would have been crushed if I received a bunch of dislikes.
I have found this to be friendly place, very supportive and a fun thing to learn.
I think some policing of the warehouse might be necessary, But I also think art is in the eye of the beholder.
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Just so you know it, the SketchUp team puts a lot of work into improving the APIs that we plugin developers use, with bug fixes, new features and improved documentation. There’s a noticeable difference in developing extensions for new and old SU versions, and in the end this benefit all users.
If art is in the eye of the beholder everything is art in that context. Good straight forward workmanship and practical designs and objects are more appreciated in the warehouse. Art in my mind is an idividual representation of reality, not neccessarily an accurate immitation. In my opinion. I do not go to the warehouse looking for art. I look for a good realistic workmanship. Something Practical and usable in my work. I have never understood Sketcup an artsy fartsy tool. There are other and better tools for that.
OK, @sicd_steve and I had a PM conversation, and we are paying attention to this. While I can point to some things, as you know, I can’t talk about other things in the future… that’s the job of a software salesman in the 90’s whom I supported and had to kick in the shins once a week for talking about futures too much.
We appreciate the feedback, opinions and passion in this thread.
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I face the same issues when looking for models myself. I often want buildings for fictional towns I sometimes build, but when scrolling through the models, I, half the time, see a box with two rectangles representing doors and windows. A way to rate models would be very helpful in this field, and another suggestion for this is instead of having the highest rating, it should be the highest like-to-dislike ratio, because not every model is going to be popular, and not many people will rate it if it isn’t widely seen (which is my case, since I build mostly trains, see. https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/by/u25BB26000aRloGzxT?nav=models
Anyway, they should remove the button that allows you to download from the search menu, and there should be a drop-down menu that asks you to rate the model. Once you have already viewed the model, you won’t have to fill this field out, and therefore, you can build up ratings from model views.
As many said, a simple like/dislike system may not be such a great idea, but we will never know until we try some of these things out.
“I have never understood Sketcup an artsy fartsy tool. There are other and better tools for that.” – @prakkarinn
I would say the tools an artist uses for his art, is his choice. I use several programs to create my artwork. But I cannot do in, say, Paintshop Pro (JASC - NOT Corel), what I can do in SU, and vice-versa. I don’t think you’d appreciate it if someone tried to dictate what tool you used in your craft, or disparaged the results created with that tool.
Somehow, there needs to be a compromising meeting in the middle between the hobbyists/artists and the professionals. As it is now, seems more and more, things are being skewed more toward the professional, more demands are being made by the professionals, and the professionals are making the hobbyists/artists out to be the scourge of the 3DWH - some probably even preferring that only professionals be allowed to upload anything to the warehouse.
I can’t help but believe that a bit of moderation and max upload per some period could easily eliminate a good bit of the trash currently uploaded to the 3DWH. Elimination would be done based on a simple set of rules (not a moderator’s like or dislike) so as to accomodate those with nice/likeable/usable models and those looking for professional quality.
Such set of rules could easily eliminate something like THIS. While this model could possibly be used in a humorous or cartoonish piece, just based on the tags, I fail to see what purpose this upload really serves. And personally I don’t like that what I work so hard on to look nice be compared to something like this, and being lumped in with those who drop this kind of thing in the 3DWH.
The source of this issue is much that 3D Warehouse is both a content library for professional architects, designers etc and for “playground” (in lack of a better word) for children and adult hobbyists. Both use cases are valid. I can’t stress this enough.
People should be able to upload models like this one without feeling harassed from downvotes or dislikes. Many of us skilled modelers started out making such models. The old rating system was a nightmare for moderators as there was fights between users who countered each others bad ratings with more bad ratings.
I’m still thinking one way to solve the issue could be that users themselves have the option to claim a model was designed to be used as a component when publishing it. This option should require the user to have read a guide of what makes a good component and only if the user chooses the label a model as component it can be downvoted. Enough downvotes would kick out the model of this category. Users who don’t intend for their work to be used as components could just not select this option. When searching the warehouse there would be an option to limit the search to model intended to be components only. This might even be enabled by default from within the Component browser.
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What definition of “component” are you meaning in the above idea?
- SketchUp’s container-entity meaning?
- An expectation that the model would be placed within some larger .SKP file setting, where the author’s component is not the primary subject or “hero” feature within the .SKP file? Typically this might imply a simplified low-detail model.
- Something else?
The second one:
Few models seem to have been designed with this intent.
How about starting with a Warehouse fix that…after downloading a particular model and returning back for another selection, you don’t have to start from the beginning of the query. Part of the problem is having to re-scroll through the same models you didn’t want in the first place.
I’m just a hobbyist, but I think I have some good-quality models, and I get likes and downloads. I like the idea of a group of “unbiased” moderators rating models in some fashion so that people can wade through the ■■■■, but I don’t know if this is really feasible. I certainly wouldn’t like to base ratings solely on community input for all the reasons mentioned by others.
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With millions of models I don’t see how that would be possible. Perhaps a neural network could be trained to recognize good models but that’s really not my area of expertise. Even if doing so it must be defined what makes a good model and that depends on how you want to use it - as a leight weight component for design, as a photo realistic component for rendering, or as sovereign project you download just to admire on its own.
Well I am guilty as charged for making my fair share of warehouse terrible models. However 8-10 years ago at the time it was a great learning tool for me. Sharing models, downloading others and deconstructing them, getting help on Sketchucation if was all invaluable. I think myself and a few others when in college (UK so pre-University) used it to learn. We would share models with each other, download and improve each others etc, was just a great tool.
I remember working for a whole week on my Mars House and I was so excited to upload it (
)
But at least for me these days, using the 3D rotate tool that was incorporated a while back, you can usually see the model in advance. Of course there are lots of models like these old ones I used to make, but they are not made in malice, they are usually just kids in school having fun and wanting to share.
I think at the very most maybe two tiers (education vs professional) but I hope not to see a paid version (unless it’s included with Pro and that’s fine for me - but I fear it will cause a massive drop in production for those content creators who do it for fun and do not have a Pro license).
Edit: Just to add, I have worked with primary school kids in the UK in the past using Sketchup, they had a blast making their own houses, R2D2, cars etc and then uploading to a group account so the class could share models. They were all pants of course but that doesn’t mean the work and love that went into them was any less than a project we would do in our working lives. I would not get so annoyed with these types of things, again, perhaps a filter for education/pro but really I don’t find it that hard to navigate as is.
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The fault here lies in the way a model is uploaded from Skp.
The upload menu enables you to upload something without any real thought or effort, in about 5 seconds. It’s the 3d library equivalent to snapchat.
Why not ask a question, for example:
Are you providing an accurately-modelled, real-world object suitable for professional use?
Yes [ ]
No [ ]
Further information could be gathered, maybe through selectable categories:
What category does this model belong to?
- Stage and Set
- Carpentry
- Architecture
- Engineering
etc
Also, the #tag system is mental.
#alltagsaremadeup #yolo #modellingisfun #tagforlikes
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Yes!
This would allow both the hobbyist community and component library to co-exist! By default No should be selected so people not understanding the question would have their model outside of the professional library.
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