"Official" Extension Packages - Brainstorming!

A concern with pre-packaged collections of extensions is: what if I only want one of the extensions in a package? I suspect for my work I would want a many from the architectural package and several from the interior design package and some from the game design package, some engineering, organic modeling, some landscaping, and a few oddballs as well. I wonder if I would just end up downloading/purchasing every package as each one would have at least 1 specific extension I want.

It runs the risk of following the cable tv model, where channels are divided into tiers and packages and one must buy access to 50 channels one does not care about to get the one the matters. Of course they try to curate the packages according to what they think we want/need but it just ends up categorizing/homogenizing/limiting everyone into pre defined boxes.

I’m not dismissing the idea, it’s a interesting discussion that (along with the others that have cropped up about native feature inclusion) I’m watching. Just wondering how packages could be implemented in a way that leaves me the same degree of customization and choice that I currently enjoy.

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I purchased Curic’s Drawing Tools and not Studio because I didn’t need their Section, Section View and Hidden.

Sometime after, they introduced Make2D which I would have found useful but it is only packaged with Studio and not available separately…

I hear you db11 … Bravo!

Anyone who knows anything bout working in the design industry will agree that standardisation of tools can be a very good thing.

Noone is suggesting that creating, using or purchasing individual extensions should be prevented. The basic idea here is to package things up and simplify the Selection, Purchase, Install and Update processes for users.

3dW already notes “industry” types (eg Interiors, Landscape, Civil Engineering, Stage and Set, etc). Perhaps all that’s needed, for starters, is some sort of recommendation & packaging system:
“install the best 10 extensions for Architects”
“install the best 10 extensions for Stage and Set design”

It just takes some effort to curate the best tools for that specific industry.

Yes, it means some extensions won’t make the “cut.”
Yes, it means you may install a pack and get stuff you don’t need.

But the pros far outweigh the cons, obviously.

The next step would be to simplify the extensions themselves (make sure they are well integrated with SketchUp’s factory UI, menus, hierarchies, languages, etc.)
Most of the best extensions are single-purpose tools, eg Weld and Make Faces. Trimble should take over these extensions (as it did with Weld) and make them integrated. Purchase or compensate for the I.P. if necessary.
Nothing is worse for users than having a massive toolbar full of ugly icons and cluttered, confusing menus, with different “libraries” of files to load, unique purchasing systems, tools that don’t work properly (crash) or need updating all the time…it’s madness.

And I continue to be disappointed that SketchUCation tools are not included in the 3dW. Why is that? Is it a personal beef? Some contractual dispute?
Wouldn’t it be 5000 times easier to monetize extensions if they were able to be purchased through the 3dW and processed right alongside SketchUp Subscriptions? Maybe we’d start seeing more “pro quality” toolsets if this could happen.

And why wouldn’t you enable purchasing of extensions into Web? If trimble took a share of the profit (ie the App store) then it works out well for everybody. (technical limitations aside, of course)

Sketchucation predates this forum and the E Warehouse by quite some years. Sketchucation was the go to forum from way back and is an entirely separate entity to this forum. Sketchucation was running and educating when Google had the rather clunky Google Groups as a ‘forum’.
The Sketchucation Store predates the E Warehouse and is a far better tool. Not only is it a repository for plugins and extensions it track which you have, tells you when to update them, updates them on mass, transfers them from one system to another. It allows you to choose sets to load or bundles to download, it can interactively load plugins as needed and so on and so forth. It also has different hoops to jump through from the E warehouse and a different pricing structure. I can easily see why many plugin authors want to stay with sketchuaction.
Personally I would rather see the E Warehouse rolled into Sketchucation.

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@db11 → I think you are spot on with your list. Especially No. 5 - Trimble has my account data anyway and my subscription. If I purchase / install an extension via the Extension Warehouse it would be cool if it would simply be enabled on all supported devices. And I like your differentiation: There is advanced modeling (FredoScale, Mirror, Fredos PushPull thingy, Eneroth Component Replacer, and the likes) that just make everything a lot faster once you work out how these tools work. And stuff like this should be available in the subscription and be available on iPad too.

A second category would be “Import/Export/Orga Tools” → CleanUp3, SolidInspector, Material-Tools, more Importing/Exporting Formats → That’s a category some users will never need and some users will need ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME.

And after that it’s these Tools for specific industries like Stair/Windows/Door Tools, Roof, Beam-Construction and what not. And these are “building on Sketchup” but are very specific and have very unique interfaces and also very specific wordings that somebody outside that industry would likely not even understand very well.

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True. Sketchucation is better in many ways.
My complaint is that there are two systems with unique ways of doing things and many of the best extensions arent available through both channels.

Why cant all Sketchucation Extensions be in the 3DW?

Greetings again from San Juan Island.
I’m following this thread with interest as I would like Sketchup to develop as a useful tool in 3D modeling. I did have another thought that comes from The Wizard of OZ.
What if we travel down this road, only to discover that we already have what we need ?