Organizing Company Content

3D Warehouse
1

My company is considering options for organizing our internal SketchUp content. Currently we have a large web of folders on network drives that is not very organized. We’d like to consolidate everything into a single library with robust searching/filtering tools, as well as the ability to preview models without having to open the .skp to see what is inside.

That being said, I think we have two options: (1) 3D Warehouse or (2) Trimble Connect. My initial leaning is towards 3D Warehouse, but I’m not sure how user accounts would work - we want multiple people to be able to upload content. Trimble Connect seems good as well, but I’d like to avoid getting another subscription if we don’t have to.

Any advice would be appreciated.

2

My first thought would be to use Trimble Connect for the SketchUp and LayOut files. You should already have access to TC by virtue of the fact you have SketchUp Pro so no new subscription should be required. You can set up folders for projects and add users to them as needed. The users can then download the file to their local drive, work on it and then sync back to the project folder when they are ready.

1 Like
3

If Youre using Windows, just consider a component library using windows folders. you can see a preview and add comments, notes, etc, and use the search function. It works very well.
They drag and drop into Sketchup.

2 Likes
4

I concur with @DaveR on the use of Trimble Connect (TC). However, if you have a bunch of Classic licences (as opposed to subscription), then each one has a limited amount of TC disk space.

If this is the case, I recommend purchasing ONE subscription to SketchUp Pro. This will give you a SINGLE TC account - with unlimited disk space. Put all the files you need to share here in a single TC “project” - which is then shared with all your SketchUp Users. FAR better than each user having their own, space limited, TC space.

Why SketchUp Pro instead of Shop? Because you say this is for your company and SketchUp Shop is for non-commercial use only!

Why just one TC “project”? Sharing on TC is on a “project” by “project” basis. By using just one TC “project” and representing each of your ACTUAL projects as a top level folder within that single TC “project”, then anything ANY user adds to the TC “project” - at any level in the contained folder tree - will be accessible to any of your users without having to worry about which project is shared with whom on TC.

And if you DO end up with stuff you need to restrict from some users - Create those as a separate TC “Project” that is shared with only the people who should have access.

1 Like
5

The main point of Shop is that it is the commercial version of the web based option.

4 Likes
6

My bad! @Box is absolutely correct. SketchUp Shop will indeed give you unlimited Trimble Connect storage and commercial use.

Sorry, not sure where my head went on that one! :man_shrugging:

7

Thank you all for the ideas! This is great.

@sjdorst - I am liking your suggestions for TC. I’ll have to check with our IT group again on the licensing, because they said that we didn’t have access to TC with SketchUp Pro. So I have some homework to do.

And just so I’m clear - using 3D Warehouse would require us to have a single Trimble account that everyone uses, is that correct? You can’t upload content from different accounts to a single page or collection?

8

Correct, the 3D warehouse is designed to be either closed (invisible) to everyone other than the single account holder who posted the model (private setting). Or open for everyone on the WH to see and use (public setting). Nothing in between.

9

Edit after original post:

Aack! My eyes glossed over that you’re asking about the limits of the 3D Warehouse, not Trimble Connect! So while what I wrote below is, I think, good information/advise, it’s not really an answer to the question in your second paragraph. @Endlessfix answered that one well enough!
End Edit

Hi @zjensen,

Not exactly!!! I made the assumption that your current licensing model is individually licensed instances of SketchUp downloaded and run locally - NOT any of the web versions of SketchUp.

The problem with that - as it relates to Trimble Connect (TC) – is that that model gives each license holder only 10M of TC storage space.

One of the advantages of TC is that you can share your files - on a project by project basis - with ANYONE with a TC account - they don’t even need to be SketchUp users.

But your use case is for a company wide repository of files. You could, theoretically ask each of your users to share everything with everyone else in your company, but you would end up with a LOT of locations people need to track for to find what they need.

What I’m suggesting is that your company purchase a SINGLE additional license - this time for SketchUp Shop at a current cost of $119/year (and I must again thank @Box for correcting me on what version you need!) - which will come with unlimited TC storage space. Then create one TC “project”, share it with everyone in the company, and create a folder tree within it for all the stuff you want available to everyone.

I’m NOT suggesting you replace your existing SketchUp licensing structure, just leveraging the unlimited TC storage space included WITH a SketchUp Shop subscription to give a you a single share point for everyone in your company.

It will require a bid of administration - any time your team changes - hiring/firing/quitting/reassignment, you’ll need to change the TC sharing. But better to do it once, quickly, in one place than have everyone make the required changes in their individual, space limited TC projects!

If your licensing structure is Network licensing, then I recommend having whoever administers your licenses contact SketchUp/Trimble directly - after they understand what you want - to see if there are other options.

Hope this helps!