There has been a handful of comments wondering what kind of results the Layout 2021 petition had, so to answer some of those questions and to also thank Trimble, I’ve made this in depth post. Read it if you’d like my point of view on things since the petition and what I think the future looks like. This is my own personal point of view and I am not speaking on behalf of anyone but myself:
Well, it’s been some time since the Layout petition I started in May 2021. You can see that thread here if you’re interested LAYOUT PETITION: Status: CLOSED - Trimble Response Posted May 27th - #352 by ArayaCAD
When I started that thread, I was thinking that would be the end of my involvement with providing deeper feedback to Sketchup. Since than, I have been apart of a meeting once a month with Trimble to provide more in depth feedback for the programs Sketchup and Layout, I’ve gotten to know a handful of well known plugin developers and a few people on the Sketchup Team. My goal when I started the petition, was to assist in giving a push to Trimble to show them how much I believe in their products and how much I know many people in the community believe in their products as well. Sketchup and Layout in my view, are truly one of the best architectural drawing programs that there is available and for so many reasons. I really think they nailed it with how intuitive they have made the program, a major pitfall I see in many other programs is the over complexity of options, dialog box after dialog box like seen in many other design softwares for architecture. I’m not saying those programs are bad programs, just that I really think Sketchup and Layout has shown us how making things more simple is sometimes not only better, but also more efficient.
I fully understand the frustrations that users have where they see an issue and want it resolved immediately. For me in other programs I’ve used, I’ve taken an immature approach and shown a lack of patience when it comes to asking for features (demanding features). Rome wasn’t built in a day and I think sometimes the demand that users have for companies to rollout certain features and a certain amount of features in x amount of time, is sometimes unrealistic. Over the years, I have learned more and more to be patient, still, I’m not sure I’m great at it yet, but I am trying.
From my personal point of view and what I’ve experienced so far in the past 8+ months since the Layout petition: I can see how much people on the Trimble team truly care about this product and making it better for all of us. A person in the Sketchup team has been meeting with me once a month and by no means has to do this and is not obliged to. They sit there every month though and listen to me and other plugin developers and users from the community where we all share our thoughts on ways we think the program could be improved. For that, I want to say a big thank you to Trimble for really listening to us the community and striving to make the program better and sharing a similar passion that we the users have for the products. Also a big thank you for the 2022 release, it’s been quite an amazing release and I know I and the community is grateful for those efforts. From my point of view, there are very big initiatives underway right now. Between myself, the sketchup and layout team, developers that have been involved in our feedback sessions and some of the community members, I think we have really accomplished or presented a few key things to help make Sketchup and Layout better.
A big shoutout to some people I’ve gotten to know in this process, @Mark @medeek @JQL @confidentbuild @kathy_davies @AK_SAM @KeithBrooks .
@Fredo6 you have given me so much useful insight since the petition and it’s been a pleasure to get to know you. The amount of content that Fredo has produced in plugins for the Sketchup community is remarkable, him among many other developers who have put in a high degree of work to make these programs better and I’m very excited to see what else you all come up with for Sketchup and Layout for the future!!
A big shoutout to @Beamer2 , bill you are the one that lit the fire for me to do that petition in the first place, so thanks for that.
Lastly, the biggest thank you to the community. We all sit there and hash things out and help each other out to solve problems, all on our own personal time. There is a strong community backing these programs and a ton of feedback and effort that is put in by everyone through each post. I really do look forward to using these programs more and more and from my point of view now since the layout petition I’ve made, I do think Sketchup and Layout are listening to what the community wants and listening intently.
Can’t wait for 2023 and I hope everyone enjoys 2022 with the latest update.
