Same SketchUp you love, a new way to buy

bluerocco.

AutoDesk are rip off merchants.
True the software is generally excellent, but the company is not popular at all.
Because of them running to the sub model of pay or it stops as right now, I refuse to even consider any further AutoDesk software. I really HATE that they took away my standalone Revit license and I started in 2002. They have ripped a whole world industry off - as soon as they felt they had the critical mass - BOOM they stuck the knife in and that looks like what is happening here with the changes.

the Revit cost per seat in NZ is HORRENDOUS now - over $3,400 NZ per seat per year. Is Trimble seeing this same pathway ? it sure looks like it.

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But to their credit must be said that while they don’t sell new perpetual licenses, they still sell maintenance to them at a reduced price compared to subscription.

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Try Rhino, you won’t be disappointed.

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Sad news. No surprise anymore though.
The marketing spin is an insult to our intelligence. :frowning_face:

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My office was notified, about two months ago, that this too is coming to an end within the next year. So people with perpetual licences only have one maintenance cycle left, the current one.

The newest Blender, available in beta now, has push/pull, advanced snapping modes, a crazy fabric brush where you can actually paint folds in fabric, and so much more. The released version has all those things except push/pull.

The Blender interface just keeps getting better and better. The booleans are ridiculously good and Blender has parametric modeling with modifiers, which makes edits simple and quick. And, real-time photoreal modeling and animation.

Yes, it is way more powerful than SketchUp and it does take time to learn, but with the largest installed user base in the world, and by far the most tutorials and courses of any 3D program, (on YouTube and elsewhere), you owe it to yourself to take a look. Not to mention many of the big studios are now including Blender in their production pipeline-- and some of the biggest names in 3D graphics are now supporting with millions of $$$ in yearly donations.

And it will always be free.

A caveat: if you are a big architectural firm and need the collaborative features of SketchUp and Revit, then Blender is not for you. And if you absolutely must have Layout, then Blender is not for you. And if you don’t like trying new things and still watch a CRT TV, then Blender is not for you. :wink:

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@chippwalters welcome sir, I was wondering how long it would take before you “chip” in :wink:

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A sad day for SketchUp users.

I have been using SketchUp since the start with @Last Software. For the time with a Maintenance and Support Subscription licence.

My needs is the desktop application only and I can not justify a price of 299 dollar a year.

I have Adobe CC and MODO subscriptions and even the price is high it gives me more value. (I could replace SketchUp and Modo with Blender but they have been my favourite tools for years).

I will continue to use my SketchUp license so long my Macs can run it but I am sorry to say that I will not move to subscription for SketchUp.

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Do you mean Fusion 360? If so, it doesn’t seem to be free for any commercial use outside the US.

I have paid to renew my classic license every year for as long as I can remember. I think of it as being an annual subscription (a rose by any other name…). The main point for me is that what I have to pay is significantly increasing and that’s never a sweet pill to swallow. The extra fluff that will come with the price hike is of no value to me (or to many others who have posted here). If I get genuine improvements/additions to how the software works, that would make the pill sweeter for sure, but we haven’t seen anything revolutionary on that front yet.

I guess we all just have to decide if the benefit we get from using the SU we all know is worth the new cost we will have to bear. I can’t see much real alternative to SU if you like what it does.

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*This statement requires a fact check.

SketchUp boasts to have more than 42+ million active users with 100 million + downloads a year, and Blender says they have 8+ million downloads a year. Both are their public statements. So not even close.

Not to discredit Blender, but the software is made for the use for very different users. Most instances that I see where SketchUp user (architects, interior designers, landscape designers) migrate to Blender is only for rendering purposes. Then they say goodbye Blender, when they find out Twinmotion is also free and 10x more simple :smiley:

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Surprised you have not jumped Adobe subscription and gone to Affinity … Trimble going the Abode road too, after Autodesk gouging not going to get burnt again… so I am looking at alternatives this year…hell presentations are easier in Powerpoint than Layout…

PS, better turn off my autorenew setting on my account so I dont get rolled into the subscription model by default

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Count me as an Affinity convert. Still own Creative Cloud, but never use it. Photo and Design are great.

Even though I beta tested v1 of Photoshop, I feel Adobe asking for $60/month is ridiculous. Only the rich and corporations can afford it. FWIW, I went to discontinue my CC subscription, and they offered it to me for $25/mon. What!

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Architect here Chip, Blender is amazing but I need DWG compatibility [export / import] Dimensions, text notes, etc eetc…

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Yeah, SU counts every page refresh on their web product a download. :smile:

A quick way to look at it is by the number of available tutorials for each platform. A quick Google search for “Blender tutorial” yields 70M results. “SketchUp tutorial” yields 16M. A huge disparity.

So, on one hand you’re saying there are over 100+ million downloads per year, then you’re telling me most downloads are by architects? LOL! Sorry, I don’t believe it for a second.

And there are still many architects who use Blender to model and render their scenes. There are some really great architectural addons that come with Blender, and 3rd party ones are fantastic. The only thing missing is Layout-- which I’ve already addressed.

Twinmotion, free? You might want to check your facts:

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I use Affinity Designer on one mac without Adobe CC to support SketchUp/Modo. I use Adobe CC on main workstations. Have used Photoshop and Illustrator from the beginning (1990). I do also work with InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom and other CC applications so even Adobe CC is expensive it gives me a good value.

I don’t know about dimensioning, but there is DWG import available for Blender:

How to import dwg files into blender - archvizblender!

And if you need Layout, then you’ll have to export from Blender. Here’s a video of using DXF to create a quick house model. One thing to note, unlike SketchUp, Blender’s “symbols” cut entirely through a solid wall.

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Looks like that thread goes in the direction blender vs. sketchup.
IMVHO a usless discussion - here in germany we say in that case:
You compare apples to pears or these are 2 different pairs of shoes.
Just my two (worthless) euro-cent.

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We would love to switch to Blender, unfortunately we are heavily reliant on 3rd party plugins (such as Enscape) for 360°s, VR standalone exports and the such. :neutral_face:

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The number was given excluding SketchUp Web, Free and Shop users.

Are you trolling or what?

  1. If I made a software product called “Microwave” and only had 1 user, I still would get 23M search results.
  2. Search term “tutorial” will give you mostly results in English. Even if you specify “Blender 2.8 totorial” vs “SketchUp 2020 tutorial” you would get a difference of 2M vs 6M results.
  3. You can also argue that Blender users watch a lot more tutorial videos to get to a proficient level for their needs.

I don’t disagree that you can use Blender well for ArchViz, there might even come a time where you could use it for CAD work, but it’s not even close to a standard tool for architects now. Most students will learn SketchUp, AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, Grasshopper, 3ds Max, V-ray and Photoshop first, as they are the most demanded tools in the job market. Only then they would consider Blender for some interactive presentations or their freelance ArchViz work.

Didn’t see an option to buy Twinmotion in the landing page, so didn’t notice changes. Nice to see that the price is a lot cheaper, compared to Lumion.

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And there’s another thought - if you don’t opt for the subscription, will the 3D Warehouse stop working in the old Classic license?

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