My first Macintosh Consultant’s Network conference was fall of '89, and a couple of members had Mac Portables before any retailers really had any in stock to sell, so that kinda dates when that was. I was already well into PowerDraw by the fall of '89, and within a year was doing my first 100% CAD working drawing set with it. I still use it today, which shows how great and enduring the program has been.
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Kind of my story. I started in 88 I think. I had AutoCAD training before and after but never could give up PowerCADD, my bread and butter. And I don’t know exactly how old the version is. Works great still. whatever (Mac) OS.
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Hi RTCool,
That’s understood, I was querying how SU-Pro would overtake the rest of the architectural design software without such tools as noted by Medeek. I have several Architectural CAD software programmes, not parametric, but good for certain elements, as is SU-Pro. My recent exploration into parametric CAD software, as pricing was very flexible & perpetual license, (not ArchiCAD or Revit) suggests its so indepth, it may be the only software I need…time will tell I guess ?
That’s the same year I bought Claris CAD, then picked up Virtus Walkthrough (the first Mac 3D modeller) the following year at a Mac trade show. I’ve never tried PowerCADD, but I don’t have much need for 2D CAD.
Was using DraftSight while it was free, have now switched to LibreCAD for those occasions that I need to manipulate a .dxf directly — usually to prep/purge a file for SU import.
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Claris CAD! My first ever Design job straight from school, I was dumped in front of Claris CAD on a Macintosh IIx and told to get on with it. (I had used neither before). It was love at first sight.
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Claris CAD had the cleanest, easiest-to-use UI of any CAD program I’ve used, before or since. I ran mine initially on a Mac SE (with its 9" screen!), then on a PowerBook 100. (check out those bezels 
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Yes, it was beautifully simple and a dream to use. A few guys in the office ran it on their SE’s. Most of the design team ran it on IIx’s IIcx’s and IIsi.
The fancy lot in Procurement ran IIfx’s with Radius Rocket cards to drive Macromedia Director presentations. 
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@colin Maybe one of the mods could/should hive off these last few comments into a new Mac/CAD nostalgia thread to avoid derailing this one? (plus it could be fun )
If everyone’s OK with them remaining here, all good. Just that some nerves are a little frayed these days, so I don’t want to cause additional offence with OT posts.
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Yes, I was thinking the same. Sorry to wander off topic as I can easily go full Grandpa on the Simpsons: “There’s a story about this nickel…”
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Your sketchUp license do not work with new OS not compatible.
This is why, you have to consider to keep your SketchUp perpetual license, do not upgrade to subscription (during years). And during these years, actively learn and start a new adventure with another 3D product.
Since Trimble years, I don’t understand why updates are so annoying (compared to other software, or compared to LastSoftware and Google years). Since 3 years I learn Grasshopper and develop a lot with. I stoped all my development on SketchUp. Today, my architecture work is 95% produced with SketchUp. 5% with Grasshopper and SketchUp. I am closed to start to produce with Grasshopper without SketchUp.
If Trimble re-consider his position, I re-consider mine. I believed to work on both, and keep SketchUp for project communication and some 3D work. But, I will continue to develop on Grasshopper, I do not trust Trimble after this.
I don’t understand why SketchUp updates are so light and inconsistant since Trimble have bought it, compared to my own developments and the developments by Google and LastSoftware that produce key features in the past.
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Probably because there were no upgrades to major version for about 5 years ( version 8 has the longest list of Maintenance releases)
If it wasn’t bought by Trimble, we’d all be working with version 8
I looked at the release dates, and it was only about 3 1/2 years from SketchUp 8 to SketchUp 2013. Which isn’t bad, after having taken over a product.
Roughly speaking, @Last Software released five versions of SketchUp in six years, Google released three versions in four years, and Trimble have averaged one a year.
The important thing here is not how many updates you released, but how many new features and improvements you incorporated in every release and how much value those updates added to SketchUp. IMO Trimble has added very little value to SketchUp compared to @Last and Google and it’s been more than 8 years since Trimble acquired it.
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I just read on a forum, that Didier Bur abandons SketchUp, following Trimble’s license policy, stops all development and will no longer teach it in architecture school.
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Your reaction is very interesting because it is revealing…
Either you don’t know the story behind SketchUp’s development, or you are delivering a misleading communication from Trimble.
The updates under Google and LastSofware were infinitely more interesting.
I remember that there were at least 3 or 4 new functions and 7 or 8 improvements.
Most of Trimble’s updates are nothing but uninteresting and questionable improvements. The 2020 version is quite laughable.
In short, the Trimble years are not even worth a year with LastSoftware / Google.
Of course, Trimble cannot sell an annual subscription without updates. So Trimble sell updates with almost nothing.
I add that I develop myself and that I do not understand how you manage to develop so little.
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No, Trimble years are not Google or LastSoftware years. The problem is not to deliver or not updates, but to deliver something inside updates.
You can’t say that we would have work with version 8 if Trimble didn’t buy SketchUp. This is a fantasy. In addition, it was not forced subscription !! And we can’t forget the important improvement to SketchUp by Google and of couse LastSoftware. Trimble has not made such major developments to date.
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I guess you do not know Google’s history of not keeping projects alive. Google was finished with the project using Sketchup. Had it not been purchased by any entity, it would have been made to go away. Deleted.
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If you possibly can, take most of my replies here as being my personal opinion, and not an official statement from Trimble. I’ve used SketchUp since version 3, and I’m a Sage in the forum, and although I sometimes am able to give answers that would be difficult to give if you didn’t work in support at SketchUp, I often just join in conversations for the fun of it. It would be a shame if I could only ever post here after running things by the Trimble lawyers.
I wish I had the time to list all of the new features for each release, it would be an interesting thing to look at. Even version 1 had most of the tools in there, but early on the updates may well have introduced new tools, and the later updates try to improve how the tools work. That may then look like less things were new. It would be nice if there was a tool type that nobody had thought of so far, that could be added in the next update. Maybe that would then look like more was new.
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