We have to understand what kind of role does Sketchup play in Trimble. Trimble is well known for it’s GPS navigation seevices(I used a Trimble device pair with ArcGIS to investigate landuse in my college courses)
Trimble played an important rule in building construction for a long time. They owned several softwares like tekla Structure as their industry solution to customers all over the world. Sketchup is just one of them.Sketchup is one product to enrich the ecosystem of OpenBIM. They want a super light-weight 3D package to make their solition better for architecture design industry.
From that perspective of view we could easily understand why Sketchup keeps refineing Layout tools a lot. The Sketchup core very well suit the need of customers for almost 20 years and there is no need to rewrite from the ground and yes it’s sounds really insane.
I use Sketchup in my college time(2013),for nearly 5 years I use other 3D package as well. They are powerful with tons of tools equipped compared to Sketchup that relied on extension developers to implement all these functions.We know the limitation of Sketchup,but the software just suit the need for most daily uses.That’s the magic of @the Last and thanks to all the developers’ hard working.
Hi linshiyan1992,
This is the problem : the strategy about SketchUp.
Either it is a tool accessible in terms of price and it adapts to a large number of users, in this case it had to remain accessible in terms of price (this is no longer the case). Its professional use is possible with method and compromise.
Either it is an increasingly professional tool, and its price will necessarily increase, because the number of users will be further reduced.
In this case, there is another problem, because it can only be used pro with compromises.
This is awesome, I’m starting to like SketchUp web 
To be honest,Sketchup team itself could not decide the roadmap/pricing policy on their own. They are milked by Trimble. An interesting comparison would be Allegorithmic acquired by Adobe,the style of communication between the dev team and customer got maintained after this move,customers still got the tool which keeps updating/new functions implemented/UI refined,customers still have the choice between subs and perps. The reason behind is the head of substance3d in charge of 3D division in Adobe after the move,Adobe need the power from him/his team to walk further in the industry.Sketchup is way different from Allegorithmic imo.
I was actually thinking about this, this morning. I maintain a Substance subscription (which I am fine with, I deem it good value for such extraordinary software), I was watching a recent roadmap livestream with the Substance team and the Adobe product manager. There is still a palpable sense of passion and drive for the Substance suite from the team and even the Abode product manager. And there are always new features and enhancements being delivered. Almost every time I open Substance Launcher there is an update for Painter, Designer or Alchemist.
I think the acquisition was managed and driven very well from the Allegorithmic team and the integration/retention of ethos and values post-acquisition was either a smart move by Adobe or a deliberate condition by Allegorithmic (or both). But is says alot about company culture and having those values ‘baked in’
This isn’t meant to be a criticism or a direct comparison its just an interesting counterpoint that I was considering earlier as I use both software suites - one under a subscription and one (currently) under M&S.
sorry,I use a cellphone to type these words and I spoke tereible English as well. However thanks Aaron for correcting my mistakes(Maybe I will try grammaly next time)
Yeah man you said everything so bye bye Sketchup, good night developpers.
I have had a pro licence for years. Am I then able to trial 2020 Layout to see how it works before committing to buy?
Wow, there’s a program that I haven’t thought of in ages!
Curious if anyone used MacDraft way back when.
I worked on the design of an apartment building in Paris, with Claris Draw… that was the modern version of MacDraw.
Of course, I found methods as in SketchUp…
I feel a topic split coming up.
You guys are so new to 3D. Here’s the first 3D program I used, during 1981. It ran on my Apple II+. It worked by typing in line ending coordinates, as a text list. Also, a couple of Polaroid pictures I took of my monitor, showing an attic conversion. Can’t remember what I used to color it in.
That’s pretty darn cool. I like the instruction manual, it reads like the into to The Outer Limits.
Reminds me of using POVRay in the nineties.
I realized, the very second thing I did with my Apple II+ when I got it around October 1980, was to try to make a golf game. For that I used the graphics features of Apple’s BASIC language to draw a fairway and green (it wasn’t green). So, Apple World was the second thing I did in 3D.
The first thing I did with my Apple II+ was to help me solve a puzzle that had appeared in a magazine. I can tell you what the puzzle was if you’re curious.
My first intro to CAD was back in 1989 at a summer youth camp at BYU for native students (Discovery Program). We were supposed to be doing a class on how to use Word Perfect but it just so happened that AutoCad was installed on the machines, my curiosity soon got the best of me.
Prior to that my only drafting experience was a high school drafting class but that was all about mechanical pencils, T-squares and eraser shields.
In 1975, I tossed the last stack of FORTRAN punch cards for a computer course into the trash and swore never to touch a computer again, but my brother-in-law changed all that when he got one of the first original 128k Mac’s in early 1984. A year later I had my own, a 512k “Fat” Mac and from then till '89 I tried probably every Mac CAD program there was. MacDraw was an object oriented drawing program that came with the Mac and it served as the model for at least four Mac based CAD programs:
- Mac Draft (later Dreams)
- Claris CAD (developed by Apple)
- MiniCAD (which had a 3D module - and later became Vector Works)
- PowerDraw (which later was renamed PowerCADD)
- Ashlar Vellum (was not quite as much a dead knock off of MacDraw, but did have inferencing like SU’s)
There were some other, non-MacDraw style CAD programs like FlexiCad, Jonathan Cad and the first BIM program I had, Architrion, which I found wasn’t ready for real work at the time. I tried working with all of them and ended up with PowerCADD for the next 30+ years.
By 1989 there was a 3D and animation program on the Mac whose name escapes me at the moment, but I do remember it cost $5,000 which I couldn’t consider. My brother-in-law, and his BFF in all things Mac, Ron Cobb, were demoing it at SIGGRAPH '89 in Boston with work they had done on James Cameron’s “The Abyss.” I got to sit with them in the theater at the show where Pixar’s Knick Knack debuted in 3D. I still have the 3D glasses.
Oh look a perpetually recurring yearly cost for software that is falling more and more behind the market, hell it no longer has a free non-commercial license that isn’t a half baked POS browser or the equally bad “make” variant.
Trimble, I am taking my hobbyist behind to another product. I refuse to pay substantially more on the promise of “more updates” when your track record for such is so poor already. And the cherry on top is being told that its for my own good.
Fk right off.
don’t forget Vellum which invented the inference engine for snapping to construction points as well as dynamic construction lines (pat. ‘Drafting Assistant’) SketchUp is still using today… the most intuitive 2D drawing/drafting program I’ve ever used.
Well said, but feels more like major yuk. This is what happens when a software company or any company for that matter is this disconnected from its user base. At this point I wish Trimble would sell Sketchup to some entity that actually cares and has a passion for it to be the very best it can be.
Trials to new versions is definitely not going away. Meaning, if you do not have a subscription that automatically includes SketchUp 2021 (when it comes out)… or any other future version, you’ll still be able to download it and try it out before electing (or not) to sign up for a subscription plan.