I don’t think shadow settings will be available unless you have Studio with subscription plan.
Shadow settings = tool (to me)
That is the sort of fake news people spread about everything these days.
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Can you answer the question than?
Will Shadow settings and 3rd party extensions be offered on Pro Subscription Plan?
Shadows are available in all versions of SketchUp.
Not sure what you mean. You can go to the free version right now and see shadows. If you use SketchUp now you know it’s available in whatever version you have. It’s not a paid feature.
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In answer to your original question, nothing on your classic perpetual license will change, yes you have shadows and extensions.
The Pro Subscription adds things, it doesn’t take anything away.
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Colin, thank you for your response. A back handed payment would nice about now.
Before Trimble, Google Sketchup offered a credit towards Pro License for every year a student license was purchased. Then Trimble took over, and I lost my $300 credit.
Then I went to Basecamp Palm Springs and purchased pro License a couple months after. Then realized I was qualified for a discount (minutes after completion of sale) The customer service said they could not make price adjustment because I purchased online and not through a sales associate.
And now this subscription situation. I’m a little turned off by the changes since Trimble stepped in.
I don’t think things were different then, currently you can get a refund up to 14 days after buying something, and one refund type that does happen is for when a promo wasn’t applied. That could be because of an ordering error, or because you didn’t know about the promo at the time. It’s a shame the request was handled the way it was.
You were unlucky too, in that previous releases of SketchUp were before December. The last two were after December, so you missed out on getting 2020. Your plan of getting back up to date (one last time) seems like a good idea.
We do get comments from people now and then, about how terrible things are since Trimble took over SketchUp, but that was 8 1/2 years ago, and I hope that some of the improvements in the last eight versions were worth having. In the Google days we would go for a long time without knowing when there would be an update. From 6 to 7 was 22 months, and so was 7 to 8.
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I retired recently as a partner from one of the biggest architectural practices in Northeast Texas and, based on the typical projects we did, like schools of say 50,000 to 100,000 sq ft or more and the vast sets of complex drawing output for these, there is no way SketchUp would ever be able to handle our projects and replace something like AutoCAD. With the lack of advancement in the product over the years, I don’t think SketchUp will ever get to a point where it will overtake the big players. And, that doesn’t matter to me as I don’t think that’s its intent anyway. As people have mentioned, it’s a great, intuitive concept modeller but it has had many problems for years, like arcs, (just to mention one) that still have not been resolved which make it impossible to handle complex projects or even small projects, involving circles and arcs, where absolute accuracy is needed. We used it briefly at the beginning of projects to explore concepts and occasionally during CD production to figure out some details and that was it. For all of our CD production work we used AutoCAD, which I had customized myself for my company, and it worked extremely well with large and small projects, making use of custom toolbars, dynamic blocks, reference files, the Sheetset Manager, etc., etc.
I am very unhappy with what Trimble has decreed in regard to refusing to allow those of us with a perpetual license to continue on maintenance as we have for years and the massive increase in price for a subscription. I would be willing to pay a reasonable amount more to continue my maintenance agreement on my perpetual license so I can access my past 18 years of work but I will not relinquish it for a subscription. I am retired and had planned to keep paying maintenance until I decided I no longer needed it but, at the moment I still speak to students and our local schools and community college where I need access to my past work to use as examples and, some of this, I show them in SketchUp. I also do a minimal amount of architectural consulting which often involves doing a quick SketchUp model for an architect friend so I still want access to it and my past work. I will not take a subscription and lose my perpetual license so I will take the chance and keep it and hope that it will work for the next 2 to perhaps 5 years with whatever Windows updates come out.
Had Trimble been reasonable and fair, they would have received a payment from me in December when my maintenance renewal comes due, now there will be nothing. But, it’s not too late for them to reconsider and think about all of us who bought the Pro version and have paid for maintenance for over a decade.
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This is by design, not so? Historically new versions of SketchUp used to be released November month.
What did Autodesk offer?
Nowhere in the TOS or EULA is mentioned that using it builds up credits.
What makes SketchUp different from Adobe or Autodesk?
Do clients get a discount when Autodesk isn’t used for the concept?
Do ‘lifetime’ clients get free designs after a period or a certain amount of revenue?
I had this same (mistaken) impression based on Trimble’s published material, but I now believe this to be untrue. Some SketchUp resellers, and Trimble’s own @colin, have clarified that an existing classic perpetual license will remain perpetual, regardless of whether the perpetual-license holder “converts” to a subscription or begins a brand new independent subscription. I sure hope this is true. I have still not decided whether to start a subscription, but this is a major factor in my decision.
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I would not accept anything less than an official media release from Trimble / SketchUp in this making it clearer than daylight. There have been instances when whatever is said on the forums were referred to as personal comment rather than official; carefully chosen words, half truths and worse.
Check their site:
https://help.sketchup.com/en/end-of-classic-license-faq
A perpetual license will work as long as your system can run it (on Windows, probably 50+ years, on Mac 1 if you keep updating your OS)
If you trade in your classic now (before the end date of 4 november 2020) you get to keep the version that is currently active and have a discount for 1 or two year subscription.
Your ‘migrated’ version stays perpetually active.
You can still buy maintenance (order before 4 November 2020!) with additional months to the definite end date that you can have the classic ‘Maintenance & Support’ plan (3 november 2021)
After that, it keeps working (it’s perpetual!) but you are no longer entitled for support.
Maybe @TheOnlyAaron and @TheGuz can mention it in the last fireside chat?(4 November 2020)
The part about the existing activated classic licenses continuing to work was never in doubt. The one outstanding doubt was about if you have M&S beyond the release of 2021, and take a migration offer now, have you given up your right to the 2021 upgrade you have already paid for?
It’s hard to believe, but this amount later it’s still not possible to give a definitive answer on that question. The best option with the information available at the moment is to wait until close to November 4th before migrating, in the hope that the FAQ page is updated again.
Yes, than you would have given up the right to update, because a migrated license cannot be upgraded…
So no use in migrating earlier then your current classic M&S plan will end.
Migration questions:
Are there any promotions available to help me transition from a Classic license to subscriptions?
Yes, promotions are available for customers with eligible Classic perpetual licenses. Contact your local sales representative to find out more. If outside the US or Canada, contact your local reseller.
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Well, just took the discount and converted over to Subscription. We’ll see what happens.
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The language on the Trimble site regarding the “new way to buy” is as unclear as it was and, to my mind still implies that if you migrate to a subscription you lose your perpetual license - which appears to be their intent. I’m not prepared to take the chance of losing my perpetual license by buying a subscription and then being forced into an annual payment in order to access my own work. If it were a case of, buy a subscription and be able to keep the last copy you decide to pay for on a perpetual license, I would then buy a subscription but, they way they have worded it on their site, I will not chance it. I managed to get SketchUp Tech support on the phone a few weeks ago and could not get a clear explanation. I keep getting emails telling me to “Update your current perpetual license before November 4 to access SketchUp Pro 2021 when it’s released.” and it takes me to a website where, once I enter my license information, it tells me a Classic License can’t be renewed and my maintenance agreement expires on Dec 31. It seems that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. The tech support person I spoke to assured me that I would receive SketchUp 2021 Pro because my Maintenance expires on Dec 31st and I asked him how I was supposed to verify this he said he could only assure me that this would be the case. So, I have nothing in writing anywhere, only a tech support call, and I will not trade in my perpetual license. Why one cannot speak to someone and get a clear answer or have a clear description on the website is simply beyond me…
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… and here I am… just having serendipitously arrived to the point of my first Sketchup purchase… today, November 3rd, on the very last day the option to purchase a licence in perpetuity is available. Despite the changes in maintenance and upgrade over the course of the next year, I took it as a sign that I should be purchasing the Classic ‘forever’ license. A bit of frantic second guessing and brain scrambling… and now here I am… a registered lifetime Sketchupper (is that a word?) at the 11th hour. Maybe I’ll be the last one??
But I’ve grown to love and appreciate Sketchup this past month with the free trial and couldn’t imagine not using it forever… so it makes sense… and how much better or more useful can it get anyway??
Here begins the first (actually second) step in my new Sketchup life.
Michael,
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What was the first step into SketchUp?
As you have done what can be argued to be the worst thing you could do (I don’t mean buying SketchUp, but buying a full license knowing you can’t renew support in 12 months for $120), what went into your thinking?
I am ready with answers, but having pacified some number of upset people who bought SketchUp a year ago, I’m curious what things you considered while doing this.
My decision was based mostly on the monetary bottom line. After a few years I will still have an active Sketchup license and it will cost me nothing further. Support and updates do not justify (for me) an annual subscription cost. I can imagine myself using this version of Sketchup for the next twenty years quite successfully… quite happily… and not feeling like I’m missing anything.