@chippwalters and @Speaker. Blender is great, SketchUp is great, they are different. If you would like to discuss and compare their qualities please start a new topic instead of hijacking this one. This topic is focused on the recent changes in the SketchUp purchasing plan.
6 Likes
Just another thing to worry about, because losing work due to this pandemic and the uncertainty of how Iāll recover is not enough this happens. Many freelancers like myself are struggling at the moment, will be sad to walk away from a software I have grown with since 2005.
6 Likes
ā ā ā ā . We all saw this coming 
Initially, after the annual subscription model was introduced, I was incensed. As a loyal SketchUp user, someone who is/was a visible ambassador of SketchUp and a consumer, I felt let down.
I donāt like subscription models. They are first and foremost an efficient business solution with emphasis on profit margins. As someone who has a business, I get that. It makes sense, for a business. But it is at odds for the end consumer. Especially when so many software companies have now also transitioned to this model. Many SketchUp users require more than one software application for their daily work, so weāre not just paying a monthly subscription for SketchUp; in reality we could be paying monthly fees for 3 or 4 different software subscriptions and this is where it starts to hurt small businesses.
But hereās a very important thing to consider: as users of SketchUp weāve been spoilt for many years. At one stage, SketchUp had a very simple plan/pricing policy. There was the student license, the free desktop version and the Pro version. We all know that the free desktop version was ABUSED beyond belief by professionals. Weāve all been there at some stage, guys! Why pay for the Pro version when an excellent free version is available, right?! And SketchUp turned the other cheek for many, many years and permitted this.
I understand the need for SketchUp to transition to a subscription model to survive in this digital age and remain competitive as a business but that doesnāt mean I like it!
I still love SketchUp and my biggest fear; even bigger than the eventual death of the perpetual license, is SketchUp feeling pressure to justify the subscription model, by making changes to the software for the sake of making changes. Like Tags, for example. Still trying to get my head around that one.
SketchUp: going forward, please remember what your users love about the software: its intuitive and user-friendly interface. This is what makes it different and a joy to use. Please, please keep this at the forefront of everything you do!
I understand why SketchUp is doing this, and if most of you put your business hats on, youād (reluctantly!) admit that you understand too!
Now, before I start a conversation about this in my FB Group, can someone tell me if you still receive new releases/bug fixes after 4 November 2020 if you have a perpetual license with a valid M&S contract?! Iām assuming that new releases/bug fixes will continue to be made available to perpetual license holders until 3 November 2021?
Thanks,
Anita
4 Likes
Yes, if you are currently under Classic M&S during the time from 11/4/20 to 11/3/21, you get updates. Practically speaking, that only means SketchUp 2021.x releases.
Thanks for this, Colin!
A thought-experiment: imagine that some of the Sketchup extensions that users love and depend on - SubD, RoundCorner, Solid Inspector, etc. - required an active subscription to use them. Stop paying, and the extension is automatically disabled. Sound good?
1 Like
Twinmotion not free for new users and will likely cost current users next year.
1 Like
User since 2006, Pro since 2015/16ā¦
Really not welcome news but this day was inevitable ā¦ Love the nice soft forum title which actually paraphrases as " Same old Sketchup, the ONLY way to pay" More honestly it could have been āThe time has come, Weāre Sorryā
I subscribe to my house (I pay rent), I subscribe/rent machinery to use for building, I pay a subscription to watch stuff on Netflix, BBC (TV licence), I pay monthly direct debits to use all sorts of products, like my phone ā¦ Itās normal to rent cars ā¦ Owning things is becoming less and less common and the financial continuity for companies in todayās fragile short term financial system is bad news for traditional valuesā¦ It all feels ā¦ very short term ā¦ Bye bye Perpetuity ā¦ was nice you know youā¦
This is the way of the world and Trimble is just following suit ā¦ Blender may well do what Sketchup does and Trimble might be milking a dying cow (I just made that phrase up maybe? 
) ā¦ butā¦
Adobeās subscription service allows you to choose what you subscribe for ā¦ I would 100% encourage Trimble to consider what others have suggested and have different tiers of subscription - preferably one suited to the many many many many many professional users who only want what The Classic Licence provides - SU pro, Layout and access to the Warehouse and Extension Library ā¦ DEALā¦
[Question] Talking of the Extension Library, I take it without a classic licence renewed / converted to a subscription from November this year ā¦ we SU2020 pro users wonāt have access to the fantastic FREE Extension Library browser?
I will inevitably try out the subscription for a bit and see how it goes, and be forced to pay for all the stuff it comes with I donāt needā¦ But I do feel a bit like a rat, wondering whether to follow all the other rats jumping off ā¦ I fear that this may be what is happening ā¦ as others have wondered also in this thread.
[Question] Sub for a year and then skip a year but lose access to Warehouse and Extenions library whilst skipping ā¦is that correct?
thanks for reading
3 Likes
I already own Form Z so as this is about money couldnāt justify Rhino too.
The announcement title should have read āThe same SketchUp since 2017, but now a more expensive way to buyā.
Really? Tags? Thatās what I am going to get for $300/yr? If it werenāt for the third party developers, SketchUp would be little more than a grade school level amusement. When is SketchUp going to recognize that it is the Ruby API and 3rd party developers that put the bread on their table?
Joeā¦
10 Likes
That makes sense.
Iām another unhappy customer and the way the announcement was worded is pretty insulting. Itās really the first time Iāve ever read something from the SU team that made me feel like I was being taken for a ride and I really mean that. I really like what NEETS said above and hope that SU doesnāt start changing things just to show that they did āsomethingā because that usually just means I need to relearn a new way to do what I could already do in the first place. Please donāt fix what isnāt broken.
6 Likes
I have a clear opinion on renting. As itās been presented, if Trimble wants clients to invest in the development of the software, they should at least show them the roadmap. People want to see where theyāre investing their money.
14 Likes
Surely not.
Just a few general observations from my clients in the last year of local sales:
- New companies and freelancers have preferred to subscribe, because of smaller initial investment in software.
- Startups donāt care because they have their software and hardware expenses mostly covered by EU grants.
- Bigger companies have welcomed the SaaS model, because it is easier to plan expenses for projects and add more license seats when necessary;
- Most existing perpetual license users have already started to smoothly transition to subscriptions.
- Many users that have been burned by Adobe and Autodesk have not been happy about the changes but understand why Trimble is doing this.
- The older the person, the more likely they are to buy perpetual licenses.
So as only a very vocal minority of older SketchUp users will curse about the transition to SaaS, Trimble might have felt confident in the timing for it.
The extra Maintenance and Support purchases for perpetual licenses have forever been a headache for clients to understand, so, with that out of the way, software sales has become easier for all parties.
6 Likes
If SU could only duplicate FZās stair tool 
Yep, and the tired excuse that some ālawā prohibits them is BS. There is NO law and they choose NOT to release a road map. Hundreds of software companies that are publicly owned release road maps. If there is a law then Iād like to see it and read it.
1 Like
Comments like that are why the states are on fire. You exaggerate and people overreact.
Sick of this
Edit: at the time of posting I have no trouble reading the related posts. One or two may have been hidden due to the usual forum reporting.
Please note that chippwalters has edited some and fully removed other relevant posts in this thread to alter reality.
4 Likes
Well Iām lucky as the place I work for can afford this but that doesnāt mean I like it. $300 a year is a drop in the bucket as compared to my Archibus yearly fees. We also have 3 seats of AutoDesk AEC collection and 5 seats of AutoCAD LT that add up each year. Yes, it IS a price of doing business but I do agree in that I would like to see some MAJOR improvements for this more than double of cost increase. We shall see.
2 Likes
As stated in my direct message to you, I have not censored anything youāve said at this point. The community has the ability to flag posts and once one has enough negative flagging, it gets pulled.
The last time you did this in our community I had to explain that the community is closing your posts, not us. Please donāt try to incite on the forum, there is enough going on in the world that we donāt need to try and build hate here as well.
11 Likes