Sketchup 2016 release and Ruby dependencies. At the company I work for we have religiously upgraded our Sketchup Pro versions for all our users and the plugin my team has been developing and maintaining for the past 5 years. Typically, come December/Jan of every year, we get a mail to upgrade our Sketchup versions to the latest and greatest. It comes with a share of surprises, having our team scrambling to support it. For example, we had 64 bit support, Ruby 2.0 support getting us to retest everything.
Our plugin uses some C++ libraries, so every new version brings in it share of concerns (will it work; how much is the change etc)
While i understand from an intellectual property/marketing standpoint, Trimble cannot leak features of the new upcoming product, I really would like to see some beta programs (could be a paid subscription) which gives plugin developers at the Ruby side of things a heads up on what is coming, with the usual NDAâs (non-disclosure agreements) in place. Is it already there or are there any plans of starting something. All we need is heads up on what is coming.
There is no news on when SketchUp v2016 might be appearing.
But as you said, previous experience suggests it could be some time later this yearâŚ
As a âdeveloperâ you could be invited to join a private testing group for upcoming versions, and thereby get the inside track on forthcoming changes - but this is up to the Trimble guys to confirm, issue invitations etc.
I can neither confirm or deny it, but it seems likely that if a beta-testing set up does exist [although for commercial reasons a quoted-company cannot talk about such things directly], then just talking about it in public would be against the probable NDA that itâd come with, and even confirming that such an NDA existed would also probably be against the NDA itself !
Perhaps you could privately contact one of the SketchUp Team, who from time to time youâll find here, and offer your services as a âbeta-testerâ, they can then respond discreetlyâŚ
The first step is for you (representing your employer) or your companyâs account (with a Google ID) to register as a developer: http://extensions.sketchup.com/developer
The sooner you âget in lineâ, the better.
Once registered, you could then be considered for any possible âdiscreet servicesâ,⌠should they exist.