Sketchup 2023 update is a big disappointment

Well, they design software, not physical engineering, furniture or architecture. What do we expect?

Actually, what I ‘expect’ Is quite different from what is required of a software developer; to fully understand the needs of his end user and accommodate.

This disconnect is happening in many fields of activity; even in this thread there are comments suggesting 2D drawings should become extinct, when this would sideline probably millions of a certain type of hard working, hard grafting, out-in-the-field practical people who struggle to use electronic devices. Sometimes because they’re phobic and sometimes because they just don’t have that type of brain.

Why would we discard the resource of their labour and skill just so we can have an easier life? The whole point of our existence as designers and draughtspeople is to communicate our inner visions to people who are different to us.

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The biggest problem with SketchUp is SketchUp itself. The way you draw in 3d is genius, the plugin eco-system is genius, but SketchUp’s concept is meant to be be a conceptual 3d modelling tool. It is never meant to be a complete design and drafting tool. If Trimble is smart enough they should develop an app which is more focused on ‘serious’ business, with baked-in design tools (based on existing plugins) and
a decent 2d drafting environment. Again, I LOVE Sketchup, I do all my design work with it for more than 18 years…but always with workarounds and a lot of patience. The 2023 version is an example of this dilemma and that they really don’t have any clue which direction to go next. Please Trimble, get rid of the limitations and develop a new app based on SketchUp.

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Here is what I know:
When you rename the “Defualt” tray it reverts back to “Default”
Program has crashed 4 times since loading in less than 24 hrs.
Measurement window moved to top toolbar is a different size than standard buttons
Context click places menu on a different screen than the one I am working in
Scene tabs too large and cause extra scrolling,
Aside from this there is clearly a gap between the people that review and implement changes and the end user who has to be effecient and uses the software in an effort to maximize productivity. It appears to me that gap has grown wider in the past few years. I am a user since 2008. I don’t begrudge anyone making a profit and I understand the shift to the subscription model. Having said that one has to wonder what dictates the “improvements” that each new edition brings. Noone has ever polled me, the end user that has to use this product to generate income. There is a clear disctinction between a company that develops software to generate profit and the end user that uses it to generate profit. If noone cares what I the end user wants or needs to increase my workflow then I can only imagine the gap widening.

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I don’t.

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Nor do I… and I was responsible for switching our office (70 architects) from Archicad to Revit… but I also introduced Upfront and Sketchup when they were both first released… and I used those intensely… still do with SU!

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There is some things to dislike about Layout and even SketchUp, but there is also a lot to love, otherwise we wouldn’t all be here.

Encountering a few issues with with SU 2023 myself:

This is probably good reason not to adopt any new software too quickly right out of the gate, give it a month or two, see what issues might arise and then go for it once it is apparent that things are going smoothly.

This particular bug is actually quite a show stopper for my Truss and Foundation plugins (since they still extensively use the UI.inputbox method). I’ve actually never seen this type of major bug before with any prior releases (since 2015), so I am a little surprised, but I get how things can slip through the cracks with software.

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I will also reiterate the previous comments regarding the overall step backwards in the icon size, icon and tab spacing, padding and overall “largeness” to unnecessary portions of the view window.

Anyone at Trimble can do what the users will do and have a side-by-side comparison of SketchUp 2022 to SketchUp 2023 and see how glaringly odd this release looks. It seems the interface has taken a farily large step backwards in a space-saving and efficient UI design.

Yuck!

…especially when you’re in the middle of a big project with important deadlines, etc. It’s also a reason to have multiple versions installed on your machine, which they seem to do everything they can to prevent you from doing. My near term goal is to get on 2022 in Monterey (currently using 2020 in High Sierra on a daily basis). Are 2022 and 2023 files interchangeable or will 2022 not open 2023 ones?

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Yes, especially when you are in the middle of a big project with deadlines. I remember back in the day upgrading to Windows 7 from Win XP and then realizing my older version of AutoCAD would no longer work on Windows 7, panic ensued. Ended up commandeering my daughter’s older computer that was still running Win XP to finish a bunch of my structural engineering projects before I could breath long enough to figure out what to do about it.

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This opportunity was missed, the Dynamic Components needed to be further developed. What has been done with the Live Components authoring system is disappointing.

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If they use it. Since there is a new silhouette every year. :laughing:

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Because my workflow is to take a floorplan of a building, create a 3D model in SU, and then import that into Twinmotion for visualization purposes, I never use Layout. So I never considered that a reason to upgrade.

What I was hoping for was improvements in performance on my Mac Studio Max and improvements to the UI and general usability.

  • Needs improved way to organize a project. Tags are not it and the Outliner (which is my main way to organize a model because I’m used to Adobe’s layers approach) doesn’t offer a way to color code or really even just make text easier to read. It mainly needs folders at a minimum. Grouping dissimilar objects just to get them collected in the same area of the outliner is just not workable.

  • Needs a way to save the workspace when using two monitors. Every time I open SU the windows are all set back to a single monitor.

  • High resolution PDF and JPG support. This is my big issue with SU. If you want to build walls on top of a vector PDF, you have to convert it to a low rez jpg which means, none of the accuracy of the original floorplan is available in SU.

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Ever tried using Inkscape to convert vector pdfs to dxf? I use it regularly and it works fine.

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I recently bought the pro license of Qcad, it’s only 40 bucks but you have all the 2D tools you have in autocad, including importing pdf and convert them to vectors. I move being using it for a couple weeks now, and canceled my subscription to Draftsight, I mainly use sketchup and layout, but in my country it’s required to present all the documentation printed and on autocad. Also unlike Draftsight or autocad it runs natively on apple silicon macs. It’s a hidden treasure, for that price you can have all the seats you want even on windows or Linux, I use my MacBook Pro mainly but also have a windows desktop for heavy work and rendering, and I installed Qcad pro there also without any license issues.

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… piping in here to perhaps say good bye after about 16 years of using Sketchup. Money is tight these days and whilst I managed to download and play with SU23 before my subscription ran out (perfect storm of financial pressures) means I think I’ve just about had enough of Sketchup. This all or nothing approach with the subscription for commercial use is the last nail in the coffin as I literally cant afford to work and use Sketchup. This is the reality of subscription based software. I’ve been using Sketchup since 2006/7 and bought SU Pro as soon as I was made redundant and went freelance. Now I am left with the option of a free web based browser modeler that I am not allowed to use for commercial purposes… thanks a bunch Trimble.

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Yeah we all hate the subscription model. On the “bright” side though - not that much has changed since the last permanent license version of SketchUp was released in 2021… :wink:

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sure… I’ll look on the bright side for those of you who can afford the sub

Speaking of the bright side, I’d bet your electric power is on a subscription model basis.

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The pro version is for people who make money with the help of the software, I find it very reasonable the price of the SKP pro subscription, for hobbyist or people who don’t need all the tools and features of the pro version the sketchup free or Go are good alternatives. I’d only wish we had more updates between every new release, and not have to wait for an entire year to get some bugs fixed or new tools. It looks like the sketchup team are working on improving the program rendering, so it will be totally worth it to pay the subscription and get a better software in the future.

hmmm… Draftsight user here… worth an investigation… thx