SketchUp in 2019: where great ideas get to work

[NewThinking2]

I went ahead and upgraded to SU 2019 after all, because my Placemaker Extension was about to expire and that needed to be upgraded too. I got both done, but I had to redownload The Engineering Toolbox, Solid Inspector and install them. However, Mirror by TIG doesn’t seem to be in the Extension Warehouse anymore, though there are a couple of other “mirror” plug-ins there which, frankly, are much harder to use.
I need mirroring by TIG. Is there any way to get it back?

[GSTUDIOS]

@NewThinking2

I need mirroring by TIG. Is there any way to get it back?

@TIG can you help?

[shiyan_lin]

You can get mirror plugin by TIG from Sketchucation If I understand right.

https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=Mirror

[NewThinking2]

Ah, got it! Thanks! I wonder why it is not in the warehouse anymore? SU is WAY too confusing when it comes to finding and installing third party plug-ins.

[shiyan_lin]

I download most plugins from Sketchucation. hardly use extension warehouse expect I need plugin from S4U or Eneroth.

[calypsoart]

What a different response here about SU2019 as compared to other SU forums. Not one of my colleagues, or users I know, is pleased with what Trimble has done in this SU release.

I’ve been a Sketchup user since version 4. I find this “update” to been the most disappointing ever to be released. Thin in everything but methods to charge at inflated rates. Further, the marketing is almost insulting. For you money, you get line types, revised Tape measure, and multiple ways to pay more for less. Still, based on the glowing, responses here, that copy writer must be pleased.

Though SU has been my main software for work since Version 4, I have been using Rhino for personal projects for a couple years. My transition to using Rhino for work begins today. In addition, I’m terminating my recommendations for, and instruction of, SU to 3D beginners. Rhino and/or Blender are just better options.

[TheOnlyAaron]

If an extension is not on ExtensionWarehouse that means the author chose not to list it there.

[TIG]

None of my ‘public’ extensions are hosted on EWH.
But they are all at SketchUcation…
[Much like many of Fredo’s]

It’s a long story…

[john_drivenupthewall]

@medeek

No, chicken little the sky is not falling.

the day of release, a pipe burst under a sink on my first floor and collapsed the ceiling below, and took out the boiler CPU…

I blame the subscription model…

john

[jbacus]

@adrianprice2011

So I don’t understand why this feature can be offered to Edificius users but not to Sketchup users - who originally had this feature in the first place!

Maybe someone from the Sketchup Team could just explain this one more time…

I don’t know the details of Edificius’ implementation of Google’s Maps API or what the terms of their licensing deal may be with Google, but I think the topic has been amply discussed in the thread “Upcoming change to Add Location”

[jbacus]

@Erowen

Please give the developer community a chance to show what could be done with Layout.

I think you’ve seen support for this idea voiced in these forums before. The SketchUp team greatly values the contributions of our 3rd-party developer community. We support that community by providing a rich, performant and flexible system of APIs and SDKs that they can use to develop their ideas into capable features for everyone.

APIs are complex to manage, especially in a developer community as diverse and creative as ours. While we have made a basic API available today for LayOut, it is different from the Ruby API in SketchUp. That may be what you’re really asking us to build?

It would be helpful to know more about the sort of extensions you would like a developer to be able to build for you in LayOut- did you have something specific in mind?

[jbacus]

@Michael_S

I sincerely hope this is an accident of the responsive web layout, not a deliberate choice.

It was an unintended consequence of our responsive layout. Can you describe your usage scenario a little more so our web team can reproduce what you’re seeing?

[jbacus]

@mango85

I’m personally not too happy about it but I understand why it could be a more attractive offer for larger businesses and some newcomers.

However for smaller businesses and freelancers who have supported and invested in sketchup pro for years this may feel like a kick in the teeth especially if it turns out that the perpetual licence is going to be scrapped soon as many of us is fearing.

In conversations I have had with small firms, I have often found the opposite to be true. In fact, many small firms appreciate the simplicity and predictability of subscription licensing, especially as they scale up or down to accommodate changes in their business. Accounting standards and norms vary internationally, but there are small firms who see this as an advantage to them.

I think it likely comes down to personal preference, and to a question about where you see the value in the software you use. Metaphors and analogies aside, I think this is the central issue.

[jbacus]

@numerobis

Improvements? And MORE than twice a year? Did i miss something?
I think once a year would already be a great start.

@DerekEdison

Twice a year? You mean more than once in 15 months right?

Outside of the SketchUp desktop client application, we released dozens of times in the last twelve months. SketchUp for Web, for example, releases every two to four weeks. Not all releases include new features, but there’s clear evidence of development velocity in places where you may not be looking.

[Michael_S]

John,

Software

Safari-12.0.2, on macOS 10.14 (Mojave)

Steps to reproduce

1. Size a desktop web browser window normally.
2. Open 3D Modeling Software Pricing | 3D Design Program Cost | SketchUp . Effect: the link to the classic license will show below the pricing table.
3. Narrow the browser window (reduce its horizontal size). Effect: below a certain size the pricing plan table will switch to the “mobile” layout, which no longer includes the link to the classic M&S.

Here are screen shots for each state.

[whiterabbitdesigncompany]

All such tools ( essentially most SU extensions, come with FormZ) as a whole package. All the tool sets are separate so you only need to have what you want open and so doesn’t clog up the screen. Switching to different tasks (2D, 3D, rendering, Animation etc, change out the tools required for those tasks.

I was at one of the first @last SU seminars where the team told me the guy who designed SU thought it was a done deal back then… clearly it wasn’t and and progress had to be made to improve it.

FormZ demonstrates how most of what are extensions in SU can be incorporated into a package without it feeling bloated. To suggest a chamfer tool or rounded corner tool is not important to anyone modeling - even if it’s used to improve real looking edges for rendering, if not the design itself is ridiculous. I would not suggest we abandon the circle tool because I don’t happen to use it. Sure, there are some obscure plugins but in trawling the forums for some time and to see the amount of people asking over and over for certain functions would telegraph that those would be better incorporated into the “core” program.

If many of the plugin developers start to charge high prices ( many of which are done for free) the whole package could start to get out of hand financially. Many of Fredo’s tools and profile builder to name a few seem like obvious candidates for better functionality no matter what you are modeling.

[Charlie_v]

FYI
I am also seeing this as well on iPad iOS 12.1.4
In my case it is when changing orientation of iPad from landscape (present) to portrait. (not present)

[jbacus]

@db11

Yes, aside from one thing: the VR/AR viewer is only offered to those on subscription. So those of us that bought SU Pro licenses (+ annual maintenance subscriptions) are being excluded from the one big new functionality of SU Pro 2019.

While you are correct in pointing out that the (new) VR SketchUp Viewer applications are available only to subscribers, we have sold (and still sell) many other components of our new subscription offerings separately. For example, the AR features in SketchUp Viewer for iOS. Our subscription plans offer a new way for us to collect many different products (previously priced and sold separately) into an easy to manage single annual payment.

@db11

If, as John Bacus has said, this is where a big chunk of development time went, then maybe it would be nice to offer it to longterm, paid pro customers — that have essentially funded all development to date — to benefit from the work that has been done through our dollars.

Perpetual license holders have purchased the right to use a snapshot of code at a particular time, paying for all functionality developed up to that time. The annual maintenance and support costs are applied to our expenses in maintaining that code for the next year, affording you additional access to improvements we make.

I think it does make a lot of sense for folks like you to have access to everything we develop for a single price, and our new subscriptions are the way we’re able to offer that.

If you primarily value the SketchUp Pro desktop applications, and you are content with a single snapshot of that code, our classic licensing may make more sense for you. If you are thinking of maintenance and support as essentially a way to buy an upgrade (to the next static snapshot of code), you are free to continue purchasing SketchUp in that way as well.

[numerobis]

@jbacus

…in places where you may not be looking.

Really? Are you serious? Why should i look for improvements in some other app that i never use and how should this be relevant for me? The only point i can see how the development of this other app could have been noticable for me in SketchUp is if this “clear evidence of development velocity” has subtracted developers from the desktop version.

[hugh_mcevoy]

Hi Mike

Hugh here from the Studio team. You’re right that the only difference between Pro and Studio is Sefaira. But the version of Sefaira in Studio is not our old Sefaira Architecture product (which did indeed start at $899) but is in fact our full-fat Sefaira (which includes the old Sefaira Architecture as well as Sefaira Systems) and was $1,249 or thereabouts. So SketchUp Studio is actually cheaper than buying full-fat Sefaira Arch + Systems but also includes all the goodness of SketchUp Pro as well.

We wanted it to be the best deal we’ve ever offered for Sefaira, and it is.