OK I have not actually bought a version of SketchUp but I am trying to figure out which version I should get and all I get from the website is words. Words are fine but I am not a computer nerd I would prefer to “see” what " what the “shop”, “Pro” and “Studio” are capable of. I am an architect in his late 50’s who did the big office scene in my younger life, but now I am considerably down sized working out of my home office, currently using Auto Cad LT (I used full autocad from 1989-2008). The majority of my business is project management, but I still do custom homes and light commercial. I sued to crate a rough 3d drawing in autocad and then draw over the top. I think it is to the point I need to be able to show my clients their homes/businesses in a 3-d walk-through, but again I can not really figure out what the difference “Pro” and “Studio” other than a steep increase in price. I have looked over SketchUp’s site but I really can not find examples of drawings that state this is “Pro” and this is “Studio”. Are there any gallary’s of drawings showing what you can and can not do with each licence version. Sorry if I am being a pest and Thanks in advance.
Visually there isn’t really a difference. The difference is in the things the different versions can do or can access.
There is no Home version.
Shop is the commercial version of the web version. Which is licensed for commercial use and has a few more tools than the Free Web version. Neither web version currently has access to Extensions.
Pro is the basic flagship product, it comes with a classic license or a subscription license. The classic being a pay upfront perpetual license that means you own the version until such time as your operating system updates render it obsolete. It has a Maintenance charge that will get you support and updates to keep you current. This type of license will probably disappear in the future.
The Subscription you pay yearly and it gets you all updates and support.
Both Classic and Subscription have the ability to use extensions, some options are just now becoming only available in the Sub version, large area imports for terrain for example.
Studio is a Subscription version of Pro with some add ons, Sefaira, and Virtual reality viewers etc. If you aren’t aware of them you don’t need Studio.
Basically try out the Pro trial for a month and see what it can do for you.
Use the free web version and see the difference.
Have a look at the options that Sefaira gives you and see if they are of interest.
Then you’ll know whether you need Pro or Shop or Studio.
Currently, I think Sefaira is the only difference between Pro and Studio. You get the AR/VR support in Pro too. There is a product matrix that shows the differences:
If you will be creating walk through animations, you’ll likely find an animation extension is needed. This rules out the Web “Shop” edition. You’ll need the desktop edition, so you’d need to decide upon either the classic or subscription license (after the trial is over.)
Only in the Pro Subscription version, Classic doesn’t have that option.
It’s all too confusing to keep track of.
I see what distinction you were making. If you think of the permanent license version that is just the desktop application, as SketchUp Classic (which is how it’s displayed on the web site), then this would be true:
The Subscription product named SketchUp Pro includes the SketchUp Classic desktop application, SketchUp Shop, unlimited cloud storage, and AR support in mobile apps, VR headset support for Vive, Oculus, Hololens, and Windows Mixed Reality.
With that description, you can then say that Studio is all of that plus Sefaira.
That part that is hardest to explain is that non-subscribers don’t get certain features that are paid for with subscription money. A recent example is where you can get 18X imagery when zoomed into 16X during add location. Without subscription you can still import the higher detail images, but would need to manually add imagery to the adjacent areas. Another example is that although non-subscribers are given Trimble Connect, like subscribers are, it’s limited to 10 GB of storage and one project at a time. With AR in mobile apps, if you want that feature but don’t want to subscribe to Shop, Pro, or Studio, you would need to subscribe to the in-app feature by paying Apple or Google $10 per year.
You could think of the $299 per year for Pro as including $120 maintenance & support that you would pay each year with a permanent Classic license, $120 per year that you would pay for unlimited cloud storage, $119 per year you would pay for Shop, $10 per year for AR in mobile viewer apps, and $1500 that you might have paid to get a VR/Hololens version of SketchUp.
Whether that is good value depends on how many of those things you use a lot. If you only ever use the desktop application, but couldn’t justify the initial $695, you would apparently be paying more for what you use after about 3 1/2 years. But hopefully by 3 1/2 years from now there will be some Pro subscription add-ons that you would use.
Revit users who want to use the Sefeira add on can also buy a Studio subscription and have ‘all of that’ SketchUp beside, as well!
#constructability #explorethepossible
It would be nice if a company that has 5 or more subscriptions, can have access to Sefeira automatically, too
OK since Revit was brought up. I was talking last week to friend/architect that used to work for me, and we were talking about clients expect Architects to produce 3-D work up of their designs and how I needed to catch up with the youngins who are coming out of school know Revit. She suggested to me as al alternative to dumping Autocad and investing in Revit, I might instead keep autocad and add Sketchup instead. She said there is a steep learning curve with Revit and that Sketchup is a more intuitive program than Revit (for an old coote like me). So do you think this is solid logic or am I missing something. Based on you wonderful help I am considering Sketchup studio/classic seem wise.
Just a little more info, in the late 80’s early 90’s I taught myself cad when my boss did not want to invest. When I opened my firm in 93 I was almost 100% autocad from that day forward. I am now better and faster than many Cad techs I hire or contract with. The one exceptions is I still love doing illustrations. I can learn anything it is just a matter of how much down time I want to take to learn something new. Any advice is always welcome and appreciated.
Just be aware that your vast cad experience can actually be something of a hindrance when it comes to learning Sketchup. It is a very intuitive program but you have to rethink some of the basics. One simple example, layers are only ways of making things visible or not, they do not separate geometry.
So spending some time on learning the fundamentals will go a long way to accelerating your intuitive learning.
Ok vast is a little over stated! My point was I can and will learn what ever I chose, this dog is not that old yet. It has though been expressed to me that Revit is a lot harder to pick up and get productive, than Sketchup for autocad jockeys. That said though I am led to believe while quite different that Autocad there is something about Sketchup that is more “intuitive” to the average person that it is easier (not simply) to pick up then either autocad or revit…
Easy to learn, a lifetime to master.
Hi @MikeWayzovski,
Thanks for sharing that feedback. Certainly something for our sales department to consider. Let me pass it on to our team and I will reach back out if there is something substantial that I can share.