I think the intention is that by the time backwards compatibility is a problem with the free desktop version ,the web client will be sufficiently advanced.
I want to correct myself, i thought because I could open the browser version and draw a line i’d be capable to attempt making a model, but unless something other then the program its self is the cause using my tablet for making a model seems not possible at this time. Not that it was ever advertised as a mobile version, sorry about that
Any man who is able to accomplish all that should definitely be considered by Trimble, and probably by every other software company.
I think @mclancer was giving nothing more than his feedback, not asking for the job 
Hi Cata.
I know all this. My point was that you should not need to hack to draw at
any scale. but thanks all the same
SMH. Yes @MobelDesign, I realize that he is just giving feedback. I’m fairly certain most people that read my comment understand that I am just agreeing with his statements and not actually suggest Trimble to hire him…
I was also fairly certain you meant such. That’s what the was for.
Due to recent problems with my computer, I recently had to have the operating system re-installed. As this means I have to also re-download all my extra programs like Sketchup, I only just now saw this new change from Sketchup. I have been using Sketchup for my own projects for years now and I have well over 100 project files of things I’ve worked on ranging from playing with architectural designs to designing things I have built around my house. Let me sum up my feelings about all the changes here: Sketchup Make = GOOD. Sketchup Free = BAD. I already hate that so many things are going to a web-based format or subscription-based ownership; this is the last thing I wanted to see happen. So disappointed. Bad move, Sketchup, bad move.
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As I look over this discussion thread, I see a common theme coming up over and over again and that is that users of Make who have been loyal to SketchUp for years now seem to be unified in their dislike of the loss of Make and the advent of Free. Sure, new users won’t know any different and so will like Free just fine because they have nothing to compare it to, but this all looks like a slap in the face of all the people you have been serving up until this point. Alienating your fan base in hopes of creating a new one seems like kind of a douchey move to me.
As an instructor, this is a disaster for the learning experience of my students. I teach at Bellevue College in the Interior design department. The school has the 2018 PRO version. As budget is always a concern on students, I have always just told them to work at home on the free version as many balk even at having pay for the academic version to use at home. Your new online Free version is useless to them as it doesn’t have the neccessary features, so I’m having them use the Make 2017. Now, however, they have to remember every time when leaving school to save their models as 2017 or they can’t open them at home. Every day, I get e-mails telling me they forgot and can’t do their homework at home. Even as a Pro, I forget to do this every time, and have the same issue.
I also teach professionals who are interested in learning SketchUp. I think you underestimate the pathway that Pros utilize in using the free version to get to understand SketchUp and then moving up to the paid version. This used to be a huge benefit of your program. Most busy working professionals don’t have time to master a program in 30 days of a free trial and then they will just walk away.
I understand that Free doesn’t make you any money directly, but it does create and empower a community of SketchUp lovers.
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We make SketchUp Pro available to students at a dramatically reduced price through our SketchUp for Education program. For students learning to be interior designers, this is really our best/most complete offering and it helps to match students with the sort of tools they are going to be using in their professional life after they graduate.
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Thanks for your loyalty over the years, and I’m glad to hear that you have gotten so much satisfaction from using SketchUp Make in your work. It is always fun for us as well to see the great diversity of projects that folks like you have done with our favorite 3D modeler.
SketchUp Free is something new, but I hope you’ll give it a try anyway. You may find that this is a good change for you in some unexpected ways. We’re still working steadily on new features and services to round out its basic capabilities, but we’re all pretty excited about what the future may hold. I hope in time you’ll be excited, too. And keep an eye out… we’re launching new features all the time.
But if you don’t have what you need in today’s SketchUp Free, you are welcome to continue using SketchUp Make (either 2015, 2016 or 2017 versions) for as long as you want. Our experience has shown that older versions of the SketchUp client application remain viable for many years.
I think it is pretty natural to feel some discomfort when things you’re used to using take an unexpected left turn. Who can know what the future will hold? You might be thinking that it will be bad, or you might be thinking that it will be good. But one thing is certain, particularly in the world of technology— nothing stays the same forever.
As you’ve seen me say elsewhere in this (very long) thread, I’m quite bullish on the power and reach of the web. I’m reminded of a lesson I was taught by Jon Hirshtick, co-founder of Solidworks and now co-founder of OnShape. When asked (before the launch of OnShape) if he was working on a cloud-based CAD system, he replied that in this time, with the tools and infrastructure that exist now, it would be unthinkable to build a new CAD system in any other way.
I hope that in time we’ll be able to win you over to SketchUp Free. You can help us to make it the sort of tool that you will be able to use in time by helping us to understand the specific features and services that we should add to make it work better. We’re actively working, launching new features all the time.
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I’d be keen to hear some more data on this one- SketchUp Free does require an active route to the internet to operate, but it actually uses very little bandwidth. Once your browser has downloaded and chached the (very small) executable, you really only have to access the internet to open or save your models. Services like 3D Warehouse and Add Location have always required an active connection to the internet, so nothing has changed there.
If you have sufficient bandwidth to access to this user forum, you should have sufficient bandwidth to run SketchUp Free.
I think the problem is gravest for users who aren’t in this forum, and can’t tell about how this affects them. I would imagine a lot of the users who are the most affected by SketchUp going web based also don’t primarily communicate in English. This is of course speculations; it’s you who have the data on SketchUp launches and can compare it to other statistics.
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This is so stupid. But what’s really bad is I’d be happy to pay $60AUD/Year for SketchUp Pro. But not any more than that, and no way the $800 or whatever it is they’re asking. They could make money and keep everyone happy here but instead we’re all leaving. Oh and if I really want pro, I could just go and pirate it in 10 seconds. So stop charging such high prices and you might actually make money.
A few people are saying SU: Make 2017 will continue to work so we shouldn’t complain but it’s not going to get anymore fixes. If we just continue using it we’re beating a dead horse. You’re better off learning how to use better software that’s actually maintained like F360. It’s the same reason trying to stick to Windows 7 is pointless, it’s dying.
do you mean FUSION 360? that’s cloud based and subscription ($300 a year),so how is that better than sketchup free?
You don’t need an active internet connection to use it and it has a free Enthusiast license. Of course it might not suit everyone but it does for me since I don’t use it commercially. I just do a lot of 3D Printing and design parts for building things.
John,
Caroline replied to one of my posts and said something like “Don’t worry Joe. We’re listening.” But as I read through these posts, and especially your replies, it becomes clear to me that you are not listening. You are simply replying with the same old Trimble storyline: “you can still use 2017 Make” and “we are adding new features to SketchUp Free all the time”. There are over 300 posts in this thread, many of them making excellent points in hopes of influencing Trimble’s approach in their marketing strategy, but you have not demonstrated - to me at least - that you are listening or even care about opinions that differ from the strategy you are on.
I would have hoped that you would have heard, taken to heart, and understood at least the following:
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SketchUp Free is not useful for anything except perhaps grade school education. It is certainly not useful for vocational or college courses as dldieterich2 pointed out. And it won’t be until it supports extensions at least. You probably introduced long before it should have been.
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Many users, hobbyists especially, want to see the continuing development of Make, and are willing to pay a reasonable price for it. And please do not reply “you can still use 2017 Make”. I am tired of that sing-song.
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SketchUp Pro is getting expensive relative to its 3D capability. There are too many issues still hanging around that have never been fixed. We all love SketchUp. So stop feeling like you are being picked on. Fix these issues, like the one recently discussed here concerning the need to scale. In the age of 64-bit machines, furniture models should never run into modeling limits. Printing to scale should be a no-brainer. Etc., etc.
Stop giving the storyline and at least let your customers know that you care, are listening and understand their concerns. And then you might do something very novel and make use of some of the feedback in your product strategy.
Joe…
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I’m sorry I gave you that impression- I have read every single one of the posts in this forum and responded to quite a few of them in detail. I’ll continue to do so as long as there are new questions that come up. It has always been a part of our team’s process to listen to as much feedback as possible before, during and after all major product decisions.
In fact, we released SketchUp for Schools specifically to address the requirements of grade school education, especially schools who have launched Chromebook programs. Vocational and College courses are still covered under our SketchUp for Education program, which includes full access to SketchUp 2018 Pro.
I may not have addressed this point specifically yet, so let me do that in a separate post. I don’t want the answer to get lost. In short, I have always believed there was an opportunity to offer a mid-tier product (between free and pro) for hobbyists, but I don’t have a new product announcement to make today.
I know you have a personal list of issues here and you have been good about sharing them with our team. Given the length of our SketchUp Pro development cycle (with its annual releases) it is easy for issues like yours to get lost in the shuffle. Or just to feel like they take way too long to get answered.
If this matters to you, there is a real opportunity for you with SketchUp Free to influence the product direction closely.
If you’ve been following other threads in this forum, you can see that we are in fact releasing new features all the time. Last week, we released three new builds of SketchUp Free- all of which were targeted at expanding support for older or less capable graphics hardware based on user feedback we received in this forum.
I’m definitely listening, reacting and fixing things and will remain open to answer any questions/concerns that you want to talk about.
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SketchUp Free is already being used globally. You are correct in your assumption that many of our users don’t communicate primarily in English; consequently, they don’t voice their concerns on this user forum. Based on our data, that doesn’t seem to have prevented them from using our product.
I don’t know if we can ever be completely certain how SketchUp is being used in places where internet access isn’t prevalent. We have always required that our users are online at least long enough to download our client installer. There are certainly installations that we know aren’t web-connected. But they are an exception, not the norm.
I do hope we’re able to support offline usage of SketchUp Free in the future. Once SketchUp Free is launched in your web browser, it is executing almost entirely locally from your browser’s cache. You can disconnect your network connection, and it will continue to run. You can’t save to Trimble Connect or interact with any of our other web services, but you can use all the modeling tools and you can save an .skp file locally. This is not a configuration we support at this time, nor is it one that we would recommend folks depend upon in any way. Maybe you can see how it could technically work in the future, however, for folks with unreliable network connections.
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