Good point. I recall a developer explaining that newer SketchUp versions include fewer materials in order to reduce the installation size. However, many users may find a larger material library more valuable than having LayOut bundled with the software.
We don’t know the cost of SketchUp maintenance.
What we do know is that development under Last Software—and even under Google (some say it was actually work left behind by Last Software)—was spectacular, achieved with a very smaller team. And Last Software was making money with more affordable licenses.
In recent years, it seems to me that Layout has received the most improvements—except for version 21, which had nothing.
SketchUp has changed the whole graphics interface. You could probably not have noticed but it is a lot of development work.
Yes, you’re right; that’s the major change over the years, mainly because OpenGL is deprecated.
By Apple but not by Windows
Yes, in a sense, but Windows has its own DirectX API that it promotes, just like Apple does with Metal. Meanwhile, the Khronos Group promotes Vulkan as the successor. In practice, OpenGL still works on Mac.
Despite being a SketchUp user for woodworking for many years, I don’t use Layout and don’t think I ever will. If Layout disappeared tomorrow, I would be surprised but not disappointed.
I suppose it depends what you use SketchUp for. My entire business relies on both SketchUp and LayOut. I use SketchUp for the design work and LayOut to produce all of my fabrication and installation drawings from digital laser scans. If LayOut disappeared tomorrow, I’d be a little surprised - but a lot more than a little disappointed.
I’ve been using SketchUp for 6 years and have never had the need to use Layout.
I know that they will never sell them separately.. Why would they, they will loose money..
To all those people that don’t use Layout - what do you use instead?
What software do you use for 2D dimensioned drawings? What about presentations?
I use them both daily and Layout works perfectly well for my needs.
Yes Layout has a few quirks and limitations but but I’d be interested to see if there’s something out there that would work better.
Surely exporting to another format and importing into different software can cause issues too?
… and what do you do when the model changes?
I don’t need 2d drawings or 2d presentations.
I draw parts for 3d printing and also draw up 3d factory layouts, like printing presses, book binders etc..
All presentations are shown in 3d.
Sorry, I don’t understand this comment… To try and answer it I would put: I just change the model, like everyone else does.
If you are producing a design for the real world, you add dimensions for 2D output. If all that work is done without layout, what happens when you stretch or move something? LO tries to update the dimensions automatically or at least flags up dimensions it can’t adjust. If you don’t use LO that intelligent connection is lost.
I’m looking more at those who take their (e.g. architectural) models into the likes of Autocad.
For basic 2D drawings, SketchUp is enough for my needs. For complete architectural work, our team uses AutoCAD. We simply export the floor plan to a DXF/DWG file, and the process has been smooth and reliable.
My architecture office has an almost exclusively 1-way process from AutoCAD to Sketchup, where we use the model to test ideas and mock up the building for presentations, renderings, internal discussions etc. The model doesn’t need to have a 1:1 dimensional relationship to the drawings, but we do periodically update things to keep a reasonably close relationship between the two. We rarely export dwgs from Sketchup unless something has been substantially developed in 3D that we want to use for 2D (and we still usually end up redrawing everything). Recently I was working on a canopy with a curved edge and I took the outline from Sketchup into a DWG for use in the drawings, but generally we are only using Sketchup for illustrative purposes, and never expecting to use it for contract documents. We work with engineers and so DWGs are, for better or worse, the universal language for this industry, and we produce all of our dimensioned drawings in AutoCAD.
Working as an Engineer (before I ever got started into this extension development business) my bread and butter was simple 2D drawings (mostly structural drawings and details). AutoCAD was the tool and it worked well and still does to this day. In fact it works so well I can still create structural drawings using AutoCAD 2006 just as good as I can with the latest and greatest.
What I find interesting is that SketchUp dominates in the 3D world and AutoCAD dominates in the 2D world. Both have made half hearted attempts to branch into each others territory but neither has succeeded. If we could get a solid workflow between these two, SketchUp → AutoCAD (3D → 2D) that would be game changing.
Imagine if you could bring scenes from SketchUp directly into AutoCAD.
Better yet, make Layout such that it begins to rival AutoCAD.
This has been a fascinating thread to read. So here’s my contribution: I use Pro solely for building things, and it’s pretty good for that. I wouldn’t use Layout if you put a gun to my head. But here’s what really irks me. Update after update there are little to no improvements to Pro. The last significant improvement was the Flip Tool. During the period I’ve been a Pro user, the price has gone up 30%. During the same period, the national inflation rate has increased 18%. I see something really wrong with that picture.
I started using SketchUp when I was at university (2008–2013). Back then, there used to be a free version called SketchUp Make that had almost all the features of SketchUp Pro desktop, minus LayOut. I tried to get a student license, but it was impossible in my country—and it still is.
I started with SketchUp because I hated Revit; it was cumbersome and non-intuitive. I’ve told this story before: I was going to pay for an expensive Revit course because everyone on campus was talking about it. It was during summer break and required in-person attendance, so I had to wake up early even on my vacations. I owned an Archicad license and preferred using it, so on a Friday—with the deadline to enroll and pay for the Revit course on Monday—I was searching YouTube for Archicad tutorials, hoping to find something good enough to save me money. Since there were no official Archicad trainers in my city, I was hopping from one video to another when a SketchUp video popped up. It took me literally 10 seconds to fall in love with the program.
I downloaded the free version and spent the rest of the weekend watching almost every SketchUp video available in 2009. Obviously, I didn’t enroll in the Revit course, and through tutorials, I essentially taught myself SketchUp. My workflow consisted of modeling the entire project in SketchUp, exporting scenes with all required views, opening them in AutoCAD and Illustrator for presentation, and using Photoshop for final visualization. It saved me a lot of time compared to drawing everything in AutoCAD (even perspectives and axonometrics), back when I used to almost crash my car from staying awake for days or weeks to finish a project.
SketchUp made everything easier, and I didn’t think LayOut was important until I bought my first license for a profitable project. I opened LayOut just to check the UI, watched a few tutorials, and immediately fell in love with it—regretting that I hadn’t bought or pir @ ted it as a student. It could have saved me from using four different programs and tripled my speed.
When SketchUp Make was discontinued and replaced by a web-based version with no extension support, I thought it was a bad decision. IMO, SketchUp Go should be discontinued, and SketchUp Make should be sold at the Go price point (or slightly higher). As an architect, I am tied to the SketchUp + LayOut tandem. However, people like my brother (a civil engineer) don’t use LayOut at all—he just models structures, and I handle the documentation. My uncle is a woodworker who uses SketchUp to model and checks dimensions directly on his laptop or prints screenshots with dimension tags; he doesn’t need properly scaled drawings. Even the creator of VBO 5D doesn’t require LayOut, exporting all documentation straight to CAD software.
Offering a licensed version of SketchUp Make would be a home run for Trimble, as many people fall in love with the software but can’t get a Pro license. If I had been forced to use a stripped-down web version with 2010 internet speeds, I would be using Revit right now.
I know I used a lot of words and Trimble probably won’t change anything, but if someone at Trimble with decision-making power reads this: please drop the web versions, make SketchUp for Schools equivalent to the old Make version, and make student licensing easier. Autodesk only asks for online documentation that any student can get in 5 minutes, granting a 2-year free license that is easily renewable. Graphisoft does the same. In my country, if a student wants to buy a license, they have to travel to another country to visit an official reseller, present a pile of physical documents proving enrollment, and pay $50 for a 1-year license. As a result, most students just end up pir @ ting the software and miss out on features like AI Render.
I used to dislike German bureaucracy, but Trimble took it to a whole new level for most of the world.
Could not agree more. I think Trimble is leaving a lot of money on the table by not offering a paid version of SketchUp Make.