The “Flip” tool isn’t exactly a major innovation—at least not in terms of productivity or development (you could almost recreate it with AI in an hour or two). The justification for the price hike (as officially stated) was the new graphics engine, which required significantly more work. Incidentally, this implies that justifying the subscription fee on the grounds of “more feature updates” was misleading.
You are right from the user’s perspective; the problem is that SketchUp is no longer operating under the business policies of Last Software or Google. The subscription model is purely about generating recurring revenue, regardless of the needs of the customer, who is no longer “king” in this scenario.
The regrettable thing about the discontinuation of SU Make is the loss of the development ecosystem, which could have been valuable.
I have to respectively disagree: The Flip Tool is a major enhancement that I use continually on every project I have. I was thoroughly familiar with all of the various methods of mirroring before the Flip Tool enhancement, but now mirroring is a snap. It makes a big difference in productivity.
*“justifying the subscription fee on the grounds of “more feature updates was misleading” needs some clarification. I think most users would agree that as the price goes up, so do the improvements.
It’s not bad—it’s fun to use (like SketchUp)—but it’s not essential or revolutionary. In fact, I even programmed one using AI and didn’t even install it.
You say it and see it for yourself: “Update after update, there are little to no improvements to Pro.”. Back in the Last Software days, we got major updates featuring essential tools, along with affordable license price and very generous upgrade pricing.
Let’s say you own a house and rent it out for a particular price. The following year the market has changed, so you decide to increase the rent. What would you say if the tenant complained that the new price was unreasonable because you hadn’t made any improvements?
Ultimately, the value of something isn’t determined by how much it has changed since last year, it’s by what the market will pay. SketchUp can charge what it likes, and the test is whether we continue to subscribe.
We may not like the increase, but I’m not sure Trimble has an obligation to add functionality every time the price goes up.
But, if the house has significant issues needing attention that, year after year, are not addressed, while the rent goes up every year, then there might be a very legitimate basis for dissatisfaction.
I actually really hated the new flip tool at first, because I was so used to the original way of doing it… boy did that change fast, now I don’t know what I’d do without it, lol.
I’m all for more graphical improvements for Sketchup. Harking back to the question of “What do you use if not Layout,” because I primarily design things like space ships, robots, accompanying weapons and the like, I’ve never had a need for layout. If I want a “2D” image for like a character sheet or somethin’, I just switch to parallel projection, set a camera angle and export the image lol.
I’d prefer any of that funding to Layout going back to Sketchup for more graphical improvements, like emissive materials, native UV mapping and what not,
That’s a pipe dream, though! And not what the Sketchup tool is built for.
It was an analogy Alan, not an economic comparison, my point being the cost of production isn’t what determines the price.
SketchUp could be sold for £10 a year but why would Trimble do that if enough customers will pay their asking price. Equally, if they price it too high and enough decide not to buy they’ll have got it wrong. That’s what my analogy illustrates, a price increase doesn’t require an improvement in whats being sold.
Yes it does! Keep this up long enough, and they won’t have to worry about waning loyalty, as much as smart competition coming in, and making SketchUp a historical example of really stupid business strategy.
The subscription model works because it relies on a constraint: access to one’s work.
The traditional licensing model compels the developer to innovate with every update; it is entrepreneur’s model. Software pricing depends on several factors, including development costs and market positioning. Back in the days of @Last and Google, I liked the idea of SketchUp appealing to a very broad audience and being distributed in high volumes. Of course, a price that is too low can devalue the product.
There are other issues. There is a questionable development strategy. One of the most concerning problems affecting productivity relates to standard parametric capabilities in SketchUp: on the one hand, Dynamic Components (DCs)—widely used but now outdated—and on the other, Live Components (LCs), which have seen very little adoption. So, why invest time in creating parametric objects—especially within subscription-based software?
In this context, Medeek and others are right to develop their own system.
If Layout is half as bad as you claim, I’d be using something else – I mean there’s LibreCAD and FreeCAD, with all the CAD tools you could ever want and more. And they are free!
Layout is my daily driver – more so than SketchUp – and it generates an income for me.
Can we do with more features in Layout – for sure.
Several plugins both from the SketchUp team and others exist. As SketchUp is a polygonal modeller, no real curves exist, they are all segmented. Real Bezier curves require a totally different application. For NURBS modelling you might try Rhino or MOI, for instance.
@colin , Shouldn’t the thread be split from @JamesClark 's post onwards, as it has gone totally off topic?
Section tool ? Create geometry from sliced, explode… etc…
Doesn’t make sense, explain.
*** Polyline!** That already exists, but it is of limited use in SketchUp. You can select connected lines or curves and weld them (right-click…weld…).
I’m not aware of the polyline tool in SketchUp. Maybe you could tell me where it is.
Enable right clicking an object to access and edit all properties!!!
select something, type i (i as defined key for opening entities info pane…)
I’m talking about being able to access, and edit all properties of an entity. For instance, it would be so much easier to right click a line and change its color.
