Attn: SketchUp users

[FrozenNorth]

Read and maybe weep, who knows how this will shake out:

[Swingman]

[Pat Barber]

With the number of free users, what does Trimble hope to gain by buying a product that zillions of folks already have for free ?

I have seen this sort of thing before and it never seems to make any sense.ex: IBM bought Lotus for $$$$$(billion ?) and that has been a dead money loser.

An MBA probably told them they could make it in "support" fees.

The SketchUp crowd might see something similar.

[Swingman]

There past few years has seen a large increase of the installed base of SketchUP Pro users who could arguably benefit greatly from this acquisition, and since Trimble is right in the middle of supply the area of benefit, this is indeed a very likely scenario ... at what cost that, is the major question.

As far as the free version, if SketchUp never develops past its current capability, users of the free version are still in a win/win situation. I doubt that the free version will never benefit/be totally excluded from any future features of the Pro version.

As a Pro user (because I need the presentation ability of that version in a major way), I am indeed a bit concerned about a future price increase, but I suppose as long as it is cost effective with regard to a parallel increase in features, that it will a viable business investment in software in any event.

[Leon]

Well, It may not run on Win8 without an upgrade, a purchased upgrade.

[FrozenNorth]

Not sure if you have seen a preview of Win8, this is another version to skip, what a POS.

[Lee Michaels]

I saw a review of Win 8. It made the remark that there were some features that would help business, but they did not know what they were. All this effort to make it look like a iphone, nobody seemed to care if any real work gets done.

I think there should be two versions. One should be a work version for people who do real work. And a gamers version for those folks who use their computer to play games and look at movies..

[FrozenNorth]

It is totally different, all touch based, doesn't seem to translate to a mouse well, if I want finger prints all over my screen I would have a tablet.

[Swingman]

Some would consider that a blessing in disguise. ;)

[Swingman]

That's the whole idea of Metro ... you will be assimilated into the tablet computer world.

[Bill]

think it has "other fish to fry", and it would probably like to apply it's softare development staff to those other problems with which is has real expertise. How much (more) do Google developers know about architectural development and the other applications for SU? Maybe Google hopes that enough of SU will be free that they can keep using it for Google Earth.

Just please don't take my (free) copy away!!! : )

Thank you for the notice FrozeN.

Bill

[MJ]

Froz,

that can make money for Google?

This is a pure typical business transaction. Google unloads a bunch of programmers to someone else, lightens the load on the books, and goes to do something else. I am sure that Google was losing money on SketchUp, not because of the freebie version, but because it had no way of marketing it. Working with training companies, book publishers, etc. Also trying to compete against other 3D modelers most likely was drain. I don't think they want to play in the 3D modeling world. The excitement is to marry SketchUp to the 3D printers that are now out and soon to be introduced. Nothing like taking a 3D image and tell a machine to make you that thing. Now that would exciting. Trimble might be in a better position to help to make that work.

I do hope that Trimble keeps a free copy around - but - if they charge a minimal fee - like $50 for it, I'd consider it and probably go for it. It's a great tool.

I won't worry too much yet.

MJ

[Swingman]

As has been said elsewhere, it's a good bet that Sketchup's budget was a mere rounding error to Google's bottom line.

[tiredofspam]

I didn't like the upgrade with office either. More look based. The eliminated the quick keys on many features. That SUCKED.

[Robatoy]

with it. I have used it for a while on my PC platform and it appears very powerful. Big libraries are being built, not unlike the SUWarehouse.

learning curve keeps throwing me curve balls so for anything serious I still do the mac/vectorworks/strata thing which is second nature to me. I was just wondering if the huge Autodesk user base has given 123D some legs, for myself, it scores a great big 'meh'.

Someone who never used a 3D modelling program before and was about to make a decision in which basket to put their eggs, maybe 123D _is_ a factor in the big scheme of things. Who know what the world looks like to the likes of Google and/or Trimble.

The fact that many 3D CAD packages now offer SketchUp plug-in translators, tells me that SU is going to stay around for while.

Do we have an iPad app for SU yet? SU pro? I have been out of the loop for a few months.

r The little bit of 3D I do these days is very basic

[Dave]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:21:01 -0700 (PDT), Robatoy

Hey buddy, you haven't been too active here much lately. How's the big fight going?

Best wishes.

[Leon]

Just seeing the home screen was enough for mt to not even consider upgrading.

[Leon]

From what I understand you can choose for Win 8 to look and operate like Win 7 if the new look does not suite you. So I guess basically when Win 8 comes out and all new computers come with it you can still choose to not have that strange format.

[Dave]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:52:18 -0500, Leon

Doubt I'll even consider looking at Windows 8. The past decade or so, I've upgraded most every second release and it's worked out very well.

[Leon]

To tell you the truth IMHO Sketchup is well worth the pro asking price if that is the only way to get it. Sketchup is on of the most valuable WW tools I have.