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Trimble To Acquire Google SketchUp
yoink! writes "It looks like Google is selling off SketchUp or, conversely, Trimble is acquiring it. Despite several indications there will continue to be a free version of the 3D modelling software, users are unsure about what this will mean for the SketchUp community at large as indicated by the comments on the official Google SketchUp Blog post. They are, however, rejoicing that they will be freed from Groups for SketchUp discussions."
Enough said if true.
To the detriment of all of us
Dance like you're hurt, Love like you need money, and work when somebody's watching.
-Scott Adams
Who wants to guess how long it'll take before Trimble decides to nix the free version? (or perhaps to move basic tools into the non-free pro version)
Another affirmation that lifetime of any Google service is always in question.
Now Google can focus more on copying Facebook and iOS.
learn the lesson!
don't ever depend on 'cloud things'. and google is a cloud thing maker (heh).
to invest time and learning in things that can be taken away with almost no notice is lunacy.
one of these days, I expect to see a google service removed several days before its even launched.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
This is exactly right. There is no guaranteed lifespan for any google app. It's best to not get too attached to any one of them.
I got here through a series of tubes
SketchUp was an acquired start-up. Is there any data present that would let us see if Google paid more for the acquisition than it gets now?
You should have started earlier. Version 6 still has the DXF file import.
Google bought Sketch-up to create content for Google Earth, I imagine Trimble would want it for a similar reason.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Google bought it so users would have a free easy-to-use tool to contribute to Google Maps/Earth. A GPS provider would also want free work to improve the 3D structures in their maps.
This is Google concentrating on their core business area - ads. If it doesn't have ads on it, it's going.
What does Google have left that doesn't have ads, or collects data on users to support ads?
To make GIS data acquisition more intuitive to a wider audience. That part isn't all bad. I can easily imagine a total station with SketchUp integrated. This could compete favorably with 3D scanners and working from point clouds for interior surveys.
Great for Trimble and some of their potential customers... We'll have to see on everyone else.
I volunteer at a local community theatre, fulfilling a wide range of different roles from time to time. Recently, I worked as a Technical Director for a production, which included the necessity of doing the set design.
Previously, another enterprising TD had created a Sketchup model of the interior of our back-box theatre space, and used that to do set designs. Let me tell you, apart from some annoying UI issues (trying to convert 2-D input into 3-D input), Sketchup is absolutely fantastic for designing and visualizing different sets and audience creation. I highly recommend it to anyone out there for creating 3-D models of their sets, once the 2-D sketches are completed.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
SketchUp isn't cloud-based, moron.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
Get real. One person asked about being moved off of it, but otherwise, no carps. Yoink, give it a rest.
There's always been a massive price difference between the pro and standard version, $500 and free. The pro version looks like fun but it's way over priced. Cut it in half and I think a lot more would consider it. Google was mostly feeding off designers that are software challenged so they were able to keep the price high because they really didn't care if it sold or not since the focus was the free consumer version. I think they'll be in for an ugly surprise if they try to charge for Sketch Up the basic version so I doubt that's in the works. I'd expect fewer upgrades and more versions with the pricing being more distributed between the free standard version and hopefully a cheaper pro version.
Hardly narrowing. There are better ways for translating flat objects into 3D ones and google is probably already implementing one of them.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
To the detriment of all of us
Why? Had Google sold Sketchup to Autodesk, then it would have been very bad news for the consumer. Trimble actually seems to be the perfect fit for Sketchup. Sketchup is much more likely to survive and thrive in an environment like Trimble than inside Google.
Well, so much for ever getting that Linux version :(
Your assertion :
Trimble actually seems to be the perfect fit for Sketchup
does sound kinda suspicious, that most of us do not know nothing about "Trimble"
There are so many yet-to-be-answered questions:
Who are they?
How were they being financed?
Which direction are they going to move Sketchup - forward, backward, 64-bits, opencl compatibility, a Linux native version ....
Will they be acquired by AutoDesk?
WHAT ???
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
http://youtu.be/wqmym7JKWLo
Trimble is huge in the GPS world. They've been acquiring companies left and right for a few years now
I have been hoping that Google would have published the Sketchup data structure and released the Sketchup to AutoCad file exporter.
A recent book, titled roughly The Power of Free used Google as an example of a firm that gave away a valuable service in return for a more modest income from side businesses ancillary to what they gave away. (Gmail and Search are examples of this).
I was hoping that Google would see Sketchup as a candidate for fitting into that same business model. Sketchup is one of the most appealing 3-d design applications around and the Sketchup data structure probably is a really well thought out object.
I really like Sketchup (running on Linux via Wine). Google was a firm capable of revealing the Sketchup data structure and using the business model of giving away a valuable component and finding revenue in the side businesses.
In the case of computer aided design, the whole field is locked in prisons of proprietary data structures and astronomical software prices.
A Google business decision to publish the Sketchup data structure and some export tools would have allowed dozens of free open source engineering computer aided design applications to be created.
Instead, Google appears to have done a conventional Sketchup value analysis based on it's relatively small group of Professional edition software buyers. And the result is, Sketchup is now yet another member of the high priced proprietary computer aided design field.
Can't see this beeing good for Sketchup in any way. Will probably turn into a free viewer-only version in no time. Without export functionality.
My wife is an Architect but she qualified too soon to get experience with CAD. So when the time came to buy a copies of autocad and revit she was totally stumped by their complexity. She bought a commercial copy of sketchup for this reason. It is 3D CAD without the clutter. The concepts are easier to learn, and it made a transition to revit possible.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I have a fairly good clue of what's going on since the company I work for (Tekla) got recently acquired by Trimble. Except for long term roadmap, they've pretty much left us alone (at least it seems that way to us programmers). Trimble wants to create a competetive vertical solution in the construction industry to compete with Autodesk's toolchain. Autodesk pretty much dominates the construction industry, and their ecosystem is proprietary and closed. The counterbalance to this is a developing toolchain of tools built around the IFC format which is standardized and open. Trimble already had most of the other pieces in a complete architect-to-the-construction yard toolchain except for an archictecture software, and now they have it. This means, there is now true competition in the construction segment offering information tools, and not only Autodesk and Autodesk. This sort of competition is good, people.At least so far the non-Autodesk parties try to break their dominant position with collaborative tools and an open format. Of course, what the situation will be in the future? Who knows.
Time to dust off my mail server books.
I don't feel good anymore, carrying an Android with me, even though I use a different account.
Have anyone setup a mail/contacts/calendar server vis-à-vis Android devs on Linux? I'd pay for a GPL solution.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
You cannot open-source some software you acquired so easily. There are probably loads of patents and closed source libraries involved...
Search RapidShare and MegaUpload!
I think that is amazing, and they should sell off all the other ones they put back on the shelf when they closed the lab down, make some extra cash back for all those great ideas they invested in.
As an architect who has used sketchup for the past 10 years this might not be a terrible thing, although that depends on Trimble -- a company I know nothing about.
Google did increase the speed of the modeller as well as fix several bugs (shadow bug, in particular) but these took longer than seemed necessary -- focusing instead on (reasonably enough) features to integrate it with google earth, as well as some gimicky 'styles'. But it stagnated as a professional modeller. The big improvements have come from independent plugins (which is probably what google intended).
Still, I'm hopeful that Trimble might be able to fundamentally improve the modeler. Incorporating NURBS, would be great, as well as better boolean operations and selection methods (although these last two are somewhat covered by plugins).
About the price -- $500 vs. free seems like a big deal, but $500 compared to any (most) other modelling software is a steal! Besides, the 2 biggest differences are the export options (although the free still can export collada and obj (with plugin)) and the ability to create dynamic components. If you're not using the software professionally you probably won't miss these and if you are you probably won't mind the relatively small cost.
Even if Trimble doesn't continue the free version, the current free version should keep working just fine.
Check out this unofficial source for information about the Trimble Acquisition of Sketchup. It has links to a bunch of the news articles, and a write up about Trimble. Do you know what kind of industries they are in already? I think Google is leaving Sketchup in good hands.