Google sold Sketchup.

Yesterday [ulr=http://ww2.trimble.com/3d/]Trimble officially aquired Google Sketchup.

Might be of interest to one or the other, don’t worry, so far the free version is still said to be available.

interesting, I hope it makes sketchup better.

ouch. just a couple of days ago someone was spamming this forum with sketchup posts. now they got sold. i’m very curious about what he is feeling right now.

what will happen to sketchup? will the price of the pro version increase? will there still be a free version and for how long?

will he still spam this forum with sketchup posts on unrelated threads? :smiley:

I am not really sure what heck is going on. Google got Sketchup for their Google World module and selling SK makes me ask the future of such services.

I am sure the interior and architects are maybe a bit nervous about this as SKU turned into the defacto standard in their areas for mast model make ups.

I’ve baffled myself. Sketchup has become widly popular. All kinds of people use it. Even comic book artists use it.

I’m sure it helped Google in some ways (marketing wise?). I wonder what made them sell.

There is a long discussion on the Sketchup forum about this; they are trying to convince themselves that everything will be fine and dandy. I read the Trimble market-speak/management-speak announcement and I found no indication that Trimble is interested in SketchUp and its well being and the community: they clearly state that they are going to integrate SketchUp tech into their products (and nothing else).

I presume that, at best, SketchUp will languish in their hand, at worst that new features will be added to a new, pay-only version (and pay dearly).

This is perversely a great oppurtunity for Blender: add some SketchUp-like tools/workflow options to Blender in order to make life for people jumping boat easier (I mean e.g. plugins like the coming smooth bevel plugin). With BMesh, Blender things are much nearer to SketchUp than before: when using the knife you can follow an almost SketchUp-like workflow. Yesterday I was trying the knife and the inset face tool and I found myself modeling a low-poly industrial building using nearly exactly the same workflow I would have used with SketchUp :yes:.

The real moral of the story is that “cloud” companies like Google can be relied upon as much as what cloud are: masses of vapour, not rocks upon which build houses (comment which, in the present contest, doubles as an atrocious pun).

SU is full of great tools.
Especially the predicting snapping tools I find great!
But I think they patented the pull/push function.
Do anybody know if any other of the tools/workflows are so?

I am excited about the GSOC proposal of Luke Frisken in relation to this.
It could include something like the pen tool of sketchup.

The push-pull is patented though it is only partially interesting as the pulling is just an extrusion and the pushing can be simulated with improved (non-tri generating) booleans.

What I sorely miss in Blender are the protractor and the construction lines; something with similar functionality should not be terribly complex to develop (for reference, see YouTube SketchUp tutorials).

X-Ray views are cute but I think that they can be simulated with appropriate materials. Sections should be withing booleans reach.

It’s strange to read that Google sell something, usually each time i read an article about Google, it’s them buying something.

Maybe Google should just back Blender 100% because it is becoming more viable for architects and product designers thanks to the addition of Bmesh and Cycles.

jpb06 I agree the camera functions for modeling in SKU are great.

What makes SKU so great is how you like in Flash sketch the outlines / profiles and through intersecting lines and areas the software automatically can trim those.

There is hardly anything there that could simulate that fast speed of sketching - only AutoDesk Sketchbook Designer.

Blender got a lot better for modeling, snapping, boolean tools. But it still lacks a model library drag-n-drop and others that just make SKU so attractive to designers.

Other than for GSoC I would not want Google to set their eyes on Blender at all, sure it would be great if Google would pay for the future development of Blender but most likely it wouldn’t continue being open-source and even if they would give out a free version we would still have to pay up for features like Cycles and Bmesh.

Yeah, we don’t want google to be part of blender! Its coming along fine without that kinda of backing. We just have to continue to support their growth. Really looking forward to when Blender becomes an equal to other more expensive software, and then kicks their butts!! (I can dream can’t I?)

Well, Blender is under GPL. This means that it cannot be sold, because Google will have to sell it with GPL = provide source code. Any additions are also must be under GPL unless they are stand along programs. This won’t work for long as developers can easily remove copyrighted material, rename it to Blynder and recompile it. So we can only benefit from Google’s support. If Blender will replace sketch up (a program that became popular b/c of Google Earth), a lot more users will download Blender instead of former.

Google would not be able to legally purchase and re-license Blender to allow separation into a free and paid version unless they not only managed to get approval from Ton and the Institute, but after that, also managed to track down every possible contributor who would then agree to allow the re-licensing of their code.

On top of that, the only way Google might be able to do that without going through all what I have written above is if they started from the initial open source version of Blender. Otherwise (if they did get the Institute’s permission to become Blender’s new owners), they may very well have to start with a stripped down version of Blender with all the code from people who wouldn’t agree to re-licensing removed. So Google would be a difficult situation as they likely would not have anywhere close to the functionality of 2.63 and possibly not have anything worth marketing.

Google can just buy Blender Foundation, who is gonna step up and lead the future development if not Ton? Without him and the team Blender will just die, no-one else is familiar enough with the code to just pick it up and continue development so while Google might not be able to really buy the source code they can certainly stop the development efficiently and continue developing their own Blender-spinoff.

Isn’t the foundation part a non-profit organization, because I thought it wasn’t possible for corporations to simply buy them up legally unless I missed something?

No idea, I’ve never heard anything about that.

I would not want Google to buy Blender or BF. That would be scary considering. What I thought they could do is become a more visible sponsor.

And yeah, when you are a foundation it means you are a non profit organization. I don’t think you companies can buy a foundation.

Back to Sketchup. Why would they sell it just when SU is at the peak of its popularity? I am sure money is not an issue with Google.

Google didnt get to where they are now by writing checks. Based on the changes they have been making to adWords and a number of their free products it looks like Google is trying to cut down on the loss-leaders.