On April 26, 2012, Trimble announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SketchUp® from Google. SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world. As part of the SketchUp platform, Trimble will also partner with Google on running and developing SketchUp's 3D Warehouse, an online repository where users can find, share, store and collaborate on 3D models. — sketchupdate.blogspot.com
As pointed out elsewhere around the web, the development of SketchUp's core has not progressed very much since being acquired several years ago by Google. This move, which includes the entire SketchUp team, puts product development in the hands of a company that is already embedded in the planning/engineering fields while maintaining collaboration with Google. At the moment it appears that there will be no changes to the current pricing model (free/pro).
Trimble's statement | Press release | FAQ about the acquisition and transition
8 Comments
I can't say I'm pleased about this since I can't make heads or tails of what it is Trimble does. Their website reads like it was made by a random jargon generator.
Their primary business is in precision laser, GPS, and GIS for planning and construction industries. Chances are the first changes to SketchUp will be integrating it with current software offered by Trimble (generally geared towards large civil engineering projects). I think it'll be interesting to see what happens though. They have the ability to do a lot of things with it if they're ambitious enough (think workflow-wise rather than built in features like GIS). I realize the business behind all of this might make current SketchUp users a little bit uneasy but Trimble is certainly aware of what they're getting, including the userbase and of course the SketchUp team. If all of a sudden the whole team gets laid off then I guess SketchUp users will just have to learn to do as MacPerspective users did for as long as they could... hold on to their OS5-9 machines as long as they could while making minimal eye contact with anyone with an AutoCad icon on their desktop.
Some 'not so insider' info: In about 6 months the free version of Sketch-Up will become just a 3D model viewer.
Rusty, could you give us a citation for that?
A good move by Google in my opinion. Revit conceptual modeling has complely taken over Sketchup's place as a simple 3d modeler (at my firm at least), and sketchup will never be able to compete with rhino/maya/3ds for formal complexity... The worst part of this though is probably limited further 3d development of Google earth, which is too bad.
That is so true - I do all of my concept work in Revit conceptual modeler and Maya - there are way too many disconnects with sketchup - the beauty of Revit concept is that once integrated into a Revit project, all you have to do is update and boom - all your architectural elements reflect whatever changes made to the concept family objects
"The worst part of this though is probably limited further 3d development of Google earth, which is too bad."
Google was either going to sell sketchup or abandon the platform. Reason being is that they no longer need to rely on manual modelling to build 3D cities. They have other means of "scanning" existing structures now. Google earth is safe.
Mark, I can't give you a citation on that because the future of platform is not fully established yet. That was one of the options. I have friends at Google that I only briefly talked about this. I'll ask more questions this weekend.
ps. sketch-up was never meant to be competition to Revit. that's just silly.
Great news. They will kill the free version of Sketchup, and more "serious" modeling programs will take over. Sketchup has taken the place of 3d Home Architect, a bane for architects. Sketchup Free, RIP.
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