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Revit 2014 & ArchiCAD 17, please meet your friend SketchUp Pro 2013

So this is big news. Lots to read.

I was too busy with my impending move to get this out the day everyone else was freaking out about SketchUp Pro 2013. But that’s okay, news like this deserves to be mulled over. And I think it’s going to take a while, especially with what my Summer is looking like, to digest all the implications of this new release. In general I’m very impressed; the people behind the development of SketchUp have a really good understanding of where the industry is going. They are clearly doing a good job of focusing on what I see as the major trends in the coming years: digitization, 3D printing, and connectedness.

SketchUp+logo

Improvements to LayOut

One of my biggest complaints about SketchUp (let’s go ahead and say the biggest) is that compared to other architectural software, ESPECIALLY ArchiCAD, their documentation tools are a joke. SketchUp Pro 2013 takes documentation seriously, and this could be the start of a big game changer. I still think powerhouse BIM tools have plenty to offer over SketchUp and LayOut, but if the models can be traditionally documented better then that’s good news for SketchUp users. And bad news for the sales guys at Autodesk, Nemetschek, Graphisoft, and Bentley Systems.

I’m very intrigued by the addition of a full screen presentation mode for LayOut. This fits well with my recent discussions of reinventing our documentation. If your design and production tool can also handle presentations, not only do you not need to print, maybe you don’t even need to export. Granted, that might be a little farfetched at this junction. But there’s already a free version of SketchUp, why not a free version of Layout that’s just for viewing? I could see it. Or something like it. PDFs are great and all, but we can do better.

The Maker Movement

The free version of SketchUp has been re-branded SketchUp Make to better align and connect this free 3D modeling software to the Maker movement. This is a genius move. Highlighting SketchUp’s usefulness for non-professional, do-it-yourself 3D printing is great. Not just for Trimble, but for everyone really. The mass-customization that will come with ubiquitous 3D printing will open up so many possibilities. SketchUp will only be one option in this 3D printing ecosystem, but their involvement will be intentional and focused, not accidental or kludged. Of course SketchUp Make will only be for personal 3D printing. Using it to create STL files that are used to make salable items is a breach of the clarified license agreement:

Trimble Navigation Limited and/or its affiliates (“Trimble”) gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use the executable version of the Software for non-commercial use only. Non-commercial use means: you may not sell, rent, lease or lend the output of the Software or the Services. If you are a for-profit organization of any kind, or an employee of a for-profit organization using the Software or Services in that capacity, you are engaged in commercial activity; therefore, in order to use the Software and Services, you must purchase a SketchUp Pro license.

The Center of an Ecosystem

To me the biggest strength SketchUp has is that it’s the center of a giant, vibrant, and growing ecosystem of add-ons, plugins, 3D models, etc. Historically this has been most obvious with the 3D Warehouse. So many people dump content (good and bad) in there that whenever you need some random object (even if you’re not using SketchUp), it’s probably already there. For instance when I was looking for zombies for my BIMx competition entry back in 2011, the 3D Warehouse gave me plenty of options. That huge mass of 3D stuff has been a great advantage for SketchUp, and I imagine it was an inspiration for Graphisoft’s own BIMcomponents-with luck BIMcomponents will attain a similar critical mass of usefulness. Well with SketchUp in 2013 they are introducing the Extension Warehouse, which is a central clearing house for plugins. Right from within SketchUp you can access a world of bonus functionality developed by a rabid ecosystem of developers. No more searching and scouring the web. This will definitely give SketchUp further clout and momentum. Of course what I want to see is some plugins or development of the core program to help it integrate into the OpenBIM movement. It is making baby steps in that direction. But if SketchUp is to ever become a real BIM contender then it needs to take IFC and OpenBIM seriously. Fortunately Trimble-the new owner of SketchUp-takes IFC and OpenBIM seriously. So perhaps we’ll see some developments in this direction in 2014…

It has a Year in its Name

When SketchUp Pro 2013 was announced the first thing that struck me was the appearance of a year in the name. I immediately thought “I’ll bet my 401k that SketchUp has joined the yearly update train.” No software company (these days) ever includes a year in their product name unless they are declaring that it’ll be superseded within the next 12 months. And in fact this is exactly what SketchUp is doing. They are now on a yearly update + subscription model, just like all the major BIM players. Of course since this is SketchUp, the cost of subscription is about a 1/10 of some other software’s yearly subscriptions.

All in all, the gauntlet has been thrown. Autodesk, Nemetschek, Graphisoft, and Bentley Systems better be paying attention to this release. SketchUp Pro 2013 appears to be the start of something big. There is a lot of potential and I’d wager Trimble has some exciting things in store for us in 2014 and beyond. I hope this competition spurs the other companies to counter with some great advancements of their own.

Want to read some of my other recent thoughts on SketchUp? Here’s some things I think SketchUp has to teach ArchiCAD. For more of my thoughts on all sorts of Architectural and Architectural Software related issues follow Shoegnome on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

Comments

  • July 7, 2013
    reply

    Djordje

    While I mostly agree, I do mourn the demise of the original SketchUp and still feel that it is trying to be something – or that it is being made into something – that it’s inherently not. Yes, it is a great ecosystem, wonderful software, and probably the way forward as the mainstay players that you have listed more than once have a problem: baggage.

    Trimble, with its acquisitions (Tekla, Vico …) does not have one thing in its BIM ecosystem: the modeler. Can SketchUp or something based on it be it?

    However – BIM it is not. Yet? Let’s wait and see. On the other hand – it is BIM in the minds of many people that are happy with the clash detection and generating submission documents from the models (up to a point).

    As for the presentation … don’t hold your breath. Approval departments everywhere still like paper, digital or otherwise, and frown at colour PDFs … such is the strenght of the tradition.

      • July 16, 2013
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        Djordje

        Not.

        ArchiCAD’s GDL models are the most powerful and the least used object ecosystem available. SketchUp’s modeling engine is NOT parametric, it is surface, and misses the I. Yes, Warehouse has gazillions of objects – did you try to use more than 5 in a project? Exactly my point.

        What I mean by “the modeler” is what the dearly deceased Vico Constructor was. Not because it was based on my BIM engine of choice, but because it was a CONSTRUCTION BIM modeler package. None out there now, all the other were made for this or that, and CAN be used for construction modeling.

        Luckily, Vico Office exists, so you can translate various models (or even plain dumb 2D stuff) to construction usable data.

          • July 16, 2013
            reply

            Djordje

            … 😉 this looks like a plug, but it’s not 🙂

            I think you should ask a certain person with the initials DNC to do a blog on GDL.

    • July 25, 2013
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      James Fourie

      I Agree – BIM – SketchUp is not. More akin to ArchiCAD’s Morph Tool. Which got me thinking – What if ArchiCAD released the Morph tool as a free entiity – but with a layout component. Something that takes on Sketchup Pro but for free. It could become the program of choice for all design students and a feeder for people into the ArchiCAD fold. It could then develop a community of its own with all the add-ons, plugins and models that Jared speaks of. The Morph tool handles anything curved better than Sketchup and then there is the BIMx viewer to go with it. What a great long term marketing strategy this could be for ArchiCAD.

  • August 21, 2013
    reply

    Morph tool is very limited compared to sketchup make, and the archicad modelling enviroment is really bad – sketchup too as it gets so slow with even medium projects. I have powerfull workstations but putting few morphs in archicad slows down the whole program sooo much that it is just funny. Look at 3ds max and rhino they can work with rich 3d without a problem. Same is for sketchup the scenes are dying very quickly, but this is probably because the lack of 64 bit architecture. This is fundamental and no extra features will fix this, the software needs new 3d engines very badly. Hopefully trimble will move their tekla engine to Sketchup as it is great in handling big geometries.

      • August 21, 2013
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        I have not, but I am sure that shells and morphs are slowing down AC a lot. We have recently modeled a roof using 49 shell pieces and it crippled that new ground braking AC 17 processing power. I don’t even start talking about importing IFC 😉

  • October 24, 2013
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    Martin

    first of all for revit users sketchup would be great opportunity to move office to os x system, because Autodesk is sleeping on that issue, we learned from automotive industry that sleeping is a silent killer, major US automotive concerns almost lost market, almost because Ford and other make really nice cars now, I hope sketchup will wake autodesk up, and who knows, if sketchup will have better pro tools for construction documentation it maybe one of the biggest players!

  • December 13, 2013
    reply

    mk

    how good is sketchup for animation? does it have multiple camera set up

    • December 14, 2013
      reply

      Djordje

      Render in ArtLantis …

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