Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

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pdwyer
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Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by pdwyer » Sat May 04, 2019 1:08 pm

Apologies if this topic has been hashed out already, if I'm flogging a dead horse please feel free to point me to the thread so I can catch up!

I've been away from CG for a year or so and came back to find that Trimble doesn't make a free version anymore. I'm guessing that the web (browser) free version doesn't support all the plugins that the community have built.

I was thinking of going Pro but I noticed that they had a subscription system now :! I'm not a fan of subscriptions as I tend to skip versions till there is something new I want, then I'm happy to pay for an upgrade.

I'm guessing that people are either using the Pro subscription or sticking with 2017 make?

I could be overthinking this but the community really built sketchup over several purchases by different companies and now the community's work only works with the prod version. I'm wondering, is Sketchup is still the tool to stay with...

It's so much faster to model with than Blender but if it's fading then I don't really want to invest more money on it, better spent on learning cycles

Everything I model I render with twilight so I'm wondering what the twilight community thinks...

Anyway, as said, if this topic has been laid to rest, please point me to the details

Cheers

Paul

Fletch
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by Fletch » Sat May 04, 2019 2:54 pm

Comparing SketchUP and Blender is something I avoid, as it's like comparing a Honda Accord with a Monster Truck. I mean, Monster "Blender" Truck can be used for driving to the grocery store, but it's not the most practical thing, is it?
The Honda can be tricked out, "pimped", "souped up", a thousand ways to do amazing things even better than the Monster Truck, but it's still not a monster truck. :lol:

That said, it is true that SketchUp has changed now that a new company owns it. That company sees no financial benefit to building on what the massive SketchUp community/user base has built over the past several years so obviously that leaves the community "in the lurch."

Some would say, if you are professional making money from building projects with SketchUp, then purchasing the Pro version is simply the right thing to do. If you prefer to drive the Accord, do you really want to learn to drive a monster truck? Is the money saved by learning blender more or less than the money one would spend on SU pro? Hard to say, as the latest version of Blender looks significantly better than the past.

Food for thought.

pdwyer
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by pdwyer » Sun May 05, 2019 4:23 am

Cheers Fletch,

Actually I wasn't looking to kicking off a comparison chat about blender :shock: , It's a different tool with different strengths. I'm just concerned about the future sketchup from a community perspective and Blender is the only real alternative I'm aware of if I change (I should look around a bit more I guess).

I don't use sketchup professionally and make no money out of using it. The only money I've spent has been on plugins for animation and modelling features, and add-on software like Twilight

Trimble isn't a software company so I doubt they'll feel much pain from damaging the SU community, sketchup is just a small part of their strategy.

Will twilight consider supporting other platforms the way Thea or V-Ray do if the user base starts to fade from sketchup?
Or perhaps there's a way to save the browser version and open it in a Twilight UI for rendering...

Fletch
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by Fletch » Sun May 05, 2019 11:55 am

pdwyer wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 4:23 am Will twilight consider supporting other platforms the way Thea or V-Ray do if the user base starts to fade from sketchup?
Or perhaps there's a way to save the browser version and open it in a Twilight UI for rendering...
Great questions, yes, Twilight will consider other platforms.
A way to convert browser version may be possible as well. :^:

Mike1158
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by Mike1158 » Wed May 08, 2019 9:29 am

Perhaps a core program with imports/adaptive code for alternative products. Not unusual in render programs and something that will retain sales/user levels which is important with any type of software.

I believe there is a need for Twilight to continue to be successful and not simply for the community but the strength of the core program/developers.

Stay well folks and be happy. :hat: :clap:

pdwyer
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by pdwyer » Wed May 08, 2019 12:20 pm

Reading through posts at SketchUcation, it looks a bit grim. The pro users will hang on (although less of them since the price has risen) and since the free Make users will not have a platform that support plugins they look like they'll move to blender.

I guess the more architecture and CAD people will go pro and the hobbyist model/renderers will jump when the 2017 version gets to old

Many people have noticed a lot of new features hit blender but not wanted to be bothered to spend the time to get past the learning curve, especially in the mesh modelling area.

I suspect the migration of users will increase as some of the minor plugin developers will jump ship too. :doh:

I came across this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MZkjXanO14

It actually starts with the reasons why sketchup better for some cases and doesn't seem too biased. When both were free this kind of video was mostly ignored by people who used one tool or the other.

Last time I used Blender was in 2010. You had to use tri's and quads and there were no n'gons so it was a huge hassle to model if you didn't want to be bothered with topology loops. Yafaray downloads were needed to render anything decent too, Lux cost $$

Seems times have changed.

I'd buy a Twilight plugin for blender!!

RTD Laboratories
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by RTD Laboratories » Mon May 20, 2019 6:42 pm

Just now saw this thread, and yeah, I was feeling very meh about them discontinuing the Make version. Now they even changed the launch screen to "Make isn't getting any younger, consider switching to these alternatives" and those being free and pro. Since the free version is basically a stripped-down web version of Make with no plugin support at all, and the pro version is now subscription based I'll just stick to the last Make version for now.

As for Blender, I've tried it a few times but it's just been really confusing to learn and since I could easily do what I need in SketchUp anyway I didn't really have the motivation to invest time into learning Blender properly either. But we'll see how it goes, the extensions seem to sill be compatable for a few versions back so I can still get any features I need that way for now.
Andrew F

SpookyChick
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by SpookyChick » Tue May 21, 2019 1:57 am

I understand the reasons Trimble has foir making their choices. Profit has a strong influence.

That said, I think their choices are reprehensible. I'm a 2017 Pro user and I'm sticking with SU 2017 Pro for now. In a few years? Who knows? The future has yet to be written.

The problem with SU has been from the beginning, a lack of willingness on the part of the devteam to write 3d modeling program optimised for anything other than simple, small scale architecture. Trimble spurned the already disfavored Sci-Fi, Concept Art and Environment art segments of the community. The pattern for this was already set years before, by some of the members of the AtLast devteam. Meanwhile the heavy duty modeling and rendering software giants have actively embraced the aforementioned communities. The results are beginning to become obvious.

As far as SU being an effective platform for CG art, sci-fi and organic or environmental modeling especially, It is only through the efforts of the SU community, even to the point of community members becoming members of the dev team, that SU has become as good as it has. It still does not measure up to Daz 3d, Blender or several others for handling massive models.

The problem with Blender (and Daz 3d, and many others) is not lack of features.

It's the difficult, imbecilic interface.

If the people at blender.org would put out out a front end UI for Blender that's as easy to use as SU, I'd switch. I love TWR, and I hope that it becomes compatible with other platforms, or that someone could put together an SU like modeling function, integrated into TWR..

Why would I leave SU, if there were a better modeling software? Because I'm tired of being the kitsune in the village. I'm tired of getting kicked around by an unsympathetic devteam who seems to think that architecture is the only worthy use for 3d CG.

I don't want to give the impression I am maligning architects. Far from it! You folks do amazing things, and are practicing your own form of art. In your own way, you do the same thing we Sci-Fi otaku are doing. Building and designing the future.

No, I am maligning the attitudes and shortsighted, narrow-minded thinking of the executives at Trimble, and certain members of the devteam.

Anyway, there's my two copper ryo on the issue. Apologies if I sound bitter. I am. I didn't need to find out Trimble's pulling this on top of all the other bad news going on in my world, and I did not need to find out that I made the wrong bet when I went Pro a couple years ago.

Ja ne!

pdwyer
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by pdwyer » Wed May 22, 2019 11:19 am

kitsune in the village
:D I suspect you are in my part of the world, or at least have some connection. I live in Chiba.

I started looking at some blender on videos, 2.8 is coming out and the beta is nice, it's come a long way since I used it before. There was a time when it only handled tri's and quads and ngons weren't an option. Now the particles, physical and animation have come a long way, they even have camera tracking for video compositing built in.

I'm a little busy to deep dive right now but when 2.8 comes out I'll give it a go for my next little test project. My PC has more GPU power than CPU so that should be good for rendering.

SpookyChick
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Re: Twilight only for Sketchup pro and old make now?

Post by SpookyChick » Sat May 25, 2019 2:24 am

Tucson, actually! but hai, there is bit of connection. I spent good amount of time in Kyoto many years ago, before making my way to Arizona by way of Britain, I mean, Airstrip One. :D

I also spent some time in Aki, and Shibuya, but that was a rare treat.

I hope you're enjoying Chiba!

Ja ne!

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