derei Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 One of the most successful 3D Mesh Modellers was SketchUp. The initial developers (@Last was their name) came with the most intuitive and simple way so far to work in the 3D space. Unfortunately, since Trimble acquired SketchUp, things started to go south and the company is more focused in money making at all costs (and by this I mean sucking the blood out of the people which have little choice but to stay with Sketchup for one reason or another) and did too little to improve the software and the experience. The new version (SketchUp 2019 just moved towards web-based and yearly subscription...and users aren't happy about it. On the other hand, there is another company which thought there would be a bit of a market to compete with SketchUp (Bricsys - https://www.bricsys.com/en-intl/), they are offering the free software Brics CAD Shape (https://www.bricsys.com/en-intl/shape/). The similarities with SketchUp are obvious, but the downside of this one is they won't allow expansion by using plugins. SketchUp's real power came from plugins developed by the community members. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for Affinity to consider an alternative for SketchUp, following the same principles: take what is good and make it better, but at a decent price. And focused on users, because users will reward you for that. Wishing you best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hile Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 There is, indeed, a vocal contingent of SU users upset about the 2019 release but derei I think misstates the situation. I don't want to generate another big controversy on this forum, but there is no web-based pro version and while there is now a subscription option available, current users still have the option to continue their existing perpetual license. I do agree with derei that it would be a great idea for Affinity to look into an alternative to SU, if you are not already doing so. Two major issues, of course, would be the development of tablet-based versions, and the question of extensibility either by Affinity or third-party developers, which, as derei correctly points out, is where SU's real power comes from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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