Picked up by another big boy (Trimble) who at least have a more commensurate stable of products but who may not really know what they want to do with it and in any case have much bigger fish to fry. Gets noticed by one of the big boys (Google) who snap it up for a king’s ransom but toy with it like a lion might a mouse for a while and then toss it aside. Started by a (no doubt) small but highly energised and capable bunch of programmers who produced something fresh that burst onto the scene about 20 years ago. I believe the history of SU is that of much modern software. Even Trimble employees, were they allowed to say, may not know. Having used AutoCAD since it was first released on floppy disks, various others over the years, there is NOTHING better for quick 3D mockups.

One of the add-on developers recently contacted many of told us they were no longer supporting us, made the code open source, because they see little future. So what is the future? Why can’t Trimble tell us? The last post I found on this issues is years ago. Have always jumped on the leading edge and seen many products slowly disappear due to a variety of reasons. I have 35 years in software development as so-so developer but mainly in product management and as president of a big-data software company.

I don’t see much in the way of development or future.

I have used it for designing pergolas, very large, multi-story decks, furniture, etc. Mainly for woodworking and house renovation projects. I have been using Sketchup for a long time.

Sketchup2022