11/21/2023 0 Comments Sketchup software purchaseOn Tuesday of this week, I had the opportunity to speak with Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, one of the top two CAD software companies along with Autodesk. Wouldn’t it be great to see a new version that had you modeling your house in just a day or a weekend to a high degree of accuracy with some sort of handheld scanner or model-capture device? I’d be in line today to buy it. The combination of SketchUp with the workflow of Trimble’s data collection tools, and perhaps a low-cost laser scanning device, could greatly speed the model creation workflow. There are a very deep number of YouTube-based tutorials to get you up to speed, but while the documentation is great, it’s not a tool that many will invest the necessary time into, in today’s time-cramped lifestyle. The SketchUp software remains powerful, and rich in functionality for a free product, but it takes a good bit of time to wrap your mind around the many toolbars. The SketchUp modeling tools could use some serious streamlining to improve the model creation workflow. My guess is that there’s a clause that the free viewer must continue. There’s no word on the continuation of free SketchUp capabilities for the masses, but Google would suffer a lot of bad publicity if they were to allow this free tool to go away or for someone to charge for it. The news that Trimble and Google will combine forces to continue to contribute to the 3D Warehouse means that the display of models within Google Maps and Earth will continue. These promotions certainly have added to the amount of 3D data in Google Earth, but the world is a big place and it would likely take centuries of such projects before the data was collected in one country, let alone the world. To spur this effort, Google had a yearly “Model Your Town” competition, where the winning town received recognition for their efforts. SketchUp was initially meant to spur crowdsourcing of 3D city models, opening up a pipeline of detailed amateur-created models that would cost the company nothing to capture. It would make some sense for SketchUp to be jettisoned if the eventuality of HD 3D city models with Google Maps and Earth were to be hitting the Web soon. To date, I’ve only seen this type of data in NAVTEQ’s booth, and not on the open market in any sort of browser view with rich 3D details. It’s no secret that they’ve continued to add to the sensor array on the vehicles to include LiDAR point cloud data capture. My bet is on Google’s development of rich 3D data through all their ongoing StreetView data collection. The question of the timing leads to a whole raft of speculation. The proximity, certainly has meant a series of existing partnerships between the companies, although according to a recent conversation, Google uses Topcon technology for StreetView data collection. The fact that SketchUp is in Boulder, and that Trimble is close by in Westminster, Colo., likely had something to do with the deal. Trimble has been the North American entity that has been gobbling up a huge string of geospatial companies, alongside Sweden-based Hexagon.
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