Some major news in the article is that the dxf/dwg importers will be removed from the Free version of SketchUp. (The Pro version will still have them.)
In the next release of Google SketchUp, our free modeler, we've decided to remove the dwg/dxf importers. We know how important these importers are to our professional customers, especially those who depend on CAD products in their daily work. And for that reason we'll focus our attention on supporting them in Google SketchUp Pro, where we really understand all the nuances of your workflow and where we can provide professional support to troubleshoot your issues.
It seems like this is going to hit a lot of people pretty hard. The license for the Free version allows commercial use, and I would guess a lot of small businesses and individuals who otherwise could not afford it are using the Free version for business. No longer having the ability to import drawing files could really hurt.
Read it here.
Will you be affected?
2 comments:
It's a very bad new. But as you can import it in Google Sketchup 6/7, and then export it as a Google Sketchup file, I don't see any sense on it. If you can't have two versions of sketchup on the same OS, you can virtualize.
So honestly, I can't see any sense on this. Anyway dxf is a known format and someone can write an exporter/importer for it... In fact skp is being imported more and more in different software.
In general I am a bit dissapointed with sketchup, and not only with sketchup as a software, I refer to their community. Lately, as soon as an opensource iniciative begins, it's suddenly stopped and you see that a commercial one and very simmilar begins elsewhere. I am thinking of City Generator, for example.
The only thing that they are going to obtain is that I forget sketchup and take more seriously blender. I use it for free, not for profesional use. Anyway there is not difference at allo between Sketchup 6 and 7 in their free versions, and if the only "new" thing they can do is to limit their characteristics... bye bye, sketchup.
Also, there are a lot of programmers all over the world. Someone may show off and write importer.
At least, various exporters are exist :)
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