But did Trimble miss an opportunity?
Trimble, the company that sells the most popular CAD program that used to be free, has finally launched SketchUp for the iPad. I can now model directly on an iPad with SketchUp using the Apple Pencil.
It took just two seconds after I heard about this for me to start downloading the software from the Apple Store.
Damn. The full-blown SketchUp costs $119 a year. But you can use SketchUp as a viewer for free. Two models are available as examples. You can use your fingertips to zoom and pan (a very natural process) and use the Pencil to select geometry.
“The way we work has changed and SketchUp for iPad was designed to go wherever work takes our users with a uniquely intuitive 3D experience to help capture and bring creative inspiration to life—whether on the jobsite, in a coffee shop or meeting with clients in an office,” said Christopher Cronin, vice president and general manager of Trimble SketchUp, in the press release. “We’re excited to make 3D even more accessible to designers who’ve always dreamed of working in 3D. We want to help dissolve barriers between the physical and digital worlds by offering immersive and collaborative 3D experiences that can be shared by all stakeholders, from concept through construction.”
The (So-Called) Ease of Modeling by Hand
Anyone who has tried to write or draw on a touch-sensitive surface has found it to be … different somehow, though not necessarily easier. Even early adopters of technology have not taken to the touchscreen for all purposes. To this day, I have been unable to duplicate my signature on a touchscreen. Attempting to sketch a concept as we would with pen and paper only convinces us that the transition from paper is a work in progress. We are impressed by artists who have adapted to the tablet, such as Kenneth Wong, but architects and engineers have yet to show themselves. Objections to drawing on touchscreens are many. Our fingers are too fat, the stylus too expensive ($129 for the Apple Pencil), the screen too slippery and doesn’t have the “feel” of paper. Also, the quick sketch that is acceptable at the bar on a coaster (don’t judge) looks like crap next to a CAD image.
SketchUp knows this. Its Autoshape function can correct your scribbles into straight lines and circles. Where have we heard that before? We remember Siemens introducing Catchbook in 2015, which promised to straighten our scribbles, but the product seems to have disappeared. SketchUp promises Autoshape, which uses machine learning for this magic: converting your roughly drawn 2D shapes into 3D shapes. Whether it can convert a hastily drawn isometric cube into a precise 3D cube, or knows that although you drew a circle, you meant a sphere, remains to be seen. But we do know that it can coax 2D sketches into 3D by dragging it up (in a manner similar to Shapr3D).
SketchUp makes use of the iPad’s camera. You can bring in textures and add them to your model. You can also show your brilliant building design on the vacant lot using augmented reality (AR).
Get Out of the Office
Trimble is counting on the style-conscious architect who is already enamored with all things Apple. With an iPad under her arm, she can bring her vision to the screen whenever she feels creative. So can the married woodworker.
“I build everything from furniture pieces to intricate bookcases,” said George Decherney, an expert woodworker who is quoted on the Trimble website. “With the iPad, I can take my work wherever I go. I can quickly capture my woodworking projects while sitting on the couch with my wife. I’m no longer tied to my desktop. It’s great to have that flexibility.”
The timing is perfect. Trimble knows that what was once the only place to work—the office—is now one choice of many. We can work anywhere now—at home, the office, a coffee shop, the library … so we have to work on our computers. A mobile workstation is more portable than its desktop version, but tablets are built for just that purpose.
SketchUp is a downloaded app, and in that way, unlike Onshape, the machine CAD (MCAD) app that runs on the cloud. However, with Trimble Connect, a design file can be centrally located (on the cloud) and accessed on an iPad or your office computer.
The Other CAD for iPad
Until the announcement of SketchUp on the iPad, the CAD on an iPad market was owned by Shapr3D. The Hungarian startup has recently ported to Windows and is addressing the needs of industrial designers. This shift may be the result of discovering that the iPad may not be a sufficiently big enough launchpad for the company’s goal of achieving CAD domination—or, failing that, displacing Onshape.
Trimble may be letting the mobile MCAD space be fought over by big fish (Onshape, Autodesk with Fusion 360 and Shapr3D) while cannonballing into an AEC space with only little fish (Qonic, Arcol.io and Infurnia).
While the tablet’s use to create or modify design is limited, its ability to view designs is catching on fast. Tablets on construction sites, where they can be used to check buildings against plans and BIM models, are becoming increasingly common.
Free CAD a Lost Opportunity
Now that SketchUp for the iPad is here, we wonder what took Trimble so long. SketchUp’s launch (year 2000) and quick recognition as the easiest-to-use CAD program ever made it the darling of its intended market (architecture) as well as unintended markets (makers). Was the company’s trajectory forestalled by its subsequent acquisitions, first by Google in 2006, and then by Trimble in 2012?
The innovation of startups can be stifled in a larger enterprise. It may find itself in competition with other products. It may lose its voice amid calls for accountability and profit. Remember Visio, everyone’s favorite drag-and-drop diagram maker? After being acquired by Microsoft, it was scarcely heard from.
Google acquired SketchUp thinking that a free, easy-to-use modeler would lead to a Google Earth populated with models of buildings and structures. There may have been 30 million downloads of SketchUp by that time and millions of users who had willingly contributed their models of every possible object, fixture, car, furniture, machine … you name it … to create the biggest free library of 3D models in existence. Perplexed by why this did not lead to Google Earth, natural and man-made, Google made a rare divestiture. It sold SketchUp to Trimble, which was diversifying from the hardware of surveying and construction trade to software of the future. And what better way to do that than to acquire the world’s most popular 3D CAD program?
Trimble kept a free version of SketchUp around for a while, but unlike @Last (original creator of SketchUp) and Google, it was only to lead people to paid versions. But the free version was all anyone wanted. Trimble, having paid as much as $90 million for SketchUp, needed to get a return on its investment sooner rather than later. In 2017, Trimble discontinued the free version of SketchUp entirely, forcing anyone who needed the software to pay for it.
Free CAD programs, notably Onshape, DraftSight and SketchUp, may all look back fondly on the days when all that mattered was growing the user base, but those days were numbered in every case. Most software subscriptions now have severely limited the capability of free versions, if they have them at all, or offer a limited time of free use.
The great CAD giveaway never developed into a sustainable business model. The “freemium” version has not led users to premium version in sufficiently large numbers. Trimble chose to pass on the opportunity to offer a free version for the iPad.
Pity. The iPad version of SketchUp was an opportunity to seize the AEC space on the iPad. Already established as the next generation of mobile devices for professional use, with Apple’s M1 chip in place, the iPad Pro is on the cusp of being adopted every professional creative application.