

I don’t see that as a very smart business decision. So, let’s see, you’ve taken on additional development workload, cut off users loyal to the Make with no option to purchase it for a reasonable price, and are forcing people to go Pro. You’ve got Make - a subset of Pro, so it’s not like you have to support a separate code base - like you must for the Free web-version. At least they’ll have time to make that decision. Then, once they’re hooked, they can decide for themselves - do they want to buy the Pro version or relearn the UI on the web. Either I must cancel the class or tell people to download the Make 2017 version - which is exactly what I plan to do. I also believe, in the long run, people will be less likely to upgrade to professional due to the re-learning curve on the UI. Personally, I think this was a boneheaded mistake and I think you all will figure that out soon. Worse, the shop currently does not have wifi, so attendees cannot follow along on their laptops. While I like the idea of a web based version, I don’t want to teach it because I forces me to learn a 2nd UI very quickly (first class is tomorrow). I have been asked to teach Sketchup to any/all that are interested. I am a member of a woodworker’s club here in Sun City that has close to 600 members. A couple of them have gone on to buy Pro. I am an evangelist of sorts, having encouraged more than a dozen people to download and use Make.

I own the professional version and use it extensively. I predict you’ll lose more people by dumping Make than you would have by putting a $200 price on it.Īs for me, that you have dropped the download version of Sketchup Make is very unsatisfactory. That way you’re not cutting off your users (I suspect you have many more Make users than Pro) at the knees and offering an untenable choice - step back to an inferior and awkward web-based tool or pay up and go Pro. I suggest that a more effective strategy would have been to keep Make, but put a price on it - say, somewhere around 1/2 the price of Pro, AND have the free web based. But the step from there to Pro is too big. It might even bring some into the Sketchup fold. There are a lot of people who will “play” with the web tool, possibly even use it effectively for some projects.

The free web based tool is not an adequate replacement for make and people won’t pay $600 to go Pro.ĭon’t get me wrong. But I believe that while some new users might find the simplicity of the web UI appealing, there are so many negatives that people given the choice of going from Make to Pro or to the Free web-based tool, will quite likely opt out of Sketchup altogether. One can only imagine that it was financial, that those at the top felt they were giving away too much by having Make be “free”. One can only imagine the motivation for killing Sketchup Make in favor of the “free” web-based Sketchup.
