What were you doing when you were 16? Designing space stations? Well, obviously. Who didn’t? But which CAD software would you choose for such an undertaking? CATIA, ProEngineer, Autocad, Bentley? SketchUp anyone? Eric Yam, joint winner of the NASA Space Settlement Contest used SketchUp to produce a whole range of detailed illustrations and visualisations in a 96 page document!
Now, while Eric probably isn’t the typical 16 year old, he does represent a growing trend regarding the IT literacy of school leavers, which now also extends to 3D design with SketchUp. What this means to you and me is that the generation behind us is born 3D CAD literate. They have tools in their hands we could only dream of. Software companies such as PTC in the past tried to become the de-facto CAD standard by giving away free versions to schools, but these attempts proved fruitless. Indeed, PTC’s ProEngineer has lost much of its market share. It’s too hard to use and too expensive for the mainstream.
What CAD vendors don’t appear to appreciate is that we’re all children when it comes to learning new things. We all start at nothing and work from there. So if software is not useable by children it’s not useable by mainstream adults. Conversely, what works on children will work on adults too.
Worried CAD vendors
Anyone who profits from CAD in any way, either as a user or seller, has a lot to be worried about right now. SketchUp is growing in its user base (and edu base) at an unprecedented level. I was recently at an Autodesk Revit training event where more of the audience questions revolved around SketchUp than the actual product we were there to learn about. And the industry is worried for one very simple reason. They’re starting to lose customer loyalty, and with it their market share. “If you can design a NASA space station with $400 SketchUp Pro, why can’t I use it for my project too?”
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One student a trend does not make. SolidWorks and Autodesk each have stories of high school students making “amazing” 3D models with their software.
SketchUp is not used to design space stations; it is used merely to create conceptual studies. The software lacks the engineering add-ons needed to design the structural, life support, electrical, mechanical, and other systems that truly make up workable designs.
Ralph, I completely agree. Nevertheless, it’s a good example. Having been in industry a while, trying out most CAD products, and also looking at online trends leads me to believe that SketchUp is leaps and bounds more accessible than other CAD software. Most importantly, it’s immensely popular amongst students, and students will be the next generation of decision makers. People use SU for as much of the design process as they can, and then hand over to more “detailed” CAD softwares for further detailing. This distinction may become increasingly blurred in the future for all but the most detailed uses for 3D CAD. Moreover, coders are falling over themselves to develop 3rd party products using SU as a platform as opposed to Autocad, so SU+addons could soon be a stand-alone CAD app.
[...] We came across this post by the Provelo blog. It confirms what a lot of people are saying nowadays: Google SketchUp is taking over the world of 3D design. Yes, CAD vendors are getting worried. [...]
It’s totally unrealistic to expect the sophistication of a package with a pedigree extending back more than a quarter-century (AutoCAD) from a johnny-come-lately upstart (SketchUp).
Against that, it’s my opinion that for most of the last 8 years (since ACAD 2002), Autodesk – like most other major software producers – has been engaged in trying to maintain the revenue stream from an essentially mature package, only managing to do it by continually changing the user interface (a pain when the icons all look different), changing the .dwg format (forcing users of earlier versions to ‘upgrade’), changing the help (Web-based help is practically useless in comparison to the Windows help from which I learned most of what I know about ACAD – and you really don’t want to know my opinion of the global ecological impact of the change), and adding bells and whistles that don’t add anything to the functionality required by the run-of-the-mill user.
Why does it look like SketchUp is gaining market share? That’s easy: it’s all down to the user interface.
I don’t particularly like SketchUp’s tool icons but that’s only personal preference. What is important is that they are easy to recognize and the tools are easy to use – in many cases much easier than AutoCAD’s for new users. That’s because SketchUp – to the best of my limited knowledge – didn’t descend from some ivory tower but was created by people who saw a need for a package which would enable “ordinary folk” to work in 3D “straight out of the box”.
The three most important things to remember about software [G]UIs are:
1. Any interface should be as easy as possible to use, otherwise people will give up on it very quickly.
2. If it’s easier to do something right than it is to do it wrong, people will do things the right way automatically.
3. Help must be written in the terms, and with the logic users – not programmers – use.
In the case of all the major CAD packages, their interfaces, while differing from each other in various respects, were all “much of a muchness”. In other words, it didn’t matter which you chose, each one was as difficult and quirky as the next. Then along came SketchUp, which scores pretty well on all the above counts. Is it any wonder, then, that users have been flocking to it?
And don’t dismiss SketchUp as “kids’ stuff” because of the interface. You can draw just as accurately in it as you can in AutoCAD. In my company some of the Architects were amazed how quickly they could create a 3D model of a competition design in SketchUp, then create walkaround and walk-thru videos that helped them to win.
Already in my field – HVAC – environmental calculation packages like IES are interfacing with SketchUp, so for sure it isn’t going to be another 25 years playing catch-up to ACAD on the technical aspects.
And SketchUp isn’t a “lone ranger” – there are other packages like Rhino around, too, looking to displace the ageing leaders of the pack…