Basecamp 2012 - report from Trimble and SketchUp

We just returned from the SketchUp 2012 Basecamp. We ran into lots of old SketchUp friends and acquaintances, met some new ones, and had a great time learning the latest and greatest about SketchUp and their new owner, Trimble.

We had been looking forward to the reports and discussions with John Bacus of SketchUp, and Bryn Fosberg of Trimble, and we weren't disappointed. They told us what was new in SketchUp, what was in planning for the short term, and about the reasoning behind the recent Trimble purchase.

They reassured us that SketchUp would keep the qualities what we like about it, while adding new features for the future - mostly focusing on making things even better for Ruby Developers like ourselves, and also working to bring SketchUp into the world of other Trimble products.

We are encouraged to continue working with SketchUp and Trimble and continue to see a great fit for our products.

Some new items for Ruby Developers:

• New testing environment for developers called TestUp. This will make it easier to create test routines for testing new code and making sure that older code still works.

• New Developer Console to replace the Ruby Console.One new feature will be the ability to enter and test multiple lines of Ruby code at the same time.
• SketchUp will participate in some Open-Source, multiple developer projects. The first will be work on the STL Import / Export feature to interface to 3D printers such as the MakerBot which was aslo shown at Basecamp.