What's new in Google SketchUp 8?

Google SketchUp has been releasing its series and new SketchUp 8 released on 1^st Jan 2011 has fixed out the issues pertained in previous version.

Check out the overview of issues that have been solved:

Shadow:

1. The Shadow bug has been fixed.
2. The “shadow strings” bug has been fixed too. Earlier shadows could show string like artifacts.

Image Export:

1. PC user only would be able to export images at a higher resolution though the capability depends upon the Computer environment but now consistent between Mac and windows system
2. One more issue has solved which is when exporting images with the camera.aspect_ratio set to a non-default value, block-like artifacts could be seen in the exported images.

Push Pull and Follow me:

1.  Now the Follow me cursor is correctly shown when using the Follow me tool with pre selected item and also correctly shown when activating the Follow me tool via a keyboard.
2. The Context menu items are now complete when activating the Push/Pull or Follow Me tools and right-clicking on an entity.

Animation:

1. The problem in animation has been solved like in some cases animations exported on the Mac in SU8 were not as smooth as they were in SU7.1.
2. Codec can be selected other than the default.
3. Estimated file size is now correct.

Add Location:

1. The issue for Mac user has been fixed and that is Previously if you launched the Add Location dialog, kept it open, and then closed the SketchUp model, the Add Location dialog would no longer open.
2. One more thing is improved, Previously when navigating to a location and then taking a snapshot, the map portion of the dialog re-sized in a way that was visually jarring.

Performance:

1. In this version, SketchUp 8 is now built using the /Largeaddressaware property on the PC

3D warehouse:

1. Now in SketchUp 8 you would be able to upload the model up-to 10MB.
2. For Mac user only when you searched in the Components browser and then clicked on a results link for the first time, you were sometimes brought to the wrong model in the 3D Warehouse. It’s been fixed.

Toolbar:

1.  Previously, when adding new Ruby toolbars and re-launching SU, existing Ruby toolbars could unexpectedly re-position themselves and restore Toolbar positions would not restore toolbars to their original positions. This issue has been fixed.

Scene:

1. Scene thumbnails can be created only if the scene dialog is open (Mac).
2.  At the time of creating a scene through the View Menu the scene thumbnail can be created.
3.  Geometry will not be disappears when generating scene thumbnails in your model.

Match photo:

1. At the time of selecting scene, there was no confusion as setting shown in the scene panel could differ from the setting of the active scene. Issue has been solved.

Localization:

1.  Most of the translation fixes for localized versions of SketchUp
2.  For Mac user when using the “Save as” context menu for a component, the model will now be saved

Outer Shell:

1. While performing Solid tool operations on co-planar geometry where some of the geometry are on hidden layer and some are not and geometry could be incorrectly removed, the problem has been fixed now.

EPIX:

1. In this new version of SketchUp 8 the five separate fixes for EPix export including correctly exporting similar looking material.

Ruby:

1.  There are few new methods for Ruby developer & more than ten fixes for Ruby issues.

Crashes:

1. Some of top SketchUp crashes have been resolved and Sketchup should be more stable now.

Outliner (Mac only):     

1. Search now is working well after minimizing and restoring the outline.
2. Component and group name should now be visible in Outliner result after doing a keyboard search.
3. Earlier non-selected entities might expand or contract and some time different entity used to select rather than desired, both of them have been fixed.

Posted by Nirmal

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