If you have relatively slow internet online applications are just not practical. Also, your application constantly updating is not necessarily a good thing...:crazy: 

Maybe if your "apps" (a horrible word in itself) are restricted to what runs on a mobile phone, it's different; I wouldn't know. The demise of the desktop has been announced for many years, but it's still around...:P

---

Oh yeah, I understand. I wasn't suggesting/arguing one way better or worse for the end user, just explaining the 'attraction to online software' from a developer's perspective. As an end-user, I prefer desktop applications as well.

@don .... that's certainly a comprehensive list of reasons. No wonder it looks 'attractive' from a company perpective. From an end user POV there's perhaps less attractive reasons for such an approach. At a fundamental level some users prefer to 'own' their tools of trade rather than sort of lease them. Then there's the privacy issues for some (understandably) not wishing to have their creative ideas deposited on distant servers. Internet access in remote areas could be problematic if you wanted to work on things while on holidays 'in the country'. Then theres's the 'trust' thing - that the company doesn't go bust and you end up saying goodbye to your program. Or if they don't go bust, but rather just 'go off-line' for some unexplained reason - like "Eon" did of recent years - leaving customers high and dry without access to their account etc etc. So I guess there's always two sides to the coin .....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :(  - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

Companies don't have to worry about their applications running on Mac, Windows and Linux, their QA teams don't have to have multiple computers to test on each of those platforms, or hire developers/testers/support people who are familiar with each of those platforms, they don't have to create and maintain install packages for them, or instructions on how to install and configure them, or worry about notifying users when an update is available, or have as many technical support people helping with installation/configuration issues. They don't have to worry about some OS update breaking their software or conflicting with some other software package and/or have to keep testing it and updating it to work with newer OS versions, etc.  They also don't have to certify their software for Windows/Mac or pay publishing/licensing/partner fees.  Likewise, their users don't have to download and install software on their computers or keep it updated and it'll run on any platform.  All they need is a browser. The web developer makes an update and it's immediately available to everyone.  Lastly, web developers are a little easier to come by these days and will typically work for a lower salary than native desktop application developers.

"Ditto" to the last 2 posts ..... 3DXChange is (was) an *excellent* bridge between SU and iClone - even allowing for changes made in SU to be quickly 'passed through' into iClone in matter a of 20 to 30 seconds. Saved SU models (as SKP) could be quickly opened in XChange, back faces removed, and *sent* directly to iClone. It (almost) felt as though you were updating your models in "real time" and all 3 programs could remain open simultaneously as you work ..... I'd be a real shame not to have a 64 bit version of XChange ... 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :(  - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

I agree with Job, the options that 3DXchange offer for customizing models before importing them to iClone should not be underrated and are something that we "old-timers" treat as second nature. Just recode it in 64 Bit, update the GUI and everyone will be happy. :):cool::smooooth:

Gerry

---

System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

We have had this discussion some time ago, and for some of us (old-timers primarily, I guess 🧓) there are features in 3DXchange that are important, such as the ability to create sub props and other enhancements that can be only be done in 3DXchange at the moment. So it's not just the import function that is useful.

---

Unfortunately, the future of 3DXchange is still under discussion and no decision has been made yet about a 64bit version. For sure the ability to import 3rd party models is still an important feature but how this is achieved in future versions of iClone is still to be decided.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Thank you for all the feedback in this thread.

Unfortunately, the problem is that the new Sketchup SDK is now 64bit only but 3DXchange 7 remains a 32bit application which makes it incompatible.

For now, the solution is to download the older version of Sketchup now called SketchUp Make 2017 from the link below and then save the SKP files in 2015 format. This will allow you to continue to download and convert models from the Trimble Warehouse for use in iClone.

https://help.sketchup.com/en/downloading-older-versions




                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

@animagic 
Wow that is disappointing. You would think RL would already have an update