Trimble sketchup software#
Most BIM software companies approach the market from the architecture side, but Trimble is assembling its BIM portfolio focusing on construction. Trimble seeks to be a leader in Building Information Modeling (BIM). As one SketchUp employee says regarding market presence, “If Autodesk or Bentley is there, so are we.” Why Trimble? Why SketchUp? On an average week, between one-third and one-half of those active users are running SketchUp Professional, which retails for $495. SketchUp currently claims 2 million active users per week, based on their ability to track how downloaded copies are used. Put a value of $3 per user and $90 million seems like a reasonable ceiling for what Trimble paid. CAD industry analyst Brad Holtz, CEO of Cyon Research and host of the annual COFES conference, notes there were 30 million downloads of SketchUp in 2011. If so, Google more than doubled its initial investment in SketchUp six years ago analysts at the time speculated Google paid Software anywhere from $15 to $45 million for SketchUp. If Trimble paid Google 5% of its 2011 revenue, the purchase price would have been $90 million. “Not material” is a specific financial term, meaning the acquisition was no more than 5% of the acquiring company’s annual revenue. Terms of the deal were not disclosed the purchase price was described as “not material” to the company’s revenue. Having ready-made programmability will make it easier for Trimble, its distribution partners, and third-party developers to create new applications and for Trimble to integrate SketchUp into its wide range of products. SketchUp has both an Application Programming Interface (API) based on Ruby for program customization and a Software Development Kit (SDK) in C++. In a statement, Trimble says the SketchUp acquisition will “enhance our ability to extend our existing market applications including the cadastral, heavy civil, and building and construction industries.” A set of thumbnail images from the SketchUp Web Gallery show the diversity of use SketchUp enjoys. It already owns a variety of products for field data models, project management, structural engineering, and network/utility construction and operations. Trimble is best known as a provider of GPS technology, but for the past five years it has been assembling a wide range of companies and technologies to build a portfolio for built environment data usage.
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