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Print at Jan 21, 2026, 7:54:43 AM

Posted by sjb007 at Nov 3, 2025, 7:19:56 PM

Review of the last 14 months...
I'm afraid it is looking increasingly bleak for SweetHome3D from my point of view. Space Mushrooms (oddly named AI Photo Editor Lab SRL on Apple) are seemingly not supporting the original, free GPL licensed application in any meaningful way. They appear to have gone closed-source only - they haven't made any commits to the sourceforge code repository. If they purchased the copyrights from Emmanuel then it is entirely their right to go closed source, and the GPL is not protection against this. The GPL does allow someone to fork the last GPL'd code and release a fork. Any changes to that fork would have to be GPL only, and I believe that those changes could not then be included in the closed source versions as that would violate the GPL of the new commits.

The only thing Space Mushrooms have paid attention to is the application channels they can derive "premium" subscription fees from. Want updates? New features? Bugfixes? It looks like you will have to pay to play. Of course this leaves Linux users out in the cold as there is no common way to get subscription fees out of us, even if we were willing to pay YABS (Yet Another Bloody Subscription).

The website is still running, and SH3D 7.5 can still be downloaded (for now), so I suppose there is that small mercy. My advice is to download it and enjoy 7.5 while you can, and keep that download safe.

Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.

Posted by dorin at Nov 4, 2025, 5:55:20 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...

It was nice while it lasted.

The show can go on! (or must ??? thinking

)
What I think we need:
1. Desire, determination, and a lot of pro bono work;
2. A team, a team leader, and a community;
3. A path and a goal;
4. Infrastructure (a website, a forum, etc.);
5. Since nothing is free, we need donors, sponsors, and so on;
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A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. Murphy's Law
When all else fails, read the instructions. Murphy's Law
If you don't like "AS IS", DIY. Dorin's law

Posted by obelisk79 at Nov 8, 2025, 4:02:49 AM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
It is very unfortunate. Perhaps some people could fork the repository and continue open source development.

Ultimately, they should be releasing their new versions on sourceforge per GPLV2 rules.

Posted by dorin at Nov 10, 2025, 4:16:25 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
Maybe the devil isn't so black after all.
As long as you care, you could be a team builder.
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A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. Murphy's Law
When all else fails, read the instructions. Murphy's Law
If you don't like "AS IS", DIY. Dorin's law

Posted by sjb007 at Nov 10, 2025, 7:59:18 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...

Ultimately, they should be releasing their new versions on Sourceforge per GPLV2 rules.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I've just been around a long time.

That isn't how copyright works. If they purchased the copyright from Emmanuel, then it is perfectly legal for them to release their code and future modifications under a proprietary license only. They couldn't include other peoples GPL code. They would either have to negotiate with each of those people for the rights to their contribution, or strip the GPL-only code out. This is tricky, because you can't have someone who just stripped code out, then re-implement the functionality - their knowledge is tainted by viewing and removing the GPL code.

I looked at the code base commit authors, and I don't think Emmanuel accepted external contributors except one for a brief period very early on. I don't know if he ever credited code committed by him to someone else. This issue is one of the reasons for Contributor License Agreements. It is so companies can pursue dual-licensing their products, (i.e. a Community edition, and a Commercial edition), and fold community contributions into their commercial application under the proprietary license, and avoiding having to open source their secret money-making sauce.

What the GPL protects is anyone taking the currently available GPL code base (7.5 in Sourceforge) and building it and releasing a derived application. This can only be released as GPL, because only the copyright holder can distribute under different licensing terms.

If someone were to do this, they would also not be allowed to call it Sweet Home 3D (or something too similar) because that is a registered trademark. I checked WIPO and Sweet Home 3D is registered to Space Mushrooms. It has been since 2019 which is a bit of an eye-opener!

Posted by dorin at Nov 11, 2025, 7:13:15 AM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...

It has been since 2019 which is a bit of an eye-opener!

Not really.
At the end of the full document

Transmission totale de propriete n° 0928584 du 06/09/2024 : BOPI 2024-41 du 11/10/2024 - Beneficiaire : SPACE MUSHROOMS S.r.l.

Indeed it need a lot of work on every aspects (name, logo, graphics, look and so on).
Sincerely, I hope it won't be necessary.
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A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. Murphy's Law
When all else fails, read the instructions. Murphy's Law
If you don't like "AS IS", DIY. Dorin's law

Posted by sjb007 at Nov 11, 2025, 2:47:18 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
Ah, I didn't click through to that link. I got fooled because there was another Sweet Home 3D trademark that expired in 2019 that listed Emmanuel, and this one that only mentions SM. I also didn't click through to the original French version where that important little note is located.

Posted by dorin at Nov 11, 2025, 6:03:33 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
Disclaimer: I am not a programmer. I have no experience in this field.
As a precaution, I will try to make my own version, for personal use, especially for Linux.
Not for any other reason, but because I still have new plugins to make.
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A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. Murphy's Law
When all else fails, read the instructions. Murphy's Law
If you don't like "AS IS", DIY. Dorin's law

Posted by Keet at Nov 14, 2025, 2:55:55 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...

As a precaution, I will try to make my own version, for personal use, especially for Linux.

You are not the only one, and I am a professional developer (although not in Java).

Anyone notice the ridiculous (artificial?) increase in forum post views?
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Dodecagon.nl
1300+ 3D models, manuals, and projects

Posted by sjb007 at Nov 14, 2025, 4:12:29 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
I hadn't, but now you point it out, those numbers do look ludicrously high. Maybe there is a new army of lurkers!

Posted by dorin at Nov 14, 2025, 4:55:31 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
Probably every search of an AI is counted.
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A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. Murphy's Law
When all else fails, read the instructions. Murphy's Law
If you don't like "AS IS", DIY. Dorin's law

Posted by Waldemar.Hersacher at Nov 14, 2025, 6:03:24 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
I know from my son-in-law that AI machines do not adhere to the normal rules of search engines and make excessive accesses. And there are more and more AI machines.

I am also a professional programmer (C, LabVIEW, C#) on the Windows platform. However, my world is more technical computer science.
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MSI GP60, Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy, SH3D 7.5 with Photo-video rendering 2.8

Posted by GaudiGalopin3324 at Nov 15, 2025, 5:00:31 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
Yes, the strange thousands of views are disturbing (although at first glance it's nice if this topic is yours)))))).. AI is starting to put pressure on normal people, and this is just the beginning. I think we need to go our own way and not get discouraged. It is difficult for an ordinary person to deal with a volcanic eruption, but you can take interesting photos)). biggrin

Posted by Keet at Nov 15, 2025, 5:26:27 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
I doubt this is caused by AI. AI will steal the data and/or select specific topics following a search. It doesn't continue to repeatedly touch the same topics, certainly not in the ridiculous numbers that appear.
It only seems to occur on the first page. When you go to the next pages you will see around page 3 that the unnatural increase is no longer noticeable. The topics on pages 2 and 3 got the high view count when they were on the first page. At the moment I can think of only one reason why you would want to build a history with high view counts...

I also noticed that diacritics are no longer displayed correctly. I guess that started around the same time as the increased view count.
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Dodecagon.nl
1300+ 3D models, manuals, and projects

Posted by SpaceMushrooms at Nov 17, 2025, 1:26:54 PM

Re: Review of the last 14 months...
Hello everyone,
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and concerns and for being long-time active members of the Sweet Home 3D community. Your feedback truly matters to us, and we read these discussions carefully.

Over the past months, our team at Space Mushrooms has been focusing heavily on backend optimizations across the entire Sweet Home 3D ecosystem. A significant part of our work has involved improving the stability, security, and performance of our servers, which also affects the online version of Sweet Home 3D. These are foundational updates that don't always result in visible new features immediately, but they are essential for keeping the project healthy and reliable for the long term.

We understand that some of you are worried about the direction of the project, especially regarding open-source development, Linux support, and the availability of future updates. We want to reassure you that we are not ignoring the community. On the contrary, your long-standing dedication to Sweet Home 3D is one of the reasons we continue investing time and resources into maintaining and improving the platform.

We also appreciate the constructive criticism and even the skepticism. It helps us better understand your expectations and where communication may have been lacking. We will strive to be more transparent moving forward and to share more regular updates about ongoing work.

If you have further technical questions, plugin ideas, or suggestions for features you would like to see improved, we are always happy to hear them.
Thank you again for your patience, your passion, and for keeping this community alive for so many years.

Sweet Home 3D has grown thanks to all of you, and we intend to keep supporting it.

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Jan 21, 2026, 7:54:43 AM