I am starting work at a new school and the computer lab has a mix of Windows 7, XP and Vista. Should I anticipate any issues downloading and using Sketchup Make? Will the most recent version work on all these OS’s?
You should bo Ok with Win 7. I think XP can only handle SU 8 and Vista is not an OS that is supported by any version of SketchUp. See the following for compatibility requirements:
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What does it mean when it says no support is available? And can you download older versions of Sketchup? So I could get current version on Windows 7, Sketchup 8 on XP and I’m stuck when it comes to Vista?
Without any sarcasm intended, it means what it says. Vista is not supported so you can’t run SU on that OS. I think there is an official location on the SketchUp website where older versions of the program may be obtained but since I could not locate that url, here is an alternate source where you can get them.
And you’re welcome. Congrats on starting the new gig, btw.
I am sorry, the HW & SW Requirements webpage is not the clearest of support pages.
XP+SP3 and Vista were supported up through SketchUp 2014.
Windows 7 can run SketchUp 2015.
(Vista and XP SP3 support was dropped for SketchUp 2015.)
So you can run SketchUp Make 2014 on all of them if you wish.
SketchUp Make 2014 Download Links (provided here)
SketchUp Make 2015 - Maintenance Release 2
(and higher) supports skipping the 30-day trial period.
Edit first line of the .lic file to read:
##NoTrial
to suppress the 30 day Pro trial.
How to Skip Pro trial mode in SketchUp Make
Please bear with me. All I need to know is that I can run some version of Sketchup without problems (including access to 3D warehouse) on old pcs that run XP, Vista and 7.
I am not giving any guarantee, as I do not work for Trimble. Read the Terms of Use. It up to you to decide whether the software meets your needs.
I DID simplify my previous post.
As far as Internet access, see section 5 here:
SketchUp Help: Can’t connect to web tools;…
In response to your “…without problems (including access to 3D warehouse)”:
Forum bulletin regarding the end of Google URL redirects for SketchUp 8 and SketchUp 2013:
Heads-up, SketchUp 8 and SketchUp 2013 users!
which leads to the SketchUp Help page:
Understanding the June 1, 2015 changes that affect SketchUp 2013 and SketchUp 8
…
which states: “If you use SketchUp version 2014 or newer, you aren’t affected by this issue.”
~
That does not guarantee none of your machines will not have issues. Some people have had issues, where Javascript is disabled for some unknown reason.
Sorry, I missed your last statement earlier when you wrote that I could run all of them. So would there be compatibility issues with anything other than the OS? In other words, if I can get Sketchup 2014 on all the OS’s I am working with, are there other things that need to be in place?
you will have trouble with the built in version of IE that SU has to use, it will cause issues with 3d Warehouse if not supported…
john
I edited that post to simplify it, and remove distracting info about versions you are unconcerned about.
YES. If you study the requirements page, you’ll see that:
- Highest Internet Explorer supported (3DW WebGL model view not available on older IE versions.)
- MSIE 8, latest update for XP
- Whatever the highest is available (IE9 or IE10) for Vista.
- MSIE 9 or higher (IE11 is good) on Win 7.
- 3D class Video Card with driver that supports OpenGL version 2.0 or
higher. (Recommended 512 MB of memory or higher. )- Upgrade all video drivers to latest.
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Runtime Redistributable
- It helps to install separately using a redistributable package from MS download site, BEFORE installing SketchUp.
- Install latest service packs or updates via Windows Update.
- SketchUp Pro requires .NET Framework (for Layout, and so also for Make under Pro trial.)
- Version 4.0 for later SketchUp versions.
- It helps to install separately using a redistributable package from MS download site, BEFORE installing SketchUp.
So what should I do?
Just upgrade each Windows version to the highest Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) that it supports.
On non-WebGL capable IEs, the users will see static model images on the 3D Warehouse, instead of the interactive WebGL viewer.
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I would not recommend your continued use of SketchUp 8 – please read the update here we did on SketchUp 8 and some issues.
If nothing but the new Sketchup has a functioning 3D Warehouse, and I have to have Windows 7 to run the new Sketchup, what you all are basically telling me is I can’t use Sketchup anymore.
Anyone know of another free program that isn’t so messed up that you can download on ANY machine and will always work (like software should)? Perhaps something from Autodesk?
What’s MSIE? What’s WebGL?
MSIE is Microsoft Internet Explorer. The 3D model viewer is done using ThreeJS code, which I think uses WebGL. WebGL is Javascript that talks to OpenGL. OpenGL is the system software that controls the video board’s GPU. GPU is Graphics Processing Unit.
I could go on!
Heya Sketcher2,
You bring up a great point, and it can certainly be frustrating to have limited software options based on the hardware and OS you’re using. But when it comes to software (and you’ll notice the same kind of behavior from smartphone apps), there’s a tradeoff between supporting “older” versions of hardware/operating systems with the software’s complexity and features. In other words, because of fundamental differences between operating systems, software needs to be written in such a way that it can handle the unique characteristics of those operating systems – if you want the software to be compatible across these different OS versions, that is. This adds more lines of code (to do the same operation) and dramatically increases the amount of testing time before the software can be released.
Speaking of testing, as you may know, SketchUp is currently offered in ten languages and supports five core operating systems. So for every test that we want to perform, we need to repeat that test 50 times. So you can see how adding support for one more operating system can have a large impact.
Similarly, because newer operating systems (typically) offer more enhanced capabilities, that gives us an opportunity to create new features that take advantage of these capabilities. But if SketchUp were bound to supporting significantly older operating systems, we would have to disable these features in older versions (which we don’t want to do) or pass on adding the feature in the first place (which we don’t want to do).
All choices have a consequence – an impact which some may view as good, bad, or neutral. We carefully consider all of the choices we make with regard to SketchUp. And we try to deeply understand the consequence of those choices as much as possible before acting. We’re a tight-nit group on the SketchUp team. But we’re not afraid to argue like a family when it comes to some of choices we need to make. But in the end, we have the same goal – to make SketchUp the best software it can be so that it helps millions of people easily solve problems in 3D.
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