SketchUp 2017 is here!

Wow. Time has really flown — I must be having fun ;-). SketchUp 2017 is the fifth major client version release since we started flying under the Trimble banner in 2012. And each year, we try to make SketchUp more SketchUp-y than the previous year.

So what have we done for you this round?

Well, every day, our team works to push SketchUp Make, SketchUp Pro, and LayOut faster, more accessible, smarter, and just plain better. And you get to take advantage of all these changes.

With SketchUp 2017, you get things like…

  • A completely revamped graphics pipeline
  • High DPI support! ( I can hear the sigh of relief all the way from Boulder )
  • Transparency Improvements
  • Custom Color Axes and Inferencing to improve accessibility for color blind users
  • Plane Locking for Rectangles using the arrow keys
  • Offset 2.0 – now without overlapping!
  • Perpendicular Face Inferencing (i.e. inference the Normal of a face)
  • Component Origin Inference
  • Group to Component. When you convert a group to component you can specify all the same attributes as you would when creating a component from scratch.
  • Better organization for reference files. Material, styles, components, templates, and more are in folders align with Operating System best practices. In this release, we’ve made it much more obvious where all this content lives on your machine (see Preferences > Files), and also a lot easier for you to access it outside of SketchUp (should you need to migrate it, back it up, or just fool around).
  • Extension Manager: A new utility for SketchUp extensions, Extension Manager is a one-look view of your installed SketchUp extensions. From here, it’s easy to toggle on and off the extensions you’d like to have handy (or uninstall them entirely). Extension Manager also provides easy access to the Digital Signature of extensions, an indication they’ve passed our team’s standards for quality and security.
  • Ruby 2.2. We’ve upgraded our Ruby API to Ruby 2.2. It used to be 2.0… now it’s .2 higher!
  • Chromium Web Dialogs: SketchUp ships with a platform-independent web browser (called Chromium). This is a big benefit to extension developers: no more worrying which version of IE or Safari is installed on the computer.

And we mustn’t forget about LayOut… ever.

  • Tables (!). You just need to try them. Period.
  • Import CSV and XSLX Files into your tables in LayOut
  • Associative Dimensions & Labels
  • Flexible Dimensions: You can now drag dimensions to another spot in your LayOut page without disconnecting them from their associated entity.
  • Offset edges using the same anti-overlapping technology that we use in SketchUp.
  • Improvements to DWG/DXF Export
  • One DWG. Previously, a ten page LayOut file would export as ten separate .dwg’s. Now you’ll get just one .dwg with separate ‘layout’ tabs for each page.
  • Native DWG Entities. LayOut entities like dimensions, styled text, tables, circles, arcs, endpoint styles, labels, and clipping masks will import smartly into applications like AutoCAD and DraftSight and behave as expected.
  • Model space vs Paper Space smarts on export.
  • Color by Layer & ‘Index 7’
  • Selection Modifier: Have you accidentally moved a LayOut entity when trying to pull-off a click-drag selection? Now, a simple modifier (Option/Ctrl on Windows/Mac) will prevent LayOut’s select tool from moving an individual object when you’re trying to designate a wider selection.

And that should just about cover it. As always, we hope you’ll chime in below with what you like, what you love, and what you ho-hum about (we’re always receptive to constructive feedback).

Cheers!

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Great stuff Tommy, the support for high DPI screens, the tables in layout and the overhaul of DWG/DXF export have all been much anticipated round here.

EDIT: Still no hyperlink for Layout? I still can’t animate the action in a tech drawing and link to a youtube video of it from the PDF export of the layout working drawings. Don’t mean to complain - great work on everything else :slight_smile:

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+10 for tables

Would have liked to see a better workflow for controlling entity line weights when importing scenes to layout though.
That’s the big one for me. Need to control those line weights!

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Great news, can’t wait to try it!

8 posts were split to a new topic: LayOut 2017 not starting

@andrew_goddard, it can take awhile for CheckUp to analyze your system.

System requirements have tightened. Your system needs to support hardware acceleration. Update your forum profile with real graphic card and OS info.

Best to start a new thread to get assistance.

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Where to go to when licenses for plugins aren’t detected? (Artisan / ProfileBuilderPro)

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Lots of nice things, Most of which I did not have on the radar nur still will apreciate.

But i was hoping for more LayOut stuff, eg. around line styles for viewports, so less exploding is needed.
And things to facilitate viewport stacking, or ways to make them Not needed (hatching in SketchUp)

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Congratulations to the SketchUp team! This year passed so quickly. It seems that the 2016 update was yesterday. Great job with the new version and wishing you all the best in the future years to come! :thumbsup:

:heart: SketchUp!

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Thanks to the SketchUp Team for there effort in this new fantastic version.
For the people who want to use Skalp with this new SketchUp version please download Skalp 2.0 beta from our website. Skalp 1.2 doesn’t work together with SketchUp 2017.

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There’s not multitouch/trackpad support, really?

This might be a rookie question: but I have a current SketchUp Maintenance contract number, shouldn’t I be able to update and use my license number on 2017?

Yes but you will need to use the license wizard: http://www.sketchup.com/license/renew
as the serial number has changed

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Awesome, that worked. Thanks cuberille.

To expand on @cuberille’s answer in case any one else is wondering: the license numbers are different for every version of SketchUp. It has never been possible to simply copy your old license to a new version regardless of maintenance status. You always have to use that wizard to get a new license number.

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Finally! High DPI support. :smiley:

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I’m glad that SketchUp is continually improved. It is a great product made even greater by this attention to user needs; however, as a (relatively) new user I need to ask about all the extensions and tools that I downloaded or purchased for the 2016 Make. When I installed the 2017 Make, none of them showed up nor did any of my customized template files. As a foolish rookie (despite being mid 8th decade in life) I uninstalled the 2016 make before making a list of the things I wanted to bring to the new one.

What, if anything, can I do now? Would re-installing the 2016 Make get those goodies back for me so I’ll know what to do to 2017?

TIA

Still no PDF import…bummer…but other a better note wow…Im so excited

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@rabbithutch, with each new version of SU, the Ruby environment changes, and sure enough, there were plenty of changes with this version. So plugins may or may not work in the latest version of SU. It’s best to install the latest version of each plugin. That being said, check the SU16 Plugins folder to see if your plugin collection was deleted. If not, at least you would have a record of what you added.

How about starting a new thread to better focus on setting up your installation of SU17?