I hear your concern that SketchUp Make 2017 will no longer run on some future hardware/OS combination that you might either choose to buy or be forced into (via Software Update) by Apple. On the SketchUp team, we are worried about that, too. But I think we all have a long time to prepare for that eventuality.
I’m still running SketchUp 8 on the latest Apple hardware today. In fact, I’m still able to run older builds than that. I think I still have SketchUp 6 running somewhere, though I haven’t checked it recently. Given my long experience with Apple’s operating systems, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that I could still run our original OS X builds of SketchUp today, and they are more than fifteen years old.
You’ve seen me say in these forums many times that we predict a long life for SketchUp Make 2017. We build our code to last, and it isn’t uncommon to see folks running builds that are as much as eight to ten years old. If you’re careful about how you upgrade your hardware and OS, you can keep an old version running indefinitely.
Looking ahead ten years into the future, I can’t predict with any reliability what Apple’s OS strategy will create. But there’s no reason to expect that the hardware you have today won’t be able to run SketchUp Make 2017 tomorrow.
I don’t get it, you give something for FREE and get complaints. All the FREE software I have seen has limitations to entice the recipient to purchase the full version. Remember, the “old” version went away, nothing is forever.
Thanks for those encouraging words. At seventy six old, ten years ahead is less likely to be a problem with whether my hardware or software can run it than whether I will be able to run it …
Perhaps you haven’t read the earlier parts of this post. It is very old and very long. The thrust of my original post was that the new free (on my system) is too dysfunctional to be useable at all. It quite simply doesn’t work properly. This thread started not about ‘free’ but about non-usability. I think I am quite properly entitled to raise issues with free software if it doesn’t work.
Yes, I read almost every post in these forums, and have done so habitually for years. Our original launch announcement thread on this subject (“What’s up with SketchUp Make”) is now over 900 posts long; you might want to read that one as well for additional posts I have shared on questions and comments similar to yours.
To summarize, I recognize that SketchUp Free is a significant departure from the norm for many of our most loyal SketchUp Make users, and it isn’t yet a fully-featured 100% replacement for a dedicated desktop client application. That said, it offers significant advantages to new/beginning users that shouldn’t be forgotten either.
For folks ( presumably like you) who find the change too jarring or who need some feature we haven’t been able to implement on the web yet, we are leaving SketchUp Make available for download and installation. And of course any copy of SketchUp that you have already installed will keep running until something about your computer/os changes.
Hi again. My problem is not that it is too jarring or lacking features - it is that on my system the web version quite simply doesn’t work properly. Eight months ago I sent details of the problems and eight months later they are all still there and it still doesn’t work. Without a viably useable free (or paid) web modeller I am left with no alternative but Make or Pro which a very hefty bill for a private enthusiast for features many of which he doesn’t need.
My recent mail was simply reporting back to Mark on progress or, in this case, the lack of it. It was intended as a courtesy not a complaint. I am sorry if you feel I failed to express that adequately.
I am disappointed but I am not trying to give anybody a hard time … simply to find a way out.
Well I’ve read almost all of the comments on this thread and decided that tom.huntford said it the best. This from another 75yr old retiree that uses Make to design and export (via plugin .stl export) printable items as part of a hobby. My initial issues with FREE were described many times above and probably below this post, mostly sluggish and unfriendly. I would happily move form Make to a paid offline version of Shop as described above. Though it’s been mentioned several times that Make is still 100% functional as before, my version has began to hesitate ten or more seconds before starting up and constantly insists that plugins be updated for ones unloaded long ago. I did recently scan the price list and note that there are NO options to purchase, only to lease. I would be very happy with a reasonable up front price and options to upgrade as necessary and I’m sure most Make users would too.
Even with Pro, some people have had errors with extensions saying they have updates when they don’t really. Often the cure is to sign out of your extension warehouse account and back in again.
For people who would rather buy than subscribe to software, you would want the version of SketchUp on the left side of this page:
Thanks for the heads-up on getting rid of the unwanted update requests, your solution was a success.
Your link to pro-classic is not available anywhere on sketchup.com other than the direct link you posted so I don’t know where it originates. However, at $695 USD that’s too steep for the average hobbyist. I do find an offer for Shop but it’s web based and that’s just not working for me.
Let me give my example. I have a hobby, it can be seen on facebook as “Cedar Bough Fine Birdhouses”. On average, I spend about $1200/year doing this craft using mostly cedar and cypress and sometimes if I need something more detailed (like a 9/9 window frame) in a small size I’ll model it in Sketchup and print it on my 3D printer using a .stl conversion extension (unavailable in “Shop”).
That makes Sketchup an incidental and enjoyable part of my hobby which sometimes nets me $200 in a good year. Did I mention it’s a hobby? Like any avid golfer/fisherman/hunter, I don’t mind taking a loss on something I enjoy but $695 is out of the question, sorry. I’ll stick with “Make” until it’s gone.
The official downloads page supports the last three versions of SketchUp. That does suggest that when the 2020 version is release, the 2017 versions may go away.
The hardware requirements for 2017 and 2019 are much the same, if you have performance issues in Make 2017, that is most likely fixable.
If SketchUp were to come out with a Make for the non-professional user what would be a reasonable price that most people (retirees, hobbyist, students, DIYers, etc…) could agree to?
As for a commercial venture I think that is a bit of a grey area. The IRS does not even require the filing of a tax return unless a certain minimum gross income is met:
$200.00 per year sounds more like a hobby to me than a viable (commercial) business. I’m sure one could argue this both ways though depending on how you want to define a functioning/profitable business.
This was covered quite extensively by many potential buyers in the following thread.
The synopsis was that they wished to pay less for less. (ie, no Style Builder, no LayOut.)
So far, Trimble has not seen things the same way. Instead the Trimble management said recently they are willing to weather a 30% immediate drop in sales, because they believe that subscription purchases will exceed that loss within the next 3 years. [In a recent thread the link to the statements have been posted. I don’t have them a hand.]
The amount of hobby income (ie, a threshold,) no longer applies. I seem to remember long ago a 400 dollar threshold. Now it is all about intent and whether a person conducts the hobby as a hobby or a small business.
