I had to upgrade my computer to an Apple chip based computer instead of Intel based. But I am running SU Classic pre-subscription model. Will I be able to reinstall SU on the new Apple and be able to run it on a computer with Apple CPU?
I think there are three aspects to your question. I don’t know the answers, but maybe someone like @colin does.
- was there a native Apple silicon version for 2018? I suspect not, in which case you’d have to run either via Rosetta or a virtual machine
- will the new copy accept your license on an Apple silicon machine?
- do you still have the installer for 2018? Will it even run on Apple silicon?
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My old classic version of SU ran on an iMac with an Intel processor. But all new Macs come with Apple CPUs, so will the old classic run on Apple CPUs? I plan to use Time Machine to load back the old SU from the last image backup before the computer’s HD crashed.
Apple’s OS handles the change in processor architecture, so programs compiled for x86 processors will work on newer Macs.
Mac Od converts all of the instructions from SketchUp x86 to Arm64 (M1/M2/M3) instructions. There is approx a 20% performance loss doing this.
However newer Macs have newer operating systems, different graphics processors and hundreds or thousands of changes to various parts of the MacOS.
Changes that SketchUp 2018 was not designed to work with , which may be entirely unexpected , resulting in bugs or crashes.
I think the last OS that 2018 was supported for is 10.13.
So in short, it will start; but might not work so well all the time.
A version of SketchUp designed for Arm64 will run faster.
I have SU Pro v. 2021 21.1.331, which I think is the last upgrade before SU went all subscriber models. Will that work with the new Apple mini? The mini should be so much faster than my old Intel Q4 4.2ghtz with 32GB that it should still be faster even with a performance hit.
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Your forum profile is way out of date.
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Looking at Additional Compatibility Considerations section of SketchUp Hardware and Software Requirements, …
we see that it was the SketchUp 2022 release that …
Additionally, SketchUp 2022 has been compiled for native compatibility with the Apple M1 processors.
So Steve is likely correct you will need to run under Rosetta.
Actually, I’m on a temporary replacement laptop until the new mini comes and I couldn’t figure out how to log out of my gmail account SU profile and into the SU one since SU barely runs on the Laptop. Hopefully, the new mini will automatically log me into my much more used SU account. I’ll update that once I get there.
Where did you get this info? I can’t notice the difference running sketchup vĂa Roseta 2 and natively, I’m sure that even running under emulation the performance of sketchup will be better than running natively on an intel mac.
The performance of apple silicon macs is unbelievable, you’ll be able to run sketchup smoothly, I had sketchup 2021 running on roseta and it can handle big projects better than my old intel Macbook where it ran natively. It’s known and tested that a lot of apps perform better even under emulation than natively on intel, I haven’t used an app with 20% less performance using roseta.
What is Roseta and does that require partitioning the drive or doing something else to make it Intel-like?
Rosetta is Apple’s cross-compiler that converts Intel binaries into ARM64 ones on the fly. It is a macOS utility that comes on all Apple Silicon machines.
OK. I guess the only thing to do is to restore SU and see how it works. Thanks.
Roseta is the translator of apps from intel x86 architecture to apple silicon arm architecture, it runs on the background, you don’t have to do anything, when you install a not native arm app for the first time on your machine, you’ll be asked if you want to install roseta, you just accept and forget about it, apple silicon macs don’t have the option to make a partition to install windows using boot camp, you can install windows using a virtual machine though
There is currently a crash issue on macOS 14.3, that affects all versions of SketchUp. If you have a reason to resize the Colors palette, or change to a different set of materials, SketchUp will crash.
That aside, 2018 and 2021 both seem to perform well using Rosetta on Apple Silicon Macs. The license should add ok, so long as it hasn’t previously been activated on three other computers. If you’re no longer using SketchUp on a machine that has 2021 on it, open SketchUp and remove the license, to free up the activation for the temporary and replacement machines.
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