How Do I Enroll for "Free" Hobbyist Version of Sketchup

I intended to sign up for a “free” downloadable version of Sketchup. I downloaded and successfully installed Sketchup 2017 on my laptop (with Windows10/64 bit).

However, the moniker at the top of the page when starting up says “Pro Trial, 29 days remaining”. How do I fix this problem (so that I am instead signed up for free sketchup downloadable)?

PS I am a hobbyist and I also take classes at the local community college related to design. Thus, it appears that I qualify for the free Sketchup software as both a student and hobbyist.

SketchUp Make starts with a 30-day Pro trial. After the 30 days have elapsed it will revert to the free Sketchup Make. That is assuming you downloaded SketchUp 2017 Make and not 2017 Pro. Both are still available to download.

Hopefully when you installed it you right clicked on the downloaded installer and selected Run as administrator from the context menu.

David:

Thanks for the quick help. It seems pretty clear that I am enrolled with “Pro Trial”. See picture above where I have circled the software moniker in red. Which appears to not be Sketchup Make 2017. Please advise on how to fix this problem?

I am afraid if I do another download of Sketchup Make 2017 that I will be prohibited as I already have “Pro Trial”.

PS I do not remember right clicking the installer and designating myself as administrator (as there were no instructions regarding this issue). I assume without being designated administrator I cannot make required changes. Please confirm.

There is no problem. You’ve installed SketchUp Make as it indicates at the top of the panel. It will open as SketchUp Pro for 30 days and then revert to SketchUp Make when the trial period elapses. This gives you an opportunity to try out some of the pro-only features like the Solid Tools, Terrain and Geo-Location imagery import as well as various import/export options and LayOut if you wish. Or you can ignore all those things and just use the tools that will only be available in Make after the trial expires.

Right clicking on the installer and choosing Run as administrator does not designate you as the system admin. It gives SketchUp premission to install some files required for proper operation that Windows 10 doesn’t grant if you don’t use it.

There may be some changes you can’t make due to the limited permissions.

At this point I would suggest closing SketchUp, finding the installer and re-running it with Run as administrator. You’ll get an option window that asks what you want to do. Select Repair and let it run. Then you should be good to go.