I mainly use sketchup for concept art, which i use the models i make or download as a base for my painting. However I find the sketchup web is slowing my intuitiveness and idk I like desktop version more. I can’t afford the pro version because I do concept art for my portfolio and I haven’t making money yet. I read that Sketchup 2017/Sketchup Make is a good free version, but I’m not going to get it illegally.
No. It’s not illegal to download it although it might not be a very bright thing to do since you could download viruses or malware with it. The web service SketchUp 2017 uses hasn’t been supported or had security updates for years so you’ve got added risk there. So you can choose to accept the risk if you want.
I assume your paintings are a hobby for you? Using SketchUp Make for anything you sell would be illegal but you need to get real legal counsel to interpret the EULA in relation to your intended use.
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Not to but-in, but it might be helpful to know that the legal council that I paid for told me that it was illegal to use designs made with 2017 for any kind of financial gain. Your council may tell you different.
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Thanks for you input, I’m not selling the models or the 2d image of the models, but if I have a client in the future, I will show them the models as a visual guide for them, later I will draw on top of it and the models will not be in the final artwork.
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Thank you for the insight
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So you are using the tool as part of your process to make money…
I would not touch 2017 downloaded from the web with a 10ft pole, but it seems many people do.
I also like paying the people who provide me with the tools I use to get my work done. I certainly like to get paid for my work…
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So as long as I’m not making money off of it, I guess it’s okay?
As I told you in my first reply, get real legal counsel about this.
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I’m guessing that people who don’t want to pay for software won’t want to pay for a lawyer to review their use case… 
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My legal council was $50
Nevermind, I’ll just use the free web version of sketchup.
It has the same limitations regarding using it in your work but at least you don’t need to worry about downloading viruses of malware with it like you might get with 2017 Make.
This is one of the reasons I need to get into blender…
I wish there was some blender addon that replicates the sketchup main tools and visual style…
Cause i think i cannot live without the rectangle, push, and offset tools… they are so fast to model
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What is one of the reasons you need to get into Blender?
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This one 
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Yap… there is also the 3dwarehouse that we all helped to build cause it contains everything the community uploaded there and now we need to pay to access it, but you can also also have those downloaded to your PC…
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No! You don’t have to pay to access it. You should take some time to get your facts straight.
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it’s still free.
and there are extensions to convert the modern 2024 format to 2017. look around on the forum / extension warehouse / web.
for a company that is pushing subscription, they are still making it super easy for anyone to keep using an old version.
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Appologies for my remarks yesterday. They were thoughtless and impulsive. They don’t represent the person I like to see. So another lesson learnt.
I’ll be more cautious about posting private opinions in the future or at least about the way to express them.
It isn’t illegal to use Sketchup 2017. Just keep in mind to pay for a licence when you do make money (and don’t only invest) to use Sketchup.