# Licensing SketchUp Pro 2017 in a virtual machine before capturing

**URL:** <https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668>\
**Category:** Technical Problems\
**Created:** [May 30, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668 "2017-05-30T14:17:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tuf32917](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@tuf32917](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/tuf32917)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668/1 "2017-05-30T14:17:16Z")

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Unlike previous versions, SketchUp Pro 2017 will not launch in a virtual machine environment because SketchUp does not detect a graphics card. I would like to license SketchUp before sysprep/capture. Is there a way to license SketchUp in a virtual machine before capturing the image or will I have to run a script post-deployment to launch and license SketchUp on each client machine? Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Julian\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@Julian\_Smith](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Julian_Smith)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668/2 "2017-05-30T14:28:57Z")

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> **[SketchUp Hardware and Software Requirements | SketchUp Help](https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/system-requirements)**
>
> SketchUp Pro - System Requirements Like many computer programs, SketchUp requires certain hardware and software specifications in order to install and run. These are basic requirements, though, so you may want to use our recommended suggestions to...

If you check the system requirements (OS) you will notice that virtual machine hosts are not supported, so you’ll probably keep on running into trouble in future should you wish to continue down that road.

Having said that, which VM host are you using? I recall that VirtualBox had a setting for emulating a GFX card a few years ago, if I recall correctly. I have not dabbled with this in recent times though, so you might want to check it out first.

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**Author:** ![Anssi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/anssi/32/105_2.png) [@Anssi](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Anssi)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668/3 "2017-05-30T15:59:05Z")

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> [@tuf32917](#):
>
> Unlike previous versions, SketchUp Pro 2017 will not launch in a virtual machine environment because SketchUp does not detect a graphics card.

It depends on the virtual machine environment. I have tested it successfully in a VM that connects to a Nvidia Grid graphics environment. SketchUp 2017 won’t work if not running in a system supporting OpenGL 3.0.

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**Author:** ![MikeWayzovski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/mikewayzovski/32/98346_2.png) [@MikeWayzovski](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/MikeWayzovski)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668/4 "2017-05-31T17:56:19Z")

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Which card did you use and how many machines were on it ?

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**Author:** ![Anssi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/anssi/32/105_2.png) [@Anssi](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/Anssi)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668/5 "2017-06-01T18:27:03Z")

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> [@MikeWayzovski](#):
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> Which card did you use and how many machines were on it ?

I haven’t seen the physical setup.I understand that it has the physical punch to set up about 20 VMs with 4…8 threads and the equivalent of a Quadro K2000 each. Still at testing phase.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/f/2/f2a121500b085ed60806607a82720b092d800bb3.png) [@system](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 10:27am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/licensing-sketchup-pro-2017-in-a-virtual-machine-before-capturing/45668/6 "2017-09-01T10:27:09Z")

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Closed on September 1, 2017, 10:27am UTC

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