Mac subcategory

Since there a so few of us MAC users on here, can we open up a community for just us MAC USERS?

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Would that create more Mac users? Most of SketchUp acts identically regardless of the computer OS.

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What makes you want to differentiate between ā€œnon-macuserā€ and ā€œmacuserā€? Do you really think that difference is exist? Can I post in that ā€œseparateā€ section if I do not have a mac?

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Most people at SketchUp use Macs. I hope it doesnā€™t become a subcategory in the forum.

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Since the aim of this forum is to aid in users helping other users, and over 90% of the issues experienced are OS agnostic, it is unlikely that something like this will happen. @skipmacdonald if you have specific needs that we are not thinking of, we would love to hear them!

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I would add that though a minority, we Mac users commonly notice when a question is Mac-specific and step in to help. This is another reason why entering correct info in your forum profile is important!

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The tag system can filter any topic, but it takes some discipline to add them when posting.

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I respectively disagree. It is often extremely hard to follow a post that is done on a pc for a Mac user.

I actually think it would help.
Instructions on PC is very different and difficult to follow on a MAC

See, this is what I am talking about. Good to know anther Mac user who I can get help from (hopefully). If we had a MAC sketchup forum it would save a lot of time and frustration and time wasted trying to figure out how to follow instructions

There are really only a small handful of differences between the SketchUp interface on the two platforms. The vast majority of questions and answers are identical. If there is some question that you feel is very different on a Mac (there are a few, Iā€™m looking at you materials browser) you can always put Mac in the posting title. There are a large number of Mac users here (like myself) and the experienced members of the forum always check the user profile of the question poster to make their answers relevant. But many of the great sources for excellent quick info are on Windows, it would be a weaker forum with fewer answers without them. Itā€™s better as one big family. Iā€™ve been here a while now and have genuinely not seen it to be much of a problem. Now, about those Linux usersā€¦.

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There are a ton of Macintosh users here, including most of the sketchup team themselves. Do you have an example of PC instructions that led to this frustration and time loss ok the forum youā€™ve been referring to?

Thatā€™s funny, I donā€™t have an issue with a tutrorial being done on a Mac,I use Windoze.

I agree with both sides of this discussion!

There is more similarity than difference between the Mac and Windows versions of SketchUp. The great majority of the time, if you know how to do something on one, you know how to do it on the other.

But when one of the few differences is central to the task at hand, an explanation from someone using one can be close to unintelligible to someone using the other. Sometimes this is just traditional OS jargon. For example, what Windows calls a toolbar, macOS calls a palette. But, a WIndows explanation about how to use trays is of no use to someone on a Mac, where trays do not exist. In the same vein, talk about making a custom toolbar goes thud when on Mac the only one that can be customized is the single one across the top of the view window and the things you can do there are quite limited compared to on WIndows And donā€™t even get started about the differences between the Materials editors.

There are other things that always differ between the OSā€™s. For example, on Mac there is no such thing as ā€œright-click Run As Administratorā€ or the associated repair option on the installer. Paths to locations of key files are totally different. Unlike Windows, macOS does not have a habit of ā€œupdatingā€ to broken graphics drivers.

That said, however, I stand by my original statement that people on this forum usually note what platform you are using and step in to help when a question involves the one they also use.

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I want Windows to be the subcategory.

Assuming that doesnā€™t happen, in our internal bug reports we given titles such as ā€œColors Palette problem (Mac)ā€

As you know, ā€˜Colorsā€™ is enough to know that itā€™s Mac specific, but (Mac) makes sure that readers will know that itā€™s a Mac specific issue.

Could that work in the forum?

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Sure, iā€™ll also vote for this.

I think having a Mac specific subcategory would actually make things worse for Mac users.
Currently those of us who answer questions tend to read everything and reply where we can, if we are Win users and the answer can be different on a Mac we check the user profile in an attempt to see if we should answer. This is one reason why the User Profile is so important.

If all Mac users posted in a separate subcategory there would be a tendency for Win users not to bother reading the posts, therefore probably missing many agnostic questions which we could have answered.

I can see the ā€˜benefitā€™ if you are a Mac user and want to see all Mac related things together without having to see anything to do with Win, but the reality would be something different, in my opinion. I feel the differences are small enough that they can easily be understood and are often pointed out in replies and tutorials. I taught one of my brothers to use Sketchup on his Mac, he is Mac only and I am Win only, I didnā€™t have any trouble interpreting the different UI. Mind you as I knew what I was looking for it was probably much easier than someone learning from a Win tutorial. So that doesnā€™t really count. But I still think a Mac subcategory would be a less than beneficial for Mac users.
Just my half a bitcoin.

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Iā€™m a Mac user and often easily find solutions to any issues I have by just reading these forums. I donā€™t see the need for separation.

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