My daughter has an older Mac; at least 4 years old and wants to learn the program. I need to know the minimum Mac hardware and OS requirements to reliably run Sketchup to at least learn the software.
Thanks,
Thomas
You can view Trimble’s recommendations on this page. They vary depending on whether you use the free Web version or a desktop version. The page lets you check what version of SketchUp you plan to use. A 4-year-old Mac should be able to run SketchUp just fine for learning (my own MacBook Pro is now approaching 8 years old and I know several people on the forum who use even older Macs).
Many thanks Steve,
My daughter is actually at Brandeis in Waltham! Dunno how far that is from you.
I have the trial version so I’ll try to learn the interface and some basic workflows ……… Does sketchup have its own render engine, or do you use add-ons like VRAY?
Many thanks
Thomas
Brandeis is about a 25 min drive from me. I know several people who teach there.
SketchUp itself provides only a very basic shader. There are numerous plugins and also compatible standalone renderers than can accept SketchUp models for fancier presentation.
Really? which departments? My daughter is applying to the Business School and is doing a Fine Arts major too. She took intensive industrial design classes at RISD this summer, but those were all old-school traditional, not digital arts.
Thomas
I’m currently running SU Pro 2019 on a five year-old Mac without any issues:
2014 13" MacBook Pro / High Sierra (MacOS 10.13.6)/ 16GB RAM / 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 / Intel Iris 5100 integrated graphics
Of course there are limits on model size and complexity that it can handle, but generally models under 50MB aren’t an issue. I can even produce simple, good looking renders using Twilight — and a light touch on the settings 
You didn’t say which model Mac, but anything with similar or better specs should run SU just fine.
this is a helpful benchmark.
Thank you,
Thomas