Has anyone tried running Sketchup Pro 2017 on a mac with Apple Silicon via Rosetta? A big ask I suppose.
I don’t have an Apple Silicon Mac so I can’t test this specifically. Perhaps someone else who has one will chime in.
But I can tell you that this combination is not supported by Trimble, so if you run into problems nobody there will be able to help you.
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I don’t know about Rosetta, but I can say that Sketchup Make 2017 runs fine on a Mac mini 2020 apple M1 chip. Except… text and dimensions display upside down and backwards. Aargh. Otherwise all good. I don’t know if Rosetta will fix this.
If it does it already uses Rosetta. Rosetta is an emulator that enables old Intel Mac applications to run on a M1 chip. There is no M1 version of SketchUp 2017.
I did report the problem to Apple a couple of years ago. It seems to only affect M1 Macs running external monitors, which would have to be the case for a Mac mini. I don’t think Apple will fix the problem, and I know SketchUp won’t release an update to 2017 to work around the problem.
I find that 2017 doesn’t last all day in macOS Ventura, where it might last for a good while in Monterey. So long as you’re relying on 2017 working, you might want to stay on Monterey.
In case anyone is curious - I just got my Mac Mini (M2 Pro, OS 13.2.1 Ventura) set up and thought I’d give Sketchup Pro 2017 a try. I was previously running it on a 2015 iMac under Mojave. To my surprise it appeared to run quite well on the Mini, under Rosetta of course. I opened a 300 MB file and all was good. Tools all seemed to work OK. At the peak of my exuberance it crashed w/o warning. This was maybe 5 or 10 minutes after I opened it. Queue the expected, though sad, music.
Colin - I didn’t see your message until just now. It sounds like my experience is similar to yours.
I don’t think the performance running skp 2017 on an M1/M2 Mac would be the best, sketchup 2021 was the las version that runs exclusively under the intel architecture, but if my memory doesn’t fail, I think they had to release an update so it can run better and without issues on arm architecture.
After a couple more weeks of using Sketchup Pro 2017 on my Mac Mini M2 Pro running Ventura (with Rosetta), things seem much more stable than I’d reported earlier. I’ve used it with models up to 800K edges, 300K faces. Quite snappy and hasn’t crashed for a couple weeks now. Go figure.
Hi Kevin,
I’m still running 2017 on an M1 running Monterey, I’m considering updating the OS to Sonoma, have you moved on to Sonoma yet? Do you have any info from anyone else regarding this configuration?
Thanks!
There have been numerous reports of newer versions of SketchUp having issues with Sonoma. If you are relying on SketchUp 2017 Make for your hobby modeling, you might want to think twice about upgrading the OS. Or at least be ready to roll back if you have problems.
I have an M3 Mac running 2017. I know that it does not last all day, but I’m going to leave it open and see if it crashes. There is a Sonoma related crash that affects 2022 the most, but also will affect 2021 and 2023. I’m not sure if the same issue will happen with 2017. I have to wait for a crash now!
I’ve been running 2017 Pro on my M2 Pro Mac Mini (Ventura) successfully for several months now. A few crashes, but not bad at all. Not sure about Sonoma.
Thanks, everyone for such a prompt response on a thread that was dormant for nine months!
I’ve had really good success with running Sketchup 2017 on Monterey using Rosetta. It seems most the troubles with Sketchup are since it’s update to run native on apple silicon. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I don’t know how long Rosetta 2 will be available. But I understand it’s still available for Sonoma. I understand that Monterey will be supported for about a year yet, so I think I’ll stay on Monterey a little longer even though I would love to have some of the features of the newer OS. I don’t want to have to go through the headache of having to go back. Hopefully before then, Someone will give Sonoma a try and have success. Then share it here 
Thanks again!
It’s been over a week now since your last post so I thought I would check back to see how it’s going running 2017 in Sonoma on your M3 Mac.
I’m running 2017 on an M1 successfully with Monterey with big 300 mb file without much trouble even when batch rendering in Twilight. Which is incidentally much faster on the M1 than my Intel iMac was. I’m sure the M3 is a big jump again, but right now I’m gambling that all M series Macs might be similar in compatibility with 2017.
SketchUp didn’t crash, but I think I had other reasons to restart. If you are saving, and have auto save turned on, I think that working in 2017 ought to be safe enough.
Oh yes, I’ve got Autosave on, I eventually learned that lesson quite some time back. Thanks!