I have had Sketchup 8 pro for many years and now have some drawings that require me to upgrade but the licence number that never expires on 8 seems not to be able to go in 2015 so never is not never for Google.It means some time in the future we will change our policy or just the meaning of simple words.
Well actually No, your license hasnāt expired for Google Sketchup 8 pro and it never will. However that license doesnāt extend to Trimble Sketchup 2015 as itās a different company.
If someone has sent you a drawing in SU2015 you can use the new version to save back to SU8 so you are able to work with it in your Pro version.
This may help if you ever want to update your #8 to 2015, the $95.00 fee is explained. It is $95 for the upgrade and $50 to āenrollā. (??) I just purchased Pro 2015 and will need to pay $95.00 per/year to continually receive any/all future updates & maintenance revisions they apply, after Nov 30th 2016. Which compared to Autodesk or Adobe that are now going to monthly membership packages for most of their Pro grade products. Plus if you use SU commercially you can pass that fee along easily enough. *** But if I save a SU 8 file you send me in 2015. It will not be able to be re-opened in a later edition if I send it back to you.
you can save copy as v8 and send that backā¦
in-fact if the OP asks for files āsaved asā v8, he can carry on as usual, but v2015 is MUCH betterā¦
john
This is the dialog box I getā¦ I just went and grabbed the first file I seen from help forms. This is from 2014s and if I save it to mine. I just assumed if I modified it, I would have to save it to send back to him and it could not open?? I had my old 2013 version on my laptop but removed it and installed the second copy of 2015s with out trying it for myself. I have gotten will open as read only on some files also?? Those were from the 3D warehouse and I guest are locked??
Just sent a file to a friend of mine through drop box and this is the screen shot he emailed me back when he tried to open it.
Unless 2014 and before versions are under Google`s TM. and this is now Trimbles way of securing their ownership??
I seriously doubt that this has anything to do with ownership by Google or Trimble. All SketchUp releases are ābackward compatibleā. This means that with a later release, say SU 2015, you can open files of any earlier SU release. You can also save your SketchUp files back to any previous release version, to allow colleagues with older versions to use your files.
You are NOT able to open files of a later release with an earlier version of SketchUpā¦for instance, you wonāt successfully open, edit or otherwise read a file from SU 2013 with a version of SU8.
In the case of your friendās screenshot, there may be something else going on since you both have SU 2013. I suggest you can resend your files to him after saving your project back to an even earlier release, say SU8 for example. That will more than likely solve your problem.
Edit
I just noticed after taking a harder look at the screenshot
(blame it my old and tired eyes 
),
that your friend tried to open an SU2015 file with a version of SU2013. As I stated in the pre-edit post, you canāt do that!
Yes, the point is the āSave Asā dialog not the āsaveā.
Change the drop down to save as an earlier version.
Which was my point in my original post.
Does this help?
Shep
3 Likes
Ever have one of those feeling stupid moments?? Totally forgot that that option was even there, kind of like not seeing your hand in front of your face. Thanks for the reminder!!
thatās always happened when trying to open new models on older versionsā¦ before trimble and before google 
I know that option is there but I never alter the SU version saving to my drive or to the warehouse. I am so use to " File type as:" from importing a .jpg or .png etc. I see that drop down option so much I just forgot about that one. Plus I have so much buzzing around in my little bean right know, I was right clicking trying to hide something and pan in an email yesterday!! Thanks and with newbie`s patients is a virtue!!! ā¦Peaceā¦
In any version of SketchUp you can do a āsave_asā back to an earlier version - in fact itās many versions earlier than youāll ever need!
So if you want a v2015 SKP to be usable āin-houseā as v8 simply so a āsave_asā.
If you are sharing SKP files, then the first thing you ought to do is find out the SketchUp version the recipient needs, then use āsave_asā to the appropriate version: the recipient can then open it.
If you save a SKP as the SketchUp version you are working in [the default āsaveā], then it can be opened in the same SketchUp version, or any newer version of SketchUp
Itās not some corporate conspiracy !
Itās just the way applications work !!
If you want to have issues try using something like Revitā¦
It will open an any older-version Revit file but once you change and save it, then itās that current Revitās version - there is absolutely no chance of a backwards āsave_asā !
You are stuck !