I doubt my comments are much different than others who use Make . . . I am a woodworker, but not professional in the sense I don’t make money doing it. Sketchup Make is a very powerful furniture, cabinet, and overall woodworking design tool. It has it’s quirks and difficulties, but it is a great tool for design where you need to make changes until the final drawing is what you really want.
Sketchup Free not only doesn’t seem to work, but I have a 3D Connexion mouse which is which is completely useless in Free. I realize that this might not be Sketchup’s problem, but 3D Connexion has, so far, not felt it’s theirs either.
So, here’s the thing. I realize that Trimble didn’t buy Sketchup to lose money and expected the free price to disappear. However, for those of us who use Sketchup in a non-professional, non-profit environment Pro is just too expensive for my use. There has to be some middle ground to produce a piece of software which is functional in the woodworking field and still affordable for those of us who are serious but doing it as a hobby.
The application software business these days is a problem for the user because companies don’t care about whether you can afford it or not. They are only in business to make money and I understand they are there for just that purpose. However, Sketchup didn’t get it’s high reputation by ignoring the wide range of users who use it everyday. I didn’t see anything in the Sketchup company responses that would indicate that they are truly going to address all the problems. On the other hand, I do appreciate that they didn’t just dump Make as an available download at least for awhile.
We certainly hope to get it working for you, and I have (personally) been quite gratified to see that we’re growing overall usage at a pretty respectable clip so far. If you want to pursue some troubleshooting here, I’m sure we can get to the root problem in your configuration fairly quickly.
Unfortunately, you are correct. At this time, we cannot support use of devices like the 3D Connexion Space Navigator in SketchUp Free. If this device is critical to the way you use SketchUp, I would suggest sticking with SketchUp Make 2017 for the time being.
I think your post may have gotten lost- there have been considerable discussions on this topic with many answers from me. It is a long thread to read, but “What’s up with SketchUp Make” includes lots of comments on the topics you’re raising here. Many of those comments are from woodworkers like yourself.
We expect SketchUp Make 2017 to remain viable on your system for many years to come. Obviously we can’t make any promises about compatibility with hardware or system/OS updates you may choose to do in the future, but for now, there’s no risk in sticking with what you know.
I’m a little confused because it seems as if I’ve gotten 2 contradictory answers concerning my 3D Mouse not working in Free; one that says it is not supported as of this point in time and one that says it is.
However, I would like to get the 3D mouse working with the Free online version that is available because I wish to be prepared if 2017 doesn’t continue to work at some point in the future.
So, by all means, if there is a way to make it work with Free, I would appreciate that assistance.
As far as Windows 10 and OS updates, I do keep my computers up to date with the latest updates because it generally doesn’t make sense to do otherwise given all the security issues that pop up. I am currently using Make 2017 and will continue as long as it works on either my PC or Mac.
It seems like you are missing the point.In order for 3D Connexion devices to function with SketchUp, you have to install an extension in SketchUp. Currently there is no facility for using extensions with SketchUp Free. There is no need to panic. SketchUp Make won’t quit being functional for a long time.
@SketchUp_Moderator As Jbacus mentions, this post has been lost and tossed around through splitting topics and was originally posted in the below thread, which I think it still belongs really. I will take ownership for it being lost as I suggested the below topic were split, but it were caught up in the middle of all the off topic posts…
So the response from jbacus earlier today is not about the 3D mouse? It seems to indicate that the mouse either can or should work. This is why I’m confused. I inderstamd about the day extensions. I don’t understand the conflicting responses or is the jbacus response not meant for my post and problem?
There is currently no way to make your 3D Connexion device work in SketchUp Free. If this device is critical to your use of SketchUp, I suggest sticking with SketchUp Make 2017 (where I assume you are already using your 3D Connexion device successfully?) for the time being.