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.
john
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