SketchUp in comics

[DaveR]

@Mallrat

Back when it was Google SketchUp…

That change happened while Google still owned it.

[colin]

This part seemed wrong, so I went and read the first mention of the Free version. The last line in the ‘differences from Pro’ list is this one:

• Finally, only SketchUp Pro is approved for commercial use; the Free version is licensed for personal use only.

That’s from April 27th, 2006.

I said in the live modeling yesterday that v6 was when Free came out, but it’s more complicated than that. Free came out during the lifetime of of SketchUp 5. SketchUp 5 was rename to SketchUp Pro, and continued to be sold until Jan 13th 2007, when SketchUp Pro 6 was released.

I downloaded the first Free installer. Not surprisingly it doesn’t work in Catalina. But, I was able to extract the license text file. Amongst other things it says this:

1. USE OF SOFTWARE
   The Software is made available to you for your personal, non-commercial use only.

So, the Free version was never free for commercial use.

[jim_foltz]

So, the Free version was never free for commercial use.

This thread begs to differ…

https://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20842

[colin]

Chris wrote that four years before he worked for Trimble. I will tell him what the original license said, and see where he got that information from 11 years ago.

[jim_foltz]

The post is probably impossible to recover but at some point Google SketchUp did say version 7 Free could be used for commercial purposes. Perhaps it was on the blog at the time, or maybe the old knowledge base. The policy didn’t last long and may have contradicted the license, or perhaps the license was never updated to reflect the short-lived policy.

[colin]

Thanks, I’ll check into that too.

[jim_foltz]

Then there’s this…

Google Sketchup 8 still free for commercial use?

Hello, We are using google sketchup 8 free for commercial use. Can we install the same version on a new post and still use it for commercial use ? Thank you Have a good year

[colin]

I managed to install Google SketchUp 8, and get it running in Mojave. It was already branded Trimble in the version I have, and the terms and conditions link opens a web page, but gets redirected to the trial page. So, it’s hard to be sure what the usage conditions were. Still, although SketchUp Free was personal use only, SketchUp 6, 7, and most likely 8, could be used for commercial use.

[monospaced]

@Mallrat

some are saying if you trace it it’s original artwork others are saying you must change it at least 25% for it to be yours

This only applies if you are using someone else’s copyrighted artwork, not the use of software. If you want to use someone else’s art, you have to change it enough to be yours.

If you use software for commercial purposes, in almost all cases you must pay for that software. This applies in almost all cases beyond sketchup.