I have been a hobbyist user of SketchUp since 2014, and currently still using SketchUp Make 2017. Living in Southern Africa, internet is unreliable, often unaffordable, and in many out-of-town places, entirely non-existent. Having recently been offline for several months, I have returned to discover that 2017 version is no longer supported in 3dwarehouse. Then, investigating upgrade options, I am devastated to discover that there are no free desktop versions after 2017. Using SketchUp Free as a cloud based service just isn’t even feasible for people who don’t always have internet connectivity (and yes, this is a reality for some people still). Living in a country where it’s a challenge to afford food and electricity bills, paying subscriptions for the pro version is also not an option.
So, in a world that goes on about “being inclusive”, I can’t help feeling very much like I’m being forcefully excluded from being a SketchUp user going forward, thanks to the policy/product changes. Which is really, really sad. I appreciate that I’ve been using a free version and have never paid for anything, and I have loved using SketchUp because I genuinely believe it is the best software of its kind, but the direction things are being taken in has basically forced me to start looking at alternatives (which I really would prefer not to have to do).
I also appreciate that a cloud solution in the browser makes it cross-platform, and especially as a devout Linux user, I certainly see the merit in that. But, it doesn’t solve my problem and I truly wish the developers had just stuck with the way things were and still offered SketchUp Make without trying to force a cloud-based system that is just impossible for many of us.
Although I confess I haven’t yet looked into it, I have a feeling that even if I could be online all the time, SketchUp Free also wouldn’t allow me to use Twilight as I have been doing for several years?
I apologise if this just sounds like a rant, but please appreciate my frustration and disappointment over this
You can still access the 3D Warehouse and get components from it via the Components panel. Or you can go to the 3D Warehouse in your internet browser and download the Collada version of the component. Then import the .dae file.
The 3D Warehouse only supports file conversion for the latest three SketchUp versions. but you still have options.
Believe me, if I could pay, I would, because I think SketchUp is good enough to warrant it. I do kind of take offense at the “entitlement” comment, which I’m included in by implication. Maybe you should consider educating yourself on how the average person lives and survives in third world countries earning way below what you would consider minimum wage in the US, while food and everything else is more expensive here than it is for you there. That comment wasn’t justified and, forgive me for being blunt, but that smacks of ignorance and seems to suggest that it comes from a place of assuming that everyone is as privileged as you.
I wrote to SketchUp support on this issue first, and they encouraged me to post my concerns here on the forum. I’m happy for you that you can afford to pay for whatever you like, and if you simply don’t care that not everybody else can, that’s fine, at least I know I’m wasting my time.
I do make my own components, and I was actually getting to the point where I thought the stuff I was doing was good enough to contribute back to 3dwarehouse. Except now I don’t know if that’s possible since I’m stuck on 2017 version forever.
I have all the respect in the world for the developers, and I made my appreciation clear in my first post. However, offering SketchUp Make as a limited edition, as in the past, was a perfect solution for less fortunate people who genuinely can’t afford Pro and who can’t be online all the time. It also solidifies SketchUp as the product of choice in their minds, so that if/when they ever can afford it, they will pay for a subscribed version without any hesitation.
From a coding perspective, since the pro version trial simply locked out functionality after the trial period, I don’t imagine this was a huge amount of extra coding, but I stand to be corrected. The point here is not that I choose not to buy the pro license, but that I literally can’t. But I guess I can’t expect you to understand what that’s like. After all, I’m the “entitled” one.
I didn’t mean to offend you. I’ve worked for everything I have including my SketchUp Pro license which I’ve paid for every year since 2003. I get it that not everyone can afford to buy a license and that’s fine. Being given something for free and then complaining about it isn’t fine. I’ll remove my previous comments.
We’re looking at this from different angles. I’m simply venting frustrations about decisions that were made concerning the future of a product that I passionately love. I may not be able to pay for a license, but over the last few years I’ve also introduced a lot of people to SketchUp. How many of those paid for licenses, I don’t honestly know. I’m just trying to say there’s a bigger picture here, and I’m standing up for what I believe, which at this point, is that the cloud-based direction is not something that everyone is ready for, and yes I can keep using Make 2017, but that’s not long term because eventually it’ll be obsolete. My frustration is not meant in the way of complaining about something free, it’s meant in the way of, “Guys, I’m on your side, but what are you doing, because this ain’t working!”
You have the right to do that, but you have to understand that Trimble is a business that makes software for proffesionals. To this day there are still people using SketchUp Make to make a living witch is offcourse not allowed. I believe that is one of the reasons to discontinue the Make version. And to be honest, I think I would have done the same…
DaveR gave you other options to work with and you still think it is unfair that Trimble doesn’t give you a newer version of Make…
They gave you Sketchup Free as a succesor of Make. You say that you can’t use that because of bad internet connections but what Dave forgot to tell you is that you only need a connection to load the page. after that you don’t need a connection until you want to save. Maybe you can try if that works for you.
You can also use Free to download from the warehouse and use download to download it as a 2017 file.
And there is an extension called: “eneroth open newer version” Witch you can use to open files up to 2020 in Sketchup Make 2017.
So, there are numerous options that you have at your disposal (for free) to keep on using Sketchup Make and/or Free. Don’t say you’re stuck because you aren’t!
P.S. Quit picking on @DaveR because he sure wasn’t picking on you!
Happy SketchUpping from another SketchUp Make user.
I do understand all that, and I’ve never made money out of SketchUp Make. I only shared my views here because the SketchUp support team told me to, and if nobody cares, well that’s fine.
Being able to load the page and then use it offline is a real useful tip when I’ve already said I can be offline for months at a time, depending on location. But that’s okay, I’ll just keep my PC running for six months in a country where there are powercuts daily, and somehow magically I’ll be able to save it when I’m back online. Seriously, did you read and comprehend anything I said before deciding to tear me and my views down? And I sure as hell didn’t pick on anybody, I responded to being called “entitled” by someone who knows nothing about me or my real life situation. But just forget it. Sorry I opened my mouth. Pretty clear now what kind of “community” this is.
I see now that this is indeed not an ideal solution for you, but DaveR and I gave you several more options that do work in your case.
By the way, if your biggest problem with SketchUp is that Make doesn’t support the 3D warehouse anymore, Months without a connection would give you no warehouse even if Make would support it!
Yes, I read it an do understand it.
I’m not in any way tearing you down. At least it was never intended like that in any way!
I even tried to help you by giving you advice on possible solutions…
I guess the way I saw it was from another angle.
Don’t be sorry, everyone can say here what he/she wants as long as it is within the forum guidelines.
It’s pretty clear that you don’t know. We are all just SketchUp enthousiasts, some Pro’s, some hobbyists…
We are not paid by Trimble or anyone else to contribute to this forum. We do this in our own free time. Sometimes just to read, sometimes to help others.
The First responce you got was from @DaveR , a SketchUp Sage who has helped countless people over the past decade, usual within minutes or hours!
You’ve been here for 2 days acording to your profile, maybe you should stick around for a while before drawing such conclusions.
