I got a pro licence, and I want to use Linux. I switched back to windows 10 years ago, because of 2 programs: Sketchup and PV.Sol, both yearly payed licence modells. I would appreciate to switch back to Linux, especially because of upcoming windows 11 obligation in 2025…
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This is probably not what you want to hear but it is unlikely that SketchUp will be made available for Linux soon because of the relatively small user base…
SketchUp would have to be completely rewritten for Linux which would imply a great deal of resources in money as well as man-hours.
Being an open source OS makes it less secure, any hacker with bad intentions could have access to its code, it has happened before.
Being open source makes it more secure, as a matter of fact. And there’s no denying Linux is far more secure than Windows or macOS. It’s considered the most secure OS around, and has been for decades, which is why it’s used as the backbone of most security platforms, and of course the internet itself.
Some years ago, one of the Linux distributions added high security features so that they could sell to the US government. Others soon followed, so yes it is the most secure OS publicly available.
The pain security threat of linux - and any os really - is between the keyboard and the chair.
And with linux, you can easily end up asking for help on reddit because some stuff is not working well.
And that’s safe.
I’d like to try running SU pro on linux through Wine. I’m actively looking into it and researching what the best setup might be. I’m still not 100% going ahead but I’ve been interested in using Lunux day to day instead of windows since 2006/7 or so. There are two main reasons, so far - I have reached with this research - why I’ve held back from taking the plunge…
- Stability of Wine seems to have started about 2008 and I’ve been keeping one eye on its progress
- Software based rendering - rather than hardware rendered - of some Windows dedicated programs like Sketchup, meant Wine, as I understand it, not really an option for me.
I’ve long been told of the security of linux is much stronger than windows.
What especially attracts me is a good friend who uses linux and Wine daily tells me some of their windows based software runs better through wine than it does through windows itself - as its not jumping through all the windows hoops and navigating the bloated gauntlet of nonsense that Windows seems to have become stuffed with.
Hi @IanR, thanks for the post. We can’t discuss future plans for SketchUp publicly as company policy prohibits us from doing that. I can however state that SketchUp on Linux is not supported.
While you are welcome to give it a try and I am sure it is possible to get it working somehow, I can’t say that I am familiar with what you would need to do to get it working nor would support be able too assist you if you run into an error. If you make any progress, do keep us informed on how things go.
I am a SketchUp Pro desktop user. I made the move over to Linux, and I would like SketchUp Pro Desktop to come with me.
I’ve tried to use Wine, and Bottles for SUP 2025 with no luck. Id really like it to just be native to Linux. LibreCAD so far is the only Linux CAD software I have found that will load up a full set of house plans, but it tool set leaves a lot to be desired when comparing to the capabilities of SketchUp and Layout.
I am a huge linux user BUT only for networking, cyber security etc. When i was a ccnp and rhct for the DoD, i used nix systems all the time but never for anything other than networking. Linux and other nic systems were ment to be server os and network pc’s and thats it.
Now, i am a huge fan of freecad, especially since ondsel engineering suite just gave them all their code and i was part of that project, but im also a huge fan of su pro and pay for it.
Using freecad for architecture is difficult but it excellent at cfd and fea.
Now if i need to mesh a stl file for fea, i use prepomax which is opensource and amazing at fea as well.
I never use blender because its just way to complicated for me. Su pro is way easier
I dont think linux should be used the way others are trying to use it. It was designed for networking and servers.
Not the only one. Here is an example
Qcad and Qcad pro are way better than libreCad and it has a Linux version as well.
I am also a paying Linux user. I think that they should at least work with devs to have an official wine install script or something. I run on a windows 10 VM.
I actually use a paid version of a Linux distro, Zorin, and I am also a SketchUp Pro user. And I would really like to run it natively on Linux. Microsoft is pushing me hard to go from Windows10 to 11, which I refuse to do because of its blatant violation of privacy.
For now I am going to strip down my Windows10 install and run it in a VM to get access to SketchUp Pro.
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I managed to get Sketchup 2025 to work on Linux, with Steam and Proton. I will write a tutorial in the coming days. Seems to be on par with Sketchup 2017 in terms of “issues”. I am able to model, save, load files. However, I can’t use the new rendering engine. I suppose someone else would be able to chip in.
Edit: This is how I got it to work: How to run SketchUp 2025 on Linux using Steam and GE Proton
The new graphics engine needs DX12 level support. If you are able to run dxdiag on Linux, look at the second page. Here is how that page looks when trying Windows 11 in Parallels on Mac:
You can see that the feature levels are only up to DX11, and so the new graphics engine doesn’t work under Parallels. What feature levels do you see?
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Thanks for this - you are right re DX12. Not sure why it didn’t work last night, but all I had to do was disable WINE3D (PROTON_USE_WINED3D=0) and use the new rendering engine. Proton provides support for DX12 by default - all works now. One issue I am having is that the selection rectangle doesn’t go away by itself once i release the mouse button after selecting objects by dragging the cursor - it does go away if I orbit the view - somehow it registers the mouse release event only if i trigger a different mouse event? Another issue is that the front face of a newly created rectangle appears to be transparent. The back face renders correctly. Also when I press P or switch to another window and then back to sketchup the viewport flickers black (or remains black until mouse events). Can’t upload screenshots as I am a new forum user.
Edit: selecting the paint bucket also causes the viewport to turn black. Orbiting or another mouse event switches it back to working.
Edit2: The front face is not transparent - somehow the axis lines render above front faces?
Edit3: Yeah something is causing the viewport to turn black (_only with the new rendering engine_) when it loses mouse focus - ie if i hover toolbars icons (hover toolbars but not icons is fine), switch to a different window, click the bucket’s material toolbox to choose a different colour.
You are testing with SketchUp 2025, and there were some redraw fixes in 2026.
2026 crashes right after template selection - logging in works, welcome window works:
[…]
025-12-07:18:06:44-Exiting welcome window modal
ValidateGraphicsPreferences: Starting up.
ValidateGraphicsSettings: Starting up.
ValidateGraphicsSettings: Desired settings values: MSAA: 4 FF: 1
ValidateGraphicsSettings: Best match has different settings.
ComputeDefaultGraphicsSettings: Starting up.
GetSupportedGraphicsSettings: Found the following MSAA options: 0 2 4 8
GetSupportedGraphicsSettings: Found the following FF options: 0
GetSupportedGraphicsSettings: Found the following supported MSAA options: 0 2 4 8
GetSupportedGraphicsSettings: Found the following supported FF options: 0
ComputeDefaultGraphicsSettings: Selected default settings: MSAA: 4 FF: 0
ComputeDefaultGraphicsSettings: Matched format with settings: MSAA: 4 FF: 0
ComputeDefaultGraphicsSettings: All done.
ValidateGraphicsSettings: Settings reset to: MSAA: 4 FF: 0
ValidateGraphicsSettings: All done.
SaveUserRendererSettingsToPreferences: Saving graphics preferences: MSAA: 4 FF: 0
ValidateGraphicsPreferences: All done.
File New
Tool(SelectionTool)
File New
Tool(SelectionTool)
QtOnScreenRenderingView::OnInitialUpdate
Entering QtOnScreenRenderingView::MakeGLContext
File New