I just purchased SketchUp Shop edition. I have a Dell laptop that this program is loaded on. its the web version (never had any other option). Anyway, how do I get extensions? Specifically cut list extensions?
Extensions are not [currently] supported in the web-based versions of SketchUp - unfortunately for you that includes âShopâ.
Extensions only work with the desk-top Pro versions [although the old desk-top v2017 does have a Make version - for non-commercial use - and that will still support many ExtensionsâŚ]
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If using extensions is important to you, you can upgrade the subscription from Shop to Pro.
And if your use is non-commercial, SU 2017 Make is still pretty functional, and can still use almost all current extensions.
Ok question about that and Iâd like to hear official SU people only as their answer is the only answer that counts. If someone is paying for SU shop why canât they also use Make 17 at the same time? I mean they are paying for SU, right?
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But paying for Shop (which does permit commercial use) is still not paying for a desktop Pro licence. Make is NOT licensed for commercial use.
Thatâs not an official answer, but is my interpretation of the licensing.
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Theyâre not using Pro Desktop. Make and Pro Desktop are different. You donât get Layout or Style Builder. They are paying for Shop (basically for the right to use for business and for import and export functions) and using Make for Extensions. I know a few members like to consider themselves the SU license neighborhood watch or something but Iâd like for an official answer from SU. I mean their is no way to police this situation.
Edit: ok someone is using shop and sees an extension for say round corner. They open the file in make, use round corner extension and open back in shop and keep working. This is what I was thinking about.
Thatâs not police, but experienced forum members who are so polite to give quality answers when SketchUp employees are not around. As a paying customer you can also use the direct contact details to reach out to the support team, but they are not working on weekends.
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Ok thanks but what does giving technical help have to do with what I asked?
The usual âofficial answerâ from SketchUp (Trimble) employees is, that they are not allowed to give you legal advice regarding the product â user agreements, and that if you need help to interpret them then you should consult an attorney.
There is a list of links to the various product agreements here:
Now, I do remember one of the product managers posting a clarification having to do with SketchUp product family license agreements. And that is in regard to your statement âŚ
You are under a false assumption. If you read the Web Editions Terms of Service, you will find that it does not grant you (or any user) any specific âcommercial usage rightsâ. Meaning that commercial use is not a right nor a product feature.
It is however a specific limitation for the Free edition only. (section 1.6.1)
No, they are not âpaying for SketchUpâ. They are paying for a subscription to use a specific product (service) in the family of the SketchUp divisionâs products.
There are separate agreements for each of these products types. Only the specific terms for each product type list the privileges and limitations for that product.
There is a special section that grants privilige to use other Trimble products in conjunction with your Shop subscription. These are listed in section 2. (âUse of other Trimble Servicesâ).
Only those listed are the products that your subscription gives you the privilege of using.
So, the web editions and desktop editions are separate and are controlled by different terms.
The Desktop Tos also do not specifically grant âcommercial usage rightsâ. The terms also have a specific clause that applies a limitation to the Free / Make editions with regard to commercial use.
The fees differ mostly due to the feature set, but also due to the cost of maintenance and support. (Ie, desktop applications generally cost more to maintain and require more support time and staff.)
This did come up in conversation a few days ago. In that particular case it was an issue with the desktop Pro app, meaning the current and recent versions, where oddly one work around is to use SketchUp 2017. So, I was suggesting that people try Make 2017 and see if that solved the problem. It was quickly pointed out that we canât tell people to use Make along side Pro, as itâs against the EULA. To solve the problem I referred to we are now sending people a temporary 2017 Pro license.
So, Make canât be used for commercial use, even if you own a Pro license. It would seem likely that applies to using Make with Shop.
I think the original thinking was that you could have an office full of architects creating elements in Make, and so long as the one person with a Pro license did the final export or save. Same thing could happen now, where the person with a Shop subscription makes sure to open and save the file at least once. Apparently that is frowned upon.
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Thank you for an official answer.
Well, itâs my interpretation of what one of the managers told me. Very few of the SketchUp lawyers help in the forum.
AhâŚHah! I found the reference I was thinking of.
It was John Bacus that said it (in another topic on commercial use of the Shop edition) on whether the terms of service were vague on the question âŚ
Seems like I just got some.
You should understand that no personal opinions said here (whether by employees, gurus, sages, or whomever) can or will change the priviliges or limitations of the legal agreements (aka Terms of Service, EULA, etc.)
Now, donât get me wrong about your general idea. Iâve no issue myself with the idea that paying customers should be able to buy a single burger of their choice instead of being forced to buy the double with all the fixins.
Iâve long been (and said so) a proponent of a standalone desktop SketchUp for a reasonable price (without the LayOut and StyleBuilder applications, as well as the VR stuff that only a minority use.)
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Dan⌠I never asked any of those for an answer. Hence why I asked for an answer from a SU employee. Colin answered my question good enough for me. Everyone elseâs answers are just opinions. 
You used the word license in your queries, so we thought you wanted a legal answer based upon the licenses.
What I am trying to make you understand, is that even Colinâs statements (as an employee) cannot change the licenses.
He does have âinsider informationâ as to policy. Viz:
His interpretation is 2nd hand at best. But what he said was part of the internal reasoning behind the limitations in the web edition licensing (and the discontinuation of the Make desktop edition itself.)
These internal company âpositionsâ (on the misuse of free editions) are not officially part of the legal agreements. (They do not need to be.)
Meaning that no company must reveal why they license in certain ways and not others. It was nice of Colin to do so. But he is not really revealing any secrets. The misuse of the free editions has been extensively discussed here in this forum. (See the topic on âWhatâs up with SketchUp Make?â)
Anyway, ⌠I at least did not understand that you would be content to know the WHY beneath the licenses, rather than the WHAT, since you used the term ârightsâ.
But as I think I showed above the web edition ToS is quite clear as to what priviliges it bestows and what it does not.
Ie, the âtake awayâ is that the Shop web license does not create or bestow a âcommercial rightâ that can be âtransportedâ to apply against a SketchUp desktop product. (As the product manager said, corporate legal did this purposefully.)
Even Colin acknowledged this, in that Customer Service has had to award Pro desktop licenses to some Shop customers where bugs prevented the customer from doing some needed activity in the web edition. (Corrected & clarified by Colin below.)
Ie, they (Trimble SketchUp division employees) themselves cannot extend the priviliiges nor change the limitations of the legal agreement for the web edition license, but they can âgiftâ a desktop license, if the situation merits it. The customerâs use of the desktop edition afterward is under the desktop license.
Once again, this is not my opinion. Iâm telling the readership what the license says plainly, but every user should read terms document it in itâs entirety. It doesnât really use difficult legal jargon.
And as one of the sages said above, ⌠this is the public user forum. Anyone can and will express their ideas and opinions on any topic (within the guidelines.)
This forum is not the official support avenue. That is done directly through the customer support portal. Any licensed customer can ask licensing questions through that mechanism that would avoid having to hear other opinions.
There are sages here who have been with SketchUp itâs entire 20+ year life and have read every license version there ever was. Iâve been involved for at least 13 years and read it every release at least (to see if there are any changes.) It is not very hard to understand as EULAs go.
Technical issues are not the only things that result in forum questions and answers. Licensing issues are discussed quite frequently. But many others topic genres also occur. (Career advice, How to model, etc. etc.)
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Only one small correction, I donât think we have used a temp desktop license to solve a Shop problem. The one I mentioned is a desktop issue, where the 2017 version doesnât have the problem. The feature in question doesnât exist in Shop.
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